Magical Scraps Galore!

Well, here we are staring August in the face. I’m not going to lie, I have quite a bit of anxiety when I remember last August, and the wildfire we faced then. Thankfully this year I have the Olympics to distract me. I don’t usually watch much in the way of sports, and the Olympics is no exception, but this year, here I am, glued to my chair watching even sports I don’t like (looking at you, soccer!) and getting loud and proud of our athletes. That’s why this Blog post is a bit behind my original plan. But not TOO late! Let’s meet Marina, the designer known as Magical Scraps Galore. [editor’s note: Any coloured text in bold and underlined is hyperlinked for your viewing pleasure.] Our conversation took place before the Games started so I’m working from memory. 😉

J: Marina, thanks for giving me the opportunity to shine the Spotlight on you and your work. Why don’t we get the mundane stuff out of the way first, then we can get to know YOU. When did you get bitten by the design bug?

M: I’ve been designing for 13 years now!

J: That’s a good long time. I guess it explains the depth and breadth of your GingerScraps shop! What was the catalyst for you?

M: I started creating my own digital papers and embellishments for scrapping our second trip to Disney World, since the digital offerings were very limited back then. It didn’t take long to realize that scrapbook design was my passion, and I started participating in the design challenges hosted by MouseScrappers. I opened my first shop in 2013 and I’ve been part of the wonderful GingerScraps family since 2014.

J: I joined the GS family at the end of April, 2013, so we’re cohorts in a way. This truly IS the friendliest scrapping community on the Web. I work on a laptop seated in a comfy armchair in my living room. What does your workspace look like?

M: I design in my studio at home, with my three cats sleeping by my computer or on my lap. Sometimes they like to sleep ON my computer and they mess with my designs, LOL! I have to be very careful but I just love them! I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, and ArtRage.

J: What kinds of things motivate you when you sit down to create?

M: My main motivation and inspiration are my kids and my trips around the world.

J: Same! Many of my layouts are trip-related or have either my kids or grandkids in them. I’m busy creating a memoir for my sister, who travelled to the East Coast last year, for Christmas and love to scrap travel photos. What would your perfect vacation look like?

M: My perfect vacation is a road trip with my family, hiking national parks and visiting small towns along the way.

J: I live in a tourist destination! This year has been quieter than usual, I think because of our wildfire last year. People are scared, rightfully so. Not a fun topic at all, so let’s change it up. Do you have a favourite kit in your shop?

M: What a hard question! It’s hard to pick just one, it’s like choosing your favorite child, LOL … I have several kits that I love, especially my travel collection, but one of my favorite kits is Magical Memories, it’s all about my happy place and it’s a reminder of all the magical moments I spent there with my family.

J: Everybody says that, but what a fun collection!! I’ve been to Disneyland twice, once when I was about 12, and again in 1988 with my kids. I should dig out all those photos and do something with them. What did you want to be when you grew up?

M: I wanted to be a flight attendant or a rock star.

J: And here you are, a travelling rock-star digital scrapbooking designer! What super-power would you wish for?

M: Teleportation, so I can travel anywhere in no time and with no jet lag!

J: Amen sister! That would make life so much simpler. And healthier! One last question. If you had a warning label, what would it say?

M: Warning: Crazy cat lady!! LOL! I’m a huge cat lover, and if my family would let me, I’d have 10 cats or more!

J: If current events are any indication, you’re in good company! I’m not a cat fancier, but our neighbours have two beauties who sit on their deck and drive my dogs batty. Thanks so much again for chatting with me. I hope your Spotlight brings you all the best kind of attention in the Shop and the Forum.

Marina is not just the Spotlight Designer for August, she’s also providing the Daily Download. Each day a link for the day’s pieces is posted on the Blog, and it stays active for a full 5 days so you don’t have to worry if you miss a day. If you find you’ve missed a bunch of days, the entire kit will be released in the Shop at a later date. In addition to her monthly Surprise Challenge, she’s also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge this month too… just in time for the Summer GingerScraps Scrap-a-Thon! Check them out, they’re ALWAYS fun!!

Introducing Adrienne Skelton Designs

Adrienne Skelton is one of GingerScraps‘ newer designers, but that doesn’t mean she’s new to designing, as you’ll see when I let you in on our conversation. I wonder if she’s nervous… it being (inter)National Scrapbook Day on Saturday. What pressure! Let’s get to know her better.

J: Adrienne, thank you for chatting with me today, and congratulations on your very first Designer Spotlight! Let’s get the bread-and-butter stuff out of the way first. How long have you been designing?

A: I started to design back in the early 2000’s . In 2010 I had to take a health break due to illness. I have been back since 2021 and love every minute of being back!

J: I’m glad to hear whatever your health issues, you’re not letting them hold you back any more. Distraction can be as good as medicine sometimes. What brought you to designing in the first place?

A: I used to do paper scrapbooking, but at the time I had young kids and being able to afford buying scrapbook kits was expensive, so I decided to put my art skills to use and design something digital using paint shop pro and from that point on I was hooked!

J: Oh, if I had a buck for every time a designer (or digiscrapper) told me the same story… My kids were already grown when I started paper scrapping, and I went right down the rabbit hole. I have a whole room full of paper, stamps, ink, punches, dies, embossing folders and cutting tools. Then I found digiscrapping – no mess, reusable everything, very cool techniques that elevate my layouts… and derailed my own train. But don’t feel bad for my paper supplies – I’m making greeting cards with all of it. What tools do you use for your work?

A: I use Photoshop and Procreate on my iPad, sometimes I will hand craft items and scan and use them.

J: I almost threw my printer/scanner/copier off the mountain the other day. But we don’t need to talk about that. Here’s one of those impossible questions. Which of your current kits in your GingerScraps shop is your favourite, and why?

A: That IS a very hard question! If I had to pick one it would be She’s a Wildflower. I just love how this kit came together. I designed all my drawings and doodles using Procreate ( I love to draw even if it’s digitally) and put it all together with Photoshop. I think because this kit reminds me of nature so much! Being out among the wildflowers.

J: Beautiful! One of my favourite songs from my teenage years is Wildflower by Skylark. “She’s a free and gentle flower, growing wild.” Same mood! And what a segué to my next nosy question… can you play a musical instrument?

A: I am a self taught pianist although I am not very good, I still enjoy plunking on the keys every now and then.

J: I took piano lessons for awhile as a child. I sometimes noodle around on my son’s electronic keyboard, but only when I’m alone. <winkwink> So not into self-humiliation. My friends and family call me a Type A. What one word would your friends and family use to describe you?

A: LOYAL, very faithful and sincere to a fault. I can sense others emotions and am very supportive.

J: Ah. You’re an empath! What would you do if you won the lottery?

A: First I would make sure my family was taken care of. Secondly I would buy a house where I had a lot of land, a lake and plenty of nature.

J: That’s sort of what we did with my husband’s inheritance, but without the land. We lease it, and have a beautiful view, surrounded by wildlife, flowers, birds and bugs. I fall asleep at night being serenaded by crickets and bullfrogs, punctuated occasionally by a coyote choir. So, does your desire to be rural influence your perfect vacation?

A: My perfect vacation would be laying on the beach somewhere listening to the ocean waves, feeling the cool breeze on my face, Or that could also be somewhere/anywhere in nature where I can be at peace with my thoughts.

J: Sounds a lot like my sister’s place! What would your super power be if you had one?

A: I’d LOVE to be able to see the future.

J: Not me! I can dream up the most catastrophic of events without a crystal ball. Nope! If you came with a warning label, what would it say?

A: Be careful and stay away when she is angry!

J: The more angry I am, the quieter I get. My kids were always more afraid of me when I didn’t say anything than they were when I was shouting. On that fine note, I’ll let you get back to your day. Thanks again!

Now, the rest of you, don’t go anywhere! In addition to her Spotlight, remember that Adrienne is providing this month’s Daily Download – the sneak peeks aren’t doing it justice, I swear! I hope you’re picking up each day’s bits; the download links are good for 5 days, so if you’ve missed one, don’t worry!

Adrienne is also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge in addition to her regular All About Me Challenge. I’ve linked them so you can check them out. And……

Have a great Spotlight Month, Adrienne!

ScrapChat Designs

Hey y’all! How’s February treating you so far? This month’s Designer Spotlight is on Jill, aka ScrapChat Designs.

Some of you may remember that Jill was my guest here last April. We bonded over our shared enjoyment of a good bourbon. 😉 This time, she was driving so we had tea instead. 🙂 Since we’ve already covered a lot of the blahblahblah stuff during her last Spotlight, this time we just had fun.

O: Jill, it’s so good to touch base with you again! Let’s get the mechanical stuff out of the way and tell me how long you’ve been designing.

J: I started designing templates in May of 2021. Looking back it was such a random decision. I later entered a design contest. I did not win but it certainly gave me the bug to keep designing.

O: I remember your first template designs. I have some… What do you use when you’re creating?

J: I use both Photoshop and Illustrator to design. My skills in Illustrator are very limited but I enjoy the challenge of trying to learn new things.

O: Yeah… Cricut Design Space… I find myself doing my stuff in Elements then converting it to Cricut-friendly format using a free website. It’s less work! What motivates you when you’re designing?

J: When searching for ideas for kit, I often look at photos of my children and grandchildren. Looking at photos from my daughter and daughters-in-laws’ points of view often shows me what a customer might need such as a kit I did called Toddler Life. I imagined either of my daughter-in-laws scrapbooking their photo rolls. Occasions and accomplishments in the lives of my children and friends helps as well.

O: How sweet is that?! Do you have a favourite child …ummm… kit in the Store?

J: My current favorite is my For Your Service collection. Raised by a former Marine, appreciating the military service of our vets was a huge part of my upbringing. My youngest son is in the Ohio National Guard, my oldest is a Navy vet. I really enjoyed creating the collection.

O: Wow, we have something else in common. I was raised as an Air Force brat, married an Airman and raised my own Army cadet. Have you ever met anyone famous?

J: When i taught paper scrapbooking, I used to attend conventions each summer. I met Stacey Julian and Becky Higgins a couple times there.

O: I barely got my feet wet with paper scrapping before I moved to digi-scrapping, and now all that stuff I collected I’m using for card-making. Those 12×12 sheets of patterned paper make fabulous envelopes! Other than absolute necessities, what one thing could you never live without?

J: My photographs or scrapbooks. Photographs are an instant of time that we can return to by looking at them. The same photograph can be a source of a smile or a tear depending on my mood. I would be lost without photos of the past.

O: I LOVE that! I think most of our GingerScrappers do too. That gives me a nice little segué… If time travel was possible, would you go back in time or ahead? Why?

J: I would go backwards. Born the last year of the baby boomers generation, I tend to be a bit old fashioned. Aging myself, I can say I miss the good old days or at least the people from earlier in my life. I would definitely go back and enjoy the time I had with my family and late daughter more. Appreciate things more rather than stressing as much as I did. Ah they say hindsight is 20/20 don’t they?

O: I’m so fascinated by history, I’d want to go back too. It would be hard not to want to change some things though, and that could really mess up the now. I’m absolutely sure I don’t want to know the future, other than in broad strokes, if you know what I mean. Can you play any musical instruments?

J: Nope! I thought I wanted to learn how to play the trombone when I was sixth grade. The band director was old, set in his ways and in a 6th grader’s opinion, mean. I think I went to band for about 9 weeks. After that I skipped band and went to gym. Seriously who skips a class to go to gym. I am one of THE most nonathletic persons on earth but went to gym to avoid band. I’m not sure how long it lasted but I remember getting grounded for a good long time when my mom found out I was skipping band.

O: OMG. I’m dead!! I took piano lessons for awhile when I was about the same age. But we didn’t own a piano – I had to practice on the piano at the elementary school. No supervision, no encouragement, not ideal. Then I broke my left pinky finger and that was my excuse to quit. My oldest grandson is learning to play the cello; it suits his personality to a tee – he’s very introverted and sober. If you had a warning label, what would it say?

J: “Easily distracted.” It’s best not to ask me an open ended question, something that isn’t just yes or no. You will get three side stories, one restart of the story and the answer to a question I forgot to answer that you asked yesterday.

O: Me too! I’m the queen of tangential storytelling! (To no one’s surprise.) What would you change about yourself if you could?

J: It would go right back to the above question. I would like to be able to concentrate for longer periods of time.

O: Well, that got heavy really quickly. Rapid change of subject: Tell me about your dream vacation!

J: Over Christmas we were blessed to be able to go to Lihue, Kauai in the state of Hawaii. Prior to going to Hawaii, I had never thought I liked the beach. Five days there and I’m hooked on beach vacations although I cannot swim. Long quiet walks on the beach with the sun rising or setting. Beautiful and perfect.

O: That sounds so relaxing! I’m not a beach person, so I’m not sure how my daughter ended up one. She and her husband are in Cabo San Lucas right this minute, doing beach stuff. They’ve been to Hawaii twice. The photos are beautiful, but they don’t make me anxious to go… Anyway, I know you’ve got to get on your way, Jill, so I’ll finish up. Thanks for giving our community another glimpse into your world.

Now, as always, I’m going to tell you all the things about Jill we didn’t talk about. For example, as the Spotlight holder this month, she’s providing the Daily Download all month. Check out the post before this one for a sneak peek. This full-sized kit is free for the taking! Each link is up for 5 days, but if you don’t have time to collect all the pieces, or if you miss some, the kit will be in the Store sometime after Jill‘s Spotlight is over. But wait, there’s more!! She’s also hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge on top of the A Year of Blessings Challenge she hosts EVERY month. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also offering this HUGE discount on her entire store!!

I hope you’ll check out her Challenges and her designs. April was her best month last year, and YOU did that! See you Tuesday with a new tutorial I think you’ll love.

In the Spotlight: Neia Scraps!

It feels like forever since I had this chat with Edneia, aka Neia Scraps. Things kinda went sideways here and I put our conversation on the back burner; just as I was falling asleep last night I remembered and had a mini panic attack. I’m so sorry, Neia. Hopefully all is not lost.

Neia told me she enjoyed our last visit when she was in the Spotlight with Dani (JB Studio) and hoped we could switch up the topics a bit this time so no one is bored. Absolutely! Let’s see how much I remember of our chat.

N: Let me start!! Hello, fellow Scrappers! My name is Edneia, I’m 43 years old, I’m married for 20 years and I have 2 cute kittens.

J: Oh, that’s a first! I need more coffee. So. Tell me how long you’ve been designing so we can get the formalities out of the way.

E: I started designing in 2011 when I found out I was pregnant with my second daughter.

J: Is that what inspired you to jump into digital scrapbook design?

E: I decided that I would have a profession that would give me the opportunity to be closer to my daughters and I liked it so much that today she is 12 years old and I still work at home.

J: It’s wonderful that you’ve been able to work from home for so long! I stayed home with my kiddos until the youngest was 4, then I worked part time, mostly evenings. Are your daughters your main motivation?

E: No, actually, my biggest inspirations to start a project are colors. When thinking about a theme, I look for the colors that inspire me, but often the colors inspire me first and the theme is based on a color palette.

J: That seems like a good place to start, rather than trying to shoe-horn a palette into a structured theme. Do you have a favourite kit in the GingerScraps Store?

E: My current favorite kit is “Ocean Wonder“. I’ve always loved the sea and blue is one of my favorite colors. I loved the wood effects I used in this kit. The sea can be soft and at the same time have the strength of the blue immensity.

J: It’s GORGEOUS!! I have to say, I really like how your design style has evolved over the last year or so. What would you do if you won the lottery?

E: I would love to travel the world, see some different places, like Australia for example. (Even with so many huge spiders lol)

J: Travel is a common theme for that question. You can have the spiders… but that makes me wonder, since I’ve found quite a few of the 8-legged creepy-crawlies in my bathroom, are you more likely to sing or dance in the shower?

E: I sing AND dance, hahahahaha!

J: I do too. I love my Bluetooth speaker and my Amazon Music playlists for that. It helps to have a huge shower-only spa bathroom. Spiders notwithstanding. Do you have a green thumb?

E: I love plants but they don’t love me. I already tried it, but my finger is not green.

J: Gardening is one of my stress-busters. I can think troublesome things through and work out some frustrations digging up all the rocks our yard is built on. But I think I’m done digging holes. What colours do you like? Are there any you really DON’T like?

E: My favorite color is pink, I really LOVE the color pink. And the least favorite is some shades of green. Although I LOVE plants and nature, there are few shades of green that I really LOVE.

J: My flowers are mostly pinks, purples, blues and whites, with the HOA-required Stella d’Oro daylilies adding some yellow. My wardrobe is pretty much the same… but NO yellow. I look awful in yellow. All those yellow isolation gowns I wore on the job. <shudder> One time at work we did a little thought experiment. One of my coworkers asked each of us who we’d want to portray us in PICU: The Movie. It was a lot of fun. So…

E: Margot Robbie. She could play me as sweet as the Barbie doll and also as crazy as Harley Quinn.

J: Hahahahaha! I can see it! I had no idea who would be right for my part; my coworker thought for a minute and said, “Judi Dench!” Uh. She’s 20 years older than I am, pal. “But she’s so dignified!” Uh. Have you met me?? Anyway. My warning label would say “Caution! May explode without warning!” What would yours say?

E: “Be careful, it’s fragile but it knows how to bite.”

J: Same, friend. Same! Thank you so much for letting our readers get to know you better.

E: Thank you, I loved participating. GS is a very dear store to me. It is my home. And all the staff are always very friendly.

J: You are so right, Neia! Before we wrap this up, I just want to remind everybody of all the ways you’re making GingerScraps a better place while you’re in the Spotlight. Besides creating beautiful kits, that is. Ladies, Neia is providing this month’s Daily Download and is hosting the Designer Spotlight Challenge. In addition to her regular monthly My Memories Challenge. And… drum roll please… her store is on sale all month PLUS she has a coupon!!

See you all soon!