{"id":177,"date":"2009-05-05T14:51:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-05T21:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=177"},"modified":"2009-05-05T14:51:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-05T21:51:00","slug":"lets-meet-a-designer-graham-like-the-crackers-jen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2009\/05\/lets-meet-a-designer-graham-like-the-crackers-jen\/","title":{"rendered":"Let&#8217;s Meet a Designer: Graham Like the Cracker&#8217;s Jen!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wow, it&#8217;s awkward to interview myself&#8230; good thing I like to talk a lot&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_4jZiKsl15j8\/SgC1vtHI7QI\/AAAAAAAAA0A\/TaLGregchIc\/s1600-h\/Jen.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_4jZiKsl15j8\/SgC1vtHI7QI\/AAAAAAAAA0A\/TaLGregchIc\/s400\/Jen.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332461789974686978\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><b>What is your name and your Digi-scrap blog address? <\/b>My name is Jen. My mom named me Jennifer, because she wanted to call me Jenny, like King Arthur called Princess Guinivere, Jenny in that 70&#8217;s version of Camelot. But I have NEVER been Jenny. My blinkie explains my last name. <b><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/smg.photobucket.com\/albums\/v193\/Starbucksjen\/blinkies\/?action=view&amp;current=GLTCblinkie-1.gif\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.photobucket.com\/albums\/v193\/Starbucksjen\/blinkies\/GLTCblinkie-1.gif\" alt=\"Lets Go Fly a Kite Blinkie\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/b>I always thought that Graham was a very common word, and couldn&#8217;t be mispronounced. I laughed when I heard my husband say, &#8220;No; Graham, like the cracker&#8221; when someone pronounced his last name incorrectly. Then I became a Graham&#8230;<br \/>My digi-scrap blog is https:\/\/grahamlikethecracker.blogspot.com.<b><\/p>\n<p>Tell us a little bit about your family. <\/b>My husband and I live in Southern California with our almost two year old son Alton.  Most of our family lives near by. We are very active in our church, and I drag myself away from scrapping and designing to go to MOPS every other week. Alton is the light of our lives and I can&#8217;t imagine life without him! <b><br \/>Tell us a little about you.<\/b> I am left handed, I bake like an angel, and I am a speed scrap rebel! Oh, and I am slightly obsessed with Twilight. I was even the community leader for a Twilight community for a while. (There are blinkies on my blog if you need some. \ud83d\ude42 )<b><br \/>What other hobbies do you have besides designing and scrapping? <\/b>There are others? I used to love to read. But now I scrap instead. Also, I haven&#8217;t read anything that has captured my interest as much as Twilight did. I am not going to tell you how many times I have read those books!<b><br \/>How did you get started designing and scrapping?<\/b> Charmaine (Wyld Web Designs) helped my make my first page at the end of July last year. I joined the Brownie Scraps design training this last March and have been gun ho ever since!<b><br \/>How long have you been designing? <\/b>I started selling this April.<b><br \/><b>Which programs do you use to design? <\/b><\/b>I use Photoshop CS4. <b><b><br \/><\/b><\/b><b><b>Do you draw <\/b>most of your items with a mouse, hand draw and scan, or do you use your camera? <\/b>I can&#8217;t draw to save my life! I use the shape and pen tools in photoshop to make most of my elements. I occasionally take photographs and extract things, but I don&#8217;t like extracting! About 1\/3 of my elements are extracted though.<b><br \/>Where does your inspiration usually come from? <\/b>Would it be bad to say Gymboree and Disneyland? We have annual passes, so we go there A LOT! I love bright colors, so anything that catches my eye gets filed away for later. I have 3 or 4 palettes filed away right now for later use.<b><br \/>How did you pick your design name?<\/b> I mentioned my husband saying, &#8220;Graham; like the Cracker.&#8221; I wanted something that was fun and not very common. You might be shocked to hear this, but Jennifer is a very common name. So alas, no Designs by Jen or Jen Graham Designs for me.<br \/><b>Who are your favorite three designers? <\/b>It fluctuates, but currently Amanda Heimann, Ziggle Designs, and Wyld Web Designs have the most space on my EHD. I got some kits by Britt-ish Designs on NSD that I can wait to try, so I might have a new top three next week. \ud83d\ude42<br \/><b>What is your favorite part of a kit to design?<\/b> Papers. I usually make 30+ papers per kit. Extracted elements drive me insane. <b><br \/>What is the weirdest thing you have used as a texture? <\/b>I am not suppossed to say this, so don&#8217;t tell my husband, but I once used my husband&#8217;s chest hair&#8230;. Shhh!<b><br \/>What is your favorite kit that you have designed? <\/b>My current newest one is usually my favorite&#8230; I am doing one for the So You Think You Can Design Contest over at DigiScrap Addicts&#8230; I swear I would marry the kit if I could! (Make sure to keep an eye on my blog&#8230; there will be freebies every day as soon as I finish my kit!)<b><b><i><br \/><\/i><\/b>What is your least favorite? <\/b>My first kit was so awful I think I even deleted it from my blog&#8230; OMG! I didn&#8217;t know how to use textures and well, the less said about it the better. For the record, Char&#8217;s first kit was WAY better than mine.<b><br \/><\/b><b>How do you get started on a kit?<\/b><b> Palette first? Rough idea on what you want your papers or elements to look like? <\/b>I usually have a theme first. Then I start with my papers after I get a palette because most of my elements that I make myself are made with my papers.<br \/><b>How long does it typically take you to make a kit?<\/b> AGES. For the sake of my marriage I hope I get quicker soon! Making the stuff myself takes FOREVER!<br \/><b>If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? <\/b>I know most people say their middle, but even though mine does need changing, I would say my singing voice. I can&#8217;t even carry a tune in a bucket.<b> <\/b>But I have been known to Rock the Itsy Bitsy Spider and I am a Little Teapot.<b><br \/><\/b><b>What is the one word that best describes you? <\/b>Tenacious.<b><br \/><\/b><b>Who is the most important person in your life? <\/b><span style=\"font-size:100%;\">God.  I can\u2019t do anything without Him.<\/span><br \/><b>What is something that not many people know about you? <\/b><span style=\"font-size:100%;\">I used to run track in high school. I was decent and I really enjoyed it. I would run bleachers for fun. Oh to have that kind of energy and stamina these days, not to mention that tushie!<\/span><br \/><b>If you could travel anywhere where would you go? <\/b><span style=\"font-size:100%;\"><strong> <\/strong>Ireland. All of Western Europe really, but if I had to choose, it would  be Ireland for sure.<\/span><br \/><b>When you were little what did you dream of being when you grew up? <\/b><span style=\"font-size:100%;\"><strong><\/strong>I always thought I would be a mommy or a teacher. Now that  I am a mommy, I want to be on the Food Network when I grow up.<\/span><br \/><b>What do you like doing with your family? <\/b><span style=\"font-size:100%;\">Hiking in the local mountains and traveling. I LOVE to travel. (The best place to take pictures for digi-scrapping of course!) Alton and I go to Disneyland once a week for the exercise (I swear!) because we have Disneyland annual passports.<\/span><br \/><b>Where is your favorite place to be? <\/b><span style=\"font-size:100%;\">With my  husband and son. They are the lights of my life.<\/span><br \/><b>CU or do it your self? <\/b>My kits are about 90% &#8220;organic&#8221;. I make most of my stuff my self, but I will on occasion use a pattern overlay for my papers or a string or ribbon that someone else extracted. I don&#8217;t feel like the kit is really mine if I use too much CU.<\/p>\n<p><b>Edward or Jacob? <\/b>I will let my blinkies blink for themselves.  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.photobucket.com\/albums\/v193\/Starbucksjen\/blinkies\/Twilight-Prince-Volvo.gif\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.photobucket.com\/albums\/v193\/Starbucksjen\/blinkies\/Twilight-Hit-That.gif\" \/><br \/><b><br \/><\/b>Here are three of my favorite complete kits:<br \/><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gingerscraps.net\/shopcart\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=2&amp;products_id=50\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_4jZiKsl15j8\/SgC1vQcBUqI\/AAAAAAAAAz4\/BnYmmo3JsIU\/s400\/Folder.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332461782277640866\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gingerscraps.net\/shopcart\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=2&amp;products_id=51\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_4jZiKsl15j8\/SgC1vGNcpDI\/AAAAAAAAAzw\/zL20Jp8SZMg\/s400\/Preview.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332461779532162098\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>This kit is my collab with Charmaine!<br \/><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gingerscraps.net\/shopcart\/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=12&amp;products_id=94\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_4jZiKsl15j8\/SgC1u6YZG5I\/AAAAAAAAAzo\/w0KaGc1xv9g\/s400\/Preview.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332461776356842386\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>and a freebie for you! You deserve it after making your way through this whole post! Click on the preview to download from 4Shared!<br \/><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.4shared.com\/file\/103610261\/3b96271d\/GLTC_TSIAG_QP2.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_4jZiKsl15j8\/SgC1uCs9ZDI\/AAAAAAAAAzg\/lZJmOk6q02Q\/s400\/Folder.png\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332461761410720818\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>And as a thank to you all of you wonderful blog readers, you can get 20% off of anything in Jen&#8217;s store. Use coupon code  e48899434a. It is good through this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wow, it&#8217;s awkward to interview myself&#8230; good thing I like to talk a lot&#8230;. What is your name and your Digi-scrap blog address? My name is Jen. My mom named me Jennifer, because she wanted to call me Jenny, like King Arthur called Princess Guinivere, Jenny in that 70&#8217;s version of Camelot. But I have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 09:44:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}