An Interview

People are always doing interviews of Big Names in the scrapbooking world. They always ask the SAME questions. Yawn. (Except for the interviews for Digiscrap Addicts.) Here's what they would get should they choose to interview me.

A little about me.

My name is Jean and I'm married to a man I call 'My Sweet Prince' which makes all my friends laugh when I answer the phone at a crop. We are planning a move to Florida because he's been transferred to a larger place with more potential for promotions. My friends think I'm uber-organized, but I'm just too lazy to look for things. Sweet Prince and I have no kids, but he has a 21 year old son in the USMC.

Why did I start scrapping?

I was planning our wedding and wandered into Recollections. They had a wedding album for a class on display that I really wanted to do. The class was on my wedding day. But an employee helped me pick out the paper and get started anyway. Thanks Beth! As much as I love paper, I'm a bit of a geek. After two years of paper scrapping, I dipped a toe into the digital world and I love it too. I'll probably always do some things with paper, but most of the things I buy are digital kits.

How many hours a week do I spend scrapping?

I don't really know. I do a mix of paper scrapping and digital scrapping, but I rarely do hybrid projects. I might finish two layouts in a week, I might finish two layouts in a day. Mostly it depends on the pictures that I've got. Lately, I've been working on paper things other than 12x12 layouts. Minibooks, cards and stuff like that.

What is my favorite product?

It would be a tossup between my Tonic trimmers, my Wacom tablet, my ATG gun, and my All My Memories tote. I use them all a lot. Oh! My favorite thing for scrapping, like brads, flowers or a particular digital kit? I don't have a favorite. I have things that I dislike, but no favorites.

What do I listen to when scrapping?

I listen to a lot of different stuff, from bagpipes, to 80's rock, classical, showtunes or country. But most of the time it's country. Or just the music in my head.

Top 10 in life.

1. My Sweet Prince
2. My friends
3. My family
4. My health
5. Everything else is just stuff.

Pet Peeves

1. "Now Voldy's gone moldy, so let's have some fun!"

Did I mention that I've got an odd sense of humor?

Urgent?

I don't ever understand the urgency in looking for a digital scrapbooking kit. Urgent is for things like ambulance trips to the hospital, or broken pipes creating floods. Urgent scrapbooking? That's like an urgent need for embroidered pillowcases. It is a luxury. When is a luxury ever urgent?

When I look more closely at the requests for urgent assistance, I find that the person requesting the help has scheduled themselves into a corner. They have volunteered/decided to do something with a deadline and they don't really have enough time to do the job. I learned the hard way not to volunteer or decide to do something with a short time line. If I have no choice, I'll do the best I can. If I have a choice, I give myself more time.

Five Paper Trimmers!?!

I was talking with a friend last night and I invited her over to my house for some scrapping. I said she could borrow some of my stuff, I had plenty. She was talking about her paper trimmer and that she liked a rotary one. I've got five different paper trimmers in my house. Five!


The first two are my favorites, the tonics. One travels, the other stays at home. That's why I have two. Really. If I have to cut a lot of chipboard, I need to adjust the tension of the cutting arm, it will become loose. I keep the right sized wrench in my scrapping tote.


The next is my large, rotary trimmer. It was a gift from hubby and I wasn't sure of what I needed, other than I needed something with a larger cutting platform. Given that information, he got the largest trimmer he could find in the store. I don't use it very often, but it works great on things like bookboard.


This is the trimmer that I learned scrapbooking with. I used this one a lot. I thought it was just fine until I learned how to use the Tonic trimmers. Then I went back to it and was amazed at the difference.


I call this one the 'useless' trimmer. It has a very tiny blade and the plastic guide will flex and move as you try to use it. I ended up with wobbly cuts and I couldn't correct them, because the trimmer can't cut a fine shred of paper off of an edge. It just doesn't work well for me.

but if you come to my house and you forget your trimmer, don't worry, I've got something that you can borrow.

Outgrowing Storage

I keep my stamps from Rosie's Roadshow in a 5.5 x 5.5 x 3 box. They used to all fit, if I was careful how I put them in. They no longer fit. I've even got a stamp on order that won't have a home when it arrives. Time to find a different storage system for those stamps.

I had them out today playing with making a card for sending out to let folks know that we have moved. Then, after I'd done some stamping, I had to get out the watercolors and play a bit. I have five different sets of watercolors. It's a lot like coloring, only better.

Keeping Busy

I'm doing a bunch of greeting cards right now. I need to be working in paper and seeing my results. I do like paper. Even though I've gone digital, I still have a huge stash of paper and every so often, I use it. But since I'm just working from some patterns that I already have and not creating anything new, I'm not going to post pictures of these cards. They aren't anything terrific and special. But I have made about 15 cards in three days, which is incredible for me. I don't make a zillion copies of a single card usually. I make different cards each time.

Moving Soon

Wonderful Hubby got transferred to Jacksonville, Florida, so we will be moving there as soon as I can get this house sold. He'll be down first and I will follow.

Hubby's company is paying for the move, so we will have professional packers, I don't have to pack objects or lift heavy objects. But I just realized something. I can get as much digital stuff as I want and it won't matter a bit. A full EHD is no different in weight or size from an empty one.

I have an on-line back up service, Backblaze, so even if disaster happens, I'm good. I love their flaming laptop video.

The Chocolate Chipboard Book!

The album is done!!! I took a lot of photos of it and here they are! I used a Basic Gray chocolate chipboard album and the paper and most of the embellishments are from Club Scrap's Body and Soul kit.

The front cover.


The first two pages.


Pages three and four.


The fifth and sixth pages.



Seven and eight. Nothing special on the front of the interactive. I might put another photo there, but the printed paper is also nice.



Nine and ten.



Eleven and twelve. I took the tag out of the pocket to show it off. I like that tag a lot.



Thirteen and fourteen.



Fifteen and sixteen.



Seventeen and eighteen.


The back cover.