Oh boy oh boy and I excited about today's guest scrapper! I have been a longtime fan of Carrie's scrapping style and videos and recently we have began getting to know each other through our collaboration on my e-course, An Intentional Christmas. I am using her Christmas Countdown kit for my class album and wowza! it is crammed full of goodies! Carrie's fun personality and beautiful photography make her work a blast to look at and her videos are so inspiring! I know you are going to enjoy what she has to say today, and she has even been generous enough to give you the chance to win some goodies so make sure you read all the way to the bottom!
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Hi! I’m Carrie and I live in Seattle which just so happens to be right across the water from my most favorite place in the whole world, the Olympic Peninsula. I’m married to my love, a musician who adores our two puppies just as much as I do. My favorite color is green. I name my laptops (my current laptop is named Maple), and my cameras (she’s named Clementine). Hiking through the forest makes me happy, especially when there’s a big waterfall to see. I turn on music after I get out of bed. Right now my hair is blue. Charlie Brown is my best. I purchased a sewing machine a few years ago just so I could learn to sew onto my scrapbook pages.
1. A little bit behind your scrappy process. Usually the thing that inspires me the most are my photos. I take the time to custom edit my favorites and have them printed at Costco (I really like their “satin” finish). To begin my scrap process, I choose the photo(s) I want to use and find product to match. I prefer a colorful and patterned background rather than a solid, and also really enjoy combining colors and patterns that you wouldn’t normally think go well together. Something I try to add to all my projects are movement, texture and depth. I like to create movement in different ways, but one of the easiest is where I decide to place color. For depth I use a lot of foam adhesive to pop things up, and for texture one of my favorite embellishments are Thickers because of the textures and depth of the differently coated chipboard. Right now I also really love puffy stickers and neon!
2. When do you scrap? I’m not much of a routine type person. I use to scrapbook at night, but lately I’ve enjoyed playing my favorite CD quite loud (right now It’s Katy Perry’s Prism) or listening to Slacker Satellite Radio and scrapbooking during the day…..mid to late afternoon. The light coming through the large windows in my craft room is so nice. I’ve yet to find scrapbook friends here in Seattle, but one of my favorite things to do use to be when I had craft dates with my girlfriends. In the morning we’d drive somewhere pretty like to a lavender field to take photos, grab lunch somewhere yummy and then head back home where we’d set up a big craft table and scrapbook for hours. For the minibook below, my girlfriend and I visited the botanical gardens, and scrapbooked together at a later time using the photos we took. I love my mini SO much and the memory if how it all came together is just as precious!
3. What inspired you to begin scrapbooking? I have always loved memories. Years ago I learned a little about photography (from my husband who attended film school), and immediately dove into memory keeping. It all blossomed when I found this great scrapbook store in San Diego called Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks. I made some awesome friends and learned that you could really make scrapbooking into whatever you want. So I decided for me it would be a form of artistic expression. I now scrapbook to create art and preserve memories the way I want to remember them.
4. Favorite techniques. A favorite technique I add to almost all my pages is sewing. The texture and depth of the thread is super fun, and I like that you can sew frames, shapes, homemade garland, or just bunch up some loose thread for layering. When I am extra inspired by a photo and want to use it as an oversized print, one of my favorite techniques is to print the photo directly onto scrapbook cardstock sized to 8 1/2x11 inches. I then use it as my background paper, embellishing on top of the photo (see example below). Additionally, another easy way to add movement to my page is with spray paint (Montana Gold is my favorite brand), and sometimes mist or glitter splatter.
Now, to pick up from where I left off above…..in designing a layout once I have my photo picked out with product to match, the next step in putting it together is to find inspiration from a specific idea. It could be creating a homemade embellishment (like the paper garland), deciding it’s time to try out a non-traditional scrapbooking element (like real feathers, fabric, modeling paste, chalkboard paint, or gold leaf), adding a more interactive focal point (like making the background pop off the page by adding popped up punched out shapes), or on the rare occasion I’ll find inspiration from a scrapbook sketch. From this point I really like to take a photo with my phone of what my layout looks like so I can decide what it’s missing. It may not make sense, but I find that viewing a photo of my page helps me see it differently and find balance. Once I have things the way I like, I assemble it all. Another example using some of these techniques is in the minibook below, created from a 30 day photo challenge. I just added the photo for each day using spray paint behind (movement), the name of the photo prompt with Thickers (depth and texture), and sewed a vellum pocket to hold the journaling (the interactive element)…..and then repeated it all for each page/day. Make sense?
5. Your goal as a scrapbooker. Back in 2011 is when I really found my memory keeping groove and how scrapbooking fit into it all. It started with me printing out every photo I took time to edit that year. Sounds crazy right? Well, I would start out printing the photos 4x6” and fit them into pocket pages, which is ironic because 4x6” is the most difficult size photo for me to scrapbook. Next, after deciding which photos to scrapbook, I’d have them printed smaller or larger. Once the layout was assembled I would add it into my 2011 album wherever it fit chronologically. However, it’s when I started switching up the sizes of my pocket pages AND layouts when I realized this was the exact look and feel I wanted (see examples below). Now, when I look through my albums, I get to see and touch all my photos instead of just viewing them on my computer and it makes me so happy. There’s something about having them tactile that adds meaning to me.
6. Anything else? I also really enjoy a little graphic design, and am known for sometimes creating a scrapbook element for my project. Today I’m giving away a free set of six PRINTED 3x4 graphic cards (VERTICAL ONLY) designed for my Christmas Countdown Kit. Just leave a comment below to be entered for a chance to win. A winner will be announced here on Friday, November 15th. Thanks so much for having me Amanda! XO
You can also find me here:
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See!? I told you that you would be impressed! And how awesome is it that she is hosting a giveaway as well!? I have been working with the kit for almost a week and the quality is amazing! You really don't want to miss out on the chance to win these cards! Make sure to leave your comments below and to check back for a special Christmas Countdown post and to see the winner announced on Friday! I will be including lots of information, pictures, and a video of myself getting the foundation of my album together using her kit. I know that there are limited quantities of the kit left so hurry over and check it out!
I hope you all have enjoyed another episode of Guest Scrapper! Have a wonderful rest of your week!
