July's Member of the Month

Msg board username - SherylD

Name & Family - My name is Sheryl D. and I have been married for 11 years to my fabulous husband. We have two boys aged nine and six who provide lots of photo opportunities and are the light of my life, even though they also drive me to distraction.

How I found the msg. board - I have shopped at KT Crafts pretty much since I started scrapbooking, and although I had seen the reference to a message board, I didn't venture onto it until I saw the Spring competition advertised earlier this year. When I did take a closer look, I decided that sharing my stuff didn't have to mean pursuing publication (not that I had submitted a whole lot!) and that posting on a gallery and participating on the message board could be very inspirational. I really love the little glimpses into other people's way of life too!

How or why I got into scrapbooking - Hmmm! I have photo albums going back years that contain all sorts of bits and pieces besides photos, but I suppose that the main push to start came after I started researching my family history. I started genealogy as my Year 2000 project, and I had soon collected lots of data, and in some cases photos, but it was all a bit inaccessible. I wrote some articles to try to make it more interesting, but I was stuck with what else I could do. Then one day in 2003 I was browsing through a discount bookshop and came across a book called "Scrapbook Storytelling" by Joanna Campbell Slan. Talk about an eye opener! I suppose you could say I have never looked back - scrapbooking simply ticks so many boxes for me.

How my style has changed since I began scrapbooking - Well, when I started lots of pretty florals and fibres, with lots of die cuts border and photo corner stickers. More often than not there was a high degree of symmetry, too. I like to think that things have changed a bit! I also had a great fondness for dimensional stickers, though I was rarely able to bring myself to use them. In the beginning, too, my journaling was almost always done on the computer.

My scrapbooking style now - I suppose I would like to think of my style as eclectic, but it probably isn't! I am not afraid to try new things - I would never have used acrylic paint on a layout before seeing the kind of result that can be achieved on the KT gallery, and I have experiemented with stamping and other techinques. I am also much quicker to simply alter something to fit in with a project rather than go out and buy more - I'll emboss or paint or ink alphas, for example. I like to dabble with lots of styles, though I suppose I like the results best when my layouts are quite clean, led by strong photos and great papers with a cardstock background. I would hate to end up with albums of layouts that all look exactly the same, which is one of the reasons I like challenges and page kits so much - they push me to maybe do things a little differently.

What it would take to keep me from scrapbooking - Well, obviously there are several things outside my control which would prevent me from scrapbooking: death, debilitating injury or being marooned on desert island to name three. I don't think much short of that would stop me completely - I enjoy the process too much. After all, I get to buy nice things, plan projects and play with glue and sparkly bits. I am thinking of going back to work soon after ten years as a SAHM, and that will certainly cut back the time I have available for scrapbooking, but as I always have something ticking away at the back of my mind it may just make the time I have more effective. I can't believe that I would ever choose to live with no creative outlet at all, and scrapbooking really is the complete package - as well as opening up the opportunity to connect with people around the world and be part of a great community!