Introducing...Two New Designers!

Good morning, fellow scrapbooking and paper crafts enthusiasts! Welcome to another Friday challenge! BUT, before we get to that, I am very pleased and excited to announce that our wonderful Design Team has grown by two! Both of these lovely ladies bring their own fresh and unique style to our team and we are all really looking forward to gaining some additional perspectives and inspiration from them. Introducing our two newest designers, Chrissann Hird and Joanne West!

Hi! I’m Chriss and I have to tell you that I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of the Design Team here at The Inspired Scrapper! I myself have been motivated by the amazing talent that resides here, within both the team and the followers who post their creations. There really is amazing talent out there in our scrapbooking community, and to be involved is so rewarding!

My husband Jamie and I have just celebrated our eighth anniversary. We have three amazing kids, Chloe, Dawson and Brynleigh. Our family also includes two dogs, Kodie and Harley, and two cats, Steve and Roxy. As you can imagine, all this activity under one roof provides us with many laughs, successes, and sometimes setbacks too – to me, all memories worthy of being preserved.

I started scrapbooking, like many others, with the birth of my first child, nearly nine years ago now. (Wow, has it really been that long?!) As you no doubt know, scrapbooking has changed so much in that time – products, both in quality and variety, design and of course popularity. Scrapping is where it’s! My ability and style have also evolved alongside those changes. I started out as a very basic scrapbooker and have since developed my own style. I like to colour outside of the lines! I love embellishing my projects with both traditional and non-conventional finds. I enjoy journaling because I want to tell the story, and while they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I still want to get my say in! And, as a Stampin’ Up Demonstrator, my love for all things stamped has been growing as well! Though I’m on a layout kick right now, I truly enjoy creating cards, mini albums and all things altered! I’m proud to tell you that I’ve been published in my favourite scrapping mag, Canadian Scrapbooker, I’ve designed and taught for one of my LSS’s, I designed a class last year for the BC Crop For Kids and have been teaching classes in my home for nearly a year now. Oh yeah, and I think sleep is highly over rated!

And so, here I am now, full of ideas, motivation and excitement! I feel rejuvenated and yes, inspired (!) and I can hardly wait to get started!


Jo West:
I have been scrapping for 5 years now … it all started accidentally when my daughter lost a good friend at the age of 13 … my daughter was having a difficult time … and I had remembered seeing a “scrapbook store” so one day I wandered in with my daughter … we had no idea what we were doing, but we found some pretty papers and stickers and stuff we didn’t quite understand as well as an album and we put together a Memory book of her friend and that was it. Two years later my mother was showing me some family history charts and I thought they would look nice on pretty paper … I wandered into a another scrapbook store and that was it … I was smitten … love at second sight! I scrap or do something with paper almost daily …My style is always evolving … but I love simple …and I love vintage, & grunge and I try to incorporate these into a simpler style. I also like to make my own embellishments and flowers. I love scrapbooking … it lets me feel like and artist and a storyteller and a historian … and it lets me be me!

Introducing Our Designers...

Meet Susan Tutt:
I found the great world of scrapbooking 15 years ago when my first daughter was born and I have been addicted ever since. I am a mom to two girls and a boy (14, 11 and 7 ) and wife to a very scrap supportive husband. My family and our everyday life is my inspiration for many of my projects/layouts. I love how scrapbooking has changed over the years and evolved into an art.

A favorite layout of Susan's:




Meet Erica Perkins:
My name is Erica Perkins, I'm the mom of two smart little people and married to a great man that makes me laugh. I wear a lot of hats and one of those is "scrapbooker". Just over four years ago, my bff talked me into going to a crop night, then she invited me to go to a class taught by Sonja McLean. Well, I was hooked. I always collected stationary (paper, pencils, erasers, and other pretty things), so getting to do that again combined with my other interest was a perfect match. I'm a story teller, well, actually I'm a story listener...I love to hear peoples stories. I'll happily share mine too, but I really love to hear about other people's lives. That's the biggest part of this craft to me, the stories. Preserving mine and my family's for my kids and future generations, listening to others share theirs as they put together a project. I love it.

Here's a fav layout of mine. Love Over the Years. I chose it becuase it's one of my newish ones...but more importantly I love that it shows how our lives have changed over the years. It also touches on the reality of our life (it ain't always rosy). It's real, it's my story and it's me.



Meet Cari Locken:
I started scrapbooking in 1997. You know that era - stickers galore, paper dolls, totally cropping and cutting ones' photos into all sorts of sizes & shapes - ah yes! You do remember! ;) My first album was all about me from a baby until the day I got married. I thought it was a work of art. But, oh! how the styles & trends have changed over the years. This hobby has become a love of mine! I must admit that I do something scrapbook related every single day. For me, it's an outlet of my thoughts, emotions, memories and creativity. I love that my children enjoy looking through the albums and reading about completely insignificant events - even though they will remember them now forever because of the layouts. I am thrilled at the many friendships that I've made through this hobby and the various opportunities that it has brought into my life.

A layout of Cari's (as Cari says, "It's way too hard to pick a favorite!"):



Meet Debby Visser:
I am an avid scrapper/crafter living in Chilliwack BC, with my husband who fully supports my scrapping hobby, and our 4 children; 1 girl and 3 boys.
I am the worst morning person, drink too much coffee and love reality TV.
Scrapbooking is my creative outlet and is very much a part of who I am. I enjoy capturing and documenting through pictures and pages the fun and not so fun moments in our lives that we might otherwise forget years down the road. I have been known to grab the camera before the first aid kit!!
I have always been crafty in one way or another. I bounced from craft to craft till I stumbled upon scrapbooking. When my daughter turned 10, I put together an album '10 years with Kimmee'. It was at her party, when someone was going through the album and said to me 'you must scrapbook?'. My response was 'what is that?' Well I found out and have been hooked every since.
My favourite part of scrapbooking – besides the memories I document for my family – is sharing, teaching and learning. I have met so many wonderful people through this hobby that I have learned from; and in return been able to share with! I love teaching, and teach a wide variety of classes, from cards and pages to anything I think I can alter.
I have been extremely fortunate to have my work featured in many print and online magazines, which the kids just love to see themselves in.

One of my favourite layouts is this one of my son Jaxon.



I have it on the wall in my scrapbook room. This one came together kinda by accident. The 2 pieces of pattern paper were all I had left from a kit of Pink Paislee papers, they were just sitting on the table when I dropped these photos down. Those 2 strips were all those cute photos needed.

Meet Jillian Lewarne:
I have been scrapbooking since about 1999. I have always loved paper, office stuff, and crafts. My parents owned a printing shop and I used to scavenge through the garbage cans in the shop for any and all leftover bits and pieces of paper I could get my hands on. They also made rubber stamps so I would hang out in their front office and gleefully stamp away with plain ol’ industrial black ink on reclaimed scrap paper for hours whenever I could! Then, after I had my daughter, I saw an ad in a local parenting magazine for a scrapbook store that just happened to be near my daughter's preschool. The day I walked in there was like coming home! I've been at it ever since.

I’ve been involved with The Inspired Scrapper in some capacity or another since it started in December 2008, and I’ve been ‘at the helm’ here since February of this year. For me, calling scrapbooking a ‘hobby’ doesn’t quite cut it (pun intended!). It’s so much more than that! One of the most enjoyable aspects of scrapbooking has been meeting so many wonderful people along the way – online and in person! I do something crafty/scrappy almost every day, even if it’s just a very simple or quick thing, like jot down some notes or sketches for card/layout ideas. I’ve got a notebook with me everywhere I go because inspiration strikes throughout the day, every day!

A favorite layout of mine:



Meet Virginia Wong:
I ventured into scrapbooking shortly after the passing of my Dad. I wanted a special place to keep all the photos, cards and special notes that I received from the funeral. To date, I have not completed an album on my Dad but that was my first foray into scrapbooking. Things were put on hold for a few months as I prepared for the arrival of my first daughter. After she was born, I just had to take a million pictures and print duplicates for all the relatives. Then all the relatives started wanted me to write a few words about each of the photos. Plus, I wanted to remember all those precious firsts, seconds, thirds and fourths in my own way and that is how I found scrapbooking. I know I am completely smitten with scrapbooking because I google scrapbook stores and events before leaving on any vacation these days. And my husband and girls now save memorabilia for me...they always say, "Mommy can scrapbook this!"

My favorite layout is constantly changing. One of my most recent layouts that I love is titled "Right Now."



Meet Karen Thind:
I am a mom to three darling daughters and have been married for 13 years! I have always loved taking pictures and keeping mementos in photo albums. It all came together with scrapbooking after I had my first daughter. Now almost 8 years later, I still love how creative and challenging scrapbooking is. I love taking the time to focus on the little things in our lives, and it has been great to see my daughters take an interest and start to make their own scrapbook pages!
Choosing a favourite layout is hard. I have some that I love the photo, or I love the story, or some that I love the design, and all this changes quite regularly. Right now I love this one. I just love how springy it feels.