CT Spotlight @ JayaPrem's Hangout!

Hi guys! Just dropped in to tell you that Jaya of JayaPrem's Hangout is spotlighting me this week on her blog, as one of her and Tiffany's CT Leaders. She sent me a few questions to answer, so because I think you guys should get to know me a little bit better, I'll go ahead and post it here as well.

How long have I been scrapping? I've been scrapping since I was 13, so almost ten years now. I started out as solely a paper scrapper, discovered digi in 2007, and around the beginning of this year, I turned 95% digi. I just find I can get way more done in the amount of time I have. Plus, it's more budget-friendly for me, as I'm on a WAY tight budget for scrapping.

Program I use to create layouts - Since I started digi, I scrapped with Paint Shop Pro. I hated scrapping with Photoshop...I never could get the hang of it. But about a week ago, I was doing some layouts and I was trying PS, and discovered - I LOVE IT! I love using the clipping mask option, and it makes working with templates so much easier. I don't think I'll ever go back.

My scrapping style is - I'm a very clean, linear scrapper. I love using templates, although I don't use them often enough. I love fantasy pages, but I never was any good at that. Guess I don't have a good enough imagination for that. I'm not one for grungy layouts, but I love grunged up papers. I'm also very OCD about my layouts. They have to be just perfect, or I'm not satisfied. I love trying new things too.

I am a morning person/night owl/ other - TOTAL night owl! I could stay up until everyone else was headed off to work if I had the choice. I've been known to be up until 4AM working on something, if it catches my interest enough.

I get inspired by (what to scrap about) - Inspiration is a real big problem for me. I never seem to have any lol. My last scrapping binge I went on was inspired by a whole bunch of freebie templates I found. I scrapped at least 3 layouts that night. Other than that, usually I'm inspired by a specific kit that I'd like to work with, and if not that, I usually draw inspiration from my pictures I want to work with.

Things that make me happy are - I love working with pictures I love. I love it when I have those perfect pictures for a layout. In fact, most of the time, I find it very hard to work with older pictures, they don't hold the same excitement as newer ones do for me.

My fav thing to scrap with is/are - I can't live without ribbons in a kit. And not straight ribbons - curly ribbons. Even more than that, I love strings. Fluffy, curly, colorful strings. I love staples too...I think I have staples on at least 50% of my layouts. Shadows are big too...I can't have a layout with shadows. I'm getting more into the realistic looking shadows.

My fav techinque - I can't say that I have a favorite technique, unless the shadows count as one. I'll try almost anything once, and usually I eventually grow fond of it.

I pass my time when i dont scrap by - That's a lot of time to pass lol. Well I work part-time at a local restaurant, so that takes up about 20 hours of my week. My husband and I work opposite shifts, so when I'm home, he's at work and I'm taking care of our son. But usually after I get home you can find me sitting on the couch on my laptop, designing my own kits, talking to Tiffany or Jaya, watching a movie or TV. I eat a lot too, but that's unimportant lol. Oh, I write a little bit too.

Fav movie, song and vacation place - My favorite movie right now is Twilight! I've been bitten by the vampire bug. It changes all that time, but I think this will stick a while. After New Moon comes out, that will change it though. My favorite songs change all the time...I couldn't possibly pick one. I've only been in 5 states in my life - Kansas (where I live), Missouri, Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma, and never been outside the country, so I can't really say too much about vacationing...but the first time I went to Colorado, I left my heart there. It's somewhere around there, probably high up on a mountain top, where I'll never get it back. Love Colorado!

My all time fav kit is/are - This is so hard to say, because I've only worked with maybe two of Jaya's products, since I'm so new to her CT. But I love Cat's Pajamas, and I'm sure she'll come out with more kits that I absolutely love. Next to that, it's probably Tiffany's kits "A Day Just For Dad" or Jamie's Rainbow"...I've done so many of my son's baby pictures with Jamie's Rainbow.

As her CT Spotlight for this week, I also have a freebie for you. I don't know how long Jaya would like me to keep it up, so grab it while you can. It's a quickpage made from her latest release, Garden Party. This is an awesome kit, and you can pick it up at one of her 3 stores: Scrapable, ScrapBird, and Pretty Scrappy.

Here's the preview to the kit:

And here's the preview to the quickpage you'll be getting from me today:



You can download the free quickpage here. It was created and saved at 300 PPI, 12x12, and is in .psd and .png formats.

Hope you enjoy!