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Getting Started with Digital Scrapbooking

New to Digital Scrapbooking? If you have heard about this thing they call digi, but you aren’t sure where to start, then read on!!  Digital Scrapbooking is a very fast growing version...
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Getting started with our Freebies

After you register please see this thread you are given access several areas in our download manager, which can be located here.  You will be requested, daily, to affirm that you understand our...
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Latest News

Thursday, August 28, 2008 Daily News

Thursday, 28 August 2008

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Gotta Be Me Challenge

Thursday, 28 August 2008

On the 28th of the month your challenge will be to create a layout about yourself using the theme given for that month. Hosted by Chris (chbranch).Click HERE to see the current challenge.
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Gotta Be Me Challenge

article thumbnailOn the 28th of the month your challenge will be to create a layout about yourself using the theme given for that month. Hosted by Chris (chbranch).Click HERE to see the current challenge.
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August Designer Spotlight

article thumbnailKathryn and Paula are in August's Designer Spotlight, which means not only do you get this awesome kit, but you also get 25% off of any of their products all through the month of August. ...
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Layout of the Week, August 25, 2008

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Meet the Gotta Be Me Featured Scrapper for May-jojo99 PDF Print
Written by 2BoysMom   
Thursday, 01 May 2008
The Staff at Gotta Pixel are happy to announce our Gotta Be Me Featured Scrapper of the month for May -- jojo99.  Here is her wonderful interview.  Be sure to stop by the forum thread and leave some happy words for her during the month!  Also, we'll be starting the GBM Weekly Scraplift challenge of her amazing gallery on the 5/2, so get ready for some scraplifting fun! Gotta Be Me interview questions

1. What is your full name and Gotta Pixel username?

Ann Kielthy, aka jojo99
2.  Tell us a little bit about you...what would you like other members to know?

I love being surrounded by people, we have 4 girls, 1 boy, 3 grandchildren and a huge network of extended family.

 For many years I was a ‘stay at home’ Mum but in the year 2000 two things in particular changed the direction of my life forever. My youngest brother died suddenly at the age of 31 and I was also looking at the prospect of my youngest child going to school and facing many hours at home on my own during the day. Both of these things led me to the conclusion that there was a lot more I could have and do in my life so I decided I wanted a career.  I hadn’t worked for almost 20 years so the first step was a “Back To Work” program, at the end of the course I found a job that appealed to the creative side of me in a print company.  I was lucky to persuade them to take me on part-time at first as an office clerk. Eight years on I’m still there, working a longer shift and training in the Customer Service dept. Every morning I drop my son to school, go to work and spend my day with almost 50 people. I love the buzz of working in a busy office/factory and still get a great kick out of the job I do. In the evenings I take care of my 6 year old grandson while his mother works and have done so since he was 6 months old. In my free time I surf the web, scrap and play games on my Nintendo DS. My life is often hectic but I wouldn’t change one single thing!!

3.       How long have you been scrapping?

Less than one year, a friend on another forum was talking about a great Quick Page Challenge that was going on at Gotta Pixel and I came over and signed up to join the fun. It was all I needed to get started, after that I was hooked.

 4.       Do you paper scrap, too?

No, I’ve never even seen anyone paper scrap so it’s still a bit of a mystery to me. Sometimes when I’m creating a layout I wonder what it would have been like to have started off as a paper scrapper. 

5.       Do you do other crafts?

I used to do a lot of knitting, crochet and cross stitch. I also tried quilting and dress-making. For several years I knit for a local wool shop and later a designer of ladies knits, it was a fun way to earn some pocket money without having to find child minders or leave the house. 

6.       How does your family feel about your scrapping?

They think it’s great! I created my very first scrapbook album for one of my daughters for Christmas and she loved it, the look on her face on Christmas Day was priceless as she flicked through all the layouts. The boys think it’s cool and always enjoy seeing what I’m working on. I usually show them my layouts before they go into my gallery.

7.       Tell us about your computer and software.

 I recently bought myself a laptop.  I’d been thinking about it for a while then when I got my promotion in work and a pretty decent pay rise I couldn’t hold myself back. It’s got a 250 GB hard drive and a dedicated graphics card which is great for creating layouts and messing with my photos. The computer I was using up to that point had to be restarted after I’d used it for while, it would just grind to a halt. Mostly I love it because I can bring it with me when I bring my Grandson home to his own house at night, I have an hour or two at least to kill and if I have the laptop with me I can work on my photos and layouts once he is tucked up in bed.

I’m using Photoshop Elements 6 for creating layouts. I found it hard to get started with the program but once I found my way around properly, creating layouts became much easier. I’m learning all the time and probably still have lots to learn.

 The best part is the catalogue and how easy it makes finding people and elements when I’m putting a page together. Tagging everything at the start was a real pain as I had several years worth of photographs on discs. Now I have to be strict with myself and make sure I tag every single new thing I import, usually straight away so I don’t forget, it’s worth it though and makes life so much easier. Between photos and scrapping supplies there are almost 26,000 items in my catalogue.

8. What/who inspires you when you are doing a layout?

Challenges. I try to do a couple a month. Even if I don’t find the time to do many of the challenges I get ideas I will eventually use. Also I have a library of layout images I’ve saved from around the Internet over the past few months. If I need a kick start to figure out how I want to lay out a page I go through them and open up 2 or 3 I like and get ideas from them.  

9.       What is your favorite topic to scrap?

 I don’t think I’ve been at it long enough to really have favourites.  I’m still at the stage where I’m trying everything out but I think a trip through my gallery finds mostly layouts of my children and grandchildren. As a rule most of the photos I take are of people.  I’d love to do more layouts featuring nature or historic buildings but right now I never seem to have the time to go to the places I need to get those sort of photos.

10. What colors do you gravitate to?

I love bright colours although I don’t really have a favourite one, tends to change with my mood. With kits I like them to have several colours so I can choose the papers and elements that are right for a photo.

11. What kinds of supplies do you have a lot of in your folders?

 I have lots of everything! I’ve been collecting scrapping stuff since I started last year. You name it and I probably have it.  Because I have been on a number of Creative Teams I’m lucky to have a fine collection of full kits.

12. What styles have you not tried, but would like to?

I’ve seen a lot of fantasy layouts recently, totally untraditional pages. Some day, when I am more familiar with my program I’d like to create something that looks like it came out of a fairy tale.

13. Are there any styles you stay away from?

I am a very neat and often symmetrical person so I have a dislike for layouts where photos and elements go off the page, some of them are really beautiful but I think I would find it very hard to scrap like that.

14. What layout in your Gotta Pixel gallery is your favorite?

That’s a tough one, I have lots of favourites, this one I treasure because it was only my second complete layout. It also happened to be created to get on to a Creative Team. I hardly new what I was doing but it won me a spot on the team.


15. When doing a layout, do you open pictures then look for a kit to go with them, or open a kit first and find pictures to go with it?

I do both, mostly if I’m creating for a designer I’ll build the page first then find photos I can use. If I have particular photos that I want to scrap I’ll try to find something that would work with them. 

16. Do you make any of your own supplies?

If there is something I want in a kit and it’s not there I’ll try to create it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.   Mostly I’ve tried tags, papers and frames.

17. If you do, what stores are they sold at?

The only thing that has ever been sold was my contribution to the “Scraps Of Pink” charity kit. A group of 25 of us got together and created a mega kit of at least 300 pieces which was sold for a breast cancer charity last year.  It was lots of fun to work as a team; we created most everything from scratch including previews of our own pieces and played an active part in promoting the kit around the Internet.  I had a blast and it was for a very good cause.

18. Have you been published yet?

Not yet!!

19. What are your future goals in digital scrapping?

Mostly to become an expert at using Elements and print lots of albums for my family. My Grandchildren are young and I would love to be able to give them albums of their childhood when they reach 21 or get married. I hope and pray I’m around long enough to achieve those goals.

20. What is one piece of advice that you would like give to anyone who is just starting out in digital scrapbooking?

Hang out in a forum like this one, there’s so much creativity and friendly help when you are part of a group, it’s so much easier than finding everything out on your own.  Do any tutorials you can find to help you learn your program. Also, take part in challenges, it’s a great kick-start to creating a meaningfull layout, some of my favourite layouts were created for challenges.
 
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