Gallery Girls ~ Five17Creations (Kim)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Hi guys :o)  SP here and I am always so happy to bring you a new GALLERY GIRLS feature!!  It truly is my fave ‘blog duty’ lol!  I always feel honored to get to work with such talented individuals…both on my team, and in the scrapping community – it’s a sincere pleasure for me!

Our next featured Gallery Girl is the super sweet and talented Kim (better known in the Gallery as Five17Creations).  She was so much fun to get to know and work with!  I totally enjoyed each and every email she sent me with new layouts!  She has been busy scrapping, so I hope you are ready to be inspired!  We’ll get to know her better, but first – how about a new layout that KIM created just for this special post (there are more new and adorable layouts from Kim sprinkled throughout the post below…so be sure to scroll down).  Kim will also be uploading all of these layouts to her gallery…so you can see larger images and more info about each there :o)

Like I mentioned, Kim created LOTS of new layouts for the feature and while it was not easy to choose a fave…I think this would have to be it!  The angle is what first caught my eye…well, that and the layering!  But then, it was just so sweet and fun to see pics of their ten years together :o)

 TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF…

I live in Austin, Texas with my husband of 8 years and our 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.  We’re also expecting a baby at the end of July, and my son can’t decide whether he wants a baby brother or sister.  (Sometimes he says he wants both, but we’ve told him it’s only going to be one – lol!).  Since having my kids, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom, and that’s made me love scrapbooking even more because it’s a creative outlet for me.  I keep busy with the kids, the house, church, playdates, and preschool.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SCRAPPING DIGITALLY…AND DID YOU EVER GIVE PAPER SCRAPPING A TRY?

 I’ve been scrapbooking digitally since the end of 2008.  My first project was making our family Christmas card that year.  I wasn’t sure I’d like going digital because I had been paper scrapbooking almost forever.  I’ve always loved putting together albums of pictures, but they’ve just gotten more elaborate in recent years!  After my friend taught me Photoshop and showed me some digital scrapbook sites, I was hooked.  I love that I can work on my computer when I have a few minutes, then just close the laptop when I need to be with my kids… no mess to clean up!  And I love my printed books that fit so nicely on the shelf!

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR SCRAPPING STYLE?

 I would say in some ways my style is always changing.   I feel like I see a lot of different ideas out there and like to try them all.  I’m not trained as a graphic designer or anything like that (the only real experience I have comes from being the editor of my high school yearbook), so I’m not thinking of any style “rules” as I go along.  Just putting pages together the way I like them!! 

WHAT IS THE FIRST COMPONENT OF EACH PAGE YOU CREATE…OR DOES IT VARY FROM PAGE TO PAGE?

I’d have to say almost always I start a page with the pictures.  I tend to lay out my pictures the way I’d like them and build the design around that.  I take tons of pictures and I just can’t help but get all my favorites on the page! 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LAYOUT (TO DATE) AND WHY?

 If I have to pick a favorite, I’ll say THIS ONE!  I love this layout so much partly because I just love these pictures of my kids!  I also feel like the layout flows perfectly between the two pages (I like to scrapbook as two page layouts when I can), I like the color combo, and there’s just something about the way the elements and pictures came together that I like.  Can’t explain it, but it just makes me happy looking at it :o)

WHAT TIP/TECHNIQUE DO YOU KNOW NOW THAT YOU WISH YOU HAD KNOWN WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED SCRAPPING DIGITALLY?

 It’s hard to pick ONE thing I didn’t know at the beginning that I’m glad I know now.  Probably like a lot of us, I started off really simple and have learned lots of things as I’ve gone along.  I like to say my scrapbooking is always “evolving” and l look back at layouts I did a year ago and think how I could make them a lot better.  I get new ideas all the time, especially from places like this gallery.  One thing I’ve been learning about more this past year is how to creatively fit more pictures on a page.  As I said before, I take tons of them and am not good at picking only a few for my books!! 

WHAT IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE INSPIRES YOU IN YOUR SCRAPBOOKING?

 My everyday life is exactly what my scrapbooking is all about.  And my everyday life right now is a lot about my kids, so I guess they are the inspiration for a lot of my layouts!  I want to capture both the big events and the everyday moments in a way that we will enjoy looking back on for years to come.  My scrapbooking is really about preserving the memories.

TECH STUFF :o)  Tell us about your camera and software!

 For a while I was taking pictures on my good ole Kodak camera.  It was a great camera, but what I had my eye on was an SLR.  I finally got my wish this past Christmas, so for a couple of months now I’ve been able to play with my new camera.  It’s a Canon EOS Rebel T1i.  I’m sure it will take me a while to learn how to use all the functions of this camera!   The only software I’ve ever used for scrapbooking is Photoshop.  I’m probably using an older version than a lot of you, but it’s what I could get my hands on when I was getting started with digital scrapbooking.  It’s still a great program, but someday I dream of an upgrade :o) 

FAST FIVE FACTS!

•  fave color:  green
• fave food:   chocolate
• fave movie:  Anyone who knows me knows that I’m always behind on current movies, but in general I like romantic comedies best (like Notting Hill and My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and I also love classic musicals (I grew up on movies like The Sound of Music and Music Man). 
• fave song:  Play me anything by Casting Crowns or Chris Tomlin
• fave memory:  Being asked out by my husband for the first time (it’s a great story that includes passing notes in a college accounting class… romantic, right?), our kids’ births, family vacations

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THANK YOU bunches and bunches for having fun with us, Kim :o)  It has been a joy to work with you…and I know that I will continue to look forward to your new gallery postings!

I’ll be bringing you guys another new GALLERY  GIRLS post next month…so stay tuned :o)

And, I’ll be back tomorrow with February’s PROJECT Scrap templates…and then on FRIDAY with March’s FREE desktop  (yep…a BUSY week, lol) :o)  THANKS for stopping by…have a good one!  xoxo –SP

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