March 18, 2009

A Walk Around the WWW- My Favorite Scrap Designers ³

by Wendy • featured, People that Make me Happy • Tags: scrapbooking

I have been scrapbooking my memories since 2000.  During that time I have seen the industry cycle through many different trends, always coming back to the tried and true but sometimes with a little twist.  When I first started, there wasn’t much out there in terms of printed inspiration.  The gallery at Two Peas was pretty much the only place to get inspiration for design.  Creating Keepsakes and Paper Kuts magazine was about it. Now, inspiration for page design is all over print media and the web.  I love the web especially because it doesn’t cost any money to find a whole lot of inspiration.

Since I began scrapping, my interest in the craft has ebbed and flowed.  Some days I love it and some days I feel too overwhelmed by all of the products that are available.  I have beat myself up over not having the newest, latest and the greatest ‘stuff’ for the pages that I made.  For some reason I felt like not having those things devalued the memories that I was putting down on paper.  Over time as I became increasingly frustrated, I started to give up my hobby, only picking it up when I hung out with my scrapping buddies.  The only thing that kept me remotely interested in keeping up with the hobby was the websites that I frequented.

I have since made the leap over to digital scrapbooking and I have found that I enjoy this process much more.  I can have the latest and greatest without spending an arm and a leg (many times the elements and paper are free!).  I continue to make mini albums using the hands on tools and embellishments but for now I primarily create with Photoshop.  However, jumping from paper to computer hasn’t stopped me from purusing through my favorite sites looking for inspiration!  I thought I would share with you some of the places on the world wide web that give me tons of ideas.  They are all very sweet eye candy too!

First and foremost, one of my best friends, Heidi, now has a blog to showcase her work.  We first met over art journals and she swore up and down that she would never scrapbook.  However, the dark side finally caught up with her and she made the leap.  She hasn’t looked back since.  She is incredibly creative and artistic and her work just blows me away.  No wonder she has been chosen to be a part of the design team for a local scrapbook store!  She should be on company design teams!  Here is one of my favorites:

From My Feathered Nest is a blog that I have followed for a while.  Her style is something that I admire greatly, especially how she incorporates her children and family into her pages.  I love the colors she chooses and the placement of the embellishments.  Who wouldn’t love to look at a page like this:

Christine over at Retrospection has a website full of eye candy.  It is seriously like being in a candy store.  I just started following her blog about 6 months ago and I have been hooked every since.  She uses bright colors to really accentuate the photos:

I have been blogging buddies with Anam for a while now.  While we were waiting to adopt Catherine, she helped me out so much with marketing my adoption shop.  Little did I know with that first email she sent that I would find a gem in the giant scrapping world.  Her style is simple and yet incredibly detailed.  Her pages have helped me get out of a rut a time or two:

So these ar e just a few of the many blogs that I love.  If you are a scrapper or other type of artist, where do you go online for inspiration?