I’m Elizabeth! I am happily married to a really great guy who serves in the USAF. We’ve got 1 beautiful daughter who’s 12 and two lovable dogs. We currently live in WA and really pray that we end up settling here, we love it so much! I work at Starbucks and love my job! I love Jesus, love to garden, read, and spend time with my family and friends too. I feel extremely blessed to live the life that I do!
How would you describe your scrapbooking style? What makes your style your own?
I know it would be cool if I could actually label my style and I am sure someone can, but I’d have to say that my style evolves and changes as my mood does and what is working for me at the time that it does!! There are basic staples when I scrap such a color, textures, patterns, and elements. I am a huge lover of color because color evokes so many emotions!
I think that everyone’s style is their own, even if you pick up elements that someone else is doing. For instance, I always use a corner rounder somewhere on my work I simply have to use it! I also like to use cardstock as my base and then mix it with patterns to get clean-lined that’s fun! I guess if I had to label it, I’d still say it’s a tossed salad! All the ingredients of elements mixed into a big bowl to create a great project!
What inspires you to be creative?
Dayv actually got me started with scrapbooking, believe that! He did not have a lot of photos of himself growing up and does not have a lot of childhood memories that are photographs. So when we received a magazine in 1998 we sat down together, after he said he wanted me to create scrapbooks of our daughter and our lives and picked out some basic supplies. So my creativity is drawn from my life and those experiences that we live as a family collectively and individually.
I am also drawn to color, textures, and supplies that speak my language! I love bold, bright, fun, and cheery things and there is a HUGE amount of inspiration found in each of those areas that I use to draw up my creativity.
Who are your favorite scrapbook designers and why?
I love everyone’s work because you can find something in each project that you’ll find inspiration from!! But I do have a few favorites…. I love Christine Middlecamp’s work because she can layer like no other! I love Danielle Flanders work because it is classy with cute all rolled into one. I love Stephanie Howell’s work because she can tell a story on her pages and draw you in. I also love Sasha Holloway’s work because it’s chalked full of color and fun! Those are just a few who I always find inspiration from at any given time.
What are your favorite color combinations to design with right now?
I am really diggin’ yellows, red, turquoise, and brown.
What is your creative process?
Even though I love to mix things up with my moods, I think I generally always follow the same process. I love getting everything out that I am feeling at that moment. Normally it is papers and then it goes from there to the embellishments, other elements, and lastly photos. I usually scrap a page without a picture. I might have a photo in mind and sometimes I don’t, but the photo normally doesn’t come into play until after the layout is half way or almost completed. Isn’t that weird? Sometimes I don’t even have photos and I am scrapping! I like to get all my supplies out and just “feel” them. I will lay everything out and just start creating.
I also don’t scrap very long. Probably from start to finish, unless it is an altered project I normally do a layout in about 30-45 minutes. If I take longer then I start to second guess myself and end up getting frustrated with it and myself which turns into me not liking it. I also just stick it down right then and there. I don’t put it all over the page to see where I might like it; I just go with what I am feeling at that moment.
My biggest piece of creativity is either looking at a sketch, someone else’s work, a challenge, or project that I am called to do. I always find myself looking at the tiniest of details in any of these areas and creating from there. I don’t copy what it is exactly, but I might take a way someone laid a paper, put a flower, or how the sketch is and turn it all around to make it my own. It spurs on my own creativity by seeing others. That is what I love about scrapbooking!
Another way I am inspired is buying kits. I am a HUGE lover of them because they make it easy on you so you don’t have to spend hours buying things, but it also gives you something to go on. They might send a themed kit, but you can make it what you want, how you want, using what you want. I really enjoy getting a kit in the mail, then laying it all out and looking at it over and over. This gets my creative juices really flowing!
What is your story that you are trying to tell? How can this inspire others?
Mainly I truly believe in being real. It’s important for me to show that to my family, friends, or anyone that looks at my work to see that I am a real person with real issues. Whether they be happy all the time, hard, creating layouts about me or my family, or sharing my love of Jesus. Jesus is a HUGE part of my life and I want to show that through my creations always because He put the creativity there to begin with! Those pieces are a part of me and that is what I want the looker to see when they look inside of me and my work. When you do that, you get a glimpse into who I really am.
That’s a hard question! I don’t normally see myself inspiring others. I truly think that Lord wants us to be humble like that! I just try to do what I feel at the time I am doing it and share the love for this really cool hobby hopefully inspiring others along the way.
How can you inspire others to "Create well"?
Even though I am a huge fan of looking at other people’s work, I think it’s important to find who you are through this really cool hobby! This is another facet of our lives and it’s a pretty important one because at the end of the day we are creating to preserve memories {and using it for our sanity, at least that is what I do!}And it is important to be inspired from you. It’s really okay to like what you are doing, how you do it and the end product as well. I believe that if you truly look within and then allow your creativity to flow outwards, this can and will inspire others to create well! Creating something you love will allow others to glean from that because we all have something to offer!
On Elizabeth's blog, Inside Me, she has this quote, "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'". Isn't that what it's all about? Using the gift God gave us to bless our families and others to glorify Him. Elizabeth does just that!
Create Well: Look within and then allow your creativity to flow. Creating something you love will allow others to glean from that because we all have something to offer!
