Meet Chris

I am so excited to share a new feature on my blog!! I'm going to tell you a secret. While I'm the one preparing and teaching classes, I actually LEARN from my customers. It never fails, I will come up with a project that I think is great and my customers will change it or adapt it and make it even better. My best tips have come from my customers.... So that got me thinking.... We've seen interviews of all the "famous" scrapbookers. Why not interview my customers and friends?

And with that, I'd like to introduce you to Chris.

When Chris first came to my classes she was just going to scrapbook her baby's first year. I might have the timing wrong, but I'm pretty sure she just had one child when we started this adventure. And then she had another baby. Ooops, I guess you have to keep scrapbooking. And then came baby number three. I thought this whole thing was working out rather nice for my business. Thankfully Chris became a full-fledged scrapbooker while she worked on those baby albums and she has continued to find more projects to work on. My Friday night scrapbook club just wouldn't be the same without her! She's our organizer. She get's us all to show up on the same night and often plans where everyone is going to meet for dinner.

And now... here's Chris' interview.

Why do you scrapbook?
Love, love, love to have family pictures. We take thousands of pictures ever year. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I want a way to show off the pictures and tell the story.

How long have you been scrapbooking with me?
Feb 2000 is when Rivka brought me to you. We are almost going to celebrate 10 years together! Wow!

What is your favorite scrapbook project and why?
My favorite scrapbook project is my calendar scrapbook. It is a 12 x 12 album. One side has a scrapbook page with pictures from the month. I try to focus on more day to day pictures rather then the big events. The other side had a month calendar where I jot notes most days about the events of the day or funny stories that happen. I love to go back and look at this scrapbook. When I reread the little events I'm so glad that I recorded them because I would never remember they happened. This will be the 4th year of the calendar scrapbook.

Here'a picture of the cover page. If you click on the picture you can see it a little bit better. Along the left side she has stickers with the years 2006-2009.

And here is one of the pages inside. What I love about this album is that Chris picks the best pictures! She has silly pictures... like one of her and the girls with chocolate mustaches (got milk...I mean got chocolate?) And pictures that really illustrate the relationships in her family as well as all the different personalities. I know this will be a great family treasure!

What is your favorite scrapbook organizational tip.
I always organize my pictures chronologically, write the date and picture details on the back of the picture and put in a photo album. If I have a lot of pictures with the same detail information I print labels and stick them to the back of all the pictures. Then when I go to scrapbook it is easy to find what I want and what I don't use is organized in photo albums.

I've seen Chris work on this during some of our scrapbook nights and sometimes she has HUGE stacks of photos.... but she just brings them along, chats with friends and gets them all organized. When I grow up... I want to be organized like Chris...haha!

What is your favorite scrapbook product/supply?
This is a hard one! I should say a Close to My Heart product right? I love the stamps, but sometimes I feel like I collect them more than use them! I really liked when Close to My Heart started putting together the theme packs of paper rather then the color packs. (My Reflections Level 2 paper packs.) It makes putting together a matching, cohesive page so much easier. I love my little blue case from Zutter that has all the tools you need - scissors, wire cutters, pliers, file, needle, ruler, pen, etc.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Chris!! She was such a good sport! She replied to my interview questions right away and even let me take pictures of her. I have more interviews planned so stay tuned! (Leave me a comment if you're interested in being interviewed!)