Tell us a little about yourself and your favorite scrapping subjects. My name is Ellen and I'm in my 30's, and on my second career. I spent 7 years working for Child Protective Services, and have taught school for 3.5 years now. Technically I'm a Special Education teacher, but my classrooms are General Education for the local middle school. I'm also the advisor for National Junior Honor Society at my school.
I have a great husband who is truly a partner in our household. I LOVE IT!!! We live in Central Texas with our two small children Zander (6yo, boy) and Alyssa (3yo, girl). Z and A give me plenty of scrapable material, and are really my favorite subjects. They love starring in their own story books. I also tend to blog about them a lot because they're so funny. I think they come by the silliness innocently - I tend to have strange things just happen to me and who ever happens to be in the line of fire.
Ellen's BlogWhen did you start scrapbooking? I think I started scrapping about 5 years ago. Not sure, it just evolved. I know how I got started. My mom bought me a bag - Crop in Style - for my birthday. I had no idea what it was for or what to do with it. Then of course I had to get stuff for it so I put a set of markers in a row in the holders. With my job at CPS we did these things called Life Books.
I was passionate at creating a Life Book for every child I took from a home. There were too many times I would remove a child and their parent would disappear. Since I was the last person to see their parent with them I was determined to take pictures of the kids in case the parent returned, and to gather as many mementos as possible from the home before I left. I would beg parents for any pictures of them especially of them and the child together. I would gather any and all birth documents. Trying to preserve this family as much as possible. When parents would visit I would take pictures and make sure both got a copy. I would write down little things I heard in the visits about the family. Family traditions, memories they shared. Eventually I started doing the same for my son, realizing that I worked a dangerous job and that someday I may not come home. What were the things I wanted him to always remember? What were my values he needed to know? What about my childhood, and how it shaped me. Preservation was the key. I no longer work that job and I don't worry about not coming home, but I know that anything is possible so I do my best. The families I worked with didn't know that when I knocked on their door that they may not be sleeping under the same roof that night. Every day in this country people are killed in accidents, and that could be me. I know its fatalist, but I look at it as a daily gift. Each day I get to spend time with my children, and that's a total gift. Each memory I get to preserve for them or value taught, that's a gift. Each moment is such a little treasure that God has given to me, and I am eternally grateful and humble for it.
Who are your favorite manufacturers? Ranger. Because they make Tim's stuff. I like things a little funky.
What are your favorite embellishments?I'm such an ink-a-holic. After taking Tim's class in Houston with my buddy Dawn, I have fallen in love with the versatility of grunge board.
How does your creative process work? I have a process? You know how some people have a left brain and a right brain. Some scrappers find something fun and start there. Others use sketches, and plot out the process. My process is when the two hemispheres of my brain collide. Some days I just throw things together on a page. Other days I write out a script, and then attack. Most of the time I just wonder how something will work so I try it. If it goes bad I can just try something else.
How would you describe your style? Funky. Uniquely me (except for when I lift things, and then I'm uniquely them). I really liked it the other day when I read Emelyn's comment that I was "very artistic". That totally made my scrap day!
Where do you find your inspiration?I read - a lot! I read magazines, books, internet (blogs websites), anything I can get my hands on. In my reading it's either an element on an art piece, or layout, or a technique, or theme, or some phrase that caught my attention. I like using literature, and Bible verses as starting points. I love it when there's a quirky little phrase used that catches my ear. Right now I'm working on this poem by Emily Dickenson, "Hope is the Thing with Feathers". Still in the mental stages, but I'm sure something fun will come of it. My other inspiration point is photography. I love taking photos outside and they frequently inspire me to create something. Love nature!
Ellen - thank you for sharing with us!
When I started scrapbooking in early 2007, I just fell in love with all the wonderful SB things that can offer! God knows how much I've spent in this hobby! LOL! I'm a paper hoarder, chipboards lover and I couldn't live without Thickers. I could spend hours cutting up papers and I love layering them with fabric and embellishments. What's my style? Let's just say I love trying new things. What I love most about scrapbooking is the freedom for me to create anything I want. 
Scrapbooking has also given me the pleasure of relieving myself from a hard day at work. It has also given me the opportunity to bring out the creative side of me which I never knew I had. 
I was passionate at creating a Life Book for every child I took from a home. There were too many times I would remove a child and their parent would disappear. Since I was the last person to see their parent with them I was determined to take pictures of the kids in case the parent returned, and to gather as many mementos as possible from the home before I left. I would beg parents for any pictures of them especially of them and the child together. I would gather any and all birth documents. Trying to preserve this family as much as possible. When parents would visit I would take pictures and make sure both got a copy. I would write down little things I heard in the visits about the family. Family traditions, memories they shared. Eventually I started doing the same for my son, realizing that I worked a dangerous job and that someday I may not come home. What were the things I wanted him to always remember? What were my values he needed to know? What about my childhood, and how it shaped me. Preservation was the key. I no longer work that job and I don't worry about not coming home, but I know that anything is possible so I do my best. The families I worked with didn't know that when I knocked on their door that they may not be sleeping under the same roof that night. Every day in this country people are killed in accidents, and that could be me. I know its fatalist, but I look at it as a daily gift. Each day I get to spend time with my children, and that's a total gift. Each memory I get to preserve for them or value taught, that's a gift. Each moment is such a little treasure that God has given to me, and I am eternally grateful and humble for it.
How does your creative process work? 
Hiya, I’m Audrey. I’m live in the United Kingdom although I’m originally from Singapore. I’m married with 2 boys, Oliver, 7 and Zac, 5, both of whom form the basis of inspiration for my pages. They are probably fed up with their paparazzi mom taking photos of them constantly to use on her pages. I re-discovered scrapbooking in autumn 2004, via card making. I attended a class and was instantly hooked. I realised it was something I used to do 16 years ago. Each time I went on vacation, I would take endless photos and keep souvenirs, all of which would be decorated and journalled in a photo album. At least this time, materials are of archival quality and much more interesting!
I’ve been with Homegrown since 2005 when Steph gave me my first opportunity to be on her design team. Since then, things at Homegrown have changed tremendously. This year’s Summer Survival kit marks the first anniversary as I was designing with SSK 07 last year. However, you would have seen my work in the form of sketches as I’ve been doing all of the Survival kits sketches since its inception. 
How gorgeous are these frames?
And WOW! So many ideas are popping in my head on how to use this one!
With all the beautiful patterned papers lately, I love to cut out the images and use them as embellishments---it would make the perfect matching embellishment each time! Here are some examples in which I cut the image out of PP. 
For these 2 layouts I cut out a section of the PP to use as a large accent. For the "I am so happy" layout, the large piece was perfect for a border. To give a bit of texture to the piece, I added some 3D objects like flowers or rhinestones. 
For this layout I cut out the stars from the PP and used pop dots and placed them directly on the same PP. It give a 3D feel to it. 
This is one of my favorite techniques, cutting out a variety of images and layering, pop dotting, crumpling, them all together! For the"Got Milk" layout, I even cut out images from the die cut journaling box. Embellish the designs by adding stickles, brads, gems, etc for a fun look. 
I love all kinds of scrapboooking goodies...but my passions are EMbellishments! I love to load up my pages with them, layering flowers, adding tons of brads on pages, mixing and matching ribbons. I don't have a particular style, but I just go with how the photo moves me. I love to enlarge my photos so they will take front and center on my layout, but I also love to make layouts with a bunch of pictures. I teach classes at a LSS from anything from mini books to creative cards. I create handcrafted invites and sell my card creations at local boutiques. 
