Friday, September 23, 2011

Welcome Barb - Our Sept / Oct 2011 Digi Guest Creative Team Member!

Read all about Barb (aka: pawprints) -


Donna is a graphic designer & has been digi scrapping since 2008
My name is Barb and I live on Long Island. I am married 36 years to my wonderful dh who is not only my husband but also my best friend. He is a sweetie who is very used to seeing me in a pile of papers, stickers, glue, bling, and punch confetti, and also in front of my Mac. 

We have two children, a son 29 and a daughter 27, and we have a beautiful granddaughter named Maddie that is about to turn 3. We also have a sweet, beautiful black lab named Boomer. I am a paper scrapper and a digi scrapper, and immensely enjoy both worlds. Besides loving my family, being creative, and a being a big dog lover, I am also a huge Mac fan!

I am a graphic designer and was doing page layout and ad design long before it was done on computer. When our industry went digital I got my first Mac and I taught myself how to do page layout and typography on the computer. Then I taught myself how to use Photoshop. I've done flyers, brochures, business cards, advertisements, newsletters and a quarterly business newspaper. I don't work anymore except for one client I still do jobs for. This leaves me more time to design for myself and my family now.

I have always been into all things creative. As a kid I would be so happy with just a pair of scissors and a pack of colored paper. I have been scrapbooking for as long as I can remember, always saving and documenting all of the special memories and moments that come along in life. I am known as the paparazzi of the family... everyone knows that at every event, big or small, that I will be snapping photos all over the place. I am one to be behind the camera most of the time, but not in front of it too often.



I got into digi scrapping just about 3 years ago right after my granddaughter was born. I was so intrigued by the wonderful work I saw in the gallery that I just had to see for myself how this was done. Being proficient in Photoshop made it easy for me to give it a try and I immediately fell in love! But I will never give up my paper scrapping. 

To me they both serve as different outlets for my creativity. I still have the need to cut and punch paper and glue on bling and flowers and just play with all my paper scrappy goodies. When I paper scrap I do it chronologically for albums, and I always do two pagers except for opening and closing pages. Digi scrapping on the other hand allows me to just scrap a picture that I took today, last month, or a few years ago. It is a one page layout that I can just do "out of order." I can digi scrap anytime and not have to take out my stash and make a mess. It is somewhat an extension of my graphic design world, but for me now instead of for clients.

I found ACOT sometime after we lost our beautiful yellow lab 8 years ago. When I could finally bring myself to look at his pictures again, I decided I wanted to redo his photo album into a scrapbook and that is when I discovered all the wonderful dog embellishments and papers that were suddenly available. I shopped here for a long time before I checked out the boards, and I have to say that joining this wonderful community has been such a great experience for me. 

I am really a very shy person and what I call socially challenged lol! But everyone here on this site is so warm, so friendly, and so helpful that I immediately felt comfortable here. And one of the big things that impressed me was the way everyone phrased each other's work in the gallery. Everyone was so supportive of each other. 

That was three years ago and here I am now with over 10,000 posts to my name! For anyone that knows me that is amazing, and it also says a lot about the wonderful people we have here on the boards. This is the only board I have ever joined and I look forward every day to coming on here and chatting and seeing all of your wonderful work in the gallery. And the support and the praise for each other is still the same as it was 3 years ago. 

You are all so talented and I have grown as a scrapper because of all of you. Thanks Cherries!

1 comment:

Khristen said...

Excellent page, and thanks for sharing so much about yourself. Love the colors of that layout, and the pic of your granddaughter is adorable!