Annette Farrelly
What attracted you to Digital Scrapbooking?
My background is in IT, so once I found out
that I could actually create layouts on my PC, I was instantly
intrigued! Add to that I had a one month old baby at the time, so I
knew that paper scrapping was going to be hard later on with all the
physical supplies laying around. It was a good fit, and I can honestly
say I have no desire to paper scrap!
How do you create your layouts?
My layouts generally all start with the
photo/s. I select the photos I want to scrap, and create my layout
around them. I never plan ahead any more (no time!), I just go with my
creative juices at the time and it kind of just evolves. Occasionally
I will bookmark a layout in an online gallery and use it as inspiration.
How do you choose your supplies?
Most of the time I just buy things I love and
know that I want to use in my layouts. There is some gorgeous stuff
out there, and often I just can’t resist!
How often do you scrapbook? When do you do most of your work?
I have two young kids who are my main priority
during the day, and I have never been one who is able to do much on the
PC while my kids are around, so I always work at night! Unfortunately
I don’t get to actually scrap much these days because the kids and the
digital scrapbooking site I run keep me more than busy, but I don’t
mind because I am really enjoying it, and I figure I can scrap again
later when the kids are a bit older.
H ow long does it take you to complete a layout?
Oh gosh, that is hard to answer! Some layouts
might take me an hour, some a few hours, and some I keep coming back to
and it can take me weeks to finish it! Would it be bad if I told you
that I found an unfinished layout the other day from Christmas 2007?!!!
What technique do you love but are yet to try?
Not sure if you would call this a technique,
but one day I would like to try a bit of hybrid scrapping. Not so much
for my layouts because I love digi too much, but I wouldn’t mind mixing
digital and paper scrapping to create cards and perhaps some gifts one
day.
How important is journalling to you?
I am sure I am going to be in the minority here
when I say it isn’t really something that I worry about too much!
Sometimes I just like to be creative when I scrap, and there might be
no journaling at all. Sometimes though, I want to remember what was
said, how I felt, or where we went, so I will add journaling. It isn’t
something I stress over – sometimes just the photos are enough for me
to bring back all the memories of the moment.
What inspires and motivates you to create if you get a creative block?
I would probably have to say browsing online
galleries or participating in challenges will help me relieve my
creative block. Also, following a tutorial to try a new technique can
help too.
What software program do you use for your layouts? How does a novice go about choosing a program to use?
 I
use a beast of a program called Adobe Photoshop (CS3)! I probably
wouldn’t recommend it for a novice, and I feel like I have barely
scratched the surface with it myself, but it really does offer a lot.
For a novice, I would recommend a more scaled-down version of it called
Adobe Photoshop Elements. I started with Photoshop Elements myself,
because Photoshop is quite a big investment, but Elements is a lot more
affordable, and I think you would have to be using it for quite some
time before you would miss some of the functionality the other has to
offer.
Do you prefer to scrap alone or at a crop?
Can I say that I actually had to laugh at that
question?! The digital scrapbooking world is so different to the paper
scrapping world in this respect. We do pretty much everything online,
even crops! At my site we meet in the chat room once a month,
sometimes just for a natter, and sometimes to actually scrap…while we
are chatting! I guess with digital there are no geographic boundaries
– scrappers come from all over the world, so it can be pretty hard to
meet in real life sometimes! I wouldn’t mind organising some sort of
real-life digital crop one day though!
What advice would you give to new digi scrapbookers?
I would probably firstly recommend that new
digi scrappers find an online tutorial on how to create your first
digital layout for the software program of their choice. Even if the
layout doesn’t look like something you want to create, it is a way to
start familiarising with your program and learn the basics.
Once you know the basics, I would then
recommend to perhaps use a digital template to use as inspiration for
your layout. A template is basically the equivalent of a sketch, the
difference being that a template is actually a file that you open in
your software program that contains lots of layers for all the
different components that make up the layout. You can use these layers
to help you create your layout.
Lastly, I would definitely recommend browsing online galleries, or even
magazines, to see what kind of style of layouts you like.
 Do you have a blog? What do you use your blog for?
Do I have to? *blushes with embarrassment* I do have a blog, but I
haven’t updated it for months. I was using it primarily as a personal
blog, and posting things about what my family got up to, or the layouts
that I scrapped, how the kids were growing up, etc. But life just got
so busy all of a sudden, and I think I also developed a bit of a blog
block, if there is such a thing. I kept feeling like I ‘should’ blog,
but I just didn’t feel like it. At the end of the day, it’s my blog,
and I should blog if I want to…so I’m still waiting for inspiration to
strike!
Mental Notes and Mouse Clicks
If you had 3 wishes, what would they be?
- To be around for my kids for a loooooong time
- To be happy, healthy, live comfortably, and most of all, live life to it’s fullest and have fun while doing it!
- To change the world one-by-one and convert everyone into digi scrapping!
Please share with us, 5 random things about yourself.
- I have coloured my hair since I was about 16 years old
- I would secretly love to be a forensic photographer
- I pierced my belly button once
- When I was young, I lived and breathed basketball
- I have a 1metre x 1metre family photo printed on canvas hanging up in my house
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