Blog Contributor :: Amy Parker

There are some scrapbookers out there that have this amazing ability to use tiny bits and pieces of small little things to create wonderful works of art. Our dear contributor, Amy Parker, is just one of those scrapbookers. Her work is often truly unique and is exceptionally beautiful. Today, Amy's offering insight into her design process to help us better understand what it is that motivates her scrapbook style. She's also come up with some really GREAT ways to use our stuff, including the salvage edges of our pattern papers! She's created both a layout and mini album for today's post - check'em out below!

Hi, my name is Amy Parker. I live on the Central Coast of California with my husband, Jed, and my 2 and a half year old daughter, Creedence. I am Mommy by day, and avid creator by night. Scrapbooking is the first art form that has ever made me feel creative, and free in that creativity!! From the moment I started, I was set for life. Scrapbooking is therapy for me and helps me to express myself. Every emotion and feeling and memory is different, and that is exactly how I think they should be expressed in scrapbooking! So from this you will find that I scrap in a variety of styles. And I love having that freedom to just create what I feel! I am so extremely excited about joining the team here at Crate Paper! Thanks you so much for this opportunity!

(Click on image to enlarge)

This is a layout I did celebrating the 7th anniversary of my mom's passing. I wanted layers and layers and layers on this! (but honestly, I think I went a wee bit overboard! LOL!) It didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted, but I'm still happy with it. I used lots of paint, paper layers and textiles (such as the flowers, ribbons and additional sewing) to create depth and texture to the layout, yet still have it be a fairly flat layout. I used Mia, Cottage and Brook collections. None of my lines are straight (which I didn't really do on purpose), but it kinda makes the layers seem more natural or "organic". One thing I also did, that I super duper LOVE about Crate's paper, is to use the selvage edge of the papers! They have a coordinating pattern on one side, so to utilize both selvage edge and pattern paper, I cut just above the line that separates the two areas using decorative scissors - giving me two colors on one strip! I think I'm going to be addicted to doing this for as long as I have selvage edges to work with! :)

The images above are of an album I made to help organize my wedding this upcoming December. I'm not sure that I actually see myself using the album, because now I'm too afraid of it being beat up in all the use. :P Oh well. One thing I wanted for this album is white space on each of my pages. But on the parts that I did apply embellishments, I wanted SUPER layers! I love layers. Just like the layout, I used lots of paint, ribbons, stitching and an assortment of other fun elements. On the cover, I added flowers for depth, and on the inside pages, I used metals and die-cut layers. On one of the pages, I just about started crying (the purple idea page) because my Creedence (daughter) colored over it with a pencil!! Thank goodness it was only that because I was able to erase the pencil marks from the page, but it still looked horrible! So, I tried to cover it with paint and Boo-Hoo, it still looks horrible (we don't think so Amy!). Oh well, what are you gonna do?! You can only pout for so long..smile.

This journal was one I picked up from Target for $3. It's made from 100% recyclable materials (except the metal binding of course), and I just covered it with Crate Paper pattern papers. I will do before and after shots on my blog (Amy's blog), but can also provide you with what the album looked like before I covered it. It holds both ledger paper and folder pages. The one part of the album that I changed was the closure. It used to just fold over the entire front to keep it closed, but my pages are fairly thick, so I needed something "looser". I punched a hole with my Crop-O-Dile and stuck a button's fixture in the hole (glueing it down pretty good!!) - the elastic clasp just wraps around it!

Thank-You Amy! As always, your projects are gorgeous and we appreciate you providing us lots of helpful info for using Crate Paper's goodies! We'll return Friday with Ronda's Paint Splatter tutorial..and for all you card lovers out there, we're hosting a card sketch challenge in a few short days! We're inviting all card makers to take part in the challenge!! Emily Pitts has put together another great sketch for us..it begins next Wednesday, so mark it on your calendars! We'll be giving away another CP collection, but this time, you get to choose the collection!