By Jan Walker

You can tell a lot about a person’s life just by looking at the art they create. Such is the case with our Spotlight subject this month, Becki Bishop, shown here with her sweet granddaughter, Caylynn, and known in the Digital Scrapper Forum and Gallery as BeckiB.

Full lives make for fascinating layouts, and we’ve had a great time watching Becki as she has grown her skills, refined her techniques, and defined her own personal style over the past several months.

We think you’ll enjoy getting to know her as much as we have!

JW: Becki, thanks for joining us this month… tell us a little about yourself.

BB: Like many women of my generation, I tend to start out describing myself through my relationship to others: I’m a wife (married 44 years) mother of three beautiful adult daughters, and grandmother to one darling granddaughter, who is the subject of most of my scrapbook pages. My husband is retired but keeps himself busy building Flamenco guitars. It was our mutual interest in Spain and love of all things Spanish that brought us together. I had been an exchange student in Spain while in high school, and he was fascinated with Flamenco, especially the guitar. We got engaged in Spain and now, many years later, we go there every summer. I can’t talk about myself without mentioning both my family and Spain!

Home. Love. Family.

by BeckiB

I have lived in Michigan most of my life, though I was born in San Francisco and lived my early years in and near New York City. I work from home, so my typical day is doing whatever I want (including digiscrapping) in the morning, answering the phone in the afternoon, and then spending time with my family in the evening. Aside from digital scrapping, my other favorite activities are reading, family history research, and gardening. I love to travel, but don’t often get to do it.

JW:  How long have you been digiscrapping? And were you a traditional scrapbooker before that?

BB: I can’t say I was a traditional scrapbooker, but I always loved taking family pictures and putting them in albums (and I still do). My parents had a beautiful scrapbook-like album that documented their courtship, marriage, and early married life as well as my babyhood, and I used to pour over that album as a child. Also, my grandmother kept a scrapbook for my mother during her high school years, and that was another treasure that fascinated me. The only “real” scrapbook I’ve made was one I gave my husband for his birthday the week before we were married. It was similar to the one my parents had, with black background paper and white ink, and lots of photos of us in Spain and other memorabilia from our time together there.

Courting Days:

by BeckiB

I started digiscrapping in 2007, when I learned I was going to be a grandmother. As I always do when I want to learn about something new, I searched the internet and the library, and that’s when I discovered the whole world of digital scrapbooking. At first I did hybrid scrapbooking, creating and printing sections to paste into the family history scrapbook. By the time my granddaughter was born, I knew I wanted to make a digital scrapbook to document her life and growth. I soon discovered Digital Scrapper and signed up for Premier membership. It was my gift to me and I still enjoy it every month!

Smoky Mountain View:

by BeckiB

Although I began digiscrapping 5 years ago, my initial progress was interrupted for a substantial period of time because serious family matters took my full attention. There were a series of deaths in my family, including both of my parents, my father-in-law, and three favorite uncles, as well as other crises. It isn’t stretching things to say that digital scrapbooking was one of the things that helped me to work through my grief and kept me sane during and after this stressful time in my life. It gave me a creative outlet, helped me to focus my energy on something positive, and to “see” the things in my life that I could still celebrate. It also gave me a way to remember and honor my parents’ lives.

JW:  You’re right, Becki. Creative pursuits can often help us through difficult times, and help us give expression to emotions that are sometimes hard to put into words. What kinds of pages do find yourself scrapping the most?

BB: I most like to scrap pages about my family and events in our lives. Another favorite topic of mine is the special places we’ve been — like like Spain and Italy — or the family places that mean a lot to us, such as the Smoky Mountains. And, since I love to take pictures of flowers and my garden, I like to use those photos on scrapbook pages too. I don’t think I’ve ever tried to do a page on a concept, though I do love inspirational Word Art and like to work that into a page if I can.  Recently I have become more interested in using photographs to create art — the kind that could be framed and not only be put in a scrapbook — though I still like the art to tell a story or include a story.

Magical Florence:

by BeckiB

I guess I’m really a journalist or documentarian at heart. I love both words and pictures. Sometimes I want the words to complement the pictures, and other times I use the pictures to illustrate the words. Maybe that is why I am enjoying the Your Story. Brilliant! Class so much — because both approaches are needed and work well in telling My Story.

JW:  You’ve taken some Digital Scrapper classes, and you’re a Premier member. How have they influenced your designs?

BB: The Premier Lessons are a favorite source of creative inspiration and new scrapping techniques for me. I look forward to the new kit and new lessons every month and love trying them out in my own pages. I love that I can go back to the lessons and review them when I know I want to use one of the techniques on a page.

The Fairy House:

by BeckiB

All the classes I’ve taken have been fun as well as interesting, and have helped me to keep improving my skills, but I think the Easy Page Design class, that I just finished, was my favorite. It is probably the class that has influenced my designs the most. It also encouraged me to do my own designs instead of relying so much on quick pages and templates. Probably what helped me improve the most were the helpful critiques and the opportunity to try out the suggested changes. I also took the Get Organized Now class and in organizing my pictures and scrapbooking supplies, I was reintroduced to the treasure trove of digital photos and scrapbooking kits that I’ve accumulated. And best of all, now I can find them!

JW:  What’s your favorite digiscrapping technique? Is there something you go back to again and again?

BB: My favorite techniques are blending photos into the background and using digitally extracted photos to liven up a page. I especially love the out-of-bounds techniques that make it look like someone or something is coming out of the photo boundaries. And I love, love, love the lessons that teach how to turn a photo into a painting or illustration or something artistic.

Butterfly Watercolor:

by BeckiB

JW:  Is there some particular thing you’d like to learn, but haven’t yet?

BB: I still feel very hesitant and insecure when it comes to using elements to finish off a page. So for that reason, I tend to use very few embellishments. It’s funny, though, some of the pages I love, that I have in my design inspiration folder, are layered with embellishments. I hope this is a skill that will eventually come to me as I practice and continue to create pages.

JW:  What’s your next big scrapbooking goal?

BB: I want to create more pages for the different monthly assignments of the Your Story. Brilliant class to have a nice, printable album at the end of the year. And I’d like to create a beautiful tribute album that honors my parents and their lives. Both of them left wonderful written stories behind, and I have lots of great photos of them, too. I know my children and granddaughter will consider this a family treasure in the years to come.

Butterfly Hopes:

by BeckiB

JW:  What advice would you give to someone who’s just started out with digiscrapping?

BB: First, learn how to use your selected program, starting with how to make your photos look their best. Then, use the internet to explore all the digital scrapbooking sites to get ideas and see what training and kit options are available that would suit you best. Of course, I would recommend the Digital Scrapper Premier membership because that is what worked for me. Then, have fun with the creative process, and practice, practice, practice!

Thanks, Becki, for sharing your story with us! Be sure to stop by Becki’s Gallery to see more of her wonderful work… and while you’re there, don’t forget to leave some love!

-Jan Walker

Also, did you know that Jan Walker’s new class: Creative Inspiration Class starts Friday, May 18th, 2012? Find ways to expand your creative horizons, generate unique layout ideas or beat scrapper’s block. If you sign up by Friday, May 18th, 2012, you will qualify for the BONUS – don’t miss this amazing opportunity!

amscpa’s layout reveals that she has already accomplished most of what she has dreamed of doing. Only two special wishes — to see her great-grandchildren and to visit her sister remain unfinished.

amscpa added her own bucket graphic with some cute curled notes fluttering about. Nicely done, and congratulations, amscpa, on winning the Bucket List Challenge!

amscpa, in the next few days, you will receive a little note from Andrea in your inbox at the Digital Scrapper forum with your $10 gift certificate code. You can use it in the Digital Scrapper Shop towards Photoshop & Photoshop Elements Tutorials, Digital Scrapbooking Kits, or Scrapbook Templates! (Gift Certificate codes cannot be used for existing or future Premier Membership.)

If you’re new to digital scrapbooking and want to learn how to create your own digital scrapbook pages, check out our Learn Digital Scrapbooking class, taught by Adobe’s Official Scrapbooking Expert, Linda Sattgast. You’ll learn the basics and get started designing your own terrific, unique pages in Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop!

What has your mother, aunt, grandmother, or other significant woman in your life always said? We want to hear their famous words you grew up hearing the most. What really stuck with you? It can be light and funny, serious, or anything in between.

Would you like to see what our wonderful Creative Team came up with?

Nann:

by Nann

SharLamb:

by SharLamb

roseb:

by roseb

connieg:

by connieg

Barb:

by Barb

Aren’t these pages just beautiful? I love how unique each of them are, and how different each of these ladies highlighted on these pages are. Our Creative Team have some pretty great moms in their lives! Their pages are so inspiring!

Now, it’s your turn to think of what you’re going to do on your page. We want to see what you come up with about your mom or a mother figure in your life!

Here’s how to join us in this fun challenge:

1. Create your own page with any kit you love and tell us What Mom Always Said (or a mother type figure in your life such as an Aunt, Grandmother, etc.)!

2. Post your individual pages in the Mom Always Said Challenge Gallery.

3. Leave some love on the other pages in the gallery. (Not required but highly encouraged!)

This challenge is open for approximately 2 weeks. It will officially be closed to new entries on the night of May 20th, 2012 at midnight (Pacific Time).

We will announce the winner and post the winning layout here on the Digital Scrapper Blog, our Facebook page, and in our forum within a week of the challenge end date. The winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to our Digital Scrapper Shop that can be used towards Photoshop Elements & Adobe Photoshop Video Tutorials and awesome kits and templates! (Note: Gift Certificate codes cannot be used for existing or future Premier Membership.)

If you’re new to digital scrapbooking and want to learn how to create your own digital scrapbook pages, check out our Learn Digital Scrapbooking class, taught by Adobe’s Official Scrapbooking Expert, Linda Sattgast. You’ll learn the basics and get started designing your own terrific, unique pages in Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop!

Looking for the perfect Mother’s Day cards? Don’t get caught without a card! Check out our newest class taught by Andrea Graves, called Digi Cards 101!

Do you have amazing heritage photos of your mom (or anyone else important to you) that need some doctoring up? Get your photos in tip top condition by taking Linda Sattagast’s newest class called Help for Heritage Photos!

Happy Scrapping!

~Andrea

P.S. Congratulations to our {i}NSD winners who each won a copy of Photoshop Elements 10!

As part of our BIG SEVEN GIVE AWAY, we are giving away one copy of Photoshop Elements 10 each day!

Today is DAY SEVEN! We’re on the LAST day! All you have to do to have a shot at winning is go and sign up for our Digital Scrapper newsletter. After that, head back here and leave ONE comment (comments sometimes take some time before they appear, so please just leave one) on this blog post. If you are already signed up for our Digital Scrapper Newsletter, then come leave a comment and be sure to use the same email address you used to sign up for the newsletter. We don’t sell, rent or give away any personal information from our website. We value our customers!

If you’ve already signed up for our Digital Scrapper Newsletter, please don’t sign up again. Just leave a comment with the same email address you are receiving our Newsletter from.

We will do a random drawing from the comments left on the blog, and then verify if the winner is signed up for our Digital Scrapper Newsletter.

This blog post will only allow entries from 12:01AM EST on May 7th (Monday) until midnight EST. Any entries time stamped after this date will not be included in the random drawing to choose our winner.

When leaving your comment on the blog, please be sure to enter your email address correctly so we can contact you if you win!

Feel free to enter all of our challenges found here: Digital Scrapper 2012 {inter}National Scrapbook Day

WINNERS will be announced May 9th on the blog, forum, weekly email newsletter (if you haven’t signed up, please go do so here — look at the top right hand corner and sign up there), facebook, and twitter.

Normally we would launch a challenge today. Since we are wrapping up our {i}NSD celebration today, we will launch our usual challenge tomorrow, so be sure to check back soon!

(For anyone who doesn’t know what {i}NSD is, it’s {inter}National Scrapbook Day!)

As part of our BIG SEVEN GIVE AWAY, we are giving away one copy of Photoshop Elements 10 each day!

Today is DAY SIX! Isn’t that so awesome? All you have to do to have a shot at winning is go and “like” our Digital Scrapper facebook page. After that, head back here and leave ONE comment (comments sometimes take some time before they appear, so please just leave one) on this blog post. If you have already “liked” our Digital Scrapper facebook page, come back and leave a comment here and you will be good to go!

We will do a random drawing from the comments left on the blog, and then verify if the winner has “liked” our Digital Scrapper facebook page.

This blog post will only allow entries from 12:01AM EST on May 6th (Sunday) until midnight EST. Any entries time stamped after this date will not be included in the random drawing to choose our winner.

When leaving your comment on the blog, please be sure to enter your email address correctly so we can contact you if you win!

Feel free to enter all of our challenges found here: Digital Scrapper 2012 {inter}National Scrapbook Day

WINNERS will be announced May 9th on the blog, forum, weekly email newsletter (if you haven’t signed up, please go do so here — look at the top right hand corner and sign up there), facebook, and twitter.

Be sure to come back Monday for one more chance to win!

As part of our BIG SEVEN GIVE AWAY, we are giving away one copy of Photoshop Elements 10 each day!

Today is DAY FIVE! Isn’t that so awesome? All you have to do to have a shot at winning is leave a comment on this blog saying which of our classes you would most like to take. Don’t know which classes we offer? Check out the Digital Scrapper Classes here. Then, come back and leave ONE comment (comments sometimes take some time before they appear, so please just leave one) on this blog post.

This blog post will only allow entries from 12:01AM EST on May 5th until midnight EST. Any entries time stamped after this date will not be included in the random drawing to choose our winner.

When leaving your comment on the blog, please be sure to enter your email address correctly so we can contact you if you win!

Feel free to enter all of our challenges found here: Digital Scrapper 2012 {inter}National Scrapbook Day

WINNERS will be announced May 9th on the blog, forum, weekly email newsletter (if you haven’t signed up, please go do so here — look at the top right hand corner and sign up there), facebook, and twitter.

Come back tomorrow and Monday for more chances to win!

This is the week to celebrate our hobby – whether you scrap in traditional mediums or digitally or combine the two, we celebrate scrapbooking as a way to be creative, capture our lives in images and words, and create a tangible history lesson for our families.

To celebrate, we’re planning a week long celebration starting Tuesday, May 01 through Monday, May 07, 2012, 7:00 pm Pacific Time.

We have 7 – yes 7 copies of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 bundles to be given away!! You’ll have multiple chances to win!

There are 7 ways you can win one of these awesome prizes. And if you’re already using PSE10 or a PSCS product, feel free to pass this along to someone you know would love to begin scrapping!

And even if you don’t win a prize, you get 3 awesome freebies through the challenges!

Each day, a new challenge or opportunity to win will be posted. You can enter as many times as possible dictated by each thread/posting, but you can only win once.

Tuesday – May 01 – Step It Up Forum Challenge

Wednesday – May 02 – Mix It Up Forum Challenge

Thursday – May 03 – Shape of Your Words Forum Challenge

Friday – May 04 – Word as Art Forum Challenge

Saturday – May 05 – Blog Giveaway

Sunday – May 06 – Blog Giveaway

Monday – May 07 – Blog Giveaway

Wednesday – May 09 – winners contacted

The nitty gritty details:

Enter as often as the challenge allows, but you can only win once. Challenges end May 07, 2012 at 7:00 pm, PDT. Winners will be chosen by a random number generator and announced in the Newsletter. If winner has not contacted us after one week, an alternate winner will be chosen.

Happy {i}NSD! We hope you will join us in this week long celebration!

~Andrea Graves

BB: Tell us about your family, Andrea.

AG: I’ve been married to the love of my life for 19 years. We have three boys ages 14, 9, and 6. Our oldest son is special needs and is very sweet and sociable (in fact he just ran for 9th Grade Officer at his Jr. High School and he WON!) Our other boys love to play sports, so we are at games all the time! We love our boys so much and enjoy spending time together in any way we can!

Brothers:

'Brothers' by Andrea Graves

I’m a PTA mom who loves to volunteer in her kid’s classes and volunteer in church. We keep very busy!

Christmas:

'Christmas' by Andrea Graves

BB: How long have you been Digital Scrapbooking?

AG: I found digital scrapbooking 6 years ago and learned on PSE3. I had a crash course from a friend and stumbled my way through learning it. (I wish I had found DS back then; it would have made learning so much easier and fun!)

Before I found digital scrapbooking, I did traditional scrapbooking for almost 10 years and have created over 800 paper scrapbook pages in 8.5 x 11 and have been published in several magazines.

BB: What teaching have you done?

AG: I have taught hundreds of people Digital Scrapbooking on a local level for the last five years through classes at my city’s recreation program. It has been something I have loved every minute of! My local TV station had me come as a guest on tv to promote my class! I used to also teach card making and have been flown to different states to teach. I have made cards for as long as I have been scrapping, so about 15 years or so!

BB: How long have you been at Digital Scrapper?

AG: I started as a Premier Tutorial Instructor with DS in February of 2009, so it’s been over 3 years now! Then I transitioned into my current roles as the Public Relations Director, Social Media, and now a Class Instructor for the Digi Cards 101 Class— I love working with the people at this company. Everyone is so knowledgeable and awesome to work with!

BB: Are you on Creative Teams?

AG: Yes! I love Creative Teams for digital scrapbook designers. I’m currently on Karah Fredricks & Jacque Larsen’s CT’s at The Lily Pad, Libby Pritchett’s CT at Sweet Shoppe Designs, and Michelle Coleman’s CT at Little Dreamer Designs. I’ve been on many others over the years, including Shabby Princess, Weeds & Wildflowers, Shabby Miss Jenn, etc. I have loved them all! There’s only so much time in the day, right?

BB: Here’s a page of Andrea’s that was featured on the GSO blog in March!

First Two Teeth:

'First Two Teeth' by Andrea Graves

BB: What are a few of your favorite things?

AG: Besides snuggling with my kids… the color pink, zebra print things (as in my phone case and my camera strap), beaches (warm or cold), my Cannon 50D camera, my iMac, chocolate & caramel dipped pretzels, and frozen hot cocoa from Serendipity in NYC!

BB: Other Hobbies?

AG: Photography, reading, scuba diving.

BB: Do you have any pets?

AG: Yes! Two miniature Dachshund dogs! Their names are Buster & Lucy, and they have claimed the hearts of the whole family! They are turning two this week!

Puppies:

'Puppies' by Andrea Graves

BB: Interesting tidbit about Andrea… the majority of her pages have been created while she listens to her favorite music playing on her computer and has a puppy on her lap snuggling!

Check out Andrea’s Digital Scrapper Gallery.

Andrea has her complete gallery at DigiShopTalk — you really should check it out for some more serious eye-candy!

Andrea also has a Facebook page for her Digi Cards 101 Class setup. We would love it if you would go and “like” her page so you can be sure to receive alerts when she has more Digi Card classes coming! I for one can’t wait to start — my days of running to the store for a last minute (expensive) card are so over!

If you sign up for Andrea’s new class called Digi Cards 101 by May 4th at midnight EST,  you will receive FOUR BONUS cards and ONE BONUS template! Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity. Make sure that you’re signed up today!

Thank you, Andrea, for taking the time to share a little bit about yourself and your creative endeavors! It’s been so fun ‘chatting’ with you!

By: Barb Brookbank

Sisters:

by ZhanInd

To start with, the two little girls are so adorable in their pretty dresses! I love that ZhanInd used a close up of them as a focal point. She used Jen White’s tutorial ‘Sunny Rays’ in such a creative way to create a frame around the important part of the layout. It’s all so ‘springy’ and colorful! Well done, ZhanInd!

If you’re new to digital scrapbooking and want to learn how to create your own digital scrapbook pages, check out our Learn Digital Scrapbooking class, taught by Adobe’s Official Scrapbooking Expert, Linda Sattgast. You’ll learn the basics and get started designing your own terrific, unique pages in Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop!

NEW CLASS STARTING!

Digi Cards 101

Did you know we have a new class starting this week? It’s a class called Digi Cards 101 and begins May 2nd! Make sure that you’re signed up today!

The featured kit for the April 2012 Digital Scrapper Premier has a lovely, relaxing kit called Taking Time to Relax, by Eva Kipler. This is a great everyday use kit; you can do so much with it!

Here’s a preview of Taking Time to Relax:

Along with the kit each month, our Premier membership program also comes with a set of templates, and four cool videos. Here’s a short video that will give you a flavor of what Premier members are enjoying this month:

Check out these layouts created by some of our members and pulled from the April 2012 Digital Scrapper Premier Gallery using this month’s Sunny Rays Tutorial by Jen White:

Loretta:

by Loretta

lindar:

by lindar

Gayle:

by Gayle

And this last page by BronE uses the Sunny Rays tutorial by Jen White and also the Today’s Photo, Yesterday’s Postcard tutorial by Jan Walker:

by BronE

The terrific April 2012 videos, kit, and templates will all be in our store eventually, but they’ll never be priced as low as they are right now for Premier members. If you aren’t a Premier member yet, act now and get these wonderful goodies before they go away!

Here’s where to learn more about Digital Scrapper Premier membership.

Current Premier members, be sure sign in and download this month’s goodies now.