Friday, December 02, 2011

On the first of December...

... I began my most favourite class of all! Tiffany Tillman's Holiday template course at ReneePearson.com is now in its third year. All new kits, templates and daily lessons. I have taken all three.

The first class in 2009 was a present to myself. I wasn't used to taking classes online. I had dabbled briefly in digital scrapbooking but preferred paper. My intention was to use the templates for paper scrapbooking. Or maybe do hybrid pages (a term for the type of scrapbooking I tended to do already without knowing it). My photoshop skills were rusty and I hadn't scrapbooked in a while as I'd had my first child that year so I was pleasantly surprised when I fell in love with digital. Mostly I liked that I wasn't making a mess that my daughter could get into.

Once I took that course, there was no going back. Since then, I've taken most of Tiffany's classes. I've learned so much from her. Plus, in searching for Christmas kits to use in my first template class I found a designer I loved and did a google search on her. That is how I found CatScrap. Months later during a summer template class I got the nerve to post one of my layouts in the CatScrap challenges and got noticed for a BOB (Best of the Best) nomination. I was all psyched to try and get that honour but before it could be decided if I'd won, I had applied to the creative team and got a placement. That was exhilarating and intimidating. I hadn't spent much time online or in galleries since before my daughter was born. Even then, I never posted.

As an artistic person in general, I had always imagined how great it would be to create my own kits. I had no idea how to approach that so I was happy enough just to be part of a creative team at such a talented stop. I had some fun spots as a guest on creative teams, and on Log Your Memory. Then one day I couldn't help myself and started to design a kit. That's how I became a CatScrap designer. I've met some amazingly talented and kind women in this community: Scrapbookers, bloggers, artists, designers and educators. So much is available at our fingertips if we are open to learning. I'm so excited to see what the future brings. Although I have to admit I am struggling to balance kids (#1 priority), design and sleep. Sleep is really lacking and unfortunately it really does affect the other two priorities.

All this ramble just to say that it has been a busy year and I am so excited that December is upon us and I can take some "me" time to document our holiday season. I love Christmas and enjoy sharing all the magic of the season with my family. I am going to share with you my layouts made this month. I'm also trying to get some design work finished up too... so make sure to check CatScrap and my other blog www.mellybirddesigns.com to see what I'm up to there. Leave a meaningful (or even just friendly) comment on any of my posts here and maybe I'll share a coupon with you (make sure to leave a way for me to contact you).

Here is my first layout (it's a 2-pager) which is something I rarely do:


Credits:
Holiday Template #1 - Tiffany Tillman (Simply Tiffany Studios)
Everybody loves Christmas papers and elements - Echo Park
These moments at Christmas - Elle's Studio
Jolly Golly Candy little alpha - Cosmo Cricket
Oh Joy - Cosmo Cricket 


2 comments:

Bre said...

LOVE those layouts! What kit did you use? I think I need it!

MellyBird said...

Excellent question, Bre! I've just added the credits below the photo.

In the next few days I'm adding several more layouts... I'll be sure to put the credits. :)