Congratulations to Sandy Quail!
Otherwise known as Aussie Q.
Challenge Topic: Use Your Scraps
Here is what the judges had to say about Sandy’s layout:
Judge #1: The bubble wrap is a great way to reinforce the theme of water and the circle of pattern papers gives lovely subtle colour. Everything is well anchored. I like that there is no matte to the central photo.
Judge #2: Lots of bubbly elements here, and the circular piece of bubble wrap is original. I love that she didn’t spread all the colors out in the circle, but allowed them to graduate, like a rainbow. It’s unique. Plus, there is a lot of size and texture variation.
She also set up the photos to give direction–in the main photo, her eyes look toward the top of the vertical photo stream, so you naturally go there. Then, because the stream is vertical, you look down.
Highlighting Sandy Quail
How long have you been scrapbooking?
I became interested in scrapbooking just after I got married, 7 years ago, but really didn’t know where to start. All I knew is that I wanted to do an album for our wedding. It was very overwhelming. I collected A LOT of patterned paper along the way, that I never used, and was intimidated by it. I generally stuck to cardstock or very plain patterned paper.
It wasn’t until maybe 2 years later, when I discovered that some of my friends who had moved closer to me were scrapbookers! I found cropping with them helpful to bounce ideas off them learn together etc. Magazines also helped. I have probably moved forward in my scrapbooking the most in the last 2 years. I had begun to step out of my comfort zone (a little), but couldn’t figure out the reason why my LO’s didn’t finish up looking the way they originally did in my head. I credit most of my new found style to Noell! It was the design principles I was lacking.
How would you describe your style?
I’m still evolving into a ‘style’ as such, but think I might sit somewhere between the ‘Classic and Clean look’ and ‘Shabby Chic’.
What are your favorite colors to scrap with?
I am currently finishing my daughters baby album, so I do have a definite preference towards scrapping with pink. Although, looking through her album, there is a lot of colour in there which surprises me as I was worried her album was going to be a huge sea of pink.
What are your favorite types of products?
My favourite product (if you’re making me choose LOL) would probably be flowers. I use them on most of my LO’s. Next would be ribbon, then chipboard…..oh I could be here all day! I am a new convert to stamps, and I can see me using them alot on my future layouts.
Where can we see more of your layouts?
I have just posted my most recent layouts in my flickr gallery.
And one last thought from our September winner…
One other thing Noell helped inspire me to do is handwrite on my layouts. I have ALWAYS been a computer/printer journaler. Its still a little foreign looking to see my handwriting on there, but I cant remember who it was, but someone said that in years to come whoever looks back at your scrapbooks won’t care about the neatness of the writing, but care that you actually have your handwriting on there. Its a part of who you were. That converted me. Plus I find layouts are completed much quicker.
October’s Challenge
Lesley and I had a great time looking through and discussing (through email) all the entries last week. We can’t wait to see what you submit for October. Lesley has already posted the challenge topics, which she pulled from the past 30′s worth of Paperclipping video tutorials and articles. You can see the new challenge by clicking here. Lesley also posted a fantastic example of a layout that would work for the challenge topic to Focus On You. You can see her gorgeous layout here.
