May Artist of the Month
May’s Artist of the Month is Claudia Harvey, whose username is claudiaharvey. Claudia’s style features lots of patterned papers, neutral backgrounds, and a mix of single and multiphoto designs. Let’s find out a little more about her.
What camera do you use? I use a Canon Rebel T3i, a Nikon Coolpix, and my iPhone 4S. I use my iPhone most of the time because it is always with me; and yes, I will say it… Instagram. My Canon is fairly new and I am still learning the ins and outs; I hope to convert to 100% manual mode some day.
How long have you been digital scrapbooking? I have been digital scrapbooking since September 2011. I fell in love with it from the first layout I made; it fits our lifestyle perfectly.
How would you describe your scrapbook style? Clean and simple. I am trying to incorporate a bit more grunge/brushwork into my LOs; I like that look. I am also a one photo per layout kind of gal… most of the time.
Where do you create, and when? I create on my iMac using PSE and/or CS5, in a little corner of our dining room. Three days a week, I have a couple of hours of “me time”, so I try to get all my layouts done then. I also find myself running back and forth (quite often) between the kitchen and the dining room while cooking dinner to touch up, add a layer, or finish a layout. My four boys keep me busy, but they always give me a great reason to take a picture to scrap later.
What’s your go-to technique or trick? My go-to technique is mask clipping; I am a Photoshop scrapbooker for life because of it. I love creating my own masks/templates or using those I have purchased to show off digital papers.
What’s your favorite color combination? I love color combinations with brown and bright colors like coral, turquoise, orange, pink.
Do you prefer movies or books? Movies. Makes for a great date night or family night. When I get the chance to read, I love books by Nicholas Sparks and John Grisham.
What’s your favorite snack? Homemade trail mix: Trader Joe’s O’s cereal, pistachios, coconut chips, dried berries, and dried mango. That… and Oreos.
What type of music do you like? I have been listening to a lot of country pop lately: Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, Thompson Square to name a few; I also love Casting Crowns and 80′s/soft rock.
If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Florida. During the winter months, when the daytime high is below freezing, my husband and I talk about moving to Florida; another reason is that we love Disney World.
April Artist of the Month
April’s Artist of the Month is Sarah Coggins, whose username is sarah+cali. Sarah’s gallery features layout with multiple photos, neutral backgrounds, and thoughtful embellishments. Let’s find out a little more about her.
What camera do you use? I use 3 cameras. My preferred is my DSLR (Nikon D3100) but it’s not always convenient. I also use a Canon PowerShot A3100IS (it lives in my diaper bag so it’s handy) and my iPhone 3Gs. I use my iPhone the most since it’s almost always in my pocket or close by.
How long have you been digital scrapbooking? I started digital scrapbooking in 2007. At the time I never thought I would be almost 100% digi like I am today. It’s just so much easier (and less messier) now that I’m trying to keep up with my son’s album.
How would you describe your scrapbook style? Fairly clean & simple? I’m not good on describing it! 
My focus is usually on the photos and includes some journaling to help tell the story.
Where do you create, and when? At an old desktop computer (hoping that part changes soon!) in our guest/computer/craft room. Usually during nap time or after my 2.5 year old son has gone to bed in the evenings.
What’s your go-to technique or trick? Templates. The easiest way for me to start and run with a layout whether I create the template or use one from a designer.
What’s your favorite color combination? I’m not sure I have a favorite, but looking through my digital pages, I definitely lean toward a neutral base quite frequently and then add a few colorful papers/accents that match my photos.
Do you prefer movies or books? Books.
What’s your favorite snack? My husband’s homemade Chex Mix and Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M’s. Together or separate.
What type of music do you like? Almost any – just give me a good beat.
If you could live anywhere, where would it be? I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I really like where we live now just on the outskirts of Raleigh, NC. It’s a nice mix of urban and country plus not too far from mine or my husband’s families which is important to me. If anything, I’d just like the beach to be a bit closer! Then it would probably be perfect!
I asked Sarah to share one of her favorite layouts with us. Here’s what she chose, and why: “I love this layout for many reasons. Fall is my favorite season – having both my birthday and anniversary then might partially explain it. I like how the design ended up with a few colorful photos & papers/elements but a nice balance of white space too. Maybe the top reason is simply because it represents a fun afternoon my family spent together. As a stay-at-home mom, my son & I have a lot of adventures just the two of us which I scrapbook, but it’s nice to have some pages of things all three of us did together.”
Thanks again, Sarah, for being part of the DHD family and choosing our site as your home for digital scrapbooking.
Would you like to be an Artist of the Month? It’s simple… post your pages, using DHD products, in the gallery and you could be next!
March Artist of the Month
Let’s give a warm hello to March’s Artist of the Month, Kate Christensen, AKA Kate. Her gallery is filled with beautiful pages that you have to check out (and give some love). Let’s get to know Kate a little bit more!
What camera do you use? I use a point-and-shoot, but I love it. It’s a Fuji Film Finepix S2000HD. I have no idea what any of that means and I barely know how to work it.
How long have you been digital scrapbooking? I have been digital scrapbooking since 2008. My husband gave me Photoshop Elements 6 for my birthday that year. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure it out. But once I did, I was hooked. No. Messes.
How would you describe your scrapbook style? My style is definitely linear. As of today, I have never skewed or tilted a picture. Ever. I hope to grow out of this someday. I also don’t like to go hunting through embellishments to find the photo.
Where do you create, and when? I have a MacBook Pro that is built for speed. I love it. I scrap mostly in the early morning or after the kids go down at night.
What’s your go-to technique or trick? I guess I don’t really have any tricks. I really like PageMaps and scraplifting. I like to go through the galleries for inspiration.
What’s your favorite color combination? I like bright/bold colors. Most of what I have falls into that category. But I think the photos really determine the colors I choose.
Do you prefer movies or books? I like books. Especially Jane Austen. I’m not a movie person at all. They’re too long. It usually takes me a few tries to get through one movie. Except when it’s a Jane Austen movie.
What’s your favorite snack? Favorite snack is chocolate. I also love sugar snap peas and I’ll eat a green pepper like an apple.
What type of music do you like? Music – I’ve been on a Great Big Sea binge for the last few months. I also love Sarah McLachlan, Cake, Patsy Cline, Sheryl Crow, anything alternative – Unwritten Law, Tori Amos, that kind of stuff. I guess I’m all over the place. I also love the real soulful gospel stuff. Got that from my mom. OH! And I love love love Ryan Shupe.
If you could live anywhere, where would it be? If I could live anywhere it would be right here in Upton. We’re just renting right now, but I want to live here forever. Here on the Wasatch Back, up above all the Utah inversion. I love it here. Our nearest neighbors are about 400 feet up the mountain. It’s perfect.
What five adjectives describe you best? Five adjectives – dependable, loyal, more than slightly cynical, adventurous, and I’m super efficient.
I asked Kate to share her favorite LO with me. She had this one to share.
“It’s a scraplift of one of jbarksdale’s and I love how it turned out. I love the colors and I love using progressive photos, but I guess what I love the most are the things I remember when I look at it. That’s why we scrap, right? To remember. I remember how determined he was to get those training wheels off and how he giggled like crazy the whole time he rode around. I remember the neighbors coming over to cheer him on. I remember he sort of crashed-stopped because he didn’t know how to use the brakes yet. The whole page makes me happy.”
February Artist of the Month
January’s Artist of the Month is Ilona Antal, whose username is icka. Her gallery is filled with layouts featuring stunning photos, innovative design, and fabulous artistic touches. Let’s find out a little more about her.
What camera do you use? Canon 400D
How long have you been digital scrapbooking? Since 2007. I take a lot of photos, and I was looking on the net for ways to organize these into albums, that’s how I found digital scrapbooking.
How would you describe your scrapbook style?I was thinking about this a lot in the past, but I found out that this is impossible and I gave up. I make all kinds of pages from minimal design to art journal style. Scrapbooking is an endless adventure for me, I would like to explore all of its areas.
Where do you create, and when? I’m usually getting up very early (4-5 o’clock in the morning), I like the calmness and silence in the house at that time. I have a corner with my PC, I cover myself with a nice warm blanket and sipping my coffee, these are my secret hours, just the scrapbook and me.
What’s your go-to technique or trick? I like those pages which have a nice composition. I’m always after a nice overall effect. I’m always searching for new techniques to try them out on my pages. I change the blending mode for the layers many times, and I like to use alphabets and numbers as decoration.
What’s your favorite color combination? I think that changes all the time. At the moment I’m really into the red-blue combination, with a little bit of black or white.
Do you prefer movies or books? I prefer books, but I do like movies as well. My all time favorite is The Lord of the Rings, I read it every year.
What’s your favorite snack? I’m in trouble, because I live here in Hungary, Europe, and trying to say something everyone is familiar with.:) I love pancakes with sour cherry jam, made by my mother!
What type of music do you like? I had favorites in the past, but now, since I have a 10 year old daughter,!! I’m up-to-date about the recent hits of the divas’, e.g. Rihanna, Beyonce, Adele. But what I’m secretly fond of is Muse.
If you could live anywhere, where would it be? I think my all time favorite is New-Zealand, where all the beautiful landscapes of Earth are to be found in one place, from snowy mountains to beautiful seashores. I would gladly live in Ireland as well, oh those greens everywhere!
What five adjectives describe you best? Tenacious, faithful, dreaming, a little crazy and sometimes impatient. (sorry…)
I asked Ilona to share one of her favorite layouts with me. Here’s what she had to say about Unforgettable Moment, “Above all, I like to capture the everyday moments, feelings with my scrapbook pages. We will remember big happenings for a long time anyway, but we may forget the mood of a summer afternoon quickly. The wind snapping at my daughter’s skirt and the glint of the setting sun on her hair, that’s what I never want to forget!!!”
Congratulations Ilona! Thanks for sharing your talent and enthusiasm with us here at DHD!
Would you like to be an Artist of the Month? It’s simple… post your pages, using DHD products, in the gallery and you could be next!
January Artist of the Month
January’s Artist of the Month is Becca Dickson, whose username is BeccaNicole05. Her gallery is filled with layouts featuring gorgeous photos, stunning color combinations, and fabulous details. Let’s find out a little more about her.
What camera do you use? I use a Canon PowerShot ELPH SD1000 and my iPhone/Instagram (I know, I know!) … I’m still dreaming of owning a Canon Digital Rebel xTi.
How long have you been digital scrapbooking? While I’ve been a scrapbooker for probably 15 years now (I picked up scrapbooking when I was 10); I have only done digital scrapbooking for the last six months. I decided to give digital scrapbooking a go when I started my daughter Selah’s first year scrapbook since I figured it would be faster and more convenient than traditional scrapbooking. I just sent her book off to be printed and 120 pages later (whew!) I am still completely sold on digital scrapbooking. Now if I could only remember to post my layouts to the gallery…
How would you describe your scrapbook style? Clean, lots of white space, embellishment clusters, with a strong focus on the photos and story.
Where do you create, and when? What I love about digital scrapbooking is that it’s portable. I can work at the kitchen table, on the couch, wherever. I usually create in the evenings and weekends while my daughter is sleeping. I use my Macbook and Photoshop CS5 for my layouts.
What’s your go-to technique or trick? The first thing I do when starting a layout is create my own template. Once the blueprint is created and I have an idea of what the final result will look like, the process goes faster from there. It’s so easy to clip papers and photos to the template, then add elements as a finishing touch. And I can go back to the template later and tweak if I want to use it for another page. I’m a sucker for kraft paper, and frequently use shadowing on elements and stitch strips of paper down! I also am a huge fan of typewriter fonts for journaling- I tend to use those a lot.
What’s your favorite color combination? I got so excited when I saw the colors for the January Swatch Challenge … those are my exact favorite colors! I love blue/turquoise, lime green, light green, and a bright purple. I also use a lot of gray with pastels like pink and blue.
Do you prefer movies or books? I’d rather read books, preferably the old, torn ones with the musty library smell But when I don’t have the time to read, I pop in a movie while I’m crafting instead.
What’s your favorite snack? Harvest Cheddar Sunchips, Peanut Butter M&Ms, Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked Ice Cream. Don’t get me wrong, I am an unusually healthy eater; but I love my fair share of comfort foods every once in a while too!
What type of music do you like? I listen to mostly alternative/indie and folk music; sometimes a few oldies – my husband Caleb and I have a record player and a collection of vinyl! My current favorites are Mumford & Sons, Florence + The Machine and Foster the People. Although, my guilty listening pleasure is Lady Gaga. I have 2 of her albums on vinyl. Ha!
If you could live anywhere, where would it be? My husband and I always joke about moving to Florida where the weather is nice and we could hang out by the beach all day. I’m all for it!
What five adjectives describe you best? Creative. Dependable. Motivated. Dedicated. Trustworthy.
I asked Becca to share one of her favorite layouts with me. Here’s what she had to say about Pretty Girl: “I chose this layout because I just adore the bright colors and textures and how they make the photos really pop! The blue circles on the paper and the flower element complement Selah’s eyes and headband so well. I love the elements and photos clustered around the large photo to make it stand out. My friend Heather took the photo and it is one of my favorites – the contrast of Caleb’s tattoo and Selah’s sweet little girl smile are the perfect combination. ”
Congratulations Becca! Thanks for sharing your talent and enthusiasm with us here at DHD!
Would you like to be an Artist of the Month? It’s simple… post your pages, using DHD products, in the gallery and you could be next!
