Happy Sunday everyone!! I am going to interupt our regularly scheduled blog post to bring you some really exciting news!!   The ScrapMatters Girls are thrilled to be hosting our very first challange!! We love spending time hanging out in our amazing gallery and have found it is so inspiring! Going through all the fabulous layouts posted during the day keeps us up on the trends and we find awesome LO’s to scraplift!! So with this challange we are hoping you will go past the first page of the gallery and discover the inspiration that your fellow ScrapMatters members can provide! (and earn you a MOS point in the process..)

Kelli is our first host and she has some great clues to search for!! Check out all the details here!  The challange was posted late last night and we already have a few entries!! So come join in the fun!

-Amanda (panders77)

Whew, once again it was really hard to choose this week’s LOTW!  I finally decided on Thankful for you by becca1976.

I fell in love with the beautiful photo and her awesome composition. The ornate frame, title work, and shadowing are just amazing! So head on over to the gallery or forum and leave her some love!

-Kelli (Kellig)

1. Your screen name? Your real name? My screen name is y_baros and my real name is Yolanda.

2. What is your main job/career? I am a stay-at-home-mom.

3. Are you married/children/pets? I’ve been married to my wonderful husband since July of 2002. We have 3 beautiful little boys, ages 5, 4 and 8 months old. No pets, but we’d like to get a dog when the boys are older.

4. Where is home for you? Home is a small town in Northeastern Oregon that is famous for its watermelons! I was born and raised here and don’t think I’ll ever move too far away.

5. What are your 3 favorite foods? Oh man. I can only choose 3?! Well then it has to be pizza, baked ziti and my mother-in-law’s chicken cups, in that order. Mmm!

6. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint chocolate chip – hands down!

7. Snacks…Salty or Sweet? Both! I’m weird, so if I’m eating something sweet, I need to have a little bit of something salty to sort of balance it out and vice-versa.

8. Beverage of choice? A Pepsi from one of those fountain dispensers, with lots of ice.

9. What’s your least favorite food? Seafood! Ick.

10. PC or Mac? What program do you use? I’m a PC ) I use Paint Shop Pro Photo XI and I love it!

11. How long have you been digi-scrapping? How did you get started? A couple of years, maybe? I don’t really remember when I started, just that I instantly became addicted once I did! I used to make signature tags and blinkies for others, but when I was introduced to digi-scrap, I found it much more gratifying and a better use of my time because I was creating something for me and my family to treasure. I haven’t looked back since!

12. What was your 1st LO about?My first LO was about my husband and 2 oldest sons.

13. Do you have any other hobbies besides digi-scrapping (are there other hobbies)? I love to read, listen to music, go to concerts with my husband and sporting events with my family and take pictures of my kiddos. I’m a total mamarazzi!

14. What is the most challenging part of scrapbooking for you? Stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying a new style of scrapping. I like my style, but I worry that my LO’s are all beginning to look the same. I like to participate in the GTLO and Tuesday Template challenges to help broaden my horizons and give me that extra push to try something new.

15. What would you like to learn to do (or do better) not related to scrapbooking? Cook! I can cook, but I definitely want to do it better. I admire people who can whip up a great tasting meal with ease. I lack the confidence in my ability, so cooking is such a stressful thing for me. I feel a sense of pride when my family raves over something I make, but the kitchen still scares me.

16. What are your favorite movies/TV shows? My favorite favorite movie is Gone In 60 Seconds, with Nicolas Cage. I could watch that movie over and over again! On TV, I can’t get enough of Sons of Anarchy, Burn Notice and The Office. Good stuff!

17. Describe your “scrapping” environment. Music? TV in the background? Drinks? Snacks? Where? I do all of my scrapping kicked back on the couch with my laptop, my feet up, something to drink and there absolutely HAS to be music playing.

18. If you only had 2 elements to use on a LO, what would they be? Stitches and something sparkly/glittery!

19. Would you like to share a little known fact about you…? I stay in my pajamas all day. Seriously. I’ll take a shower and then put clean pajamas back on. If we go somewhere, I will change out of them, but as soon as I get back home, the PJ’s go back on.

20. Can you tell us a little about your scrappin’ style? I love white space! And clusters. Oh, and layers! And concentrating on one, maybe 2 photos in a layout. I’ve started journaling more on my LO’s and have come to the realization that it’s almost always necessary to include some amount of journaling on them. I hate doing extractions. A lot.

21. Favorite LOs that you have done?
Snuggling Weather

Chicks Dig Scars

Big Bro

Thanks for letting us get to know you better Yolanda! Check out her full gallery here and leave her some love!!

-Amanda (Apatchetear)