Sunday Spotlight – SMG Member: Michelle (msbrad)

Today we get to learn a little bit more about Michelle (msbrad).  You may see her in the welcome threads, commenting on your layouts or just being chatty in the forums.  She is one of our lovely ScrapMatters Girls!

1. Name/username? msbrad. Real name Michelle but I also answer to michi or m

2. What does “family” mean to you? Family means the world to me. It is the reason I am so driven to take pics, scrap and preserve the memories. Will you share with us about yours? Married to Bill [30 years]. 2 daughters/Sons in law. 2 grandsons-one almost age 8 and the other…almost here!

3. What is your favorite aspect of being a ScrapMatters Girl at SM? Leaving love and gaining inspiration in the gallery. I enjoy viewing the pages members post. I’m getting pretty good at recognizing their family members too.

3. How much do you add to your “wish list” while commenting in the gallery? PLEASE…don’t tell DH… a lot When I ‘view’ a LO- my mind triggers to photos I have and how I might be able to utilize the kit for me.

4. What would you say your scrapping style is? Toss a wet sponge at a wall—and you have it! Seriously, I’m all over the place. It depends on the feel I want for the page. Often I create with intent for a ‘book’ to be printed. That has a different ‘feel’ to me than a single LO framed. I am not a big fan of whitespace or the super artsy pages, because I’m telling a real life story and I like big pictures.

5. Is there a method to organizing your digital content? Yes- it is really good, IF it was up to date If so, what? On the hard drive: digi stuff> folder per designer> folder per each of her kits. Collabs are kept in a folder by the site name.  I try my best to keep up with ACDSee but I’m a bit behind.

6. How did you get started in digital scrapbooking?  I could “star” on a digi comedy hour with my bloopers. I’ve always been a paper scrapper and I wanted “different” titles etc. We also had PSE…I think 2 but I did not understand the program [if it even had a number]. I would print out “stuff” and add them to my paper scrap pages, because I couldn’t “find” the layers…  Bill bought a program called “journaling genie” . My first program! Totally did not get it. Somehow I discovered a site [now called elements village.] That site is extremely helpful to my learning the program. Now, I say learning the program for a reason- because at that time, digi kits really did not exist! Believe it or not, all the young and ‘new-ish’ out there- one had to create everything from a tutorial, and I mean everything.
7. What is one thing you know now you WISH you had known when you first started scrapping digitally? As stated above- I was a paper scrapper. Paper scraping is “consumable”. I did not ‘get’ one could use the papers and elements over and over. SO- I deleted and bought them again, and again… I did not understand how alphas only had one letter each!

8. Any helpful tips/tricks/shortcuts you’d be willing to share with us? (include program if applicable and this can be about scrapping, organizing or tuts) Oh Wow- this is a tough one!  I’m mostly an Adobe Gal [I have: pse- 2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10 and CS 5 along with Lightroom.] although I also have PSP x3. A couple of my favorite program scrapping tips- ctrl+’ [or cmd+’ on mac] gives you the grid overlay. With the move tool active, Ctrl/cmd and click in the workspace the element of choice and it will take you to the active layer in the layers palette [in case you lost what it is named]

9. Do you have a specific scrapping project you are working on right now? YES!? I am working on “The Story of Me”. This is a book about Peanut [my not yet born grandson. He will arrive this next week. And I am still working on 4^th of July pics and others for albums.

10. What types of photos do you enjoy taking most? (family, scenery, action, etc.) ALL. I’m not perfect at any but love to practice and capture the moment.

11. Where would your dream vacation be? Wow- I’ve have 2 thus far. One to Europe [Italy and France, 2000]. One to Canada via train and continued with a cruise in Alaska[2007]. I would love to visit Hawaii and Australia.

12. What’s your least favorite household chore? Folding socks! Socks should be disposable

13. What did you want to be when you grew up? A Teacher. And I am one. Starting year 39, come fall. I love teaching newbies digi scrapping too.

14. What’s for dinner tonight? Prime Time! Our favorite Friday nite hang out, about 1.5 miles away. We both had a burger roll up [mine gluten free]

15. Describe your perfect: [house, career, day with no kids] – just pick one. =) We are empty nesters, officially. I’m happy at home, love the teaching job I still have.

16. If a magic fairy could come and grant you ONE wish…..what would it be?? It would be the lyrics come true to: Jim Croce’s- If I could spend time in a bottle…with my husband and family.

17.  Show us your current favorite layout. =)

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Michelle!  See you next week as we get to know another SM Member!

Lisa (kelseyll)

Tags: Sunday Spotlight

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2012 at 2:02 am and is filed under Sunday Spotlight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.