Cluster Queen Creations

It is time for us to get know our resident Cluster Queen! She is the featured designer for the rest of the month and she spent a few minutes telling us about herself. Pull up a chair, I think you will love hearing about Melissa and her scrapping journey just like I did!

“My name is Melissa, I am 36 and live on the Texas Gulf Coast with my boyfriend of 7 years, Brent, our chihuahua Zoe, and our cat Morgan. We live in a cozy (isn’t that just a code word for crowded?) 2-bedroom apartment where Zoe rules the roost. Morgan, bless her heart, is twice the size…but you know cats! They can’t be bothered with a lot of things so she just looks at Zoe like she is a little nuisance and ignores her for the most part! I use our second bedroom for a computer room/office, which is nice, since Brent and I do not watch the same shows on TV very often! I work full-time as a social worker, which is very demanding and also rewarding. I escape into reading and scrapping/designing for stress relief. I did change positions at work about 8 months ago, and it changed my life so positively. I see photos of me now and I look so happy! It is wonderful to have a position I love again. Even though I don’t have any children, I have two beautiful nieces, ages 5 and 3, and a “nephew”, who is almost 6. He is the son of my long-time friend, Chel, who is the blessed soul who introduced me to ScrapMatters and the digi-scrap world, I love her to pieces! <3 I spend weekends working on various scrap related things and visiting family, which includes Chel and her family. My parents live nearby but the rest of the family is in the midwest. I wish I could see them more! I love music and to sing; I also love watching true crime shows on the ID channel, watching the Food Network, and a few reality shows I have been sucked in to I read at least 2-3 hrs. a day, mostly chick-lit mysteries.”

“I began digi-scrapping in the spring of 2009. At that point I had paper-scrapped for 6 years, but my friend Chel wanted to preserve memories of her son Nikolai without the mess. I told her about digi-scrapping, having seen it in my magazines, but it was not until she had been into it for over a year that I became interested. She kept showing me all these gorgeous kits and I was like hey now, I have to know about this! I totally took over her PSE on the weekend for many months (sorry friend!) before getting my own copy of PSE. She was a wonderful tutor and I would have given up without her, I think! I started out scrapping only with templates. I have always loved paper and elements, but as I found my feet, I discovered I loved my pages created from scratch more than anything, since I had my own unique, layery flair. I decided in early 2011 to begin selling templates, since my style is different from others on the market. After about 6 months I wanted to try kit design as well. I was instantly hooked! In the fall of last year I obtained a copy of Photoshop CS4, which is what I currently design and scrap in. It took my designs to a whole new level and am so grateful I was able to get it! I began doodling in kits fairly quickly, as I wanted to have my own unique flair. My doodles are quirky and imperfect, much like me! I get inspiration all around me, but I do draw a lot on real life experiences for my kits. My templates are almost all created from layouts I have scrapped, I can only think of one or two instances where I created a template from scratch. I love that everything I design is truly a part of me and my creative side. ”

Melissa’s layering and clustering style caught my eye in the gallery when I first started scrapping and provides me with inspiration as I develop my style. Here are a couple of her layouts that she did that showcase her style, her designs and her adorable nieces!

I always like to hear how our designers found ScrapMatters and made it their design home.

“As mentioned above, my BFF Chel had made ScrapMatters her go to place and she brought me to here in the spring of 2009. I participated in the Queen of Scrap competition that year and made the top 10. I quickly made ScrapMatters my home store! I made the site CT in late 2009/early 2010 and was on the CT for about a year before I began to design. Even though I started out as a designer somewhere else, ScrapMatters never completely left my heart. The warmth of the community, the support of all the staff, and the awesome customers make me so blessed to be part of ScrapMatters. I have met some of my most dear scrapping friends here and I am so happy to call myself part of the team!”

Here are some layouts Melissa’s creative team and customers have made with her products.

This last layout is made with Melissa’s kit Shattered. Keep reading to find out how you can get it for free!

While Melissa is the featured designer through November 30th, you can get this beautiful kit free with the purchase of $10 in the ScrapMatters store. It is filled with lots of her signature doodles!

Melissa is also providing our blog readers with this coupon: 2ofF54Sm which is good for $2 off $5 or more purchase. Expires 11/30/12. It can’t be used in combination with any other sale or coupon.

You can find The Cluster Queen in her shop, on Facebook, her blog and on Twitter.