Scrapstreet Interview

ScrapStreet's Blog Bay by Lindsey Krauss

Creative Scrappers It’s all about sketching at Creative Scrappers! I recently interview Kristine, the “it” girl at Creative Scrappers. I’ve known, or at least been following, Creative Scrappers since its inception as a fun little pink blog with a few fun sketches (I got to watch the ticker rise at just incredible numbers, and it’s still going up!) Now a full-blown sketch site and reference area, Creative Scrappers has taken off in numbers, size and, of course, sketches! Creative Scrappers is proud to post sketches from many of the industry’s top sketch artists, and proud to host a busy gallery full of lovely and unique interpretations of these sketches. The rules are that there are no rules in creative sketching, so there’s plenty of inspiration to go around. What is the overall goal/purpose of your blog? The overall goal and purchase of Creative Scrappers is to show scrapbookers that everyone has their own skill and way of scrapbooking. That one sketch can be interpreted in many ways and is also a way for scrapbookers to express themselves in art form. Challenge them, and maybe bring out something in them they didn't know existed. To help scrappers be better and encourage them to be unique! Tell me about your scrapbooking sketches, your site's sketches and artists. How do you find artists and sponsors? The Sketches we use are from different sketch artists. We have a number of them working with us during this 6-month term, including as Allison Cope, Deanne Burton, Cherie Avrill, Jodie Kautzner and many more. A great variety of sketch designers makes for some great pages for our Creative Scrappers! We have a few sketch designers that have been asked personally to join us, and others submitted an application to be on our Sketch Team. We have an amazing list of sponsors for our blog. Each sponsor has submitted a prize package to our site and we use these as prizes for our contests and challenges. Several sponsors have been personally asked to be a part of the group and others have requested! We feature our sponsors on our blog, forum and also in our weekly newsletter. It's a win/win situation for us and for them, as well giving them more exposure for possible sales! How have your personal scrapbooking styles or approaches changed since you started the blog? Since starting the blog, I personally don't find my scrapbook style has changed, but maybe the frequency!!! What made you decide to make the leap to forum and gallery? When the blog was first introduced in April 2008, it was just going to be a blog. As I saw the number of hits growing on the page counter I realized that we needed a place to share all these fabulous ideas and pages from our scrappers. In May 2008 the gallery and forum opened for the members to participate and share their projects. With the help of our Moderators, JJ Sobey, Deanne, Cheryl, Angie and our assistants, Deb and Carol, the forum wouldn't be as fabulous as it is! We always try to have a contest or two per month from our Design Team members and, of course, our famous 1-Hour Layout Contest and weekly Sketch challenges. In our Forum today we have 38493 Posts in 2558 Topics by 1240 Members. Over 71000 visitors on our site, and our gallery stats consist of 5519 files in 495 albums and 14 categories with 17205 comments viewed 65970 times! And to think we've only been active since April 2008! A Fantastic Group of Creative Scrappers! How do you encourage involvement from the scrapbooking community? A few people have asked me how our forum grew so fast. I can only say word of mouth! Posting on blogs, Facebook and, of course, our Creative Blinkies! We spread the word by posting links on our blogs and also on other forums. We like everyone to be involved in our challenges and contests and enjoy new members to come by and share their passion of scrapbooking with us. We give everyone a chance of being rewarded, since most of our contests and challenges are random winners. No one is left out! I think encouragement is done with a positive attitude and making people feel welcome! Feeling welcomed is right, it’s just a sweet place with really nice scrappers and lots of colorful inspiration! In this article, we share one of the current sketches posted at Creative Scrappers; this sketch was created by C-S resident sketch artist, Allison Cope, owner/creator of So Sketchy. This is just one example of the variety of sketches and artists you’ll find at Creative Scrappers; it definitely seems to house some of the best names in sketching around! You can visit Creative Scrappers at their website (www.creative-scrappers.com) and blog (www.creativescrappers.blogspot.com), or email Kristine at kristine@creative-scrappers.com.

Layout By Deb HarterDesign notes: This inspiration is from a Creative Sketch with a large circle as its background. The next time you’re inspired to use a circle, use a circular background paper and let your photos hang off as Deb did on her page.

Bella by Sharon SuchoronczakDesign notes: Using black and white photos against a patterned background helps to maintain the focus on the photos. Noel by Tanya Lamo. Design notes: To give the page a more distressed feel, I sanded and inked all of the page elements. I outlined the die-cut with a black Sharpie. I crinkled and inked the journaling card for an antique feel. I'd like to say " Thank you " to everyone that made this possible! That is to ALL the girls from Creative Scrappers!!! For your time and effort that you put into the site... i couldn't do this without you!