Stolen Moments: Spotlighting Christy

Wow, is today really the 7th of December?! Time is moving so fast this year! I think if I blink tomorrow will be Christmas! With time moving so fast it feels like I just introduced you to the December guests too. I better get to introducing our first guest for the month or the time will slip away for me to do that! Without further ado....

Christy

{aka ChristyVW}

I live in West Michigan with my wonderful husband, two beautiful daughters and a small farm of animals! In my life before children and scrapping, I was a mechanical engineer and database developer.

How long have you been scrapping? Have you ever paper scrapped? When did you make the switch to digi and why? I have been scrapping for about 10 years. I paper scrapped a mission trip to India and my oldest daughter's first year album. I switched to digi in the summer of 2007 when I needed to quickly make some pages for an exchange student that was living with us.
What do you feel is your strongest scrapping skill? Your weakest? I think my strongest scrapping skill is journaling. I love to tell a story on the page and for the most part don't feel a page is complete without journaling. My weakest skill? I would have to say I am patterned paper challenged!
What advice would you give someone just starting out digi-scrapping? Just do it! Dive in. Ask questions. Push buttons (in your software). There is always 'un-do'!!
Describe your scrapping "system"... What program do you use? Where do you start first - photos, papers, elements, journaling? Do you always have something in mind when you start, or do you let your creativity guide you? How long does it take you to complete a layout? I scrap in Photoshop CS5. I almost always start my layouts with photos, then title and journaling. If I am doing CT work, the photos are selected based on the product. I usually have something in mind when I start. But, that doesn't mean I always end up where I began! Typical layouts take me anywhere from 1-3 hours.
On average, how much time do you spend scrapping each week? On average, I spend about 5-10 hours a week creating layouts.
Describe your perfect scrapping environment - coffee? soda? music? snacks? My perfect scrapping environment would be total silence! Home alone, no music, no tv, no kids calling 'MOmMy?!!'. LOL! With a nice cup of hot coffee and some calorie free chocolate!! (well, you said describe perfect, right?)
What's your favorite thing to do BESIDES scrapping? Listen to my girls laughter and do things that bring them joy.
What is one thing you would love to do, just so you could scrap it? Go skydiving.
Who inspires you in the scrapping community? Any person or site in particular that you look to for inspiration? I actually find my best inspiration by looking outside the scrapping community. When I look through magazines or layout galleries for inspiration, I end up struggling to create a layout afterwards, out of fear that I will inadvertently copy something I saw!
If you could have Amber create a kit just for you, what colors, theme, etc would it be and why? I think it would be great to make an album about my faith journey and would love a kit containing scripture verses, journaling prompts and other elements relating to my Christian beliefs.

Check out these fun layouts Christy has graciously agreed to share with us shared with us!

First Layout

This is one of my first digital layouts. I made it for my youngest daughters first year album. It is one of the only layouts that I went back and redid later after learning some new composition skills!

Favorite Layouts

One of my favorite layouts - This is actually a very simple layout, but one of my favorites because it reminds me of a great time together as a family and also showcases how far my photography skills have come - something I have worked hard on!