Hello everyone!! Today I have a wonderful interview with Connie AKA scullen2!
I asked Connie to tell me a little bit about her life and this is what she said:
I have been happily married to my husband Scott for twelve and a half years. We have a blended family that includes seven ‘kids,’ five of whom are young adults now! We also have a six year old and a four year old. I never expected to have two babies in my 40’s, but it’s been a blast. Sharing the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering with my older daughters when they were teens has been especially rewarding. Our family continues to grow, as we are gaining a son-in-law soon! We’ll have our first wedding this coming May.
Our big family keeps me pretty busy. In addition, I am a physician, with a specialty in Internal Medicine. I spent 12 years practicing primary care, then took several years off when the youngest children were born. I recently returned to work in the Emergency Department of the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I love it! I work a manageable part time schedule and really enjoy my patients and my co-workers. I am also the director of the Youth Ministries Leadership Team at our church.
You certainly keep busy Connie! With everything you have going on, how did you get started in digital scrapbooking? Were you a paper scrapper first? How did you find DD?
I started paper scrapping in the late 1980’s, when my oldest daughter was born. It was nothing like it is today, of course…my ‘process’ then consisted of using rubber cement (!) to stick my 4x6 straight out of the camera prints on plain white pages, which I then wrote on. I had not done much scrapping for several years until 2004, when my daughter Kristin was born. I realized there had been quite a few changes! I absolutely loved patterned papers and all of the fun embellishments! I never intended to go digital…I had a copy of PSE on my computer and hoped to use it for photo editing. One day, I stumbled across a website with classes for PS/PSE designed specifically for scrapping. I signed up for the beginner level, and I was HOOKED. I don’t think I ever made another paper page! In fact, I’ve just recently given all of my paper supplies to a friend.
The classes I took included some DD product downloads, so I had a bit of familiarity with DD, however I didn’t really become involved until about a year ago. I came looking for Jana Morton, who is the daugher in law of a good friend of mine. Once I’d spent a little time here, I was hooked again!
Tell us about your scrapping process. Do you start with papers or photos?
I love both photographs and cool scrapbook products, and certainly I sometimes start pages specifically to use one or the other. More often, I start with an idea or concept…I guess you’d say a ‘story,’ and build a page in an effort to communicate it. I keep a ‘Daytimer’ calendar where I jot down ideas for pages I’d like to do, then look for opportunites to create them from photos I’ve taken or challenges that are presented on the DD blog, for example.
What are your “tools of the trade”? What type of camera do you use, software, favorite lens, anything else you use?
I have a Nikon D60 camera. I love my 50mm/f1.4 lens, especially for indoor shots in the winter! I also love using a long zoom lens outdoors…sitting back and just letting my kids play, capturing them through the camera. I do all my scrapping on my laptop. I end up moving around the house a lot, as I don’t really have a good place to ‘set up shop’ permanently. That makes the laptop great for me. I would really love to have a larger monitor and a nice little spot all my own someday, though! I just upgraded this fall from PSE to CS5. I am sure that I haven’t even scratched the surface of the things I could do with it!
Where do you get your inspiration from for your beautiful pages? Who inspires you?
Concept-wise, I’m inspired by watching my kids and just observing life. Visually, my greatest inspiration is the DD gallery! There are so many artistically and technically talented people here.
If you could only scrap with FIVE products from the store here… what would they be?
Anna Aspnes Light Textured Neutrals, Anna Aspnes LoopDaLoops (any version!), Anna Aspnes Stiched by Anna White (any version), Katie Pertiet Vintage Photo Frames (any version), Pattie Knox Staple Its
Those products are a bit like the foundation/undergarments of a wardrobe. I LOVE adding/using fun patterned papers by Jesse Edwards and Michelle Martin, label and word transfers, magic flares/sparkles/etc and overlays by Anna, zillions of cool embellishments and date accents by Katie, Lynn’s beautiful kits and Ali Edward’s gorgeous word art, too!
Thanks for sharing with us Connie!
Last but not least, I asked her to share a favorite layout with us and she chose this beauty.
Check out the rest of her fab gallery here: Scullen2 Gallery
I’ve always found self expression in writing. I like this layout because it combines writing and visual imagery to communicate something meaningful to me.
Thanks Connie!
