Up next in our series of Getting to Know You Interviews is another one of our dear friends from Australia, Trace (aka Tracermajig)!
Trace, I’m eager to get to know you. please introduce yourself!
Welllll, I have lived in the Sunshine State, Queensland, all of my life. We lived on a farm in pretty much the middle of nowhere until I was 11. I loved living in the country and was a real tomboy. I also still miss it terribly sometimes. When I was 11 we moved to a beach town and that was a real culture shock for me! But I loved it and it soon became home. Mind you, I don’t like swimming in the ocean because I am terrified of sharks.
After finishing high school, I went on to study a degree in Communication and Media Studies. I thought I wanted to be a journalist at the time. I was 17 1/2 when I started Uni, and I made the wrong choice. I don’t regret it though because it’s part of the journey that got me to where I am today. I moved to Brisbane in 2002 for adventure and to find work after Uni and funnily enough, all of my family now live in Brisbane too! As much as I love writing, I have never worked in the field of my study. My first job after Uni was in Freight Forwarding (Imports). It was as far from journalism as you can get but I loved it and did that for 4 years. I met Dylan in 2005 and we have been joined at the hip ever since. I really feel some days we’ve been together a lot longer than 7 years, time flies by! In 2007 I decided it was time for a career change and found myself working for a financial planning company in their client services area. Before I knew it, I was the Team Leader for the contact centre and did that right up until I went on maternity leave in December of 2010.
Lincoln was born in March of 2011 and life took on a new kind of busy. We decided that I wouldn’t return to work for the time being and now I am a SAHM. My days at the moment are spent chasing a busy toddler around and I love it.
Speaking of Lincoln, It’s pretty obvious from your gallery that your number one most favorite scrapping subject is your precious baby boy. You’ve done a marvelous job of telling the events leading up to his birth and his first year of life through your scrapbook pages. I am impressed that most of the time your layouts include a good deal of journaling along with the photo or photos. Does it come quite naturally to you to share the story in words as well as photos?
I am all about the story! I love to write and so the journaling is always my favourite part of the page, and sometimes even the first thing I do. I think as early as I could write, I’ve always journaled to some degree, so journaling on my scrapbook pages is completely natural to me. All of my pages start with the story in mind, and then I go about finding a photo to go with it. And if there’s no accompanying photo, I’ll scrap it anyway. I actually struggle to get a page done if I have a photo and no story. I also love journaling for totally selfish reasons – I have a terrible, terrible memory when it comes to details, so I like to record as much as I can before it’s permanently forgotten.
How do you manage to carve out time in your schedule to keep up with creating scrapbook pages? I’m sure all busy mums (and future mums!) would like to know how you do it!
I sacrifice sleep for scrapbooking! Ha! Scrapbooking is how I wind down, so I tend to scrapbook after Lincoln has gone to bed for the night. I am my own worst enemy though as I don’t like going to bed until I’ve finished what I have started. More often than not that means I am up til midnight or later scrapbooking. If we’re having a quiet day at home I might open something up and work on it here and there throughout the day and finish it up at night. I have a little notebook where I write down journaling prompts as I think of them (usually while doing housework!). When Lincoln was a newborn and we had no schedule and very little time, I would write things down so I didn’t forget the details so I could go back when I had time and scrap it. Already we are finding we are referring back to the early Lincoln pages to check when certain things happened, so I am really glad that I sacrificed a couple of hours sleep here and there to record the memory.
That’s so impressive! I wish I had recorded more of the details throughout my life as you are doing. If you could purchase any new technology or software no matter what the cost, to help you with scrapping, what would it be?
Something on my ultimate wish list is better storage for my stash! I scrap off a 1TB EHD and have 2 back up EHD’s but even with 3 copies of everything I worry one day they might all conspire against me and I’ll lose the lot. In the near future we are upgrading our home network to include some pretty impressive storage which also does an automatic backup on mirrored drives (or so Dylan tells me because I have no clue about these technical things!). I can then leave my EHD’s as backups only and get back to scrapping instead of worrying if today will be the day I lose the lot (again). J I’d also love to upgrade my poor, tired laptop to a Mac but that one will need to stay on the wish list for quite a while longer.
Well, you create wonderful scrapbook pages with your present equipment, Trace. I think we all worry about losing our photos or our scrapbook pages so you are giving us all a good reminder to have back up plans. You know one of our favorite questions to ask is, what are some favorite Designer Digital kits you find you use over and over again.
Ohh this is a hard one because I have so many favourites!! I tend to use Katie’s Hinge Pack and Clean Stitched Borders a lot.
Hinge Pack
Clean Stitched Borders: White No. 02
I love Maplebrook Studios Just Linens papers. I also use a lot of Ali’s word art and Katie’s stamped alphas. When my mojo is on strike I love Studio DD’s Layer Works templates as well to get me going again.
You live in a beautiful country, Trace. I think just about everyone would love to visit Australia. What advice for areas to explore would you give visitors to your country.
Ohh, that’s actually a tough question. I’d have to say see it all! We are really lucky in Australia in that we have something for everyone. From the Great Barrier Reef, to Uluru, beautiful cities and amazing country towns, tropical beaches to snow capped mountains. Each State and Territory is worth seeing for different reasons, they all have their own little gems. My biggest bit of advice though, let me know if you come to Brisbane!
In closing, let’s show everyone a favorite page from your gallery.
My favourite changes all the time, but this is my most recent favourite that I have done.
That is such a sweet layout. Everyone should visit your gallery, Trace, for more excellent scrapbook ideas. Thank you, so much for being in the interview spotlight this week and for what you bring to the Designer Digitals on a regular basis. We appreciate your involvement at DD.
Tracermajig’s Gallery
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I have actually created a category in ACDSee called “365”. Everything that reminds me even remotely of PL will get tagged in there. It has made my life so much easier. I really love all the different pocket cards, sometimes I like to use bright colors, other times I am more in the mood for blending and muted tones. There is something for everybody.
