Member Spotlight!

This week's member spotlight is on Gillian Nelson aka Just G.
Her latest addition to the gallery instantly made me want to drop every thing and scrap.

I asked Gillian a few questions so we could get a feel of how she creates her simple yet detailed layouts.

What 3 items can you not live without?
Three scrapbook items I can't live without are kraft cardstock, American Crafts brads, and my paper piercer. Thrilling, I know. But I use these items on probably 80% of my layouts. And if I'm scrapping away from my home and I don't have my box of brads? I get cranky. It's not pretty.

What's inspiring you right now?
I'm currently finding inspiration predominantly from my photos. Lately, if I look at a photo, and a story or thought about it immediately comes to mind, the page usually comes together pretty quickly. If I don't get a strong vibe from the photo, it becomes a more frustrating process. But then I turn to the ever-inspiring gallery at SC. :) It never fails to help move me along.

What's you favorite Studio Calico kit?
My favorite Studio Calico kit? It's a tie between Garment District and Fountain Square. They're a wee bit jealous of one another, but we're working through it.

What are you listening to right now?
As I type this, I'm actually listening to HGTV. I'm addicted to it. Can't get enough of any show about buying houses, selling houses, renovating houses, decorating houses or landscaping houses (er, yards). It's an illness, truly. When I'm listening to music, however, lately I've been using Pandora and switching between the Frank Sinatra and the Green Day channels. I'm a girl of many moods. :)

Guilty pleasure?
Probably my biggest guilty pleasure is reading the Stephanie Plum novels. They're ridiculous and formulaic and a bit predictable, but dangit, they're FUN! I laugh out loud all the time while reading these gems. (Lula's a nut. She's priceless. Truly.) I typically reach for one of these after I finish a particularly heavy read. It's like an after-dinner mint to help cleanse the palate. ;) I'm on #14 right now, and I think the series only goes to 16 so far, so I'm bummed to be almost caught up. Looks like I'll need to find another guilty pleasure series soon. Any recommendations?

Choose a layout that best represents you as a scrapbooker.
I had a hard time choosing one layout that best represents my style, because I don't really know how to categorize my style, per se. I decided on "[only not]", because it's a journaling-centric page, and when I look through my albums, I find that I most enjoy the pages when I've done more journaling. I love story-telling. I'd kind of like to be a writer when I grow up, so writing about my kiddos and my husband and my follies is a lot of fun for me, and one of the things that drew me to scrapbooking in the first place. I used to do a lot more journaling. I need to get back to that again. I want my kids to know their stories. It'll help if they're actually written down for them, now won't it? (Besides, Sean's freckles in the photo on "[only not]" are BEYOND cute. Just sayin'. My humble opinion and all.)

Be sure to browse the rest of Gillian's fun and creative layouts in the Studio Calico gallery.
Surely you'll have a spark of inspiration like I did.
Thanks Gillian!