It's a new month - time for a new guest designer!! This month, we want to introduce you to the talented Linda Auclair! We're excited to feature her projects throughout this month and hope you'll love her as much as we do!
Where do you live? southern New Hampshire
Kids? I have three. My son, Jonathan is 22 and graduated from college in 2009. My girls, Brigid and Aileen are 9 and 7 and are in 4th and 2nd grade, respectively.
How would you describe your style? I like to call it "tidy shabby" - I like clean lines, but I admire the shabby chic look, so I try to combine both artistic styles in my pages.
How long have you been scrapping? I've been scrapping in one form or other since I was a kid. I've always kept "illustrated journals", and am a habitual "clipper" like my Dad - collecting images and snippets of memorabilia. I have been a paper crafter and scrapbooker since I was pregnant with my youngest, so 8 years now.
What's your favorite OA paper line? Oh, that's hard! I'll always have a soft spot for Country Fair, because it was the first, and I adore both Good Cheer and Very Merry - my favorite seasonal collections ever! But I would have to say that my all-time favorite OA is Detours.
What size do you scrapbook? 12x12 mostly, although I am very fond of horizontal 8.5x11 too.
1 page or 2? 1 page most of the time.
Do you make cards? Yes - I love to use up my scraps making cards!
Is your scrap area messy or neat? It's messy when I'm working (boy, is it messy!) but I have to completely clean off my table and put everything away before I can start the next project. Then I mess it all up again!
What camera do you use? I have a Olympus SP-510UZ
What is your favorite OA stamp set? Whichever one I am working with at the moment! lol! I think my favorite right now is Home Sweet Home - I'm in love with little house images right now, and those houses are so adorable.
Your favorite ink? I recently hit a big sale and treated myself to a bunch of Tim Holtz's Distress Inks. For black ink, I like Ranger's Archival black.
Where do you find your inspiration? Everywhere I look! My kids are a constant source of inspiration to me, and I try to keep a notebook in which I jot down conversations and funny things they've said - a lot of those things turn up on a page eventually. I also clip out images with pretty color combinations, cool type or ads with great graphic lines and keep them on hand for when I need a creative jumpstart. Card stores, fabric stores or a quick "color safari" to Target are also great sources of inspiration.
Hand journaling or computer? I used to be a big computer journaler, but find that I have been writing more and more of my journaling by hand this past year. I think my kids will appreciate Mom's handwriting in their books far more than even the prettiest font.
What's your favorite scrapbooking color? Blue.
What's your most-used scrapbook tool (aside from your trimmer)? I think my paper piercer. That little tool is called into service for everything. I use it to peel teeny glue dots off the roll and put them just where I need to, I use it to start the holes for my brads, and for handstitching, and to peel small stickers off their backing, and so much more!
Are you a slow scrapper or a quick scrapper? Depends on the page. Sometimes they go together really quickly, sometimes it takes a little while for all the elements to work.
What's your favorite quote? I have two favorite quotes and they work well as reminders for both my personal life, and my crafting life. The first is from Maya Angelou: "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." and the other is from Joseph Campbell: "Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls."
Give us your favorite tip... My favorite tip is to not be afraid to play with your paper. Some of the most fun and most successful projects I have done have come from just diving into my paper and playing. Don't be afraid to cut it up, work across collections or mix in your own favorite ephemera. It's all good!
Take a look at one of Linda's recent layouts...