Interview with Annie

 

Meet Annie aka laughterqueen

 

Hi there!  It’s Joan (jonee) here with my first post on our team blog!   I'm so happy to bring you this interview with Annie (laughterqueen), one of our site Weed gals!  I've long been an admirer of her scrapping talent and now I want to share with you a little more about her. 

 

  We know you’re a fabulous scrapper but tell us a bit about Annie, the person.

I'm a 20-something creative soul who is married to a treasure of a man and is the mommy to a priceless little 2 year old girl. I adore capturing the beauty in this world with either my camera, written word or better yet - BOTH! Which is why scrapbooking & photography is perfect for me. Love to capture everything from the beautiful details in the big stuff to the beautiful details in the normal everyday little stuff. My husband is in the military and we're currently stationed in Germany, so it's been a great opportunity to travel around and experience Europe.

 

How did you get into digital scrapbooking?

I stumbled on it rather accidentally. I was a devoted traditional scrapper for 12 years! I started when I was 13 by using a few Creative Memories supplies from a home party my mom dragged me to...little did I know that the little home party my mom forced me to go to would start my scrapping PASSION! With my limited traditional supplies I created to my hearts content! Once I became a wife and mom I was even more passionate about documenting our lives in albums, but with moving overseas it was impossible to hand carry all my traditional supplies, so while waiting 2 months for our home goods to arrive in Germany I looked online for a way to scrapbook and stumbled on digital scrapping info. I haven't turned back since! My traditional supplies were delivered over a year ago and I haven't touched them. Love how clean and tidy digi-scrapping is! My motto is "Have Macbook, will Scrapbook" HAA!

 

 How would you describe your scrapping style?

I'm a scrapper who's always changing! I love grungy stuff, graphic stuff, simple stuff, busy stuff, so it's hard to wrap up my style in one word, but overall I'd say I love clean designs. Designs that help showcase the photos and not distract from them.

 

What is your favourite thing to scrap about?

My little girl! She is the focus of most of my pages. She is my #1 model for photos and at two years old already knows when she sees my camera to start saying, "Cheese! Cheese! Camera time!" Gosh I've trained her well.

 

What are your "go to" items or what items can’t you live without?

I love frames! I rarely ever create a layout that doesn't include frame(s). Love how they help the photo look finished and also help set it apart from the rest of the layout a bit.

 

What inspires your creativity?

I scour scrapbook galleries for inspiration mostly. I am inspired by something that might seem so small like a color combination or the way someone layered photos and elements and from there I let my own creativity run, usually ending up with a layout that doesn't look anything like my original inspiration, but one that I'm really happy with!

 

Do you have any words of advice for new scrappers?

Don't download every single freebie that comes your way. When I started I downloaded EVERYTHING I could get my hands on, then after about six months my poor computer had no room left and I had to weed through it all. I'd suggest only downloading the freebies that are really your style and finding a few designers who create kits that just really fit with your style and save your pennies for their kits!

 

I got to ask her a few more questions too:

Tell us about any other hobbies or interests.

Photography is my big one! Love, love, love capturing life with my Canon Rebel XTi. I also really enjoy cooking. One of my biggest joys is making a meal my hubby adores, just hearing him enjoy my cooking is such a simple pleasure!

 

What’s your favourite comfort food?

I know this sounds so simple, but I LOVE pimento cheese sandwiches, I was just visiting home and my sweet Mama made them for me and I couldn't get enough of it! It's my favorite simple meal, easy and oh so delicious.

 

What kind of music do you listen to?

I love all kinds of music! There is hardly a genre I don't listen to, I'm a big fan of 80's music and find myself listening to that a lot. I just re-discovered Cher and she's what I'm jamming to at this very moment as I type this out.

 

Do you have any secret wishes or dreams?

I would love to open up a little photography business one day. Still have a lot to learn about photography before I'd be ready to take that leap, but maybe one day!!

 

What do you think you will be doing ten years from now?

Probably living back in the states, busy taking my children back and forth to all their different activities and hopefully still find time to have fun vacation with just me and my hubby (totally our dream to go on a cruise with just the two of us!).

 

         Annie has picked some of her favourite layouts for us.  

Love Life                                     

Discovery

 

Flower Adventure

 

Looking Everywhere

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed getting to know about Annie as much as I did!   Don't  forget to visit her gallery (all her layouts are terrific) and leave her some love!

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and happy scrapping!