Introducing Our Featured Artist for July 2!

Can you believe it is already July? June totally flew by!!
Today I am sharing another super talented featured artist. I just went to check out her blog again before I started to write this and wanted to mention that I love the way she uses multi-photos on her pages! She also uses color so well on her pages and cards. Totally inspired by her work! You just must see her blog: http://www.mjarphotos.blogspot.com/ . I think you will really enjoy her post today, so get ready to be inspired! Let's learn more about our artist, Melanie J.!


Growing up I always kept souvenirs and pictures in the big yellow-paged scrapbooks. When I got married, my sister gave me a Creative Memories album. I resisted getting into the trend of "photo-safe" scrapbooking, cropping photos, adding stickers and patterned paper. All I wanted was to put my photos on the page and journal the story. But five years later when our first child was born (sound familiar?) I had a friend gently encourage me to preserve her memories in a scrapbook--with all the fixings. At that point, all of the patterned papers, stickers, die cuts, and decorative scissors called to me. And so it began. That was over 10 years ago and I must say, today I'm slightly obsessed with scrapbooking :)

I'm a SAHM to five amazing kids. Two girls--10 and 8, and three boys--6, 4, and 1. Life is busy! I also teach piano lessons after school each day. We lived in the beautiful state of Washington. My DH is awesome and I'm so thankful he loves to cook because we'd just eat spaghetti, burritos, and pizza otherwise. As a family, we enjoy playing outside, going for adventures around the area, board games, dancing together, and reading. My family is the main subject of my scrapbooks. The kids have fun using my supplies and scrapping alongside me. I don't have as much time as I'd like to work on projects each day, but I fit it in when everything else is taken care of (usually that means late at night). Because my time is limited, I love using monthly kit clubs so the products are already coordinated for me. Using sketches and templates, like here on Ideas for Scrapbookers, often inspires me (especially after a long day).

Currently, I am the design team coordinator for Hip 2-b Square Scrapbooking monthly kit club. I love working with the latest and greatest products. My style is clean and linear. And I love adding in a circular element here or there. Journaling is super important to me, and if it's not on the front of my page it is included on the back. I'm really excited to be published in print later this year for the first time--using a template that Pam provided here on her blog! How cool is that?!

Huge thanks to Pam for giving me this opportunity to share a project on her blog. She is the greatest! I love coming here everyday to see what new ideas she and her contributing artists have to show. Thanks, Pam! :)

If you haven't yet, check out her fun blog: http://www.mjarphotos.blogspot.com/

In just a bit I will post her blog posting, so check back ;) ;)