Introducing Guest Designer Beth Hallgren

We are SO excited to be bringing another Quarterly Guest Designer on board. She is such an amazing talent and we are thrilled to have her join us for the next three months.

How long have you been scrapbooking and how did you get started?

My first experience with scrapbooking was in the late 80's with Creative Memories and I quickly lost interest. In 2006 a friend invited me to a crop at a LSS and I was hooked! It was much more fun to create with paper and embellishments  than cut photos into shapes, glue them to a page and slap on some stickers. Not only was I recording memories but I was meeting new friends and socializing. The perfect trifecta :) Scrapbooking has become something more to me over the years, it relaxes me and fulfills my creative side.

Describe your scrapbooking style.

Traditional, leaning toward shabby chic is how I would define my style. I'm definitely a linear scrapper and find it hard to stray from straight lines. 

Favorite manufacturers and why?

Basic Grey is my all time favorite manufacturer. They have such beautiful, colorful and unusual designs. Some of my other favorites include Bo Bunny, Crate Paper, Echo Park, Imaginisce and Little Yellow Bicycle. I pretty much love them all!

Which scrapbook page designers do you admire or who influence your style?

Two of my very first scrapbook crushes were on Vicki Boutin and Greta Hammond :) I'm also a fan of Kelly Goree and Jana Eubank. They tend to be "traditional" scrappers too. They all scrap with clean lines and add lots of little details.

Which scrapbooking and/or crafty blogs do you follow?

My blog list is huge and includes many of the friends I've made on the Club Creating Keepsakes website. I love following fellow scrappers and I follow pretty much all of the manufacturer blogs too. One of the funniest blogs I follow is www.thistooshallpass.blogspot.com by Shaunte Wadley, she makes me laugh every time I read her blog! 

What other interesting tidbit might our members want to know?

Recently I was invited to be on the design team for a new educational scrapbooking blog called www.thinkingthroughdesign.typepad.com. I met my friend Ericka Hayes through the Club Creating Keepsakes website and she asked me to join her very first team, along with nine other talented ladies. 

We also asked Beth to share some of her favorite layouts with us and to tell us a little about each one. Swoon!

Key to my Heart -- This photo is from my very first "photo shoot" with my daughter and one of my all time favorites. This layout is based on a sketch from The Color Room www.thecolorroom.ning.com, an amazing challenge site. I experimented with embossing powder on the key elements and was pleased with the results.

Girl on the Run -- My daughter had the best time in the Girls on the Run program. I wanted to embellish with a lei, like the ones they wore during the race but the one she had left was too big. Using a flower punch and some floss I was able to recreate a lei and use it as a banner, way before banners were cool :)

If I Could Turn Back Time -- This layout is the first I've ever done about my husband and is filled with emotion. I love it for several reasons. First of all, I'm in love with this paper! It is so thick and textured. I was able to punch flowers and pull the layers apart, showing the white underneath. Second, the colors were perfect. Third and finally, the clock face cut with my Cricut turned out great :)

Catch of the Day -- I have to add one about my son or he'll feel left out! I love how all the elements of this layout just fell into place. The camo paper went beautifully, the fishing pole cut with cricut looks so cute with the twine "line" and the stamped title with the kiss of navy was the icing on the cake! This was a sketch from the now defunct Sketchy Thursdays. 

Beth's clean, linear style is so inspiring to me. I have been admiring her double page layouts for a while now. I can't wait to see more of her work in the gallery! Let's give her a warm TSR welcome!