Welcome Guest Designer, Brenda Ragsdale!

Please join me in welcoming our newest Guest Designer to The ScrapRoom's Design Team - Brenda Ragsdale! Brenda is a long-time scrapbooker and has been a TSR member since 2012. Brenda is committed to preserving her family's memories and she encourages others to do the same through her sketch challenge blog, Scrap Your Stash, at www.scrapyourstash.blogspot.com. I am excited to bring feature her work in our Idea Gallery for the next few months. Welcome Brenda!

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

I first started scrapbooking at the end of 2006.  My granddaughter and I spent 6 weeks on summer vacation, and I wanted to preserve the wonderful memories we had together, so I completed my first album for her of our summer vacation. I did not have the opportunity to scrap much for awhile after that because I live on the East coast and had to travel every three to four weeks to the West coast to take care of my mother. But I was able to come back to it in 2010, and even if I do not complete a layout a day, I do something EVERY DAY that has something to do with scrapbooking!

Describe your scrapbooking style:

I'm not exactly sure how to characterize my style, but I love clean lines and layering! When I use paints, inks, etc., I only use a small amount because I think I might “mess up” my layout!  

Favorite manufacturers and why?

There are so many!  Echo Park is one of my favorites because I do a lot of boy pages, and I love their boy collections. Another favorite manufacturer is Simple Stories. I love the wonderful colors, and when using their collections, I can create a great layout much quicker than I can with other collections. My Mind’s Eye is also another favorite of mine - for two reasons - they offer great paper collections for scrappin' photos of my granddaughter, and I also love all of the different embellishments that you can purchase to coordinate with each collection. 

 

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

There are so many fabulous page designers out there, but one person I have admired for a long time is Piradee Talvanna!  I love her work!  Two others that also come to mind are Luz Maria Bruna  and Tracey Sabella.

Which scrapbooking and/or crafty blogs do you follow?

There are so many awesome sites that I follow, but to keep from spending so much time on the computer, I usually only get to the long list of sketch sites that I follow, and I think I follow them all….love sketches!!!

Any other tidbits our members want to know?

I am a happily single mother of two adult sons, and a grandmother to two adorable grandsons and two beautiful granddaughters. My favorite subjects to scrap are my grandchildren and my great nieces and nephews. I wished I would have started scrapping years ago because for me, it is the most awesome way to preserve and share the day to day memories of your family!