Hi Everyone - Lowri here again! Today we are meeting Lindsey March. Lindsey lives in Tauranga and is inspired by her three adorable grand daughters.  She has a wealth of crafting knowledge  and loves the way that scrapbooking is a brilliant way to combine her love of taking photos and her desire to tell her family's stories.


How were you introduced to scrapbooking?
A relative I visited in Australia. I think I had already tried to make some layouts myself using magazines as inspiration but supplies weren't readily available at the time in the UK. I visited some of my relative's local scrapbooking shops and was totally hooked.

What inspires you for layouts, projects, cards?
Oh my goodness. Inspiration comes from everywhere. Unfortunately I do have to write stuff down immediately or it floats in through one ear and out through the other. Photos, of course, and the related story can get my brain whirring just as I am trying to go off to sleep. Some new papers will have me reaching for the photos to see what matches. Sketches - man, how those things can get the creative juices flowing!

What other project types do you like to work on besides scrapbook pages?
I got into making cards about a year ago I guess. This started because of all the scraps which were left after I'd finished a layout. There's no way I can throw away perfectly good scraps so my thoughts turned to cards. I've also made a couple of altered books. They are quite weird little things. Maybe I will show them to you some time ... ...

What is your favourite scrapbook brand?
For flowers: Prima (so many colours, so much variety, just so absolutely mouth-wateringly "for pity's sake somebody take this credit card out of my hand" gorgeousness).
For rubons: Kaisercraft (so easy to use).
Papers: Hmmm - newly discovered (to me) Echo Park and Jillibean Soup if I am after "colourful". Basic Grey if I want something a bit more subdued.

What scrapbooking tools/products can you not do without?
Just the basics - a self-healing mat; a good quality see-through ruler with a metal edge (like the one Tim Holtz does - genius that man); and a craft knife that's comfortable to use. I have given up with cutters. I think I have four, no actually I think it's five. Anyway, I can't seem to cut a straight line with them. And besides, they take up too much room in the bag if I'm off somewhere else for a spot of nattering and eating and gossiping (er - I mean scrapbooking - darn it!).

What is your current favourite technique or embellishment?
My daughter bought me an old portable typewriter for my birthday last year. Once I had sourced a new ribbon for it, I never looked back. I also really like the rosette flowers that you can make with the Tim Holtz die. I have also rediscovered brads. Why do I have so many? Why haven't I used them before?

What do you hope to try or improve on this year?
I would really like to use some of my STASH!!! And I really really need to tidy up my scrapbooking room. It's getting increasingly difficult to actually walk across the floor.

What advice can you give to people just beginning to enjoy scrapbooking?
No. 1: Don't ever expect to have any spare money ever again.
No. 2: You will never be bored or lost for something to do ever again.
No. 3: However much room you think you will need to store all these goodies at the moment, you might as well multiply it by (oh - let's see) ten? maybe fifteen? Anyway, tell everybody who used to expect to come and stay with you occasionally that you've sold the spare bed because that room is now dedicated to scrapbooking. Yippee!
No. 4: You are gonna make a lot of new friends

Do you have a blog?
A what?????

Can you share three of your favourite projects and tell us a little about them?

"6 Personality Traits" This just cracks me up. My granddaughter wanted me to take photos of her in the garden with the new "Minnie Mouse" Skirt I had made her. She was on her scooter but stood still for a few minutes so that I could take the photos when I suddenly realised that she had no knickers on! When she knew that I had spotted this, she just went into fits of laughter and flicked up the back of the skirt and flashed her lovely chubbly bum at me. Absolutely typically "cheeky" of her and demonstrates her fantastic personality and sense of fun. So I guess it's more about the memories than the actual layout itself.

"Sing Star" Difficult to know what it's one of my favourites. I liked the red polka dot bow which was supposed to match the bow on her head (on her Minnie Mouse ears). I just think it's cute.

"Ten Days To Go" I really like this one. It started out as "not very promising". Just a few bits of odd paper left over from something else. I had actually made the basic layout months before without even having any photos in mind and just tucked it into a "work in progress" file. Then I remembered these photos of my daughter in the final few days of her pregnancy. She had horrendous morning sickness (for the third time) and had just been constantly ill practically from the first month. With two other little girls to care for, she really struggled all the way through. This was the best we had seen her for nine months and it was just such a joyous picture, it had to go on orange papers! The cluster came together really quickly (probably because I'd just done the Nic Howard Big Picture Workshop and it was fresh in my mind). Also I was really pleased with myself because I got the Number 10 on the Tim Holtz tape measure just in the right place to fit in with the title for the layout. Yep, so definitely this was one of my favourites.

Here is some more FABULOUS work from Lindsey - we are so excited to have her working with us.






Thanks Lindsey. We can't wait to see what you will come up with over the next year!