Scraplift? Yes, Scraplift!

I can’t believe it’s almost 2011! As crazy as the Holidays can be, I look forward to this week of preparing for the New Year. My name is Moanica and I am so delighted to be included on the E:spire design team! I’ve been married 21 years to my high-school sweetheart and we live in Atlanta with our funny rescue dog, Baxter. You will see both of them in my layouts as they are the source of much laughter and joy in my life.

I started scrapbooking over ten years ago and jumped in with both feet. It started as a way to get our travel photos into albums, but has grown to be much more of a source of fun and friendship. Over the years, my style has evolved into something that works well for me. I’m a scraplifter! That means, I gather inspiration from all sorts of places and use it to create my layouts. Sometimes it’s a very “literal” translation and other times, my end product is merely a “loose” translation with some particular elements of the inspiration piece in my layout. Either way, this method of scrapbooking has really freed me up to enjoy the process of choosing photos and playing with papers and embellishments. I love sketches and just browsing online galleries for inspiration. Try it next time you’re stumped for ideas!

I’m looking forward to sharing my layouts and my process with you in the pages of SOC E:spire. If you haven’t signed up for your FREE copy, what are you waiting for? What a great way to start 2011!

A Happy (and safe) New Year to you!

Here is an example of a recent scraplift. This lovely layout entitled “Remember” by the talented Karen Jiles caught my eye in the Scraps of Color Gallery:

And here’s the layout I did. As you can see, because I had horizontal photos instead of vertical ones, I simply turned the layout 90 degrees clockwise, and voila!

Seafeast by Moanica Caston. Supplies Apron Strings Designs July 2010 Smaller than a Breadbox Kit Patterned Paper: Pink Paislee; Cardstock: American Crafts; Chipboard Triangle Banner Pieces & Star: Maya Road; Blue Rhinestones: Queen & Co.; Stickers: Jolee’s; Rhinestone Flourishes: Prima: Alphas: American Crafts Thickers