Gillian's Spotlight

Good morning!  It's Kelly here with a great interview from our wonderful November Guest Designer, Gillian Nelson.  G has been one of my favorite scrappers for quite a while now.  Nobody documents life in a colorful, creative, funny, and touching way like she does.  It's an honor to have her layouts in the Design Team Gallery this month... be sure to check them out right here.

Here's a little Q+A I had with Gillian...
When did you start scrapbooking? I've kept a scrapbook since grade school, so I've always been drawn to the idea.  Keeping mementos and jotting down memories.  But I didn't discover scrapbooking as an obsession a hobby until I was pregnant with my oldest kiddo.  1998.  Holy cow.  12 years ago.  Oy.

Where do you find your inspiration?  I find inspiration literally everywhere.  From typeface styles on billboards to magazine ads to blogs to fashion...not to mention the SC gallery.  :)  Most of the time, tho', I find myself building a page around an element or story within the photo.  I don't always succeed, but I really try to keep the pages very photocentric.  (Is that a word?  Can we pretend that it is?  It kinda makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about.)

What's your favorite thing about this hobby?  The people.  No question.  Scrapbookers are a unique breed of passionate, loving people.  We love our families fiercely, we love this hobby fiercely, and its amazing to me how people who live on opposite sides of the world can come together in a virtual forum and be a source of support for others that they've never even met.  I've been fortunate enough to have personally met some very dear friends because of scrapbooking.  And I have other very dear friends that I've not yet had the fortune of actually meeting.  But we're friends, nonetheless.  That's just cool.

What do you like to focus on when you scrapbook?  I. Love. Journaling.  I've always enjoyed writing and telling stories, so I tend to focus on journaling most of the time.  It's not always a long, drawn-out amount.  Sometimes it's as short as a sentence or two.  But the journaling is the most important part to me.  I want my kids to not only see their photos, but to know what I was thinking as I saw them.  And I want to journal in a way that they can "hear" me talking to them as they read it.  I write like I speak.  Grammar and spelling be hanged.  I is what I is.  And pages where I don't have a specific thing to say about the photo tend to be the toughest for me to create.  I need to have the story in my head before the rest can fall into place.

Besides scrapbooking, what other things do you like to do in your spare time?  Spare time...what is this "spare time" of which you speak?  I keep pretty busy with the kids and volunteering at school and whatnot, so I don't have a lot of time to spare, but my friends and I try to carve out a spot now and then where we can hang out and relax...maybe watch a movie...maybe go shopping.  Just enjoy some grown-up time together.  I like to kick it with my sister, too.  She keeps me sane.  (Or does the best she can.  It's a pretty overwhelming job.)  During down times when I'm not shuttling kids here, there, and everywhere, I also enjoy knitting and reading.  I love cookbooks and thefoodnetwork.com, but hate to actually cook.  Go figure.  And I love camping with the family, though admittedly, we haven't gone nearly as much in the past couple of years as we used to.  I do miss getting my grunge on.

What are five fun facts about yourself?
1. I was once electrocuted on one of those carousel-type horse rides outside a grocery store.  You know...the kind you put a quarter in and rock back and forth for 30 seconds?  Yeah.  ZAP.  The only thing I remember about the incident is the bouncing, side-ways view of the world as my mom carried me under one of her arms as she ran frantically through the store, yelling for someone to call an ambulance.  This was before the age of cell phones.  Like 20 A.D.  Or thereabouts.

2.  I'm afraid of escalators.  I had a dream once that my shoelace got stuck, and, well...  I don't like escalators. 

3.  I attended the University of Arizona for 2 years, before transferring to ASU for a boy.  I graduated from ASU (and also the boy, thank goodness), but I left my heart at the U of A.  So I routinely and vehemently cheer against my alma mater.  BEAR DOWN, Wildcats!

4.  I have a terrible time coming up with even 3 interesting facts about me, much less five.

5.  When I was young, I wanted so badly to change my name to Debbie.  It was miserable growing up with a name like Gillian.  Do you know how many "little buddy" jokes I've heard in my lifetime?  Enough to fill a hundred 3-hour tours, I assure you.  Debbie was so pretty.  Debbie was simple.  There weren't any TV theme songs about a fictional boy character named Debbie.  I like my name now that I'm older and wiser, but man, did I envy you Debbies out there.  Lucky ducks.

I also asked Gillian to share her favorite photo of herself... she's just so darn cute!

And she also whipped up this perfect layout using the Elementary line...

Sigh.  It's just so easy to be a member of the Gillian Nelson fan club.  Thanks for being an amazing Guest Designer, G!

Comments

[nikki7]

She is adorable!!

[Beth Ann]

It's official - I have a scrap-crush on G. Great interview and I love all your pages and stories, Gillian!

[jamie long]

Love you g

[Debbie]

lovely GD spotlight !~ THIS debbie would've traded names with you in a heartbeat. i had 3 good friends throughout school named......Debbie.

[jackie r.]

absolutely lovin' gillians handwriting! id definitely do a lot more journaling if i had handwriting like hers! :)

[ShellyJ]

I just adore G's humor :)

[DonnaBryantDurand]

G rocks.

[melanie]

Oh, I love G, and her work is amazing. You should really snatch her up- she's perfect for SC- PERFECT!

[Kathleen Glossop]

This is gorgeous!! Love your handwriting, and the cluster bottom right, perfect :)

[Debbi Tehrani]

So happy you were the Guest Designer. Your pages are amazing. Every single one of them! You are just so creative beyond words!