The Blog

1. Tell us a little about yourself and answer this question - What is a Poppet®?

I am an artist, author and illustrator. I create custom artworks for clients using photos of their heads combined with my retro whimsical style of collage. I live in Washington DC with my husband Paul and our pets!

A Poppet® is my retro whimsical style of making art. I began creating the Poppet® artworks in 2002 after a long dry spell in my art making. I was stuck and wanted to try something new. After about a year of experimentation, and finally, a break through the creative block, I arrived at the Poppet® style of collage.
I decided that these new works needed a name and I wanted the name to be a little silly and unusual.

My English grandmother used to use the word “poppet” as a term of endearment saying to me “don’t worry little poppet everything is going to be OK.” And since these artworks make me feel happy, safe and young — the name fit perfectly.

This new way of working, beckoned me back into the creative process and the thrill of creating simply for fun.

2. What inspires your art?

I am inspired by so many things, folk art, retro magazine ads, color palettes, just about anything can be a source of inspiration.

3. Why did you want to bring your art to Scrapblog?

I wanted to bring my art to Scrapblog so that people could play in my whimsical world

4. What do you love the most about Scrapblog?

I love that you can make and share your creations virtually but if you want to you can have them printed too!!

5. Who is going to win American Idol this season?

I haven’t been watching - I only like to watch at the beginning of the season where they show all the really bad people

6. Finish this sentence “I can’t live without…”

making art!

7. What makes you laugh?

usually I end up laughing at myself

8. What’s the one thing you are looking forward to this summer?

Not having to wear a big puffy jacket just to go outside!

9. Is your craft room organized or unorganized?

it is semi organized. i work in a small space so I have to keep it somewhat tidy. but I have bins for my papers and in the bins the papers are just thrown in and not neatly put away, so it’s organized chaos!

10. Why is scrapbooking important?

to preserve your memories, a diary of you life and to be creative!!!

11. Do you like jelly beans?

Yes but not the black licorice flavored ones!! I hate black licorice!

Click here to see all of Claudine’s whimsical stickers!

Hi all,

My name is Nick Branstator, and I’m Scrapblog’s newest employee.  I’m here as the new Director of Marketing, which is one of those scary titles that just means we want to figure out more and better ways of communicating with you.  Better communication means that we learn more and so do you, which is good for everybody.  And yeah, I’m oversimplifying vastly (if I weren’t, the company wouldn’t need me, right?  And then I would be a sad panda :(  ), but the core truth is there.

Anyway, I figured the best way to introduce myself was to make a Scrapblog!  So here it is, in all its (admittedly modest) glory…

I mean what I say in here:  the more we hear from you, the better.  We’re listening!

- Nick

Dustin & Katie. She’s a scrapbooker, he’s a bit messy. They are in love. Together, they climb mountains, they cheer on their football team, and they are just really adorable. How do I know all this? Dustin created a Scrapblog for Katie. This year’s Valentine’s Day was destined to be extra special. With a little help from Scrapblog, Dustin’s photobook will be something they will talk about for the rest of their lives.

Thank you Katie & Dustin for letting us be part of your engagement. To show the happy couple some love, click here.

We’re pleased to profile Kaeli, also known as Meetkatiebrown.

1. Give us a little bit more info about yourself (where are you from, work, school, family, hobbies etc…)

I live just outside of Portland, Oregon with my husband Jeff, my 2 year old son Maddox and our dog Katie Brown. Until about 5 weeks ago, I was a stay at home mom so my world has turned upside down the past few weeks as I am trying to get used to the transition.
I enjoy cooking , traveling and I am somewhat of a computer nerd. But the one thing I am passionate about is photography, and of course my favorite subject is Maddox. I am sure you will see he is the star of most of my Scrapblogs!

2. How did you find out about Scrapblog?

I belong to a parenting forum and someone there posted the link. As soon as I got the mechanics down, I was hooked!

3. Are you involved in any other creative activities (online & off)?

I love to take photographs, which is why I started using Scrapblog in the first place. I am trying to get a little more creative with my picture taking and I love looking at other peoples works for inspiration. I used to work for a home interiors store which was another creative outlet for me.

4. Which one of your Scrapblogs describes you best?

I am not sure that just one would describe me, but all of them revolve around the most important things to me in life, which are friends and family.

5. Who is your favorite Scrapblogger & why?

I think it is hard to just pick out one, there are so many creative people in the Scrapblog community! But I would have to say that Karen (Little-M - featured here) has been one of the most inspirational people I have met on here. She is amazing with her techniques, in fact it was because of looking through some of her Scrapblogs that made me start to experiment with the different features.

6. What’s the one Scrapblog feature that makes you happy?

Oh gosh, I think one of my favorite features is the maintain proportions check box. I love that I can uncheck that and stretch a sticker to make it work how I need it. A good example would be in my “Moon” Scrapblog, I used a lot of layering of the cloud stickers, but I changed the proportions and rotated them so it wouldn’t look like I used the same sticker over and over again.
I do have to say the opacity slider comes in a close second on my favorite features! Oh and the color picker too! How can you ask me to just pick one feature!? =)

7. What is the most creative technique you’ve used in Scrapblog?

I would say using the shapes to create my own stickers, like in my “Winter” Scrapblog I made a family of snow people using shapes. I also did a Christmas tree from shapes in my “Christmas Tree Farm” Scrapblog. There is so much you can do with a little imagination. Be sure to check out “Did someone say icecream?” I made a cute little ice cream cone.

8. What keeps you coming back to Scrapblog?

Firstly it’s the community! Everyone is so supportive of one another, it’s very refreshing! And secondly, the fact that it is so easy to do! You guys have made being creative easy for any level user.

9. What would you like to see next for Scrapblog?

I would love a few more features like a magic wand cropping tool, or more shapes to crop with. Also, some more background art that can be dropped into the shapes. I think that is a fun feature that gets overlooked a lot. Also more coordinating backgrounds for themed Scrapblogs, like for a beach theme some palm trees, then maybe an ocean shot, things like that.

10. Can you share one tip for new Scrapbloggers?

I actually have two tips! First, don’t be afraid to experiment with the tools. They are so easy to use and if you mess up, then just hit the undo button! Secondly, is to utilize the forum! There is so much information there and if you get stuck there will be people there that can answer your questions. It’s also a place to get your voice heard on what new features you would like to see!

Cynthia, also known as MrsPeel, is a cherished community member and a wonderfully prolific scrapblogger. She’s created more than 70 scrapblogs and over hundred a scrapblog pages! Cynthia is multilingual and speaks fluent English, Spanish and Portuguese. It is touching to read of the many hardships she has overcome; the rest of her interesting story follows below:

1. Give us a little bit more info about yourself (where are you from, work, school, family, hobbies etc…)

Hi, well, my story is a bit long, as I’m approaching my 50th :)) but will try to be brief:

I was born in Argentina, grew up between Buenos Aires, Cordoba and many cities in Brasil, mainly Rio and the region South of Bahia (Trancoso, Porto Seguro, these Brazilian paradises the Portuguese discovered in the 1500’s!!!)

I was born with a double hip dislocation, didn’t walk until aged 5, had operations (9 of them!) by the time I turned 8. Then, I went against all medical predictions and had a brilliant life as performer and traveled the world singing. I have done many other jobs to be able to keep doing music and lived in many countries until settling down here in the UK, where I now live with my daughter Sarita (ladypink) who is 12. In this country I did a lot of interpreting work, but in 2001 my mobility started to decrease and I was offered a hip replacement in 2003. This went horribly wrong, 4 operations in the same leg to try to fix me also failed, leaving me in constant pain …

2. How did you find out about Scrapblog?

I blog in Vox.com, and one of my friends there showed us the link: she did a post with a scrapblog, I came to have a look and … now I’m hooked!!!!!

3. Are you involved in any other creative activities (online & off)?

Yes, well, apart from blogging in Vox, I love photography, have a Flickr page. I’m also taking a course in journalism.

4. Which one of your Scrapblogs describes you best?

Probably 2004 (seen above) and the Wedding edited (below), as they show both of us, Sarita and I, but talking about me especifically…I’m not sure…I like each and everyone of them!!!

5. Who is your favorite Scrapblogger & why?

Mmmmm….difficult to choose. I dont have a huge list of friends, but the ones who are listed are all equally brilliant….I’m not one to go clicking on friends easily, so if I have them listed it means they touched my heart , I love their work…when you live 24 hs in pain and your time at the computer is limited, the time you give to people is precious, so I couldn’t really choose…

6. What’s the one Scrapblog feature that makes you happy?

The opacity setting, which I recently discovered….

7. What is the most creative technique you’ve used in Scrapblog?

I rarely use the themes, so every new page is a creative challenge….the whole thing is brilliant and a huge incentive to creativity….

8. What keeps you coming back to Scrapblog?

Well, I just finished wallpapering a piece of my living room mostly with Scrapblogs….I find it not only relaxing and extremely therapeutic, but also the general vibe is fabulous…..the people here are (unlike many places I have found online) great, everyone will help, the encouragement I have received is priceless….. and here I have to mention Alex who patiently guided me in the beginning (and left me speechless with his photographs!!!) and Rebbeca, who was one of my very first *friends* here!!!

9. What would you like to see next for Scrapblog?

Ohhhh I’m greedy ;)) I would like more backgrounds, more stickers, LOL more everything, but I reckon having to choose one, I would say more options in music (or tell me how to put my own music, I can never find the way! lol)

Also, a REPLY button. That way we wouldn’t need to go back every time someone just commented somewhere we did….we could reply to the person….I m sure it wouldn’t stop the conversation or other people entering it, but sure would make our lives easier!!!

10. Can you share one tip for new Scrapbloggers?

I personally like the text combining the pictures….I have found that in doing so, I don’t need to keep so much of a written blog, and it will be a treasure for my daughter in the future to have a *diary* of Scrapblogs….. my next task is to start printing and bind them in a book!

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Thank you, Cynthia, for sharing your story and scrapblogs with us, you have been inspirational. We’ll keep on adding more backgrounds and stickers regularly and are working on providing more options for music and making printing available. We look forward to your next scrapblog!