The Blog

Karen, also known as little_m, recently joined Scrapblog and has become a very active community member. She has made lots of beautiful scrapblogs that we’ll feature in this story, has connected to many other scrapbloggers and has given us some great ideas for themes, features and “Scrapblog Challenges”. Married for over twenty years, she creates scrapblogs about her two children, Kirsten and Kyle, and the family pet, a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Blaze.

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

I’m originally from St. Paul, Minnesota. I’ve lived in the Orlando, Florida area most of my adult life. I’ve been married for 26 years to a wonderful man! We have one teenage daughter, and a son who is in the United States Air Force. We have one pet, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, who is even the star of his very own Scrapblogs! I currently work in the Customer Service department at major supermarket. I enjoy interior decorating, gardening, creating online photo albums, researching and documenting family ancestry online (my family tree contains over 10,000 ancestors), and most of all… Scrapblogging!

2. How did you find out about Scrapblog?

A friend of mine suggested that I look into creating an online scrapbook for my son, who is in the Air Force. The thought of creating a scrapbook online appealed to me, because of the fact that I could easily share it with all of my friends and family. I came across Scrapblog by doing a general search for online scrapbooks… I was able to just jump right in and use Scrapblog like I’ve used it all my life! It’s extremely user friendly!

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

Yes! I’ve been busy building our family tree on a popular ancestry website. Our family tree includes close to 10,000 individuals, 500 photos, and 50 stories! I also use another website to upload photos into online albums, which I can then share with friends and family… I currently have 50 albums online and some albums contain more than 200 photos!

4. Which one of your Scrapblogs describes you best?

Each one of my scrapblogs represents a little piece of me… I’m very visual and I pay close attention to detail… I guess you could say I’m a “more is more” kind of person; not a “less is more” person… my Scrapblogs are visually loaded. However, I did try the “less is more” route in creating my daughter’s ‘In Living Color’ scrapblog. And then there is my son’s ‘Dreamin’ of the Beach’ Scrapblog, which was my first attempt at telling a story… maybe this is where you see me best.

5. Who is your favorite Scrapblogger & why?

Ninamor is my favorite scrapblogger! Why? She is brilliant, she has a vision I admire and she’s a huge inspiration to me! When you see one of her Scrapblogs, you’ll know what I mean… they are striking and beautiful! She’s also very kind and considerate… She’s from Norway, so most of her storytelling is in Norwegian, and when I can’t understand exactly what I’m seeing, she will send me the translation via email. We’ve become great friends since finding each other on Scrapblog… Nina if you’re reading this: “Klem fra Karen!”

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

I love the stickers, and finding new ways to use them. I love my scary looking ghoul faces in ‘Blaze’s Halloween Adventures’. I used hair stickers and the smoke from the pipe sticker (in the Props category) to create the ghoulish heads. When it comes to stickers… think outside of the box!

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

I think I took my Scrapblogging to a new level while creating ‘Blaze’s Halloween Adventures’. I extensively used the crop tool while making each page in that album. When you view it, you may think you’re looking at just one photo with lots of stickers on top, but what you may not realize is I cropped tiny pieces of the original photo to build a larger background area around the original photo. You’re probably wondering why I just didn’t expand my photo to fill the screen… I could have done that, but then I wouldn’t have room to add all of the stickers I wanted to include!

8. What keeps you coming back to Scrapblog?

The blogging aspect of Scrapblog brings me back each day! I always check my Scrapblogs to see if anyone has left me a message, and promptly type up a response. I’ll also check on my friends to see if they’ve created anything new, or if they’ve responded to one of the comments I left on their Scrapblogs… I’ve made friends in Norway, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, and the all over the United States by using Scrapblog!

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

A free-form cropping tool… It would be nice to crop irregular shapes!

10. Can you share one tip for new Scrapbloggers?

The crop tool is the most versatile tool you’ll use! I’ve used this tool to crop postage stamps, pumpkins, post cards, photos of the moon, credit cards, labels, surf boards, beach balls, soccer balls, just to name a few… You could also use it to crop baseballs, basketballs, tomatoes, cantaloupes, onions, round or square mirrors, plates, gumballs, M&M’s, round clocks, round door knobs, bowling balls, golf balls, etc… Did I just give you a few ideas for your next Scrapblog?

Thanks for the tips, Karen! The more you experiment, the more you discover what’s possible. Soon we will be offering some of the features you would like to see.