The Blog

Lisa Gallego-Zuniga, also known as Lis311, is one of our earliest Scrapbloggers. I believe she started with us on the day of our launch this year, in April. She keeps very busy, with full-time studies, work and taking care of her adorable daughter, Kayleigh. Besides creating lovely scraplogs, she has a knack for getting wide viewership. Together, her scrapblogs have collected over 88,000 views!

Before reading the interview, check out her fun submission for the Scrapblog Spooktacular Halloween Challenge:

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

I am from Laredo, TX. I currently live here while my husband is deployed to Iraq with the Army. He has been away for over a year now and should be home very soon! I am currently a full-time (full-time ++++) student anticipating my Bachelors of Science degree in Biology. I should be graduating shortly after my husband’s return home. After that, my daughter and I will be moving back to Fort Hood with him to finally live together as a family again. My hobbies include photography (mostly of my daughter), computers (hardware, software, you name it), web design (html, css), among others.

2. How did you find out about Scrapblog?

If I remember correctly, I found out about Scrapblog through a Tumblr article from Taylor McKnight (an old friend of mine). At the time, SB was still in beta. I created an account and a few scrapblogs, and soon became friends with Alex de Carvalho, one of the main dudes at SB. Since then, we’ve been in constant contact. He has featured several of my scrapblogs on Friday Five blog days and has even recommended me to help promote SB by featuring one of my scrapblogs in Digital Scrapbooking Magazine.

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

I enjoy sharing my photography on Flickr. I use Twitter and Facebook to alert my friends of updates to my Flickr as well as Scrapblog.

4. Which one of your Scrapblogs describes you best?

Most of my scrapblogs revolve around my family. I’ve found that ever since the birth of my daughter, I have diverted all of the attention I used to give myself onto her. She is the center of my universe, and I believe my scrapblogs reflect that fact. My personal favorite scrapblog of her is the Corpus Christi scrapblog — not only because it has been so well-received by the SB community, but because it is a comprehensive scrapblog from the beginning of our day trip to the very end.

5. Who is your favorite Scrapblogger & why?

My favorite scrapblogger has to be my sister, Yvonne G. She really is incredibly under appreciated for the great work she has put forth on SB. I would love to see her get more recognition and hopefully that will motivate her to design more wonderful creations.

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

I completely love SB’s easy integration with other web apps such as Flickr and Facebook. They make it seamless to import and export information. Manual importing and exporting can be tedious, especially if you have a lot of data to transfer. I would love to see integration with Photoshop brushes (as SB stickers) and patterns (as SB backgrounds) in the future.

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

I think the most creative techniques in Scrapblog are just using existing techniques in innovative ways. Many of these techniques I have seen in themes and a few I have seen used in other scrapblogs. For example, I occasionally use a rectangle shape at a lower opacity, rotate it about 45 degrees from the plane of the photo, and position it at a corner of the photograph to create a “taped to the background” effect. Also, I use double-layered text by simply creating one set of text in the background color I’d like and then copy/pasting that text on top of itself (and slightly askew) and changing the color to the desired foreground color.

8. What keeps you coming back to Scrapblog?

The community is really great.. You can’t find such an encouraging community anywhere else. I’ve received only the sweetest comments (in MANY languages!) on my scrapblogs, and I am always so grateful for each one. Occasionally, though, I wish someone would give me some constructive criticism! :-))

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

Like I said in a previous answer, I would love to see integration with Photoshop brushes (as SB stickers) and patterns (as SB backgrounds). With this simple integration, the possibilities would literally be endless, as there are constantly new photoshop brushes available from an unlimited number of websites.

10. Can you share one tip for new Scrapbloggers?

Don’t be afraid to experiment. Don’t be afraid to change up a template and make it your own. It’s okay to use a template and add your own pictures in place of template pictures, but remember that it’s the personalization that really makes all the difference. Also, share your artwork with the world! There are ways to share on any blog site, as well as facebook and myspace. Link to your scrapblog creation on twitter. Or do it “the old-fashioned way” by emailing everyone you know using the dedicated form in the Scrapblog Builder. There’s also always word of mouth :-))

We agree, that’s great advice. We have also noticed the more you experiment with Scrapblog, the more familiar you become with techniques and with time you’ll see dramatic improvement in composition and storytelling. Thank you, Lisa!