Opening Day and a Long Post

Hello Everyone!
I finally caved. After several requests I have decided to open my own blog! I'm new at this and learning as I go so if some things here don't work right or are just plain broken, don't worry...It's just me trying to get the bugs out. Okay....and we're off....

I want to begin with an explanation for my blog title. I create Quick Pages from the beautiful scrap booking kits of other designers. When I see a kit I like, I create the pages and send them to the designer. They then decide if they want to share them with everyone. So....because the kits are not my own I came up with Jacked Ur Scraps!! Tasteless play on words? You betcha!! I also CT for a few wonderful designers but we'll get more into that in other posts.

I will be periodically featuring designers/kits here that have wowed or inspired me in some way. For my first post I would like to spotlight the work of Denise of LovinLifeGurl! I read her entire blog and loved the feeling of warmth and the uniqueness of her designs! She has just two kits right now but I'm told she will be making more in the future! Here is a preview of one of her free kits "Adinkra:Faith Hope Love."

I made a couple of Brag Book QPs using this kit and Denise has allowed me to share them with you! The link is further down the post. I have asked Denise a few questions and she was kind enough to send me a reply.

1.How long have you been designing digital kits?

I designed my first kit (I've only done 2, LOL) in November 2007 when i took part in my first Digital Scrap booking dot org (DSO) Color Challenge.

2.What was it that got you started in digital scrap booking?

I was a member of a group on MSN called The ClipArt Palace. This was a Taggers space and each week we made tags for each other and for general use. One day, one of the members posted some elements from a scrap booking kit. I went looking for more elements for tag making (and discovered that some of us in digital scrap booking do not like to have our elements in tags),and discovered this wonderful world of digital scrap booking. DIGITAL! NO MORE MESSES (i quilt, make soap, keep Sunday school supplies, am a Martha Stewart FREAK so have about 5 years of her Living magazine, cook so have about 3 years of can't throw it away Gourmet and Bon Appetit, which i do use thank you very much) what was I saying, OH YEAH! next question, LOL.

3.Do you paper scrap as well?

NOPE, see above!

4.Do you plan to continue designing, if yes, do you already have an idea for the theme of your next kit?

I do plan to keep designing freebies. I intend to keep using the DSO color challenge as the base of each kit, but I'm never certain of the theme until well into trials and errors of what things look like. Then things seem to fly out of my mind and onto the PS canvas. For this next kit, the "Freedom Quilt" keeps coming to mind, but there's also a "games" theme pokin' at me, LOL.

5.Do you have a favorite digi kit designer?

Nope: Way to many, but i name here my top 4: Kim Broedelet and Kim Bartlett, both of DSO; Nicole Kaltenecker of NBK Proudly Presents; and Mabelle Santiago of MyDigiStyle dot com.

6.What was your inspiration for this kit?

Well, I'm gonna quote my blog on this one: "This kit was inspired by the December Color Challenge at Digital-Scrapbooking dot org. Every time my African friends travel "home" and back, they bring back a little bit of home, which i often use in quilting project gifts for them. I had just pulled out my adinkra stamps, wondering what i could do with them this year, and the colors and the stamps and my brain made a connection. Didn't hurt that i had also just picked up Kim Broedelet's African Sunsets and J Kuoha's Ivory Coast (which I'm told is where my family originated): African, colors, adinkra, et voila! Not to mention that we are in this season, that, for some of us, is deeply rooted in faith hope and, yes, the greatest of these, love."

7.Was there a lot of research involved?

More than i originally intended.I was just gonna stamp away with the adinkra stamps, which a friend had given me several years ago, but when i looked at the booklet to find out what they meant, the definitions seemed inadequate to me, superficial in some ways. So i went on a hunt. And found a gold mine. This kit does not BEGIN to mine the Adinkra lode. I may come back to it another month!

8.If you had to sum up the "feel" of this kit in one word, what would it be?

Akoma.

Thank you so much Denise for sharing your talent with us all! I look forward to your upcoming designs! God Bless Ya Hun! To find out more about Denise and to download her wonderful kits, visit her at LovinLifeGurl! And don't forget to leave her some love!

You can get her Adinkra Brag Book Quick Pages Here.

That's all for now. I will be adding all of the links to my other Brag Book pages and their designers soon so check back often (K)

Bye for now......God Bless,

CC