Every month we like to take the opportunity to shine the spotlight on one of YOU.  This month, while browsing around the gallery, this lovely Pool Party layout by JanetH really caught my eye, so I thought I’d take this chance to find out a little bit about the creator.

So, Janet, could you tell us a little about yourself?

I am 59 years old and will turn 60 on Christmas Day this year.  Have been married to my only real love for just shy of 36 years.  I retired in December 2011 after 37 1/2 years for the U.S. Marine Corps (as a civilian) in Accounting and Budgeting.  I have no children but have nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews!  Family is very important to me.  Through my life I have enjoyed many crafts including: crocheting, cross-stitch, ceramics (all my own molds and kiln), sewing Bitty Baby doll clothes for my grand-nieces,  as well as many others too numerous to mention right now.  I am a cancer survivor since 1994 after going through about everything one could with breast cancer.

Congratulations on fighting and conquering breast cancer.  It sounds like crafting is truly a passion for you, so how did you get into digi?

I had this great idea about a couple of years before retirement because I was tired of my photo albums just collecting dust…not to mention about 15 cruises that I still had not put into photo albums and about 25,000 photos digital and scanned.  I thought that I could use the paper, Cricut and many cartridges (I never do crafts half way), specialty scissors, etc. to make layouts and then scan them and put them to DVD.  Then they would not collect dust, never be looked at, pictures and papers fading.  Little did I know I was many years behind the times!  Found a couple of programs but then on the internet discovered My Memories Suite.  This was about the middle of last year.  I didn’t really understand MMS and my brother started to introduce me to Photoshop Elements – now I am cookin’!

Wow!  It sounds like you have lots of photos scanned and ready just waiting to become layouts!  I wonder though, what do you like to scrap about most?

Well, that is easy….FAMILY!  Not only family though because we are cruisers.  Before my Mom died three years ago she was very generous and periodically took most of us on cruises.  We actually went to the Caribbean on a Millennium Cruise where Mom took her six children and their spouses – she paid for it all.  It was an absolutely wonderful experience and I have over 600 photos for the seven days that we were gone.  Now that is going to be one great photo album when I can get to it!

I wonder how many long it will take you to scrap all of those.  With all this travelling, when do you scrap?

Since retiring I have to admit I pretty much spend a lot of the day scrapping.  My whole day is spent, doing a little house cleaning, taking care of the garden, sewing or scrapping.

It’s good to hear you’re able to enjoy some of your favorite hobbies on a daily basis in retirement.  What do you listen to while you scrap?

I actually have the television on with reality type shows on that I can pretty much just listen to.  Rarely am actually “watching” the TV.

I know exactly what you mean, I use my TV for white noise too.  So, what is your favorite layout you’ve created with a Trixie Scraps kit?  

I actually originally did this LO with another kit but I loved it so much I wanted to find just the right Trixie Scrap Kit to do another!

What an elegant photo, and that cluster is fabulous.  Since we’re on the topic, I have to know, what is your favorite Trixie kit?
I pretty much love every Trixie kit and am working to collect all of them!  Right now I am partial to Sunshine Day – it is great for our Annual Family BBQ and Pool Party.  Then too, I cannot wait to pick my photos for Brave – love the colors and I am a redhead so it is perfect for me!

Change Your Fate is definitely one of my favorite new ones too, and I can imagine it will work great with your red hair.  What is the one scrapping tool you couldn’t do without?

Not sure if it is considered a tool but I don’t think I could live without glitter papers!  I love them and probably shouldn’t but like something glittery in most of my LOs.

A woman after my own heart.  I love to use glitter papers on my layouts too.  So, what inspires your layouts, ie: templates, others galleries, kits, etc?

My inspirations come from the photos!  I build my LOs first from the photos and then consider the use of templates, kits or scraplifts.

OK, now for some fun ones, if you were trapped on a desert island what three things would you want to have with you?

That is kind of hard but I think the first would be sunscreen (I am very fair skinned); secondly would be my toothbrush and lastly music.

Very practical, I think you would be a good person to get stranded with.  Alright, just one more here, if you could have dinner with anyone, famous or not, living or dead, real or fiction, who would it be and why?

This is the easiest question of all – James Cagney!  Actually tried to think of a way to contact him to do just that and he died before I could figure it out.  Why, well you see I sing, was in Choir and Ensemble through my school years.  This dates me, but if you have never seen the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney you just don’t know what a good old fashioned patriotic musical is.  He was absolutely wonderful in this wonderful movie and showed another side of him that wasn’t a gangster!

And that was supposed to be a tricky one!  I’ll have to look that movie up, I’m a musical fan but have never seen it.

Thank you so much Janet for allowing us all to get to know you a little better.

Be sure to check out Janet’s layouts in the gallery and leave her some love this week.

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