Artist Interview: Wendi (Scrapbooker and mixed media artist)

I’m kicking off my once a month interview spot with my sweet friend Wendi aka luv2scrapmilestones. Wendi was the first person I met when I moved to Leesburg. Her energy is OFF THE CHARTS! I love this girl and her ever evolving scrap style NEVER fails to inspire me. She’s so generous with the sharing of her knowledge too! She so kindly agreed to be interviewed for my blog so here’s a tiny peek into the world of this funky, creative, spunky, scrappy chica.

How did you get into scrapbooking?

It started when my son was in Pre-K four years ago or so. He had to do a little project about himself--a book about me, or something like that.

I've always been crafty and creative and in my mind it wasn't going to be good enough to get a poster board and slap some pictures on there. So I went hunting for stuff. I had not heard anything about scrapbooking so I went to Target and they had all these lovely stickers and scrapbook albums and I just bought stuff randomly and did a little album about the first 3 -4 years of his life then I forgot all about it.

Then we went on family vacation to the Bahamas and took all these pictures and I wanted to do something with them because normally they end up in a big container where they die a slow death.

So I decided to scrapbook them and I went back and purchased some stuff.

That was the first album I did. After that I had the bug and I was completely addicted!

I could not stop myself! Scrapbooking on the kitchen table and it went from a few supplies in a bag then a few supplies in a drawer, to stackable drawers to a rolling cart then it continued to grow! (Wendi has a gorgeous new scraproom, check out her blog to have a little tour!)

At what point did you discover the scrapbooking community?

Well at first I was all ‘oh wow!’ like I discovered this new craft all on my own! Then I found communities like Two Peas and Scrap in Style.

Scrap in Style TV had just started they had only been in existence for a few months and it was a smaller community. Also then Scrapbooks Etc., I think, had online videos they used to do every Monday and this was another clue to me that, wow! This was a really big thing.

So I was probably doing it for a while before I realized there was a larger community. The wonderful, really miraculous thing about it is that I’ve always been a creative craft person and dabbled in so many crafts but scrapbooking really reminds me of what I love which is being creative.

You took a mixed media class this summer. How was that?

That was a BLAST! A local artist was teaching a small class (just four of us) out of her home and we were able to work with all of these different supplies. Art supplies cost an arm and a leg and it was nice to be able to play around with different supplies that I could incorporate with my scrapbooking or mixed media and painting projects without having that huge expense and of course it was nice to play around and get messy and have somebody else clean it up. Teehee. (Amen sista!)

What colours or colour combinations absolutely make you swoon?

My fave colours are red, yellow, orange – that’s why I love the fall. They say “happiness!” They say “I’m full of energy!” They say “family.” They say “love.” They say “community.” Add a dash of pink with red and orange and yum! Any colour that you can add in to red, yellow, and orange I’m in love with. The only colour that I struggle with is purple! Any other colour I’m good with.

Pink with red and orange is just juicy!

How would you describe your current style?

I used to be more heavy with embellishments and oddly enough I think I have toned some of that down. It’s pretty simple then I do a clustering of photo and embellishments but not as much as I used to. I just got bored doing what I was doing and I wanted to do something else. I like to experiment with styles and at no point do I say “this is my style.” I try not to box myself in. It’s ok to do a heavily embellished page. There are no rules. A lot of the time people think that other people expect them to be this way and you box yourself in and when it stops being fun it’s no good.

Crop or scrap alone?

I don’t know. I like to crop with people but I don’t always get as much done. Part of it is that if I’m not in my own space, I don’t have all my stuff to scrap with. It impedes my creative process from time to time not having my stuff around. I enjoy sharing the time with other women so scrapping with other people is less about the scrapbooking and more about sharing the creative energy. If I really, really want to scrapbook I can close the door and have my glass of wine and something to nosh on and I’m good. I can get it done.

Have you introduced any of your friends to scrapbooking and have they been converted?

That was my goal when I started having crops at my house and I did that almost consistently for two years. I opened my home to my friends and strangers and you can come to my home and I’d pull tables out and people could scrapbook. When I fell in love with the craft I wanted my close friends to scrapbook with me. They would come over and I would give them all the supplies because they wouldn’t go out and buy stuff because they weren’t sure that this is what they wanted to do.

I converted about two people who enjoy it now and went out and bought their own supplies. They’re not consistent scrappers but they do scrap and that was out of probably half a dozen or more girlfriends.

So many people say “I’m not creative” and it’s just a lie we tell ourselves. We all know how to get up and get dressed and put on an outfit and put on some earrings that match. That’s a creative act. But I haven’t been able to convince all my girls of that yet.

Does your husband understand your need to scrapbook?

He’s supportive. I think in the very beginning he thought it was a little kooky but he saw how much I enjoyed creating pages and he liked the fact that I found something where I could connect with other women because he has his guys and they golf etc.

Over the years he has continued to be very supportive of the scrapbooking and then on to my mixed media painting and he’s probably one of my biggest cheerleaders.

Has your scrapbooking influenced your personal style or vice versa?

Yes. Again, I’ve always been a creative person but when I embrace the fact that I am, dare I say, artistic. It has given me a freedom to display that funkiness, that artistic kind of quality about myself even when I’m not scrapping or painting so hence my insanely ripped jeans. I LOVE these jeans!! I’ll go places and I know other mommies probably look at me thinking “what’s up with her?” But I love the fact that I’m okay in my skin and I can do my thing. I love my locks. I started growing my locks. I looove them!

Scrapbooking has allowed me to be free and say “screw it.” Sometimes I put on stuff because I like it and because it seems a little quirky- but I can embrace that in being different and not being like everyone.

So scrapbooking has been part of my long artistic journey and it’s been wonderful!!

Thank you so much wendi!!:)

Let's celebrate fall!

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