My name is Christine Newman. I've always loved writing and paper-crafting, ever since I was a little girl. I also love to make lists, which is how I came to be known as "listgirl", and why my website is listgirl.com. I started out as a digital scrapbooker in 2006. In 2011 I felt the paper siren calling and started making paper pages and mini albums. I love scrapbooking and storytelling in all forms, whether it's through my blog, photo books, digital pages, paper pages, or hybrid pages. I love scrapbooking because looking back on my memories with the people I love make me so happy and thankful! It’s also such a great artistic outlet for me, combining my favorite hobbies of photography, scrapbooking, computers, internet, and writing. I've been on various digital creative teams over the years. I'm currently on the creative teams for The Lilypad and One Little Bird. I've been published in Creating Keepsakes Digital Scrapbooking Magazine (now defunct). I've written articles for Digital Artist Magazine and My Scrapbook Art magazine. I've also been on The Digi Show podcast several times, discussing various digital scrapbooking related topics. This year I am honored to contribute to a book called "Everyday Storyteller", a beautiful and fantastic scrapbooking/ storytelling idea book. My husband and I have a cat named Noodle. We live in sunny San Diego, where we enjoy outdoor activities year-round. I love to run and be active, which is a good thing because I love to eat as well! :)
Scrapbooking From The Heart
Scrapbooking speaks to my heart in many different ways. It speaks to my artistic/experimental heart. It speaks to my storytelling heart. It also speaks to my documenting heart. It's no wonder that I've been enjoying this form of expression for so many years. It brings my heart joy in the process, and I love the end result of having a snippet of life documented.
As I mentioned in my bio, I started out as a digital scrapbooker and then found paper scrapbooking. I love this page because it was the very first "hybrid" page that I've ever done. All the papers and elements on the page were printed and cut with my Silhouette machine, using a digital scrapbooking kit called "For The Record" by One Little Bird and Paislee Press.
I loved experimenting with hybrid techniques. After I used the Silhouette to cut out my digital elements, I added stitching and dimensional embellishments, such as wood veneers and baker's twine. This page spoke to my experimental heart. It's okay to just play with new ways of scrapbooking, and not be confined to certain ways and techniques that we're used to.
I made this "Love You" mini album for my husband Todd as an anniversary gift last year. It tells the different reasons why I love him. I did this project in secret for weeks, without him knowing. I would sneak time here and there in my craft studio when he wasn't around. Then when he came home I would shove everything into a drawer.
I typed out journaling and printed it out onto white cardstock. Then I cut them up into strips to adhere to each page. I found this method improved the flow of ideas for me. The many different reasons why I love my husband flowed line after line in my word-processing document.
I also thew in a few pages of handwritten journaling. I'm totally ok with mixing it up!
This project spoke to my storytelling heart. Within these pages, my husband can see the evolution of our relationship. How some things have changed, but many things have stayed the same. I love him for so many different reasons, and one of them is certainly appreciating this book that I gave him as a gift! He takes it out to look at it from time to time, and it speaks volumes to my tender heart.
In 2011 I started documenting everyday life with Becky Higgins' Project Life system. I loved this kind of daily life documentation and everyday storytelling. However, it was very difficult to "keep up" with it. I know we're not supposed to worry about keeping up, and just do the best we can. But scrapbooking Project Life in a weekly manner was stressful to me and taking a lot of my creative time each week. So I decided to make Month In Review pages to add to my Project Life album. It really made me stress less about getting weekly pages done!
I print out a photo collage with my favorite photos of that month. I do some journaling in Photoshop, using an Ali Edwards month brush as the title, and print it out onto white cardstock. Then I cut up my photo collage and adhere it to the front and back of the cardstock. Then I put it into a page protector and add it into my Project Life album.
I love how much I'm able to remember from each month, just looking at the one page of photos and journaling! This really speaks to my documenting heart.
Thank you so much for letting me share my scrapbooking heart with you! You can find me blogging at www.listgirl.com. Please come visit anytime!
