Polly Picks: Scrap Like Cfile Challenge!

Welcome to the first of our newly revamped Polly Picks series, where each month we will chat with one of our Pollys about their scrapbooking style and fave things and give you the chance to win a $5 code for the store just by scrapping like them.

This month we are featuring Christa, a.k.a. cfile! I’m sure she doesn’t need an introduction as she has been hopping around and actively commenting, sending birthday wishes and contributing in the forums and gallery regularly for years well before she became part of the store Creative Team. Her full gallery is here but I’ll link some specific pages below when we get to the challenge part from her gallery that caught my eye and feel to me like they are definitively her.

Let’s get rolling with our first Scrap Like A Polly Q&A with Christa.

Your digiscrapping history and style:
1. How long have you been digiscrapping and has your style changed since then? 

Oh gosh, I think I have been using graphic software since 1998. I want to say that time frame as I originally started out making animated signatures with Paint Shop Pro (now Corel I think) for a Delphi forum I was involved with.

Growing up I always had a paper scrapbook that I taped newspaper clippings in etc., so when I got the graphics program and saw what I could do, I was hooked. I actually graduated to Photo Impact and was fascinated by the styles etc., and wanted to try making my own kit that I offered out. (I think if I dig, I will find it somewhere in my EHD!) From there somehow in 2011, I stumbled across Kate Hadfield and CD Muckosky, found them here at TLP, and dabbled with their goodies to make a few pages.

I would say my style has definitely changed since then. It took me a long time to start to dabble in Photoshop. I had Photoshop 7 for almost a year, trying to learn how to use it, by doing tutorials on the internet and to “understand” masking and and the brush tool. My earlier pages are more straight forward and as I learned how to use the program, I learned the magic of blending and masking, so I definitely have changed my style from 1998!

I will say regarding my “style”, I was more linear back then, and now more artsy and creative.

Your page focus and process:
2.What do your layouts usually focus on and how do you usually start a page? 

My layouts usually focus on nature, food, drink (coffee especially – LOL), and heritage – old family photos. When I scrap pages of family, I feel like I visit with ones no longer with me and it makes me feel good!

If I am doing CT work, of course I usually start with the product I am using and get an idea for a photo I can work with. If the colors of the product I am using do not match with the photos I have, I will change the photo to black & white, and that usually does the trick.

For personal pages on my own, I start with the photo and find the background and elements to go with my theme.

 

Your must-have products:
3. Is there a specific type or category of element you must have on a layout?

Oh wow .. I am big on staples! Staples and fasteners for sure, as I do not like to see things “floating” on my pages. I also love messy threads and stitching. I think that brings it back to vintage, heritage, and artsy. It allows for all styles I may dabble with. I love masks and paints too. I will say those are my musts.

I do love foliage especially on my nature pages so leaves and flowers I like to accent for sure.

4. Are you most drawn to patterned papers or solids for backgrounds?

I am more drawn to solids for backgrounds. I find for me I have a rough time with patterns and will use them as a small matte under a photo or will mask patterns around on the background. Lately I have used patterns more but they have to be subtle. I find extra busy patterns sometimes take away from that.

I do use patterns but prefer solids for backgrounds, but I will layer a pattern paper with a solid sometimes for a mixed background!

 

Examples of your gallery faves:
5. Can you share 3 fave pages with us and tell us a bit about why you love them?

Thanks for that Christa! Scrapping as a way to revisit friends and moments from the past is such a perfect way to phrase the way this hobby can feel and I have much respect for the often overlooked, humble staple as well!

Now it’s your turn to Scrap Like A Polly!

Just scrap a new page using the ingredients listed below that channel the featured Polly’s style and upload your page to the TLP gallery and come back here and post the [[link to your page in the comments]].

These pages helped me come up with the ingredient list below and my own cfile-style layout.

 

In looking at this collection that I pulled from Christa’s gallery before the interview, I feel like they reflect the answers Christa gave above and I noted that the:

• overall colour palette tends to be soft, featuring muted tones, neutrals or pastels but with added contrast from text, thread or mixed media.
• photos are often featured in black and white, sepia or again muted colours with masking/blending, a sketch filter technique or with added vintage styling from frames and additional ephemera to again give a softer but historic look.
• ephemera, messy thread and botanical elements which give some dimension to the page, movement and texture and there is often script or typewriter style wordart or journalling that gives details and context while still conveying a sense of place and nostalgia.

Following on from that, these are the ingredients you need to use to Scrap like Cfile and make your page for this challenge:

• At least one blended/masked OR black and white photo
• A flower OR foliage element
• Stitching OR twine
• Some ephemera
• A neutral OR pastel background

Let me show you some currently available goodies that suit scrapping in Christa’s style that might help kickstart your scrapping when I searched the store and then the page I made channeling my inner cfile!

 

And here’s my page.  The neutral background is from the Furusato Art Papers pack by Pixel Giraffe and already had great texture and paint work on it and an obvious spot to blend a photo. I used a sketch effect (the Find the Edges filter in Photoshop) and watercolour brush filled part of it to make the deer, my son & I stand out a bit in the crowd on the photo and mute the visual noise and colour in the background in keeping with cfile’s style. I masked and blended the photo, that is duplicated multiple times, into the background using Lynn Grieveson’s Blendy Brushes and Masks. I added ephemera over on the right side from one of Rachel Jefferies’ Stitched Mixed Media Stacks. It included stitching and twine but I added extra stitching (and other fasteners including staples). Wordart and elements including flowers and foliage come from E.H.Studio’s and Rachel Jefferies and channelled both the scripty and typewriter aesthetic of cfile’s layouts.

Nowit’s your turn! You have from now until the next Polly Picks post in the last week of June to scrap like Christa using the ingredient list above. Feel free to use products from any designer currently selling in the TLP store and add anything extra to the ingredients to make your layout. Don’t forget to link me to your page in the comments for your chance to go in the random draw to win. Can’t wait to see what you create.