Trendy Tuesday: Please Welcome Trend Reporter Colleen Harshaw

To continue with the introduction of our Trendy Tuesday, we would like to introduce to you our second Trend Reporter – Colleen Harshaw.  Collen is also going to keep us up on some of the latest trends in paper crafting.   Colleen is always researching “what’s new” and is so excited to be able to bring it to Paper Crafter’s Library.  She can’t wait to put all her research together for you and share all her findings on the latest trends.  She loves to find unique projects and watch them come to life. Her first article appears later today, in the meantime, you can visit her blog and see some of her work here: www.creative-expressions-papercrafting.blogspot.com

Learn more about Colleen:

I am a wife, a mother, a lover of travel and literature, and a paper crafter.  I have been involved in paper crafting for the last 10 years, and I must admit, I have a bit of a paper addiction!  My life is busy, and full of blessings.  I have a wonderful husband (with whom I will celebrate our 15th anniversary later this year!), and two healthy and happy children…ages 7 and 10 years.

Four major moves, and homes in three countries in less than six years (our home country of Canada, Switzerland, and now the United States), were the motivating factors in starting my blog(s).  We are fortunate to have friends and family scattered in numerous countries, and it is my effort to keep in touch and bridge the gap.  It is my hope that my blog(s) will help me to achieve that goal.

Here are a few questions we asked Colleen:

How long have you been papercrafting?: I have been papercrafting for over 10 years.  I started with scrapbooking, and then a few years ago I got very involved in stamping and card making.  Lately, I have been doing more scrapbooking again, but I still enjoy making cards when time permits!

What is your favorite type of papercrafting?: My favorite craft is scrapbooking.  I love making albums as gifts.  I often joke about how I have so little to show for the fact that I have been scrapbooking for as long as I have, because I give so many of my creations away as gifts!  It is one of the ways that I enjoy showing my love and appreciation for the significant people in my life.

Do you have any tips for fellow members that may help jump start their creativity?:  I would have to say, just use the world around you as your inspiration!  Your inspiration does not have to come from a scrapbooking magazine or website, it can come from the world.  I love to use magazines for ideas for layouts.  How a page is laid out in a magazine can certainly be a jumping off point for a scrapbook layout.  Use the colours in a beautiful scarf or throw pillow as inspiration for a colour palette in your papercrafting.  Also, creativity becomes easier the more you exercise it, in the same way learning a language becomes easier when you are immersed in it.  The more time you spend being creative, the easier those layouts will become for you!