I’ve had an interest in scrapbooking and photography for as long as I can remember. My mom was a paper scrapper, and we made everything from scrapbooks to cards while growing up. I was also on the yearbook staff in high school and enjoyed going to school events with a camera in tow.

During my senior year at college, I took a black-and-white photography course where we developed our own film and prints. That was such a great class that if I had taken it earlier in my college years, it’s possible I would have switched majors.

After college time and money were an issue, but I always had a longing to learn more about photography and always wanted to get better at taking photos. In 2010 I became very sick with a chronic illness. I found myself with much more time on my hands because I was so unwell I couldn’t work. After two years, even though I didn’t feel great, I was well enough to take a self-paced photography class online. I also decided to find a way to edit my photos, so I ended up purchasing Photoshop Elements.

Within weeks of getting Photoshop Elements, I came across a link on Facebook advertising Linda Sattgast and her Learn Digital Scrapbooking class. I immediately started taking classes, doing online tutorials, and reading everything I could about digital scrapbooking.

I spent a lot of time at a few of my favorite digital scrapbooking store websites and participated in as many digi-scrap challenges as I could because they helped me learn about how to design better pages. During that time I was on two creative teams and also guested for a handful of designers.

In March 2015 my life took an exciting turn when I was invited to teach tutorials for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I’m now a class instructor and have taught a class on digital card making, which included sharing good design principles.

I’m happy to be part of such a great community of scrapbookers!