In the Pits

Janice Badger

As much as I hate it, craft queen and "mini Martha" are terms often applied to me.  (And if you've ever seen me in person you know that "mini" is an adjective that has no business being applied to me.)  I pretty much try any craft once.  I've done cross-stitch (and still have a few UFOs [that's "un-finished object"] lying around), embroidery, cake decorating (which is coming in handy for my children's birthday parties), and all the other basic crafts.  I've tried to get the hang of knitting and crochet, but I'm a visual learner, and until I get a left-handed teacher those attempts will continue to be disasters. 

But there are two crafts that I live, breathe, and dream:  quilting and scrapbooking.  I love that it's not "just" following a pattern - that there's a huge creator-dependent design element in each of these endeavors.  I love learning and trying different techniques.

I branched into digital scrapping a few years ago and became afraid for a while that it would supplant traditional, paper scrapping.  But as I got more used to it, I have been able to maintain a balance between the two.  Strangely, I don't do a lot of hybrid work.  Even more strangely, for the amount of time I spend sewing, I don't often sew on my scrapbook pages!

I joined ScrapStreet when it began, and am so glad I made the leap to this board.  With the exception of loving purses, I'm not a girly-girl.  I have never had a lot of girlfriends.  That changed when I became a "Street-walker", LOL!  My best gals are all right here, and I love the support and camaraderie that only girlfriends can offer. 

I'm a behind-the-scenes type, not the most talkative gal here, but here every day and for a big chunk of it, at that.  I'm an editor for the magazine and love getting an early look at everything that gets published here.  Between that, two sons, a hubby, a dog and a cat, I keep on the move.  I'm blessed with a family that appreciates my creative endeavors - both quilting and scrapping.  And that makes me happy.

Added note: Crazy Act passed away as I was writing this article.  He survived in captivity for one year, which (according to my vet) is pretty miraculous for a wild lizard.

Design notes: I love using overlays  and brushes on my pages.  I first used a Fotoblendz overlay under my photo as a mask, which allowed the photo to blend into the background paper.  After trimming the resulting image into a note-book paper shape, I used the repeating word brush and let it run right into the photo, hopefully leading the viewer's eye to my boys holding each other's hand.

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