1. Tell us about yourself. When did you begin scrapbooking?

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Hello, there! My name is Michelle Alynn Clement, and I’ve been scrapbooking for about 12 years now! I’m 24 years old and live in beautiful Vancouver, BC, Canada in a small apartment by the ocean with my hubby, Tzanko. By day, I work in a local animation studio – lately I’ve had a hand in shows such as, “George of the Jungle” and “Kid vs. Kat”. It’s such a fun job, making cartoons all day! And as for my scrapbooking, I’ve been on design teams for Pink Paislee, Fancy Pants Designs, Scrapmojo challenges, and Red Velvet Kit Club in the past, and am currently designing for The Dozens Kit Club and my own paper goods shop, Bubbly Shnooks.
I recently branched out into product design, too, and have designed custom papers and stamps for The Dozens Kit Club, Purple Onion designs, and, of course, I illustrate all of the designs for my own shop, too. That beginners’ scrapbooking class I took with my mom and sister way back in Junior High/the days of border stickers and shaped scissors has really turned out to be such fun!I’m a quiet loud girl, I *love* shopping handmade, screen printed skull shirts, listening to indie rock and hair metal, watching obscure films and attending animation festivals, and all things rock n roll and/or kitschy cute! My drink of choice is a Cafe Mocha, my favorite film is “The Science of Sleep”, among many others, my favorite book is “The Time Traveller’s Wife”, and I *need* paint, Stazon ink, and embroidery thread or I can’t scrapbook! :) I also need Spongebob to function on the weekends, and I listen to Mtv all day long – so obsessed! There’s so much more; please feel free to stop by my personal blog to hear my daily ramblings and see the other projects/life stuff I always have on the go, too: www.michelleclement.typepad.com/blog. Say hello!
2. If you had to describe your scrap style in just a few words, what would they be?

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Hmm…I think it’s always evolving, but I would have to say: Fun, Colorful, and Distressed!
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3. Where do you go for inspiration? What gets the creative juices flowing?
 
I find inspiration almost everywhere I look! I literally pick colors, textures, feelings up from everyday stuff I see and file it away in my brain for future inspiration. Hubby and I have a collection of great animation/art books, so I usually flip through “The Art of Monster Inc.” and such. “Hand Job” (a book chock-full of handwritten fonts) is one of my favorite books to flip through, too, and I’m always inspired by Nylon magazine from front to back. As for online places that get the wheels turning: ffffound.com is great, Elsie Flannigan’s blog, of course, Rachel Denbow’s blog, I pop into Etsy quite often and am always inspired by the handmade work there. Flickr.com is great – I just type random thoughts into the ’search’ feature and amazing photos pop up!
Blogs that feature design daily are amazing sources of inspiration: Poppytalk, Modish, and so on. The Art is Found girls & challenges are really inspiring, and I have a wealth – too many to list – of favorite scrapbookers blogs’ and galleries I peruse for eye candy! Sabrina Ward Harrison is always amazingly inspiring, and I also love to artist blog-hop: check out an artist you love’s website, and click on the other artists they have linked up, and so on, and so on. It’s amazing the inspiration that the internet holds, and the amount of things – rarely ever scrapbook-related – that can inspire me to create a page.
4. You also work as an Animator/AfterEffects Artist, do you ever draw/bring those principles into scrapbooking?

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Definitely! I learned a lot of general design principles that really helped me out in my scrapbooking while I was in school for Classical Animation to work in this field – general layout and color guidelines for good composition, color theory – things I didn’t know about for years, and am still continually learning! And I also had a whole year of drawing every day while in school to help hone some drawing skills and find a style of my own, which I now apply to designing projects, sketching out ideas, and creating little characters for scrapbook stamps and papers! I also learned AfterEffects at work before I learned Photoshop – the two are fairly similar – and I wouldn;t be able to design or digital scrapbook without it! Not to mention, it’s inspiring to work with so many creative people on new scenes of a tv show everyday! On the flip side, scrapbooking has also influenced my filmmaking style, as well – in my final project/film, I made my backgrounds out of layered hand-cut patterned paper pieces (and yes, that is a cow holding an udder…)! ha ha 
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5. Since you have been scrapbooking for some time, what is one tip you would give to anyone that scrapbooks? 
 
The one tip I have for scrapbooking would be…do what you want to do! Lots of people get hung up, it seems, submitting to every publication call or creating based on what calls ask for – but I’ve always thought it was silly to scrapbook about the pumpkin patch, for example, if it’s something you never do/wouldn’t normally keepsake forever and ever on a page if not for that call. Just focus on what you want to scrap about and if it fits a publication call, great! If you don’t care about publication calls, that’s great, too! Your page still has a happy home in your album. :) Just follow your heart – whether that be little to no journalling on your pages, lots of painting, a whole page of storytelling, or art journalling – they are, after all, your pages. And don’t worry about how horrible your old pages looked, looking back on them. And always buy and extra box of adhesive and hide it! You will inevitably run out when you need it most. :)
6. Where are some of your favorite places to hang out in the online scrapbooking community?
 
I’ve been super busy with my full-time job lately, so I haven’t had much of a chance to keep up online as much as I’d like! When I do get a moment, Scrap in Style TV is my favorite place to hang out! Everyone is so lovely there and the kits, design team, and sisters are just so great! I pop into Two Peas and Scrapbook.com once in a while, as well, and Create my Keepsake and Pink Paislee have great online communities, too!
7. Do you have a favorite layout or layouts? If so what makes it a “favorite”?

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I do have a few favorites – one of them, “Evolve” I made with my first ever Dozens kit for an Elsie blog challenge way back when and I still love it! It has a lot of hidden, reflective journalling about evolving in the new year on the back of those giant cards: it was a page of exploring in many ways when I made it. :) One of my other favorites, “Rest”, I love for it’s pops of color, walnut ink, haphazard stamping, my favorite old journal cover, and a simple thought I needed to record.
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I do usually fall in love with my most recent pages as I make them, too…lol. They’re always my favorite until I make something newer!

 
8. Where can we find more of your work and designs?

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Right now, the only place my designs are sold is in my Etsy shop, Bubbly Shnooks. And – as it’s a featured shop this month here – for the whole month of April if you stop by the shop and put the coupon code “ScrappyDo” in the ‘notes to seller’ section when you checkout, you’ll receive 10% off of your whole order! And if you’re not on Etsy, no worries – in a few months the shop will have a website up and running, too! Occasionally, select designs are still being sold at The Dozens Kit Club, too, and my set of Winter stamps are still available at Purple Onion Designs . 
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As for more of my work, my blog has links to all of my galleries, Flickr , Twitter, etc. And my scrapbook resume can be found here, too: www.michellescraps.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for taking a peep at me today, guys! :)