Amy Parker-Design Team member

Hi Everyone!!!! Soo exciting! This is my first post here on Noel Mignon! (I am sooo nervous that I am going to have about a million typos! LOL!) *Ahem* And please have confidence that I can type a sentence without using an exclamation point. :D

So the first thing I will be doing on here is introducing myself! :D I am 26 years old. I am married to my husband Jed, and a SAHM to our almost three year old daughter Creedence, and we just found out recently we are expecting baby number two! We live on the Central Coast of California in the Monterey Peninsula, where is it almost always 60 degrees outside. We have two cats-brother and sister-who's names are Marley and Shiloh.

I do most of my crafting at night when Jed and the Munch are asleep, but as of recent my bedtime has gotten earlier and earlier! I am an avid Chai Tea drinker, make my own at home. And I am probably the worst housewife in the world as I hate cleaning house! :P But at the same time I can't stand someone else doing it for me. LOL! Been working real hard lately to change my habits and giveaway a bunch of our stuff so that things are easier to do around here. I am a collector at heart so going through things can get a little crazy, as not much will make it into the giveaway pile! But that is why I have Jed, he keeps me in check. :D

I got into scrapbooking when my daughter was a couple months old, but I mostly just bought things in the beginning. I think it took me a few months more before I actually finished a project! :P But I have never looked back since! :D

Created using the Noel Mignon Lemonade Stand kit! :D (Only 3 Left!!!)


What are some of your favorite supplies?

I am addicted to my Martha Stewart punches, specifically my Starburst punch, 3-in-1 Butterfly punch and Large Chrysanthemum punch. Punches in general are sooo versatile! That is what I love most about them. I can use the same punch on very different papers and get fantastic results no matter what! :D One other thing I love, that I am actually not so good at using up, are adhesive pearls (mainly Kaisercraft. Prima, and Basic Grey-but I also have quite a bit of K and Company) and trinket stick pins (Maya Road and vintage). I LOVE love love these things! And I try to remember to use them, but I also kinda hoard them. :P But I for sure can not resist them when I see them in the store or when something new comes out, I simply just have to have them! :D


What is one thing about scrapbooking that frustrates you?

I think, honestly, it is probably the same thing that gets us all-not enough time or energy to do all the scrapbooking I would like, and not enough room to store all the stuff that I want! LOL! Yeah I know, I couldn't choose just one! Those two things are so bad for me. I feel like I am always down to the wire with stuff, and always like I have a million piles of stuff on the floor around me. :P If I could just get rid of my need for sleep, and have a room that was about 20 feet by 20 feet filled with shelves and drawers and all that good storage stuff-I would be in absolute heaven. :D Most definitely.


What's the best piece of constructive criticism you have ever received regarding your work?

I have actually received two pieces that tie in together from two different people. The first DT I was ever on, I got a request from the owner to try photographing my work outside. After countless attempts to photograph anything inside, we both quickly realized that it was a much better idea to at least give outside a try. And, to be honest, that was almost just as hard to do for me. :P I was soooo bad with cameras because I really had never worked with one before. I tried so many different spots around our house to find the perfect place to photograph, then after that I tried different times of the day, and different weather conditions. (I have even photographed in the rain! Don't ask, I kinda had no choice at the moment :P) I found that photographing outside provided the ideal light that my camera (and my limited understanding of my camera) needed in order to get a clear in-focus picture, and one that was bright enough to not need much editing to make it so.

And the next piece actually came from my husband. :D I rely upon him quite a lot when it comes to my scrapbooking as he has a better eye for design balance than I do (mainly because he is on the outside of the project, non-biased to the LO). When I first got interested in scrapbooking I looked it up online and quickly stumbled onto a designers blog, and completely fell in love with her work! I showed it to my husband, and he told me that if this is the route I would like to go with my work (documenting memories of course, but for right now pretty much making things for show), then I will need to start designing my LOs a lot differently. I was doing so much detail on my LOs, and filling the page so much that it was almost a joke. There was no way that a camera would be able to capture all of that, and actually quite a bit of the LO would simply get lost in the picture because I had so heavily embellished them. I would need to start designing in such a way that photographed well. I needed to start looking at my LOs from a very different view. From that day on, I create my LOs very differently as I pay close attention to the design and embellishing so as to keep the LO easy on the eyes and appealing at the same time. It often helps me to look at my LO in progress through my camera lens, it helps me to get a better sense of where I might need to add something for balance.


Well that is pretty much me! :D I created the LO above with a little pull out tag so that I could use my blog post here as the journaling! (I will share that LO in full with you another day! :D)


Stay tuned this whole week as the new team will be posting their introductions as well! :D I look forward to reading them all, and learning lots of wonderful things about all the girls! Take care everyone!! And Happy Memorial Day! :D