The scrapping girls that inspire me...

They've taught me so much over the last however many years. The encouragement, the answers, the inspiration, the ideas. I'm grateful for the part they've played, and still play, in my life.

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Ali Edwards

I wouldn't be doing half of what I'm doing if it wasn't for her. How we outwork things is completely different, but I am completely inspired by her. Always have been. 

I think it's the photos and stories philosophy that she has. They are most important to her and I totally agree. The way she tells those stories inspires me to tell my own. Little and big, they all matter.

Same with blurry photos - they're still a memory, so include them if they mean something to you. 

She took on Project Life and has been tracking her progress on her blog...(the amount of work that she puts into projects and then blogging about them - I respect that because I know how much work it is)... well, when she put the photo of her album open on her counter it sparked my whole move to scrapping at the cabinet in the living room with divided page protectors. 

Before that scrapping and I were at a stalemate. 

After that we were friends again. 

It was a revolution.  

And this book. This December Daily thing. All her. 

She's been doing it for five years now and it's grown into one of the biggest crafting events of the year on the web. I've been doing it for four years and just enjoy writing stuff down, putting photos in and looking back at the different albums. 

Anyway, it's all because of Ali, she truly does rock.

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Stacy Julian

I've just watched her four dvds again. They're about six or seven years old now, but the concepts are still as relevant as they were then. Was fun to look back too and see the old products and how things have changed. No misting then!

She sparked my whole mini album phase and the resulting 100+ mini albums. Totally amazing.

She's currently doing episodes on My Craft Channel now and hers is the only show I definitely watch (not true - def. watch Ella too). She's always got something good to say. What I love is that she's passionate about photos and stories and putting them together. She loves the crafty part, but the memories are the most important.

"Let go of the expectation that you have to do something with all of your photos and embrace the idea that you can do something good (and fun) with some of your photos."

It's so simple when you think about it. 

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Jennifer McGuire 

I think she's a great teacher and I really enjoy her videos. She's a stamper (unlike me) and she's taught me a lot of different things from techniques to product knowledge as well as inspirational things. 

She also taught me how to make rosettes. Did you see her huge one recently? I loved it. Almost fell off the chair when I first saw it :o) 

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Noell Hyman from Paperclipping 

She has a lot of good stuff to say about design, organisation and scrapping in general. 

Noell always shares her roadblocks and solutions about things. She's all about creative problem solving and providing tools for people to use in their own scrapbooking world. 

She's definitely not copy and paste. She's...hold it, what other buttons are there? She's the link button. She links things together for people. 

Yep, she's done that for me.  

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Kelly Purkey and Amy Tan 

They both inspire me to go make stuff. I love their styles of scrapping and their Instax photos. I look forward to seeing their pages because they're always colourful and trendy. 

Amy likes to layer strips of paper and cluster embellishments around one or two photos. I love how they turn out. And I love the Pivi printer too - could totally get into that. 

Kelly's style varies a lot. She's inspired by design around her and tries a lot of different things on her pages. They're right up there  - she's very, very good and one of the best scrapbookers out there.

I like these girls, they really rock it.

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Stephanie Howell 

She inspires me by telling stories, being honest and making time for scrapbooking. 

She's a mum of four girls including one-year-old twins. She scraps because she needs to for the creativity, the therapy and the sane time it gives her. I understand that. I understand how she makes time and makes the most of her time. 

She scraps really fast because she has to. I like her get-it-down type style. Her pages are fun to look at and I love the little stories that she tells. Her girls are gorgeous too. 

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So, thanks to you, girlies. I don't know you personally, but that doesn't mean I can't say thanks.

Thanks for the encouragement, answers, inspiration and ideas. And the like-mindedness, I really like that. Thanks for sharing your scrapping and crafting journey with us and for all the work you put into producing your blogs. 

One word: Amazing.  

Five words: Merry Christmas to you all.

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