Rene

History

Member for

4 years 23 weeks

Staff Bio

Personnal Information

My hubby Jim and I have been married since 1993. We have one very hyper boarder collie, Raz. We spend a lot of time with my sister, Tanya and her family.

How did I come to live in Rochester? This is one is sorta complicated. My sister and I lived with Mom during the school year in Wisconsin, and spent summers in upstate New York with Dad. Jim and I met in New York while he was in the Navy and got married in Wisconsin. Since then we've lived in Connecticut, Florida, and my favorite, Charleston, South Carolina. We've lived in Rochester since 2001, when Jim got out of the Navy, and have enjoyed being a part of the community here.

Terri entrusted the website to me in February 2006.

How long have you been scrapbooking?

I began making books with my memories in them when I was in fourth grade and spent a week at my Grandma's in Northern Minnesota. Being a little high strung, I'm sure I was driving her crazy so she set me in front of a huge stack of magazines, a pair of scissors, markers, and gave me a book to create in. After that, I was hooked. Ever since, I have been keeping track of my life experiences through photos and memorabilia. I discovered formal "scrapbooking" in 1994 when my girlfriend Constance turned me on to Creative Memories. It's been exciting to see the scrapbooking possibilities open up and explode since then.

Preferred scrapbooking snack

Diet coke, preferably fountain, and something that's salty like pretzels. And scrapbooking is just not the same without my bud Michelle.

Scrapbooking style

This is tough. My friends would say "slow" as it takes me forever to finish pages.

I guess I would say "loud".

I love to mix and match product lines, wacky colors, and embellishments to create thematic layouts that no one else will have in their books. Somehow amongst all of that, I try to highlight the photos, after all, it's the pictures that are what memory books are all about.

Scrapbooking tool you couldn't live without

A computer. Being a graphic designer, it's just second nature. I'm a neat freak and just not thrilled with my handwriting so I often create headlines and do my journaling using the computer. I also use it to research on the internet for some of my pages and include facts about the subject matter.

Favorite line of scrapbooking paper

I love bright colors and textures. I'm really all over the map on paper but tend to gravitate towards Basic Grey.

Scrapbooking Tip

At this point in my life, it would be to set time aside to scrapbook and spend time with your friends.

Although this is my tip, I still am working on figuring out how to do it. (-;

Favorite Thing About VIP

I have two favorite things actually.

The first is the diverse paper selection. I can literally get lost in the patterns and colors, searching through them all for the perfect combination is relaxing to me.

My second favorite thing is the Chicks at VIP. They're like family!