The Best of British Scrapbooking & Cardmaking

Carrie Howard is thirty years old and lives in Camberley, Surrey, with her fiancé Neil. She's getting married on 2nd April 2005 and having THE most fantastic time planning for her wedding. "Can't wait," says Carrie. She is also eager to scrapbook her wedding photos! Currently, Carrie works as a store manager for a card firm in the UK.

Carrie is from a large family who are all also into scrapbooking in a big way. Her mum Val, twin sisters Gemma and Claire, and sister-in-law, Clair, all scrapbook so there's enough of them to hold their own crop as well as share supplies. When one runs out of anything there's always another family member guaranteed to have what is needed any time of the day or night.

Carrie suspects that deep down she's always been a scrapbooker, even before it was even invented as the scrapbooking we know of today. From as soon as she could write her mum used to get her a cuttings book for family holidays, and Carrie explains, "We kept a diary of all the things we had done on holiday. I collected tickets, postcards and memorabilia of all of the places I went and even stuck down used chip packets and bird feathers from restaurants and parks."

But proper scrapbooking for Carrie began back in 1995. "We went for our first American holiday over to Orlando, Florida. It was my mum who had heard about this 'new' hobby and had researched where the stores were that sold supplies. My mum, sisters and I, all bought lots of supplies during our time away and took dozens of photos. When we got home we then looked at the items we bought for about a year. We didn't want to use them and became what are commonly known as 'paper strokers.' This was purely due to the fact that in the UK you couldn't buy anything so we couldn't replace them! It was me who finally took the plunge one day and got a pair of scissors out on my Sea World photos. I can remember butting them into circles to represent bubbles and using stickers to put my page together. From that moment on there's been no stopping me."

When it comes to techniques, lately Carrie is loving sewing her pages on the sewing machine. "I love stitching my photos down rather than always matting them. I also LOVE the new Making Memories stamps and paints, which I love to use on as many layouts as possible," she says.

Her favourite layout in The Best of British Scrapbooking and Cardmaking has to be her engagement pages. "It's all about Neil and me. It uses colours that I don't use that often, and tells the story of one of the most exciting times of my life so far. These pictures are some of the first that we had taken of us together."

Other than Neil, Carrie's niece Megan-born November 6, 2002-- is her all-time favourite scrapbook subject. "She is the first baby in the family for 21 years, so is thoroughly adored by all of us," explains Carrie. "She was born to be scrapbooked and is so used to the camera that she performs on demand most of the time for these fantastic photos we all take of her. Having a mum, gramma and three aunties who scrapbook, she often looks like she has the paparazzi following her around, if we all have our cameras out at once. People do stop and stare if we're all taking photos of this one little girl-I think they think she's famous! All five of us in the family tend to use the same pictures of Meg. It's amazing how different all our pages turn out. We all see different things in the same photo."

Carrie's favourite stockists are ScrapMagic in Surbiton, and Artbase in Hornchurch. Both shops stock the latest products. Carrie and family attend the ScrapMagic crops every third Sunday of the month. "We have a great time spending time working on our scrapbooks as well as taking part in the class pages that Debbie Wood, the owner, puts together. There're always lots of friends to catch up with, old and new. I've made so many friends since scrapbooking who all share the same interest as me," says Carrie.

Other than that the Internet proves her with a wealth of information and ideas. Carrie checks in on UKScrappers every single day to keep up-to-date of what's new and happening in the "scrapbooking world."

For those who haven't scrapbooked before, Carrie suggests "when using your original photos, take copies of those most precious to you. I've loved scrapbooking photos that are years old, but when I look back now and see what I've learnt about scrapbooking, it breaks my heart to see the irreplaceable photos that I've cut up with fancy edged scissors or with shape templates. I'd love to re-do some of my early pages, but the photos are unusable. I solved my photo problem now by buying a digital camera. I can now print what I like again if disaster strikes and I don't like what I've done with my first copy of the photo."