The Best of British Scrapbooking & Cardmaking

Giselle lives in the South West of England on a hill overlooking the river Severn which flows out into the Irish sea. She tells us that the views are wonderful especially when it's sunny! She's lived there for seven years, but before that she lived in Madrid, Spain, for five years. "It's a most picturesque country and so different from the UK, especially the climate and culture," she says. While she was there, she tried to see as much of Spain as she could, while she learned to speak Spanish as well as teaching English to Spanish children.

Currently, Giselle works as a director of a company that is owned and run by her husband Jim. She takes care of the administration, as well as preparing monthly accounts. Additionally, she demonstrates crafts at various shops in her area and contributes articles about scrapbooking to magazines. Giselle and Jim have two lovely daughters. The eldest, Laura, is a junior school teacher and the mom of her two gorgeous sons, four-year-old George and one-year-old Thomas.

Giselle says, "I had never previously realised that being a grandma would be so much fun. My younger daughter, Clare, is a photo-journalist for a county newspaper and a great source of photos for my albums."

As well as scrapbooking, Giselle likes creative embroidery and makes appliquéd evening bags. She also likes to draw, paint with water colours, make cards and doing any other crafts which look interesting. Giselle loves to read and sometimes has two books on the go at once! Every Christmas she and Jim go to stay at Giselle's parents' timeshare home in Clearwater, Florida, where she has lots of fun shopping at the craft superstores. She also loves the Florida beaches with such beautiful white sand and the chance of seeing some dolphins in the distance. In between all this Giselle tries to keep her garden well-stocked and looking neat, as well as doing what she calls "all the usual but dull housewifely chores."

Giselle started scrapbooking in November 2003 after seeing it at craft shops in the US. She liked the idea of doing a craft that she could keep for her family. She explains, "Because photographs are the focus of scrapbook pages, scrapbooking has a personal meaning both to you and everyone in the pictures. With most other crafts you tend to give what you create away as greeting cards or gifts."

Scrapbooking is something that encompasses many other crafts that Giselle enjoys, plus lots of new techniques that she's still learning. Each page develops as she goes along, although she usually start with an outline plan of the design. She likes the fact that she can change, alter and improve the layout as it is being constructed. It's the spontaneity that appeals to her the most.

Although Giselle hasn't been scrapbooking long enough to have decided on a favourite technique, she does like paper tearing and chalking. Her style is generally quite uncluttered as she doesn't like the subject of the photo to be lost in busy designs. She likes simplicity best and tend to minimise the number of photos to four per page. However, most of her layouts have just one photo that is the focal point and, for the moment, that is her favoured design.

Among her favourite layouts is Favourite Things featuring her grandson George. She says, "The words around the edges are just so appropriate and suit his budding personality so well. It is also a design that is somewhat of a departure from what I usually do and so I was quite pleased with the result."

Without doubt Giselle's favourite subjects are her grandsons, and she has an endless supply of their photos. She's busy making individual scrapbooks for each boy. "I'm hoping that they will become a fun collection of their childhood memories. Maybe they will peek at them now and again when they're all grown up! And that's just what scrapbooking is all about," she says.

You can find Giselle scrapbooking with Bristol Scrappers once a month. She does have a confession: "Sometimes I think we chat more than crop (!) but that's great because we're always exchanging ideas and learning from one another."

If you are considering scrapbooking, Giselle thinks you shouldn't be afraid to start. She suggests that you "begin with just one or two of your favourite photos and let the subject of the photos lead you into the design, especially with regard to the choice of paper colours. Secondly, keep it simple -- don't try to include every sticker, fibre or embellishment that you own, on one page layout -- remember that it's the photo and the subject that's paramount."