The Best of British Scrapbooking & Cardmaking

Mandy Anderson lives by the sea in Selsey, West Sussex, with her husband Paul, and their two children Max and Molly, two cats Bart and Marge, and Maggie the dog. (We suspect the Anderson's are Simpsons' fans!) Mandy's life revolves around her kids and family. She's always on the go ferrying the children around to their many after school clubs and classes. Even so, she finds time to horse ride weekly and enjoys hacking across the South Downs. She also enjoys entertaining friends for barbeques and dinner parties and loves trying new recipes out on them.

Mandy works part time as a teaching assistant in a local school working with 9 and 10 year olds. She tells us, "I adore my job. I feel such pride when a pupil grasps multiplication or finds the confidence to write a good story or poem. Supporting them throughout their learning process gives me such pleasure and I could not ask for a better job. I enjoy every aspect of my job from helping them one on one to creating displays and playground duties, I enjoy supporting them in every single part of their school life and feel proud of every one of them."

Mandy has always been a 'crafty' person. "When I attended a CM class two years ago with my sister, within seconds I knew I was hooked. I scrapped CM style for six months until one day while I was browsing the internet I stumbled across an online scrapbooking store," she says. "I was dumbstruck by the range of goods available and it was then that my scrapbook 'stash' obsession began and I have steadily built up a stock of lots of lovely goodies but always find that I NEED more!!!!!! It wasn't long after that I joined UKS and have become an active member enjoying the community spirit and drawing on the inspiration that it provides me."

She readily admits, "Scrapbooking has taken over my life. I am constantly searching for new ideas and have many notebooks throughout the house for when inspiration strikes. I have even been known to get up in the middle of the night to jot down a layout idea. Although I may not scrap every day, not a day goes by when I do not think about scrapping, I love the creativity outlet that it gives me and enjoy creating albums that I adore."

When it comes to techniques, Mandy loves trying all sorts of different ones: creating titles out of different mediums, using textures, fibres and materials. She says, "I enjoy the creative process as a layout evolves before my eyes, building, layering and putting the finishing touches with little bits and pieces giving the layout that little extra panache is my passion. I like trying different combinations of paper, card and material, distressing, inking, chalking, painting and discovering mediums that are a little different. I enjoy creating collagy type layouts adding embellishments to achieve that perfect look, but equally I love simple clean layouts. I try to scrapbook from the heart and like to include a piece of me in most layouts. I scrap for the people that mean the most to me… but most of all I scrap for myself. It gives me great pleasure when I have captured a moment that will be smiled upon for many years."

Her favourite layout that is in The Best of British Scrapbooking and Cardmaking is It's All in the Genes. On a family holiday, Mandy noticed the similarities between her husband and son and decided to create a layout that highlighted their commonalities.

She's currently working on a scrapbook about herself. "These layouts give me a real sense of achievement," she says, "I enjoy opening the door to all my memories and creating an heirloom that will give future generations an insight into the real me. I love to highlight the people and the places that have shaped my life, sharing all my feelings and emotions and showing a glimpse into my dreams, my beliefs and my passions. I try to do at least one layout a month for my book (on myself), and I am enjoying the journey as I highlight my history and share my passions and beliefs. I am passionate about creating an album which will show why and how I became the person I am today, exploring pieces of my life and rediscovering myself along the way while creating the foundations for a treasure trove of memories that will be a treasured family heirloom for many years to come is my true passion."

As you can see from her pages, her children are her inspiration, in life as well as in scrapbooking. She loves scrapbooking about them and for them and capturing those cherished moments that have shaped their lives gives her great pleasure. Mandy journal from her heart and some of her layouts have my soul poured out on the page, whereas some are very simple with just a title and a photograph that doesn’t need explanation. She says, "I love to scrapbook everyday memories as well as special moments and although some of my layouts are simply most of them have a story to tell."

Mandy shares this tip with other scrapbookers: she keeps many works in progress. She has a moments album for all those special pictures and an album for each year for the day to day memories. Mandy takes her inspiration from many places. But always, she scrapbooks remembering that "I am creating a treasured heirloom that will be adored for many years."