Kelly Purkey

Hello!  My name is Kelly Purkey and I'm excited to be the next member of the Design Team to share a little bit about myself with you.  I live in Chicago, IL only about three miles from the center of downtown.  I've always been a city girl at heart and enjoy every moment of living here.  There is inspiration at every turn and I always feel like the atmosphere of the city energizes me.  I love gaining inspiration from architecture, boutiques, restaurants, signs, and the shopping all over!  During the day I work downtown in the Loop but at night I stay up late crafting... I could stay up all night when I'm on a roll.

Since I'm not married and don't have any children, most of my projects revolve around my own life... family, friends, travels, everyday experiences... I'm never short on photos or topics to scrap about.  I lucky to be able to spend time traveling and it's definitely one of my favorite things to scrap.  This past spring I went to London for a week to stay with my best friend who is currently living there.  We took a short trip out to Oxford and spent the day exploring and taking photos.  Later that night I found this picture on my camera and couldn't help laugh.  I am being my silly self and jumping about the town, while the man in the background is clearly not amused at my foolishness. 

When I went to scrap about this incident, I knew I wanted to use an enlarged photo to really show all the details that were captured.  One of my favorite techniques is to cut out pieces of photos and place foam dots underneath to make them pop off of the page.  I used my circle template and Ultra ShapeXpress to cut me out of the photo and embellish part of it, then replace it back in with the foam dots.  I love how this simple step can really change the emphasis of a photo.

I also made another copy of the photo with the man cropped closer.  I think it's definitely alright to use the same photo multiple times on the same layout, especially cropped in a new way (and if there is a great expression on someone's face!)

Another project I've worked on recently is a set of cards and tags using the Heidi Grace Beyond the Sea line.  I put this set together to give to my mom for her upcoming birthday.  As crafters we all can appreciate the sentiment and care behind a handmade gift, and this one is extra special.  Since my mom is not a scrapbooker, she'll now be able to to use this gift to send along a homemade card or tag for her next special occasion.  The set was easy to put together using the Heidi Grace Greeting stamps and I made sure to include a variety of occasions, such as birthday, baby, and thank you.  The stamps work really well with the punchboard shapes from the Beyond the Sea line.  Even the little pieces of punchboard have room for a stamped message.  I also included a variety of sizes in case she wants to send a card through the mail or just include a tag on a gift bag. 

I hope I've given you some inspiration to start creating a new layout all about you or putting together a gift for someone else.  Either project is sure to be fun and rewarding!

By Kelly Purkey