SISTER Sunday

Well, it's time to introduce you to our SEPTEMBER design team member!!
Her name is Lois Sokolan -aka katesmum- amd she lives in Squamish, between Whistler and Vancouver.

Tell us about your family:
Let’s see now…I have lived in Squamish all of my life so far. I am a mother to 4…two steps and two originals…and grandmother to four grandkids….one of which is borrowed but that’s a whole other story! There is another one on its way in September – they will be living here for a few months so I will be able to get lots of new baby pictures! I am enjoying my life … and being able to do mostly what I want after working for close to 22 years and missing much too much in the way of raising a family. I was a single mum for a lot of that time so there wasn’t much time for play after work and taking care of all the mundane chores around the house.

Who/What inspired you to start scrapbooking?
I have always loved crafts but with not too much time and not much of a focus on what to do, I just dabbled in things like ceramics, sewing, porcelain doll making and tracking family trees. I have always liked working with my hands and taking pictures so when my daughter Kate showed me a recipe album one day and started talking about scrapbooking I started thinking maybe I’d take a look at what she was talking about. Wow…was I surprised at what was out there! The baby album I made her looked so plain…so unenthusiastic…so BORING! I think that was probably 5 years ago and I haven’t looked back since…it relaxes me…gives me a creative outlet while getting my earlier life in order – well the photos anyway and unlike ceramics & sewing I don’t feel like throwing anything away after I’m finished because I’m sick of it!

Does anyone in your family also scrap?
My daughter, Kate and now that I have my son’s girlfriend living here, she has started… I also got my sister going. One of my cousins is a cardmaker and sells her work but I haven’t seen it!

What size do you normally scrap?
I started out with 8-1/2 x 11 and couldn’t understand how anyone would want to make such huge pages… till I tried it and saw how much more creative more space was! Now it’s 12 x 12 and mini-books of all sizes.

What is your favourite colour scheme?
I used to think my favourite color was blue…but have found that I have painted my whole house in various shades of green…and that my yard is all shades of greenery so now I am sure my favourite color is green! Green and blue both seem to go with just about everything... other than that I don’t really have a color scheme, I like to use everything although I don’t much like the shiny papers and embellishments.

How many hours a week do you scrap?
Sometimes I could say most of them!!! But, lately there has been a lot going on in the house so I’m down to about 20 hours… some of that is cleaning my work area because I am pretty messy when I’m scrapping.

What is one thing you always find yourself reaching for when creating a layout?
The first thing is my ‘close up’ glasses… then the tweezers! One to see with and one to pick up those teeny weeny things! I love my tweezers…and my 1.5 times glasses from the drugstore! What I can’t pick up or see really matters to me! I am also lost without my favourite glue which is Scotch quick dry tacky adhesive and my sticky tabs and double-sided tape. For mini books you can’t beat rubber cement... cheap and rubs off without wrecking anything if you get it on the wrong place!

Describe your scrapping style in just three words.
Only three!! Well, let’s see…hmmm… Not minimal… how about…. I just don’t think I have a style because it changes all the time… I do however like a lot of photos and try to have them stand out more than the ‘pretty pages’ do!

Thanks Lois!!! We're so happy to have you here as our sister!!!