Scrapropos

Cyndi Jennings is blessed. As the self-described “retired stay-at-home-Mom” of 3 college-aged kids, she gets to scrap whenever she wants! “But you can never really retire from being a Mom,” she says with a laugh. “My kids are 21, 22 and 23 now. We were young when we had them, so it was like we grew up with them. It was a lot of fun.” They spent many of their early years living in Germany when husband Marc was in the service, and those years allowed the family to really connect with each other. “We did everything together. We didn’t take a lot of pictures back then. Everything was on video,” she says. She’s making up for lost time now, though. Even though son TJ and daughters Quisha and Nicki are all grown up, she constantly snaps photos of them and their “toys”. Marc, a youth director, totally supports her scrapbooking obsession and also shares her passion for Disney. They live 14 hours away (14 hours too many, according to Cyndi), but that doesn’t stop them from making the drive whenever they can.

When you hit a creative wall, how do you work your way around it?
I usually step away from the project and leave it alone for a couple of hours, sometimes even a couple of days. When I’m really stumped, I pull out idea books and magazines or I get online and that’ll usually get me back on track.

What influences have made you the scrapper you are today?
Probably online sites. They’re my #1 source of inspiration. (Cyndi is DisneyCyndi on ScrapShare.com.) I love seeing what people do with the exact same products that I use. I’m a researcher, so if I’m stumped on something, I’ll research it to death. I’m relentless and will keep going ’til I track down exactly what I need.

How do you approach a layout once you’ve chosen the photos?
I actually do it the opposite way. I don’t choose photos first. A lot of times I will see paper and embellishments that I really like and then I’ll bring those home… and then when I take pictures, I think, “ooh, this will work with that paper.” I take a lot of photos of my girls, so I’m always picking up anything pink and purple.

How would you describe your scrapbooking style?
I have had people tell me that I have a romantic feel to my pages, probably because I use flowers, swirls, stuff like that. I try to keep clean lines.

What is your best organizing tip?
Have a place for everything, and everything in its place. If I didn’t have somewhere for it to go I’d never get anything done, I have so much stuff! Have a place for paper and embellishments, so you don’t waste time looking for what you need.

Do you have a scrap room?
I actually took my formal living room and put my furniture in storage and turned in to a scrapbook room. I needed space to be more organized!

How did your husband feel about that?
(laughing) Oh, Marc even shops for scrapbook stuff for me when I’m not with him! He finds bargains. He probably would never scrapbook with me though. He doesn’t freak out about how much I put into it. He knows how much I spend. Most of the time he probably spends more on it than I do! He’s rare.

How do you find time to scrap?
My kids are grown, so I’m at home - so I can do it all day long if I wanted to. I usually do it in the morning after they leave for work and classes. In the evenings, we have family time.

What’s the biggest obstacle you face when scrapping?
I tend to be a perfectionist. I’m always trying to make sure that I don’t spend too much time on each page. I could spend two weeks or even three weeks on a page if I didn’t stop myself. I have to remind myself that I’m doing it for fun, to preserve my memories.

I still haven’t gotten the hang of…
packing for a crop. I guess because I have a scrapbook room, it’s really hard for me to leave stuff at home. The few times I’ve gone, I’ve taken everything but the kitchen sink! Then I don’t even get anything done ’cause I’m too busy visiting. For me, the best part of a crop is meeting new people, making friends, seeing what other people do.

What’s your favorite page and why?
I could never choose. They’re like my children! That would be so hard for me because each one is so personal. I love them all for different reasonsl

Do you have a favorite manufacturer?
Lately, I’ve been using a lot of Heidi Swapp products. They captured my attention because they’re so girly. My two girls love to be in front of the camera and her stuff just screams “I’m a girl!”

I can’t get enough…
embellishments. I love flowers, brads, stamps, eyelets, you name it. I love it.

Do you have a favorite tool?
Stamps. Acrylic stamps lately. Lots of flowers. I often create my own patterned paper with stamps.

Tell me about your first page.
(giggle) Even before I got my first Creative Memories products, I got an album on QVC and did Easter layouts of my daughters in their Easter outfits. I actually still like that layout today! A lot of people want to tear up old layouts, but I think I got it as soon as I started scrapbooking, so I’ve always liked the pages I’ve done.

What got you interested in scrapbooking in the first place?
Actually I got interested because of my first trip to Disney. I came home, got online and searched about Disney, and started seeing Disney layouts. Then a week later my cousin invited me to a CM party. It was the first time I’d heard of CM. I became a consultant, too, for about two years.

Besides the obvious gift that scrapping is for your family, why do you enjoy it?
It’s become like a ministry for me. I like sharing it with people. A lot of African-American women do not scrapbook. They don’t get that it’s not about the paper and product and things - it’s about preserving a history. We didn’t preserve our history back in the ’60s. We need to be able to look back and see where we came from. As much as I love to shop, one of my goals is to kind of sponsor a young lady when they come to a scrapbook event and introduce it to them. To show my people that it’s not just for our caucasian sisters. “It’s not really me,” they say. I want other women to do this, and I’m hoping that seeing me do it and seeing themselves in my books will make them say “I want to do this for MY family!”

You knew you were a scrapbooker when…
In high school, I saved articles and put them in magnetic books - of course, before we knew that magnetic albums were so bad. I’ve always loved doing creative type things like that.

What do you think is your strongest ability, scrap-wise?
I would have said a couple years ago being artisitic with it. But my journaling has become really strong, especially since I started blogging. Practice has made a difference. (Read Cyndi’s blog here.)

Is there anything else you do when you’re scrapping that keeps you moving along?
Some days I want quiet so I can think better. Other days, I turn on my Christian music. Recently, Marc bought me a TV for my scraproom, and sometimes I don’t even leave that room! My laptop is in there, too. I told Marc the only thing missing is a fridge.

What’s your best advice for a beginning scrapbooker?
Don’t get overwhelmed. Keep it simple. The most important thing is pictures, and putting some journaling down. Don’t get caught up in all the stuff, cause it’ll probably discourage you.

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