Scrapropos

Jill Cleaves is an oxymoron. In a cluttered, jumbled, disorganized studio, she creates layouts that are clean, streamlined and balanced. “Messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds,” writes Penelope Greene of the New York Times . If Jill’s confession about her desk and studio are true, she’s living proof that Ms. Greene’s assessment is dead on. A legal assistant for 25+ years, Jill enjoys her job but admits her recent discovery that “working part time is heavenly”. Between work, a busy family (sons Beau, 11, and Chase, 8, are involved in karate and music) and being a Creative Memories consultant, Jill finds time to read, enjoy the Florida sunshine, and hone her photography skills. She shoots with a Canon S2is, but the Canon Rebel xTi is her dream camera.

When you hit a creative wall, how do you work your way around it?
I’m not very good at that actually. For a long time I used to do Mystery Pages [step-by-step directions for creating page elements and layouts without the guide of a photo or sketch, hosted online at ScrapShare.com]. Now, basically I sit and stare. Or I get online and look at layouts, which gives me inspiration to get started. I started posting layouts online a couple of years ago, but before that I hadn’t scrapped for probably a year. I kept seeing all these layouts and I thought, “I have got to do this and make myself work.” It was everyone else’s work that was my inspiration.

What influences have made you the scrapper you are today?
ScrapShare. Becky Higgins sketches hugely right now, and the other sketch books too. I rely on those a lot these days.

How do you approach a layout once you’ve chosen the photos?
I stare at it for a really long time. I will stare at pictures forever sometimes and then I go to the sketch books and start pulling paper out of my stash. I have so much paper you wouldn’t even believe. I’ll put it with the pictures and look at it and say, “Is this it? Nope.” By the time I finish a layout, I have a whole stack of unused paper sitting beside me. I’m doing a Disney album at the
moment - but my layouts are not typcial Disney layouts. Not a Mickey Mouse to be found! I take my inspiration directly from the colors and feel of my photos!

How would you describe your scrapbooking style?
Clean straight lines with lots of color. Not too overly messy or froufrou-y. Sometimes I think that my layouts end up looking a lot alike.

What is your best organizing tip?
I have none. If you saw the state of my scrapbook room, you’d know. It’s a hurricane. I reorganize all the time, but I don’t have any one thing that works. My problem is I don’t put things away in between and so then I have this huge mess on my desk.

What’s your favorite thing about your scraproom?
All my pictures. Pictures of family and friends - but mostly family - are all over the wall and everywhere.

How do you find time to scrap?
I don’t watch TV at all so I scrap in the evenings. By 8:00, my boys are reading, so it’s quiet here and that’s my time. And I stay up late. And now that I work part time, I have my afternoons a little too - sometimes an hour or so if we’re not running around.

What’s the biggest obstacle you face when scrapping?
Inspiration, journaling. I’m horrible at journaling. I was doing albums for both boys, separate. Currently, I’m working on a vacation album, and I’ve decided I’m only doing one. Now I’m at a point that I don’t know what I’m gonna do next after this vacation album. I’m at a crossroads about whether or not I’ll continue doing individual albums for the boys, or family albums. I still have a lot of old photos to scrap, too.

I still haven’t gotten the hang of…
embellishments. I’m not very good at that. I can do the die cut stuff but I don’t like stickers any more at all. I wanna use all this stuff but I’m embellishment-impaired. I haven’t used eyelets and fibers, yet. I’ve used ribbon some. I’ve made tags, chalked ‘em up. I’ve just started using fluid chalks and I really like the depth they give.

Favorite page and why?
It’s a layout of my older son Beau that’s titled “Freckles”. And it has a quote, “A face without freckles is like a night without stars.” He loves it and that’s what makes me love it even more. He loves his freckles and thinks it’s cool that I did that page.

Do you have a favorite manuafacturer?
Basic Grey for paper right now. I just ordered the new stuff that came out at CHA [Craft & Hobby Association convention)!

I can’t get enough…
paper! I organize it several ways because I have so much of it. Printed stuff like Wild Asparagus, Basic Grey, Bohemia… collections I have a lot of… I separate by manufacturer. For solids, I have a hanging file cart. Then I have paper stacks from Joann that are in vertical storage. Scraps are in a big file box in ROYGBIV order under my desk. I make the boys sort my scraps!

Tell me about your first page.
In August 1996, I went to my first CM party. All my pictures from that first album are all cut up and corner-rounded and trimmed with trampy scissors. I look at it and cringe. Oh my God, the sticker sneeze! Lots of triangles all trimmed with nasty scissors, all different ones, no less. Not a square line in the bunch and now that’s all I do, square lines. I don’t have to show you THAT, do I? lol!

Besides the obvious gift that scrapping is for your family, why do you enjoy it?
It’s satisifes the frustrated artist in me. I took art all the way through High School. I loved it but was never very good. My two best friends were awesome and I wasn’t, and I wanted so badly to be as good as they were. So this satisfiues that desire for me. And it’s therapy. A couple of weeks ago, Chase asked me, ‘Mom, why do you scrapbook?’ I answered, ‘For the memories, of course, to remember you when you were just a little guy.’ Two or three days later he comes to me because he had to write an essay about testing for black belt. He needed to know dates and awards and such for the essay, and I said, ‘Just go get that scrapbook over there; it has all the info you’re looking for.’ He says ‘Mom, these books are wonderful!’ I replied, ‘AHHH! you found a purpose for them now!’ LOL!