Digital Elite Team – Spotlight on  Samara Gugler – aka Luv2crop

I joined DSP and started digital scrapbooking all on the same day, December 29, 2004.   At that time I hadn't scrapped a page in almost 5 months.  I thought of myself as a paper scrapper with an endless supply of goodies surrounding me, but the truth was I was finding paper scrapping getting more and more expensive.   I didn't realize that digital scrapbooking was just like paper scrapbooking without the expense and without the mess.  I created page after page with many of the freebies offered here at DSP. I was hooked, totally hooked.  Digital scrapbooking offers me something that paper scraping cannot.   At my core, I am a geek.  I was finally able to be what I have always wanted, a computer geek artist. 

Art is something that I've always been passionate about, if I'm not creating, I'm a very icky person to be around!!!  The creating process for me can be very diverse.   I might be working on a card, a handmade book, cross-stitch, or a digital scrapbook page.   Each of the various crafts I do has evolved as a result of rubber stamping.  That was my first passion.   Rubberstamping evolved to scrapbooking, scrapbooking to digital scrapbooking.  I won't lie to you and say that's all.   I went through a sewing stage too, where I taught myself how to sew and completed several outfits for myself and quilts for my newborn son!  Scrapbooking though, has remained a constant.  At this time I've been scrapbooking in some form for nearly 10 years. 

I have been interested in design concepts since I enrolled in Mr. Gill's design class in my sophomore year of high school.  I learned color theory, design placement, rule of thirds, etc.   When I create a page, those design principles are whispering "Put it here not there, use this color instead of that, don't forget about the rule of three."   Design is something that is natural for me, as I've been using it for nearly 20 years!   On a side note, recently I emailed Mr. Gill and he followed the link to my scrapbook pages, he was quite pleased of the artist I've become! 

Last April when I saw that DSP was running a contest for a design team,  I jumped for joy!  I figured that I'd try out and if I didn't get on the team, I'd try out again.   At the time we were on vacation and had come home for literally 12 hours before beginning our next journey.  I uploaded my layouts, and crossed my fingers.  I had no computer access for the entire time the contest was going on, I never saw what the "competition" was doing.  We came around midnight on the night the contest was announced.  I logged on and sat there in silence, I had won.   I couldn't believe what I was reading, I had won.  I then started screaming, "OH MY GOSH, I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  My husband yelled at me to shut up as I'd wake up the sleeping kids, then asked what on Earth did you win?  I explained and he was happy, but honestly he didn't understand. 

Being on the DET has been such a terrific experience.   I feel like I've made such wonderful friends.   I often study the layouts created by the other DET's.  I look at their design, their color choice, I take it all in.  The DET is a HUGE inspiration to me.