Meet Brandy Cumberland!

Each month we will feature one of our talented members!



This month we'd like you to meet Brandy Cumberland of Houston, TX. She is a very talented scrapper with a great style and unique ideas!


Let's get to know you! Tell us a little about yourself.
I live in Houston, TX with my awesome 3 year-old son Dylan and my snarky, funny husband, Jason. I'm always trying to figure out what is next for me -- I quit banking to be a 12th grade IB English teacher and I quit that to be a SAHM last year...next up is grad school for English while Dylan is in preschool and then back to the classroom I go!! Family is big with us -- as kids of divorce we have like four sets of parents between us and we see them all the time. I have lots of opinions on the world around us and I am open with them, but I *try* to always respect the other side too. Other than that, we're just always looking for a good time and a reason to laugh.

Besides scrapping, what do you do for fun?
I am a huge television and tabloid junkie -- it's hard to find shows or scandals I am not up to date on. I'm on the internet all the time and I use that to fuel my other interests like photography, politics, reading and gossip.

Fave food/drink?
I could live on refined carbs. If I had the metabolism to do it, I would live on Chili's and candy, but instead it's Diet Coke and low carb fudgsicles. Wah.

You think of some really fun things to scrap. What inspires you?
I just try to build a life for my family and friends where we don't take things too seriously and my scrapping just reflects that. It's a combination of my lack of maturity and a sense of humor about the good and the bad things in life. I am inspired by the laugh I get at the time being silly, the laugh I make when I scrap that memory and then the amusement of my online buddies when they see it.

You really seem to have a knack for putting together fun color combinations. What process do you have for choosing the color combos you use on your pages?
Um...just grab. Don't feel obligated to stick to one line of papers and their embellies. Plus, I am usually working off of some challenge or sketch and that usually sends me off in some fun direction.

Let's talk titles. I love the titles you come up with for your layouts! They are always different and very clever. Where do you get your ideas for them?
I had to actually go back and look at some to answer that. I think that that's just the way I talk, and really I try to shy away from the one word titles like "miracle," "lovely," and so on. They work for so many scrappers, but they don't capture my life or my family the way they capture the lives of other scrappers. Too often someone is naked, silly or just plain crazy in photos and "perfect" isn't usually the title that pops into my head.

You recently started digi scrapping. How does it compare to using paper, glue, and scissors in your book? Which do you prefer?
It doesn't really compare, they're like two completely different hobbies. Digi feels more like graphic design, it puts me in a totally different direction with my projects. I've found that since learning digital I am doing more gifts, not so worried about making ornate, unique designs. I don't mind cheating here or there with my digi designs whereas with my paper scrapping, the design is a lot more sacred. That feels like art, like a creative masterpiece that shows off who I am a person and the things that are most special to me. I love the utility of digi, but I still love the inefficient, time and product consuming art that is scrapbooking.

Finish the sentence:

I feel most creative when I can spread my junk from one end of the room to the other, when my Thickers and paper packs runneth over, and when I've just gotten a USPS box with more goodies from Erica. That's when I am ready to roll...