Some International Love :)

Flattered beyond belief by brazilian scrapbookers...

http://cincoabelhas.blogspot.com/2010/07/irma-peredne-abelhas-daqui-abelhas-de.html

Not too long ago, I was contacted by Bi Medeiros of the brazilian scrapbooking designers' site Five Bees. She requested an interview with me as their chosen 'designer that inspires us'.

To say that I was shocked, humbled, and flattered beyond belief is an understatement :D

On most days I am satisfied with the scrapbooking work that I do, and to some degree I expect that my family, friends and close-knit community of lithuanian scrappers support and encourage me in my creative endeavors. However, when you get an invitation of such magnitude, it's just too much ego stroking :D 

So....Thank you! Bi Medeiros and the Five Bees ladies! You have made my day (week and month too ;)

***** ***** *****

Here are the interview questions that Bi Medeiros presented me with, and my answers:

1) How do you think your European heritage influences your scrapbooking?

It provides me with a deeper well of experiences and life events to draw upon when I tell my stories on scrapbook layouts. The beginning 11 years of my life lived in a communist impoverished Lithuania, were a stark contrast to the more material comforts of United States. Still, I feel a bond to my native country, and often question whether this was my destiny to immigrate to USA, as this move was chosen for my by my parents. 

I feel spiritually and emotionally uprooted to some degree even today. I vividly remember my life there, yet at times it sits in my imagination like a dream. Scrapbooking about my early life in my native country gives my memories roots. It is a visual reminder that I lived there, and those experiences were real.

The positives of coming to USA, were that I have met more culturally diverse people here, and as a result a bit of different cultures and their style seeps into my scrapbook pages.

2) Your journaling is a very strong part of your layouts. How do you fit it in your creation process?

Honestly, journaling just flows out of me, in a similar manner as in the answer to question above (I really had to cut myself off from writing a longer answer). In writing the answer, I kept repeating to myself Bi Medeiro's request for a "quick interview" Ha ha!

My journaling is the last step I do on a page. Usually I give myself a confined space, be it a tag, a journaling block, or something similar. When space is limited I am forced to stop writing. That's a good thing, because I can write paragraphs on the beauty of eyelashes :D

Some stories are very important to record in length, then I type a document and slip it in an album's page protector behind the layout. I usually place a "pull' tab on top of the document so that I, and the reader will know that there's hidden journaling behind the layout.

3) Which materials and techniques are you most into now?

Sewing and stitching on my pages will always be present. I love texture and hand-made details. 

I'm always trying new techniques and styles, so much that I have a difficult time defining my scrapbooking style. Today I termed my eclectic scrapbooking style as MPDS (Multiple Personality Disorder Style) :D

Lately I have been more brave in using bold colors for my work (for example my layout Delivery x2). No doubt it has been influenced by the brazilian scrapbooking community ;) I may be generalizing with this statement, but I've noticed the bright, colorful, and optimistic palette in many of the brazilian pages. It is just as I have observed the brazilian culture: lively, vivacious, colorful and happy. In contrast to the lithuanian scrapbooking community, whose work taken as a whole, tends to be more somber, muted, and restrained in color choice. That was a realization for me--that a person's culture has such a profound impact even on the colors that one chooses for their pages.

Thanks for this interview!

Irma Peredne