I have already posted a bit, but let me make a formal introduction!!!
 

Hey There
My name is Sarah, and although I am not new to art, I am new to scrapbooking. I have been a working artist, *meaning people are silly enough to pay me for stuff* for nearly 13 years now. It started when I got married and realised that being a housewife was, when you got down to it......really boring.

So I cast about for things to do, first of all I went back to pen and ink, a medium I enjoyed very much when I was a young girl. Unfortunately I failed my art exams as I had no enthusiasm for drawing crumpled coke cans or rendering bars of chocolate with a bite taken out. On the other hand my tutor had no patience for my drawings of goblins, vampires, unicorns and dragons. So after school I didn’t pick up a pen again till I got older and needed to pass the time.

That led to teaching myself web design, until eventually I set about on digital medium with a trusty tablet and the three ring circus of my imagination as my guide. Funnily enough this took off and not only do I frequently paint digitally, I work with a variety of 3-D rendering programs, as well as for the past five years being heavily into photo manipulation...

So why scrapbooking, well I find at the grand age of 38 I now have a plethora of memories that I wish to preserve not just for me, but my family and my son. Some of these were sad memories, which I feel all the more need keeping.

My plans are to make small personal albums and books as presents using children’s board books, and also, hence why I am here, make a digital scrapbook that I can convert to PDF and have bound into a book.

Myself and my husband came to parenting late, it was a struggle, five and a half years of fertility treatment and IVF resulted in twins, one of which we sadly lost at 12 weeks. Then Jack was born, light of our life, until at four months he fell prey to meningitis. It was a rough time, and we all got through it thankfully. However we soon found that this was not without cost when Jack was diagnosed as Autistic just this year after many years of gruelling tests.

My son doesn’t speak, we don’t know if he ever will, however he IS very visual, and every day, every single thing he sees and does because he has a unique perspective, well it’s magical. This made me look into scrapbooking to preserve, and pin down these memories, and for something that maybe he can look back and and understand how very important he is to us, and how very much he is loved.

I start school next week, I always envisioned that I would when my son started school, I always thought it would be art. However life shows you the way sometimes and I found that my path is to work with children, so I am training to be a pre school teacher, with long sighted plans to be a play therapist for special needs children.

However art is still very much a part of my life, and I am hoping this community can take this special journey with me....

Also I have to say, I shamefully spent a ton in your shop today, but all the things are too nice natch!!!
Sarah

Welcome Sarah!!! I'd love to see some of your work! I know we have some other Autism mommas around here so you'll feel right at home :wub:

Thank you very much for the welcome, I apprecaite it, and I appreciate this great site, your store is amazing my poor hubby's wallet sure took a battering today, I can tell you :)

Here is a link to some of my paintings, phot mainpulations, and 3D work. I haven't posted them on the forums as they are large and also I don't like to force people to view my work if they don't want to.

A selection Of My Artwork

Top to bottom they are oldest to newest, the bottom the angel pic was completed 3 weeks ago for a lovely lady who needed graphics for a web site, as she makes jewellry the proceeds which she donates to Cancer Research.

I wish I had as much time to paint now, but sadly Jack hangs off my tablet arm and insists on helping with layers...bless him.

I am very happy to hear that there are other autistic mommies here, however I can fit in faster than a chicken in a maggot factory...

I am just one of those shy and retiring people, can't you tell <wink>

*hugs*

Sarah

Wow, Sarah! You are insanely talented!

Thank you for sharing your story with us. I hope you'll make yourself at home here with us. You've already got a great background and probably won't need much help getting started, but if you ever have questions, we're here to help you out!

Welcome! Thanks for introducing yourself and your art to us. I loved reading about you... You write very well!

Welcome!!! You are so talented and i can't wait to see what you can do with the designer's kits!

Welcome to SSD, Sarah!

Thank you all for the very warm welcome, I absolutely love crafty and art people, you are all so welcoming and friendly, gives me warm squishes to find people who are not only passionate about the same things I am, but are so lovely to boot.

Thanks for the compliments you are all too kind, I assure you it is all just practice and love, art of any form I find has a very swift devlopment curve, the more you do, the better you get.

And as digital scrappers you will relate to this, when I was younger, traditonal mediums were so exspenisve I found that I was very inhibited, so very worried I was of making a mistake and not only runing a piece of work, but wasting the materials as well.

When I found the digital medium, it was a huge creative boost for me, as everything could be redone, no wastage. This was very liberating and just the ability to be able to be more fluid and experimental helped me develop I am sure of it.

The only thing I would reccommend for anyone wanting to give digital drawing or painting a go is buy a tablet, doesn't have to be an exspenisve one, mine is a basic, no bells and whistles bargain basement and one lasted me ten years, even though I used to rest my hot coffee on it. I know naughty.

However you won't believe the difference it makes, *shudders*, drawing with a mouse, well you may as well try drawing with a bar of saop.

At the moment I am trying to make myself a digital scrap room and sort out a page size that I can easily do scrapbages on so that I can save them on PDF's to be published...

Tis all very exciting...I just wish I could stop looking at the store.....*grins*

*hugs*

Sarah

Hi Sarah, a fellow Brit here. Welcome to SSD :)

Welcome to SSD Sarah! :)

Welcome here!! Your art and your writing are brilliant. :) I cant wait to see what you create with your scrap goodies. Make sure you post in the gallery when you get time to create with them!

Welcome Sarah!!!

Hi Sarah! Your art work is beautiful!

Welcome Sarah. As you can see, I'm still new here myself but I am loving it and am sure you will, too. I am a teacher, so if you wanna gripe as you are going through the ed process, feel free! I think you will find that teaching, like mothering as you already know , is in itself a lot like an art form all its own. Welcome!

BTW, your art is very good. Love the one with the jars.

Welcome, welcome Sarah!