Announcing New Designer: Rachel Martin!

I'm really excited to announce that today we have another designer joining the DigitalScrapbook.com team! If you've been around DigitalScrapbook.com for a bit, I'm sure you've seen Rachel's designs in the Commons, through the blog train, or seen her in the forums answering questions. I've always been a big fan of her layouts too, and I'm really pleased that she's joining the ranks of the DigitalScrapbook.com designers today.

Adding a few new designers to our team has been a big focus of our our DigitalScrapbook.com 2020 "Reboot" (along with improving DigitalScrapbook.com by adding a number of new features based on user feedback). I'm pleased to say that with Rachel Martin coming on board, we have now added three new designers to our team in the first three months of 2020!

▼ One of my favorite layouts from Rachel.

▼ One of Rachel's kits from the Commons.

Here's a little bio from Rachel:

I'm Rachel and I'm excited to be here and to introduce myself. I've always had a thing for creative arts. As a child I was always working on some elaborate project from making my own doll furniture from household items to writing and illustrating short fantasy stories to creating and designing paper mache' masks. In high school I flourished in all of the art classes I chose as my electives, with ceramics being my favorite. I also enjoyed performing arts and was very active in my school theatre troupe, I even worked enough hours to earn an induction into the International Thespian Society. After graduation I had my first son at the age of 19, in 1999. I actually started paper scrapping this same year when a friend of a friend who sold Creative Memories products had a home party and I attended. The bug definitely bit me hard. I dove in swiftly and voraciously, but after about a year or so it was becoming rather cumbersome and expensive for me to continue, both because of space limitations and time restraints with being a young new mom, who was also working outside the home. My scrapbooking was put on hiatus. Several years later, after getting married, buying a house and having 3 more children, in 2006, when my youngest was a newborn, I discovered digital scrapbooking on a forum at the parenting website I had frequented for years, Babyzone. They actually had a
scrapbooking forum that I just happened to wander into, and in that forum was a sub forum for digital. This was so intriguing, as I was now working from home, watching my nieces and a family friend's daughter, and had recently gotten a computer. It was within a few weeks that I had saved up some money and purchased Photoshop Elements, the rest, as they say, is history.

When I started scrapbooking, at times, if I couldn't afford new digital supplies (because in those early days I mainly only downloaded
freebies, as I had very little discretionary income) or couldn't find a needed element in my stash, I was slowly teaching myself how to make things in PSE, then eventually even making small kits, and finally fully designed kits. I was able to get hired on at several digital scrapbooking stores. For personal reasons, I eventually went on a hiatus again in 2010 during a divorce, returning to the game here at DigitalScrapbook.com back in 2016! I started with just scrapbooking, again. I eventually applied to the Commons, and I've been doing that for quite some time now and really love it! Then in December of 2019, Marisa and Jordan invited me to join the design team here at DigitalScrapbook.com! I was thrilled, I am so happy and proud to call this my designing home!

I currently live in Westerville, Ohio, a medium sized city just north of Columbus. I live with my fiancee, Roy. My 3 youngest children also stay
with us half of the time, a daughter, 18, a son, 15, and another daughter, 14. Roy's three sons as well, are also there half of the time, they are 11, 10, and 9. My oldest son, 20, and his fiancee made me a grandmother in November 2019, to a sweet little boy, and they live very close by. We have a large active family, and I love them all very much! When I'm not doing family things or scrapbooking/designing, I am an absolute foodie and a TV and film aficionado! I also love live theatre and concerts and to see live bands as well as trying as many local restaurants as I can along the way! I may or may not be a Harry Potter/Wizarding World addict. My dream is to move into the Wizarding World at Universal Studios, Florida, someday, and reside in Hogsmeade in my retirement years. Another fun fact, I have a nutrition degree that I have never used professionally! For my day job, Monday through Friday, I am on the management team at a preschool/daycare, in July
2020, it will be 10 years. And that is all just a little bit about me! I am looking forward to designing again, and getting to know you all a little
better as time goes on.

Please help me welcome Rachel to the team by leaving a comment below!