How many....

Jill

Jill

Sugar Cookie : GingerScraps Praise Team
...of you have been here at Gingerscraps since the beginning 8 years ago? How did you find the site? What made you stay? If you came along later, how long have you been participating here. Tell me YOUR story.
According to Dani in her journaling challenge for September, it will be Gingerscraps 8th birthday this month which prompted me to wonder about YOUR GS journey.

By Dani: "In September, we celebrate our beloved community's 8th birthday. Yay!! Happy Birthday to all of us and congratulations to Ginger for making this place such a wonderful community and store. Let's get inspired by the community theme and scrap about it."

My story: I registered almost a year ago but have been active here only since January of this year, following up on a new year's resolution to get back into scrapping after a long and miserable hiatus during which I had decided scrapbooking was over for me after my digi home of many years closed down. I Googled and tried out several sites in my quest to find a comfortable "fit" I looked for a busy community, I looked for friendly and welcoming members, I looked for challenges where you didn't have to purchase a particular kit for a particular challenge (love that about GS!), I looked for ease of use in forums, galleries and store systems, I looked at the number of active members on different days, I looked for regular active forum and gallery participation, I looked for freebies so that I did not have to spend money on product before deciding which site suited me, I looked to see if LOs received any love in the gallery, and I looked and looked and looked in the stores to find product that I liked and that would suit the style of Los I like to create. I found Gingerscraps to be a very comfortable fit and then I found the Sugar Cookies ( or more truthfully, they found me:smile:) and now I am Home!

 I love Gingerscraps!
 
According to my profile my join date was 07-26-2009. At that time I was active at several other sites and a member at almost all that were around. I think my first site joined was in 2005 or so. As time went on many of my active sites closed. I kept finding myself taking up that void by spending more and more time here.
This is my digi home!
m:kisses
 
Ha! Michelle...we must have joined around the same time...I also joined in July 2009.

MY STORY...
I started digital scrapbooking around early 2008, while I recovered from breaking my back in November 2007. Paper scrapping was out of the question at the point!
I scrapped my own pages with other designers' kits...and it wasn't long before I started designing myself. And Twin Mom Scraps was born :)
Ginger Scraps was one of my earlier stores (though not my first). I remember applying the first time, but there weren't any openings. And I was really bummed. I ended up trying again later...and voila!
So I hung around GS as a designer for about 5 years or so? I took a break for a few years when I retired as a designer.
And here I am ...back again. No plans for me to start designing again, but I am really enjoying scrapping for fun again! And to be honest, GS was my first stop when I started back up again.
 
I started digital scrap in 2012 and discovered GingerScraps when I was in Luv Ewe Designs' team in 2013. you can see my join date
 
I believe I lurked here for a long while before joining up. I started digi in Dec of 2013 and shortly after that, Rachel invited me to be on her team. This was her home and I joined up to post layouts. Little did I know that I would be chatting on the boards and posting. Then as I got more comfortable, I decided to try out for the guest call here and then got invited to stay on. :)

This is the only forum I post on. :)
 
I've only been here as long as Rach (seatrout scraps) has been selling here. I am pretty quiet most of the time. But I love scrapping and I am loving being a part of the team.
 
My profile says I joined 6-10-11. I didn't really start digi scrapping until early 2012. I was on the CT for another store and JoyLynn of Blue Heart Scraps gave me a kit to work with, and my first LO was posted here 2-9-13. I love the people here at GS! It really is the friendliest forum I've been involved in!
 
I've only been here since this past March. As I mentioned when I joined this site, I was active in digital scrapbooking back in 2007 and early 2008, before Ginger Scraps came along. Then I suffered a concussion and had to stay off the computer for a long time. By the time I was able to use a computer again, I was busy with other hobbies.

Then this past February, one of our Sphynx cats was diagnosed with lymphoma, and I wanted to document his remaining time with us in photos and videos, and then I thought about getting back into digital scrapbooking again. I visited the sites that I used to be a member of, including one of the sites that I used to call "home" (I was on the CT for a couple of designers there, and was their equivalent of a sugar cookie, posting comments in the gallery). That old home wasn't as active as it had been, and the challenges were really not appealing. So I started to look around at more digital scrapbooking sites, and stumbled across Ginger Scraps. Several things appealed to me about Ginger Scraps: 1. Challenges where you actually earned something (i.e. a kit!) and that didn't require you to purchase a particular item in order to participate. 2. Comments posted in the gallery. 3. Seeing many different styles posted in the gallery, but also pages that were in "my" style. 4. A wide variety of designers whose work appealed to me. 5. Freebies (i.e. Welcome Wagon and challenge freebies) available to try out new designers before making a purchase. 5. Sales (like the Buffets).

I've been fortunate to join some wonderful designers' creative teams since I re-joined the scrapping world, and have an upcoming guest gig with another designer as well. I've greatly enjoyed seeing how much digital scrapbooking has changed between 2008 and now - the kits are much larger with fabulous elements, templates are much more intricate and many includes shadows, and there are many different styles and approaches to creating a page.

Oh, and I love that the Sugar Cookies aren't tired of seeing my Merlin layouts yet! :D
 
So loving this thread!! Thank you for starting it Jill :)

It's always so fun to read about how you found us and what kept you coming back.

GS would not be what it is without all of YOU! Our members make this corner of the web ROCK!!
:36_15_8::kisses:36_3_16:
 
Caylynn said:
Oh, and I love that the Sugar Cookies aren't tired of seeing my Merlin layouts yet! :D
Click to expand...

Love reading everyone's stories!! Caylynn, it is interesting to see that the things you like about GS are similar to those of my own...don't you just love that you can use any GS kit for the challenges (even retired ones if the designer is still selling at the site)???

I have been following Merlin's story with interest and amazement. He is such a fighter!!! I think we will all be very sad when his time comes.
 
Jill said:
Love reading everyone's stories!! Caylynn, it is interesting to see that the things you like about GS are similar to those of my own...don't you just love that you can use any GS kit for the challenges (even retired ones if the designer is still selling at the site)???

I have been following Merlin's story with interest and amazement. He is such a fighter!!! I think we will all be very sad when his time comes.
Click to expand...

Jill, we do like similar things about GS! I especially like being able to use any current GS designer's items for the challenges. Having to buy something special, just for a challenge, has pretty much zero appeal to me. Similarly, while I DO like completing challenges for the sake of getting some scrap pages done, the fact that I actually earn something for my effort prompts me to complete challenges that I might not otherwise have tried! If not for that, I would probably only do the template challenges (I'm a huge template junkie), and then just create the pages that I wanted to create, instead of trying to tailor something to the challenge. Well, I'd likely do some challenges to help promote the designers whose CTs I'm on, but I probably wouldn't try to get a full 10 done each month!

People have told us that Merlin was aptly named - he is a real magician! As I said in one of my layouts, though, we know there is no remission for his type of cancer, so we just take it day by day. Everyone tells us we'll know when it's time, and since he's still doing great, we'll enjoy however much time we have left. I'm just delighted he made it: 1. until his human, my husband, made it home after being deployed overseas, and 2. until I finished my graduate degree (which I still would have managed, but it would have been harder/more stressful).
 
GingerScraps said:
So loving this thread!! Thank you for starting it Jill :)

It's always so fun to read about how you found us and what kept you coming back.

GS would not be what it is without all of YOU! Our members make this corner of the web ROCK!!
:36_15_8::kisses:36_3_16:
Click to expand...
I would be really interested in hearing how the site was born, if you care to share, Ginger:)
 
My profile says I joined July 27, 2010. I LOVE it here. I have been on the GS CT team I think since then because I came with Kathy Winters. Gosh I really don't remember. I am really not all that active anywhere else simple because I was working on my Master's from 12-15 so I just didn't have time for anywhere else. I actually started digi scrapping in 2007, nearly 10 years ago! I have come a long way. I was picked up to be a CT member in 2009 I think and then it has snowballed since then. I have about all the responsibilities I can handle right now on the site team now. Definitely not looking to change anything.
 
What a great idea! I have enjoyed reading everyone stories.
I have been around GingerScraps since summer of 2010. I would bounce in and out of the forum, but always shop and use the gallery. Nearly weekly. I was on the praise team for about a year back in 2012 (I think), and have been blogging for GS for a year. One of these days I will weasel my way on the creative team.

I chose GingerScraps as my digi-home, because that is exactly how it feels. I felt welcome from the word go. The forum is always hopping, the challenges are great, the designers are friendly and not snobbish, and the community as a whole are fun and supporting. Not only does all the layouts in the gallery get comments, the ladies truly LOOK at your pages. A lot know my son's name without it even being on my layout. Just because they are that attentive.
 
I joined in October of 2012 when STS closed. I asked then where everyone was going because that was the only "Digi-home" I knew. I remember Kimberly from Leaving a Legacy sharing the link to Gingerscraps with me and I've been here every since. I joined a few other boards, but I've since left them because they just aren't home.
I was VERY Active when I first joined because I was a stay home mom and still married. However, my husband and I have divorced and I went back to work full time.... and now, I haven't been so active here lately since my hours have doubled at work. Thankfully this evening the boys are spending time with my parents and allowed me a few hours to pop on and say hello again!
 
I learned how to digiscrap from taking a class. I was tired of hauling all my craft stuff around. I looked for digiscrap sites, and I landed on two. The first one that I followed was great at first, but then... well, it turned into 20,000 angry women (as my husband calls it). It had so much dang drama, that I couldn't stand it. I just wanted to scrap. Then I found GS!

The people were so nice. The Drama Llama hadn't found this place, and I was so happy! I love that it really is the friendliest place on the planet. I continue to come back because it perfectly serves my needs : happy people, great products, beautiful LOs. Triple win!
 
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