A Scrapper You Should Know!

Charlene O'Hara

We were thrilled when Char agreed to be our very first featured scrapper! For those of you that know Char, I am sure you will agree that she is one special lady - full of love with a wonderful sense of fun and exuberance about her! For those of you that don't know her yet - read on to learn more about Char then be sure to check out her blog: http://mom2jwo.blogspot.com

Here Charlene is pictured with her husband Sean and their son Jonah :)

How and when did you first start scrapbooking?
I started the same way many others did - seeing someones Creative Memories album. I signed up for a beginner class and bought the full kit that night. I knew it would not be a waste. This was about 6 or 7 years ago.

What is the most important aspect to scrapbooking to you?
Hands down it is capturing the moments and journaling about them. I love that you can look thru a scrapbook and know the story as opposed to having the photos stuck in an album with no story attached to it. There have been many times I have looked in someones photo album of their last trip, but had no idea what the pictures were really about. Scrapbooking gives you the opportunity to share those memories and keep them preserved as they should be.

What are your favorite pages to work on?
My favorite pages to work on always surround Jonah, our 5 year old son. He is such a character and full of life. I love capturing his personality in my scrapbooks and I want him to be able to look back in the scrapbook and see his childhood moments. I tend to take a lot of photos in the fall because it is my favorite season.

What, if anything, do you find hard to scrap?
This will sound weird, but I can't scrap anything that is based on a sketch! LOL. For some reason sketches freak me out. But I have enrolled in the Sketchapalooza class so I KNOW that will be fixed and I have been warned that I will end up a Sketchaholic! I have done 3 sketches - even blogged about it because it was so exciting - so I am on my way. I also have a hard time scrapbooking anything girlie. Because I have a boy and a HUGE distaste for the color pink, I used to find it hard to scrapbook anything feminine, but Jayne helped me get over that with her Embellish It class, challenging me to use flowers on a page! I loved it and now I have a bunch of prima flowers.

What kind of camera do you use? Do you love it or hate it?
My camera is a Canon G9. It was a gift from a very good (and generous!) friend of mine. I lalalaLOVE it!! I am still learning how to really use it, but I just love the versatility.

What do you enjoy most about scrapbooking?
Re-living the moment! I love the feeling of finishing a page and seeing how great the moment was and showcasing it in my album - forever. Scrapbooking also challenges me to be creative and thanks to Feeling Scrappy's classes, help me step outside the box. I also get to "meet" a lot of fantastic and talented scrapbookers!!

Tell us a little about your family.
I am married to the most amazing man, Sean. We have been together for 14 years, married 11 years. I know this sounds like a cliche, but we are more in love today than the day we walked down the aisle. He is my best friend and although we are COMPLETE opposites, we make a great team. We have 1 son named Jonah. He is quite the character and makes me laugh everyday. He reminds us of our childhoods and lets us re-live it thru his excitement and drive. He is our blessing. I am also very lucky to have wonderful parents who are so young at heart and always there for us regardless of the need. I have 1 sister named Dawn who is a wonderful mother to my 2 nephews - James, 12, the cool skater guy and Ryan 16, the football star. I have often referred to them as "My boys" which has made many think I have 3 boys! LOL. My family is very close and I am very lucky to have them in my life.

Tell us about the things outside of scrapbooking that you enjoy.
I enjoy spending time with my family, watching Jonah play at a park, taking discovery walks in the local greenspace to see what gross things Jonah can find - boys and their bugs, UGH! Just living life to the fullest.

Tell us something about yourself that your Feeling Scrappy friends do not know.
I asked my friends who I met first thru message boards then met IRL later what they realized about me. They said - I am the type of person who wears her heart on her sleeve, shows affection publicly and doesn't hold back ANYTHING. And that is true. I also have a huge fear of spiders. If I see a spider in my bedroom, I will have Sean kill it and then I will sleep downstairs on the couch!

Here are two of Char's favorite pages.