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Friday 1 August 2014

Meet Ms. August

Suzi McKenzie is our Ms. August.

1. Brief info about yourself, including your name, where you live, your family (if you want), etc.
My name is Suzanne McKenzie, but everyone calls me Suzi, I live in Aberdeen, Scotland with my husband Stewart and our three cats, Alice, Dotty, and Sophie.

August is a very special month for me as I celebrate both my birthday and wedding anniversaries in August. This year it's two biggies being my 40th Birthday and 10th Wedding Anniversary.  I no longer work due to various health problems including Fibromyalgia and anxiety, so my time is my own.  When I'm feeling well enough, I love to create and you'll find me in my craft room, usually at the computer having a sneaky game on Facebook!

2. How long have you been stamping and/or crafting?

I've always been into arts and crafts, loving drawing and painting from an early age. I was also lucky enough to have a grandmother who taught me to knit and crochet.  I studied Art and Design at college but gave up my studies due to health problems.  I got into card making about 12 years ago when I started planning my wedding and could not find any wedding stationary I liked, so I made my own.  That's when I discovered my local craft shop and Ebay and got addicted to pretty papers, flowers, embellishments, and all the wonderful goodies that accompany them.

3. What are your favorite Bombshell sets and why?
I love the style of all the Bombshell sets, so choosing one favourite is nearly impossible.  I adore roses, so any of the Bombshell sets that features roses are right at the top of my list of favourites.

4. What kind of projects do you like to do?
I like to make cards, tags, ATCs, wall Hangings, Altered Art, Mixed Media Pieces.  I love to experiment and try new products and techniques. I'll try anything once.

5. What are your favorite coloring mediums?

My favourite colouring medium of all time is coloured pencils. Unfortunately due to problems with my hands, I find I can't use them very often, but they will always be my first love.  A few years ago, I discovered alcohol markers, which I tend to use most of the time now. I love being able to layer the colours and how beautifully they blend together. They are much kinder on my hands too, so I get to create more than before I discovered them.  I also have lots of fun playing with inks, pastels, and paints.

6. Describe your crafting "style".

My crafting style is pretty unique. I think the one thing all my work has in common is colour. I love using colour, usually quite bright and intense colours. I love getting contrast and texture into my creations.  I love sparkly, glitter embellishments, along with ribbon, tape, and gems.  As I love to colour, the majority of my projects will have a hand-coloured image as its focal point

7. Describe your crafting process. Do you start with a stamp set? A sketch? A technique you want to use?
Most of the time I start with an image, which I'll stamp and colour.  Then I'll either pick out papers to coordinate with my image or create my own backgrounds using stamps and embossing folders.  Sometimes I'll use a sketch for my layout, but most of the time I just play around with my card elements until I get inspired. Sometimes I'll have a die I want to use with a certain image and that will pretty much dictate my project's layout.  I also love to create scenes and tell a story with my projects.

8. Do you have any other hobbies?
I love listening to music, playing puzzle games, and Sci-fi Fantasy films. I'm not much of a reader, but love films, so we have a nice widescreen TV and vast DVD collection in our living room so we always have something to watch.

9. Free for all including little facts, etc. about you.
I'm a night owl, it's not unusual for me to stay up most of the night finishing a project.  I'm also very last minute when it comes to creating, not something I particularly like, but I tend to get my best ideas when I'm pushed for time. I guess I need that bit of stress to get my creative mojo going.  My favourite colour is pink, the brighter the better.  My favourite flowers are roses.  My favourite animals are cats and elephants.

Now that you've learned more about Ms. August, here's some of Suzi's artwork!




Be sure to check out Suzi's blog for more inspiration!

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