Gold Star – Paige

This month's Gold star is a fairly recent student of the Campus, and although she enjoys what is in the Campus, is not specifically a scrapbooker. I guess she is another great example of the power of Paintshop Pro when it comes to graphic projects in a wider context.

Can you tell us a bit about you?

Hello, my name is Paige. I am 47 years old and live in beautiful Northern Utah at the base of the majestic Mt. Ben Lomond. I am married, 29 years, to a wonderful man who obliges my plethora of hobbies, emotionally and thankfully, financially. I have five kids; two human, ages 27 and 25, and three animals, two dogs and a cat. No grandbabies, yet, but I am anxiously awaiting that beautiful day. All of the above keep me very happy and very busy in life.

As for those hobbies, they have always been mostly crafty. I began with sewing and crocheting at a very young age, taught by my grandmother. Most of my memories of her are those spent with a needle and thread. My mother was a single mother who worked A LOT to support my older brother and I, so most my weekends and free time as a child was spent with grandparents. My grandpa was significant as well, as he was a large-scale gardener. The produce that came from his gentle, loving care was always put to good use by preserving and canning almost everything that came out of the garden. That skill was also passed on to me, and we too grow a garden every year as I don’t know how to end my summers without weeks of harvesting.

Sewing is still a large part of my life. Right out of high school, I got a job working for Catalina Swimwear as a seamstress (I don’t think that’s the politically correct term for them anymore, but still consider myself a seamstress nonetheless). I absolutely LOVED that minimalistic, piece-work job. I learned so much about garment-making and it still is a passion of mine. I am so very fortunate that every one of my family members loves and will actually wear anything and everything I create for them. Lately, my sewing machines create mostly doggie wear; hats, PJs, and coats.

Another hobby is Dollhouse Miniatures. I’ve always loved dolls, and as an adult, creating real-life homes and housewares in tiny scale thrills me. After a move about 10 years ago, having carefully and delicately packed away my hobby, I just haven’t had the space to unpack it all. It is still a huge interest, but not on the burner currently. I keep telling my kids that if anything should happen to me, THAT STUFF IS WORTH A FORTUNE. 😉  I just don’t want them to ever dispose of my china (in tiny scale).

Currently, I am stuck to a computer and love my digital arts, both 3D and anything PaintShop. Not physically stuck, but habitually stuck. I love, love working with anything graphic and digital.  I would still love to take some courses related to graphic arts, but online learning seems to be working very well.

Sadly, I would LOVE to be making an income with my hobbies, but just can’t find that ‘IN’. Sewing has never been profitable as the fabric is too expensive and people just don’t appreciate the time that goes into making a garment or a quilt. Wal-Mart prices just can’t be beat by handcrafted items.

About 10 years ago, I created some textures for some 3D clothing and furniture that sold on Renderosity.com, but as I was dealing with some medical issues that halted that for quite some time. I feel greatly behind in trend and technology. Which brings me up to the present time… I am re-invigorated with those digital and graphic arts, hence, Scrapbook Campus!

How did you get to work with PSP?

My experience with PSP goes back to somewhere around 1997-98??. I don’t remember which version I began with. I was managing a medical transcription company and was making cute folders and work envelopes for our home-based transcriptionists. They would have to travel to our office to pick up work (before digital dictation when everything was on microtapes.) I wanted to personalize and decorate all their gear to transport the tapes and reports. That’s where it all started.

Of course, everything bloomed from there, as I scoured the internet for ideas and tutorials on how to create art. I was not gifted the creative art skill and cannot draw or paint anything… not even a rock or a bedroom wall to my liking. So, what I could create with PSP was so incredibly delicious to me. Somehow, through my searching I found scrapbooking. I was AMAZED with the things I was seeing. Back then I could fill up two or three external hard drives with all the stuff I was buying and downloading. The weird thing was, because there weren’t a lot of tutorials out there for PSP, I was downloading stuff to open the work to see if I could visually see how things were being created. (I still have this habit as of this day.)  For a while it seemed most of the scrapbooking community was using Adobe PS Elements. I bought it back then and just couldn’t switch my brain over to it; I was too comfortable with my PSP.

After a while, I noticed people using Poser and DAZ3D to render some of their elements to transparent backgrounds, giving them more of a 3D look or realistic look to things.  Then, I was taken to even another huge world of digital art.  I got all stocked up on the Poser and DAZ software and went to town. Amazingly, I was still using PSP and scrapbooking techniques for almost everything I was doing in those programs from production to post work. After my little hiatus from things, I jumped right back into finding tutorials for little things, even though I wasn’t really ‘scrapbooking’. It seemed there was A LOT more online to view the second time around.

I am currently working on 3D human skin textures. I am trying to get them to be ultra-realistic with the techniques learned in PSP. Back in 2005-6, I had a subscription to a Human Photo Reference site (3d.sk) and downloaded hundreds of human anatomy photos to ‘skin’ my 3D models. Luckily, I saved all those downloads on CD and recently dug up all that gold for use again. I say gold because it is totally unaffordable to me today, as their prices are scary. Obviously, people are doing much the same as I, and the monopoly on high resolution human photos is in demand.  Also, the 3D models and templates have changed drastically and learning to skin again has me hooked.

Unfortunately, I haven’t put anything online to share for progress/production in the 3D world, as it is still just on my drafting table so-to-speak. My DAZ3D gallery was removed after years of inactivity and I don’t have any of my old, first works. I did find two sets of textures I created from 2006 and recently rendered them in DAZ. They are on my small, recent little gallery at daz3d.com here.

How did you get to join the Campus?

I found Scrapbook Campus through Cassel’s Store. If I remember correctly, I was searching the internet for PSP scripts and found her store. In linking to the Campus, I was SO excited at all the TUTORIALS I had been searching the internet for, for years and years! I browsed for a couple days and then just knew I had to be a Diamond Member so I could have access to as much information as possible. Oh, I was, and still am, in 7^th HEAVEN!

What I love most about the Campus is that it is updated with new information all the time. Although I’ve been using PSP for so long, I am amazed at how much I truly DON’T know. I am constantly learning something here.

The next best thing, which is just as good as the first, is Cassel’s instruction and involvement in the Campus! I love how she has made herself available for any questions people have. I am also so amazed with all the activities and challenges she creates for the students and members of the Campus. She is not only a BOSS when it comes to the Campus, but I’ve also noticed that she is very active in the PSP/Corel Groups as well. She just must be a true asset to Corel in general, and her sites here, Scrapbook Campus and CreationCassel.com are truly an asset to me.

Can you share some projects you created?

Sure. Here are two pages I created for the Calendar Challenge, last December, in the Campus:

This one is a page made based on The Lab, module 5-09.

Finally, this one is Daz3D Render where I did all the textures.

Thanks everyone, for taking the time to read my long rambling. It isn’t too often I am able to share my Digital Loves with anyone. Especially, Thank you to Cassel for asking me to participate in this special honor.