Gold Star – Corrie

Our newest gold star is not new to the Campus. Although she has been with us for over a year, she has been quite active in the forum since joining various activities and challenges.

Tell us a bit about you

Well as most of you already know, my name is Corrie Kinkel, I’m Dutch and had my 72nd birthday last April. I was born in Rotterdam and spend my youth there. For the last 48 years, I live with my husband in the south of the Netherlands. We have two children, a boy, and a girl, and 2 granddaughters. My son lives in a place about one and a half hours drive away, but my daughter is living abroad for 23 years now. First in Switzerland where the grandkids were born and now in America with her family. To keep fit I like hiking - nowadays it is more walking - and swimming.

How did you get to work with PSP?

I have always been doing some crafting or other; embroidery, knitting, sewing, lace making (with bobbins), making cards but funny enough no paper scrapbooking! Photography is something that I have always done; my father was a keen photographer and he used our bathroom as a darkroom to process his photos. Of course, it was black and white in those days. I remember sitting next to him as he developed his films, I was mesmerized by it. When I was 8 years old I got my first camera, a little Kodak Box. Then there came much more sophisticated ones, but these days I only use my phone. I have it always with me and can take a photo if I see something interesting on a walk. I buy my phones with the camera specifications in mind! Last year with all the Covid restrictions I took shots of flowers and this year it is wildflowers.

How did you get to join the Campus?

After three major hand surgeries, some crafts are no longer fun to do and I started more and more to use the computer for making cards. I had some software for it, but that did not get updated after Windows 95 and exists no more. I have been looking for something else and for a long time couldn’t find anything to my liking.

I take a lot of pictures and was looking for photo editing software and I choose PaintshopPro 2019 which was just out. I knew Paintshop from way back for making drawings. I get the Corel newsletter and followed some of their tutorials but struggled to make it work. In March 2020 there was an announcement for a Scrapbook Bootcamp hosted by Cassel and I recognized her name from an earlier tutorial! I decided to join and although I had no supplies at all, only my photos, I very quickly became an enthusiast! After that, I followed the Basic Scrap Course which gave me more understanding of how things were done and why. I have now gathered a big stash of products and fonts etc. My favorite project so far, but it is hard to choose, is the Double Take Challenge where I used a lot of my recent flowers photos. I like to have a theme to work within the challenges.

When I started I really was such a rookie but looking at the work of others has helped me enormously to get clear what I like and what not and it gives a lot of inspiration too. At the moment I’m trying to develop my own style. And the biggest change for me was to run my PSP not in Dutch in which it originally was installed, but in English. In this way, the tutorials and lessons are way easier to follow without having to translate all the time. I wish someone had told me that!!!

What do you enjoy in the Campus?

In the Campus, I got to know a lot of people from all over the world and everybody was so friendly and offered advice and the comments are always uplifting. Reading the comments and the tips about where to get a nice font or when there are templates for free has been very helpful in building my own stash. It is amazing how much supplies you can get for free in and outside the campus. It is such a nice community to be part of and I hope to do so for many years to come.

Can you share some projects you created?

Here is my first scrapbook page, created during the Scrap Bootcamp.

During the Calendar challenge, I showcased some photos I took, and here is my November page.

The Double Take challenge gave me the opportunity to showcase some great flowers photos.

This is a wordart created for one of the forum challenges, in May.

And here is my most recent project which also includes a great wordart made with PaintShop Pro

Now, it is time to check out the forum and see more projects posted by Corrie, and say hi to her!

Keep an eye out on our Calendar to know when our next Scrap Bootcamp will be held. If you want access to hundreds of tutorials, classes, and workshops, you can also join our DIAMOND membership.