About

I began creating art at a very young age and have always been interested in using unconventional items in my artwork.  It started with paints, stamps (real old postage stamps, no less!), parts of old greeting cards and other "found items". 

I can remember making my very first "scrapbook" when I was about 9 or 10.  I used one of those hardbound large "photo books" with the black pages...remember them?  With glue (or maybe it was paste?) in hand, I added my  and other precious items to the pages...many a Spirograph creation and Spin Art projects adorned the pages in my book. 

I also included things like the last birthday card my Grandfather ever signed on his own...he passed when I was just 11 years old.  I remember spending hours and hours either creating ART or looking through my special book.  Where is it now????  I'm afraid through way to many moves during my life, it must have been left behind...but the memories that were in that book still live in my mind:)

After taking some time off while raising my children, I quickly got back into my ART, first with scrapbooking and card making.  Before long, I was teaching and sharing my passion for creating with the students who took my classes.  To this day, teaching others to do what I have discovered is one of my greatest joys.

Having been very frugal all my life, I became quickly became known as the "Frugal Scrapper".  My classes always included ways to stretch our crafting dollar, and I have been fortunate enough to have taught hundreds of students on both on the east and west coasts.

Now, I didn't just teach alternative and inexpensive ways to create art, I also taught students to stretch their imagination with the products they did buy.  There are so many awesome crafting products on the market, and learning multiple and sometimes unconventional ways to use them, helps justify the up front cost.

A few years back, I took a break from my 20+ year banking career (yes, can you believe that my "alter ego" was a banker?).  I definitely feel my brain I've given my brain a great workout all these years...right brain/left brain, you know?

Anyway, I went back to school...starting out as an Accounting major since it seemed so "responsible", lol...and quickly found that once I completed a few accounting courses, an English course, and 2 semesters of what I call kindergarten Spanish (because it would have much easier to learn if I had been 5 rather than 50), I found that I was slowly migrating to all ART classes...first Photoshop, then InDesign, and after that, a guitar class, digital photography and a Design & Color class.

My Design & Color class introduced me to the amazing world of Mixed Media.  I found that when our class went on field trips to art museums, I just couldn't pull myself away from the Mixed Media ART I saw.  I would just stare and stare, wanting to take in every nook and cranny of each piece.  I could look at a piece for hours and still find a hidden treasure I hadn't already noticed.am very passionate about sharing what I learn with others.  And the texture....ahhhhh, the texture....I wanted to touch every piece....although that wasn't a great idea, of course...as these were art museum quality pieces.

So what's a frugal, artsy girl to do, you might ask?  Well, start creating my own mixed media ART, of course:)  Please feel free to visit My ART page on this blog to see some of my most recent work.

In the last few years, I have added teaching Mixed Media ART to my resume, and feel very blessed to have met some AMAZING people along the way and look forward to continuing my journey of discovery and teaching for years to come.

My Artwork has been published in several on-line magazines and has been hung in local scrapbooking stores in southern California.

Feel free to e-mail me at frugalscrapper1@aol.com or herartisfilledwithlove@gmail.com if you are interested in getting information about my upcoming classes.  Please also feel free to e-mail me with questions you have about my work.  If I have an answer for you, I'm happy to share it or let you know about an upcoming class that will teach you the technique you are questioning.

My last thoughts....THANK YOU so much for visiting my site, feel free to leave a comment to let me know you've been by, try to CREATE ART every day, and "leave the light on for ART, 'k?