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10 Questions with Cathy Zielske, Art Director for Simple Scrapbooks Magazine
 Cathy Zielske is the art director for Simple Scrapbooks magazine, and a contributing art director for Digital Scrapbooking magazine. She also works on the Simple brand's books and special issues.
As a scrapbooker, she helped to usher in the trend of clean, graphic layout design. She is the author of the best-selling books, Clean&Simple Scrapbooking, and Clean&Simple Scrapbooking: The Sequel. Both books inspire women to take a fun, well-designed and guilt-free approach to telling their stories through scrapbooking. Cathy also reaches scrapbookers through her popular blog, Bits&Pieces, found at cathyzielske.typepad.com. A native of Everett, Wash., Zielske lives quite happily in St. Paul, Minn., with her husband, daughter and son, where she is a big fan of potato chips, Crowded House and stretch denim. - In 2007 you published the wonderful book, Clean and Simple Scrapbooking - The Sequel, which was a follow-up to an earlier book. Any plans for another book? (and, if so, when will it be released?)
As of today-sigh-there are no plans for another book. But you know what they say! (Wait...what do they say? Is it ‘never say never' or, ‘don't throw the baby out with the bathwater'?) I would say not to hold one's breath for a third book, lest one become dangerously short of, well, breath.
- This year you are going to be teaching a class for Big Picture Scrapbooking. Will you tell us about that class and what students might expect?
The class is going to be called "Design Your Life" and it's going to be a 12-week, intensive little design workshop for scrapbookers. I haven't taught a class in a long, long time, so I'm pretty much planning to sink every egg I have into this basket. (I'm really full of lame metaphors, today. Bear with me!) But, it's going to be the last three months of this year. More details will be available soon!
- You've been scrapping quite a while. Do you scrapbook as much these days as you have in previous years? If more or less, why is that?
I hardly scrapbook at all, and believe me, there are days when it makes me sad, only because I love this hobby, and I miss it. But, I think sometimes, working in the industry as I do for Simple Scrapbooks, at the end of the day, I'm sort of wanting to get away from my work, even though my work really doesn't involve scrapbooking proper. I anticipate a scrap renaissance in my not-too-distant future.
- How has your perspective on scrapping changed since you started?
Not really. I mean, I still think it's the coolest way to document life experience. It's creative. It's personal. It's wide open. What more can you ask of a hobby?
- Has scrapbooking changed the way you view your own "history"? That is, has recording your family's memory changed the way your live your everyday life?
Absolutely. I mean, it's made me realize that anything I put down for posterity will be there for me, and my kids, and their kids and so on. I think it'll be cool if there are three or four generations down the road that get a really great slice of what their ancient relatives lives were like in 2008, you know? And it does serve to remind me that life is short and I need to live it as fully as I possibly can.
- When you sit down to do a layout, do you start with photos, journaling or design?
Lately, when I have been scrapbooking, which right now, is really only for my "About Design" column in Simple, I've been starting with photos, which isn't the way I usually do it. I usually start with the journaling. But hey, who wants to do anything the same way day in and day out?
- Where, if anywhere, do you turn for inspiration and what do you do to overcome "scrapper's block"?
When I get blocked, I just don't scrapbook. Seriously. Lately though, inspiration comes in the form of happy discoveries. For example, I recently saw a project by my sweet friend Emily Falconbridge, who made a gratitude journal from scraps. I was so inspired by it, I had to make one. Like, now. It seems that when I'm not looking for it, inspiration is every where. Does that make any sense?
- Do you have more or less supplies in your closet than one year ago? In other words, do you purge or hoard?
I purge. I really do. Because you can only have so much stuff. Especially if you're me, and you barely put anything on your pages. I won't lie...my dining room looks like a scrapbook store, but still, I try my best to spread the love of supplies with all my friends and family.
- You are known for pioneering a simple scrapbooking style and frequently the only products used on your layouts are cardstock, adhesive, and pen. What brands of cardstock, adhesive, and pen do you most frequently use?
I'm a Bazzill cardstock girl, I can't lie. My current favorite adhesive is Kokuyo scrapbooking adhesive, repositionable, and my pen? The classic Zig Writer. What more does one need?
- What part of scrapbooking do you feel is the most important: the photos, the story, or the product?
The story. Always the story. The ability to share stories makes us human. It's how we share who we are and what we believe and how we fit into the world. It's how we connect. The photos are a wonderful icing.
- Finally, an extra 11th question on a topic near and dear to my heart and interests - how do you find all your hip music?
As my nearly 11-year-old daughter always likes to say: I'm just cool like that. (I am JOKING, sort of...) I just keep my ears and eyes open. It SURE doesn't come from the radio these days, save for a few great public radio stations. But, the Internet and YouTube are great places to find new music. As are the readers of my blog! They send me the BEST tips. Seriously. All I know is music is the most brilliant art form out there, for me, as a consumer of form. I try to get as much as I can, every single day.
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