10 Questions with Courtney Walsh

From the moment I saw Courtney's scrapbook pages, I was drawn to her journaling. I felt like she was so transparent, so real, and oh-so-inspiring. I wanted to be a better scrapbooker of stories, not just events. Courtney is a frequent contributor to many magazines; there is no doubt you've seen her pages before. She has shared her talents by writing two books: Scrapbooking Your Faith and The Busy Scrapper. I respect Courtney's willingness to share her faith with her loyal readers and I have been dying to meet her. You'll find that she's not only talented, she's also funny!

1. Tell me a little bit about your background.
   
   I have been scrapbooking for years and years, but after college, I discovered Creating Keepsakes and everything took on a new (artistic) meaning. In 2003, after I had my second baby, I began submitting. I submitted for a few months and had my first page picked up by Legacy. After that, I kept submitting and got into the other magazines. I found a lot of my pages were getting picked up by Memory Makers Books. I began doing assignments for them and built a relationship with a sweet editor named Jodi Amiedi. She read an article idea I had about Scrapbooking Your Faith and asked me to write it as a book proposal.
   
   I didn't think I could do it. It took me nine months to write that proposal. (Seriously - that was waaaay too long!) but when they got it, they accepted it and three months later, I had finished it. (Yes that is a CRAZY fast deadline! I think I had to do 75-80 pages in that time!! Nuts!)
   
   After that, I wrote an article for the magazine and they kept giving me more articles to write. I ended up being a contributing editor for 2 ½ years. I loved every minute of that. Then, I proposed several book ideas after I finished the Faith book and had some time to recover. The Busy Scrapper was the one that stuck! J That pretty much leads me up until today! I just finished the final edit on that last week!
   
   
2. Where are your current industry positions?
   
   Well... I am a freelance writer and my second book The Busy Scrapper will be released in November. I recently resigned my position as Contributing Editor for Memory Makers Magazine, but will have articles in the magazine through the end of 2008. I work as the Design Team Coordinator for Chatterbox, Inc.
   
   
3. Tell us more about your books.
   
   Scrapbooking Your Faith is an inspirational book that I hope will encourage people to dive deeper into what they believe and get it down in their pages. I think the book was sort of a labor of love. It was something that sort of wrote itself. In my mind, this book houses my sole purpose for documenting my life: to inspire future generations to seek a deeper relationship with God. At the same time, I tried VERY hard to keep this book from being preachy. I want you - no matter what your religious background is - to be able to relate to the principles and ideas in the book.
   
   My new book, The Busy Scrapper, is a fun book full of tips that will help you scrap quicker. Whenever I mention scrapbooking to any non-scrapbooking friends, they look at me like I've got an arm growing out of my head. "I don't have time for THAT!!" they shriek. And they're right. They don't. You have to make time. This book is full of tips that help you make time. I love the design of the book because it really is fun and playful; I wanted it to have a ‘let's sit down and have coffee while we chat' kind of feel to it.
   
   
4. What do you love most about your books?
   
   For the Faith book, I love getting emails that the book has challenged someone to get back to their faith, to pray again or go to church again. I love knowing that the words I wrote are being read because I think it's the best part of the book. There's a message in there that's bigger than me... that... I love.
   
   The 2^nd book - I love the design! They did such an amazing job putting this book together in a cute, fun, easy to read and absorb without a ton of ‘sitting and reading' kind of way! I also love that both of my books are 8" x 8"!|
   
   
5. What is your goal for this year?
   
   Actually, my goal is mostly to simplify my life. That has meant cutting back on some things, but really getting back to the basics of why I enjoy being artistic and scrapbooking in the first place. It's been a long time since I did a page that wasn't assigned or scrapped just for the sake of creating. I want to do that again! I don't plan on pitching any more scrapbooking books at this time. You never know if another idea will fall out of the sky and land in my brain... but right now, I think I'm going to work on putting my new house together!
   
   
6. How do you normally scrapbook?
   
   I almost always start with the story. What is the story I want to tell? Usually I do the journaling before I do the page. For some reason, I've always been inspired by the words... when I started getting away from telling my stories, I knew I needed to reevaluate some things and get back to the basics again.
   
   
7. What would you suggest for us readers?
   
   I would say don't try and fit your style into a box. For a long time I thought I needed to ‘define' myself. Was I a "shabby" scrapper? A "clean/graphic" scrapper? Was I grungy? Eclectic? I felt like I was having an identity crisis. Then it hit me: Why put yourself in a box? Why label yourself as one thing but not the other? Why not set out to do whatever your page calls for or whatever you feel like doing for that layout? I would rather be free to be shabby, clean, graphic, eclectic, freestyle and whatever else suits my fancy.
   
   And no, in real life, I wouldn't use the phrase ‘suits my fancy.' Sounds kinds fun, though, doesn't it?
   
   
8. How have you grown in your talents?
   
   I'm a lot quicker. I used to dawdle. I used to pull out EVERYTHING that could possibly fit on my page or match my photos. It took hours. Now, I find something I love that I've been wanting to use, and I go for it. You learn to be quick the more kids you have! It's what inspired me to write The Busy Scrapper!
   
   
9. What is your RIGHT NOW product?
   
   Buttons! I add buttons to everything. I stitch them or glue dot them down. I LOVE them. I am a little partial to the Artsylicious Treasures!
   
   
10. What keeps you motivated?
    
    I think watching the kids go through pages about them. My daughter is seven and she wants to know everything about when she was a baby. It's so awesome to be able to show her some of the pictures and pages and stories about what she looked like and the funny things she did as a baby. That has to be the best!

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