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Hiya! My name is Zee (aka zeelv.) My husband and I met in 1984 and have been married since 1989. Our son Josh will be turning 12 in just a few short weeks. Gosh how time flies! I was born in northern Nevada and because my dad was in the Navy we moved around quite a bit. Soon after marrying, my husband and I decided to move to Las Vegas and loved it so much that we've been here for the last fifteen+ years!

I have never really paper scrapped. Unless you count the feeble attempts I made back in my senior year of high school when I put pictures into a sticky magnetic photo album (the kind that had that pesky plastic film that always bubbled!) I also cut out hearts from used wrapping paper and stuck them on the page next to the pictures. There may have even been a movie ticket stub or two. My scrapping skills have certainly come a long way since that lame high school scrapbook from 1985!

Sometime in 2003 I became interested again in scrapbooking but had no idea where to start. I didn't know how to stick the papers onto the page or even how eyelets worked. I went online to try to find scrapbook lessons to teach myself and was discouraged by the lack of information out there. So I thought I'd just dive in and made a trip to the local scrapbook supply store and bought all kinds of paper and tons of fasteners. When I finally got around to unpacking everything and began plans to start a project, I looked at all that pristine paper and just couldn't bring myself to mess it up by cutting, ripping or tearing any of it! My �AR� tendencies kicked in and it dawned on me that paper scrapping was not for me.

Disheartened, I went back online to see if there might've been any other tutorials I had missed. During my research, I stumbled upon Scrapbook-Bytes and was instantly impressed with the thought of digital scrapping. I read through the tutorials on this website, downloaded a demo version of Jasc Paint Shop Pro, went to work on my first digital layout, and the rest is history! I only wish I had discovered it sooner.

Although I've played around a bit with Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, I'm extremely partial to Paint Shop Pro. I've been using it for the last four years and am STILL amazed at its capabilities. My favorite plug-in is Flaming Pear's Super Blade Pro which I use in practically every layout. I also regularly use Optikverve Labs' Virtual Photographer for those not-so-great-quality photos.

My current camera is the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S50 (2.1MP) which really should be retired. I'm definitely ready to move on to a bigger and better camera. Just have to figure out how to get that bigger and better paycheck�

I'm not quite sure what you would call my scrapping style but I do tend to create layouts that either resemble paper-scrapped layouts or that look like magazine ads. I enjoy looking at special effects in magazines and trying to figure out how to digitally recreate them. My skills have even been used at the fire department where I work to create graphics as needed.

Besides digi-scrapping, I also enjoy making movies. I work as a background extra in movies, TV shows and commercials. Some of the shows that I've worked in are Ocean's Eleven, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, NBC's Las Vegas, a promo commercial for Sharon Osbourne's talk show, and Miss Congeniality 2. My family and I also enjoy hiking and Geocaching but because of the hot summers we have here in Vegas, our hiking season is only during the one month of Spring that we get (two months, if we're lucky!) and a couple months in the Fall.

My best advice for those just learning to digi-scrap? Don't be afraid to experiment! My best elements have resulted from just playing around with the software.

When you have a chance, please visit my gallery sometime

SCRAPBOOK-BYTES USERNAME: zeelv
SCRAPBOOK-BYTES GALLERY: VISIT GALLERY HERE
AREA OF SPECIALTY AT SCRAPBOOK-BYTES: Elements Team, Site Tutorials

OTHER:
CAMERA/PRINTER: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S50 2.1MP
SOFTWARE USED: Paint Shop Pro 9
MAC or PC: PC
METHOD OF CONTACT: n/a
PERSONAL WEBSITE: (see blog below)
BLOG: http://zeelv.blogspot.com
OTHER WEBSITE/S: n/a