Here is an interview with Victoria, one of digitalGinger’s first Creative Team members. It is illustrated with some of her fantastic layouts along the way. Don’t forget to check out her “Spicy Tip” for her gorgeous baby layout at the end.




Have you always lived in Glasgow? What is your family background?

Yes, I have always lived in and around Glasgow, I just love the city — it’s such a vibrant mixture of old school culture and modern living.

My immediate family are from Glasgow too, with my dad coming from a line of master bakers, so you can imagine how much fun I had when I was a kid visiting the bakery!

“Day Trip” by Victoria Greenlees

digitalGinger Products
Paper and Embellishments: Marigold - Bed &Breakfast
Ribbon and Staples: Folded & Knotted Ribbons Jewel Tone
Stamp: Marigold Vintage Frames

You currently work teaching new media at Cardonald College in Glasgow. What brought you from working in graphic design at an agency to teaching?

I was always interested in teaching, and I guess I was just lucky that a friend called me to tell me about the job at Cardonald. I was ready for a new challenge, as I had been working in industry for 11years. I absolutely love lecturing, knowing that you are making a difference, and helping to guide students onto a successful career.

Was digital scrapbooking your first medium for layouts or did you paper scrap before?

Do you know I went to one ‘crop’ and bought some papers and bits and pieces. I liked the idea of paper scrapping, but somehow it never really stuck with me.

What attracted you to digital and what are your digital tools?

I am a digital chick at heart, and love the immediacy of sitting at my Mac and playing around with my stash of gorgeous digi products. The tools that I use are my Mac and Photoshop CS2.

“Almost Famous” by Victoria Greenlees

digitalGinger Products
Green Photo Frame:Rockstar 4×6 Frames
Ribbon and Staples: Folded & Knotted Ribbons Jewel Tone

What brought you to apply for the digitalGinger Creative Team?

Definitely the look and feel that your (Bevin’s) hand drawn illustrations bring to the scrapbooking items at DigitalGinger! You have created such an individual feel to your papers and embellishments, so when I saw the call for the CT, I knew that I would love to be a part of this new venture!

Tell us more about your digital style and how you approach a new layout?

I scrap happy!! I think that my style is quite clean and graphic (which is why I love DigitalGinger items), although I do end up using loads of embellishments! I love typography, so I guess that a lot of my layouts make use of that in the way that I do the titles.

When I have a new LO to do, I usually get inspiration from looking at some of the galleries. Then I will choose the photograph — which is very important, as it can make or break your layout, and depending on which color scheme I have chosen, will enhance the photograph to fit in. Then it really is a whirlwind of papers, embellishments, and usually the title work last! I can easily sit and ponder a layout for over four or five hours!

“Such a happy baby!” by Victoria Greenlees

digitalGinger Products
Paper and Embellishments: Marigold - Bed &Breakfast

Victoria’s Spicy Tip :
Adding subtle dimension to your layouts using Photoshop

In order for the flowers in this layout to ‘come off the paper’ and appear over the photograph I duplicated the floral background paper in the layers palette, creating a new layer with the same paper on it. I moved this layer to above my photograph and then just used the magic wand tool to select and erase areas of the paper that I wanted to reveal.

I then used a subtle drop shadow action on the duplicated layer to make the flowers pop out slightly more.

Because the same paper lies underneath the duplicated layer, it appears that the flowers have been cut out of one sheet of paper!