Brookes Hunt-Gilman

To Brookes Hunt-Gilman, scrapbooking is not only a hobby but a means of personal expression and documentation. One of her biggest inspirations is her daughter, six year-old Brynnen. “I want to record for her all the things that are so wonderful about life,” Brookes said.

Paper-crafting has also been a means of dealing with emotion for Brookes. Creating a page after her grandmother’s death helped her to deal with her grief and express just how much her grandmother really meant to her. “It was one of the hardest pages for me to do but it meant so much to me when it was done,” she explained.

An avid photographer, cross-stitcher and rubber stamper, Brookes is driven by the thrill of creating. After seven years of scrapping, she still loves to learn new skills. “I like trying new ideas and techniques and having a page turn out just like the image I have in my head of how it should look. I love the ability to take something in my mind and make it real.”

Brookes admits that her style has changed over time and describes her current style of scrapbooking as eclectic. “I like to try new techniques all the time and will use many different techniques and embellishments on one page, but I work very hard to make it a cohesive whole picture. I also like clean layouts. I don’t have to fill every single inch of the page.”

Here Brookes shares one of her heartfelt layouts with us.

About this layout:
This is a layout about my daughter’s expressions. I had this series of photos I had taken of her when I was experimenting with my camera. They didn’t really represent a specific event, but I love how they recorded many of her expressions. She can be so serious one minute and so sunny the next. I wanted to show that on a page. I also knew that I wanted the color blue to be my color theme because just about every picture I have of her, she is usually wearing pink. It is also said that every artist goes through a blue period, so I guess this is mine.

In Brookes’ Supply Box:

•patterned Paper Pizazz®: brown sponged: Mixing Carlee’s Papers; blue sponged: Mixing Words & Textured; light blue flowers: Jacie’s Watercolor Naturals; blue: Teresa’s Solid Muted Papers

• Tags: Tag Art #2 Cut-Outs™

• Paper Pizazz® Embossed Words Paper Charms

• “Smile” Making Memories

• Binkley Script Font