Getting to know Renilicious!
September 5th, 2008 by MichelleThis is the first in a series of interviews to help you get to know my Creative Team Members better!
Ren’s Blog: Renlish
Ren’s MellowButterfly Gallery: Renilicious
I’ve known you for several years now and met you under your username Renilicious, which I’ve always shortened and called you Ren. I still call you that to this day, even though I now know your real name is Erin. So, does anyone else call you Ren and does it bother you that I do?
EVERYBODY calls me Ren. I’ve been Ren for the past 12 years. It all started when I was in a chatroom and there were three or four Erins, including me, so we all chose different spellings of our name and I ended up with Ren. I started using Ren for everything - on blogs, in chatrooms, in my personal writing. Everyone online whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in real life has always called me Ren and I personally wouldn’t have it any other way. The name became a persona in itself at one point and has probably been the catalyst for some of my more brash and insane moments, but I’m essentially the same person. A rose by any other name, and all that. I’ll answer to both Erin and Ren, though.
How long have you been digiscrapping and how did you get hooked?
I totally and utterly blame you, Michelle. I’ve actually been a fan of scrapbooking for a couple of years, my aunts are avid scrappers themselves and they’ve got a real talent for throwing together the most gorgeous pages - something that isn’t very hard when you’ve got a young family with lots of cute kids. I think kids really lend themselves well to scrapbooking. I didn’t even know digital scrapbooking existed until I stumbled into your website again earlier this year (around April?) and saw some absolutely kick-arse graphics and your own layouts. I went and bought a kit, did a page and was immediately hooked. And then I begged for a spot on your CT. The rest is history - short as it may be.
Who are your usual victims, I mean subjects, in your layouts?
Hehe. I have one particular victim, my gorgeous nephew, Phoenix. He is the baby of my immediate family and I think he’s the most adorable creature in the world. Most of my layouts are based around him at the moment but I am expanding my range of victims to include my mum and sister and friends. I am a photographer at heart so I hope to be able to make lots and lots of scrapped memories to print up.
What kind of post processing do you do to your photos before you scrap them?
I am a great fan of Photoshop. Being a digital manipulator, I really enjoy the creative process in using Photoshop, though with my scrapbooking pictures I generally try to keep it simple and not overprocess them. Apart from a general boost to colours (or going the opposite way and desaturating them) and a mild sharpening up or throwing in an occasional texture and such, I don’t do a lot to my scrapping pictures.
So, I’ve heard much about a certain manbeast and the fact that the two of you are getting married soon. What can you tell us about the big event?
Ah, the manbeast. The love of my life and bane of my existence all rolled into one. The manbeast and I met nearly ten years ago now and we’ve been engaged since 2000. We were really just too lazy to do the whole wedding thing. Last year after going to a couple of our friends’ weddings, I decided it was about time we made it official. The manbeast agreed (he knew what was good for him) and what started of as being a casual “handful of people at a park” thing has turned out to be the “whole kit and kaboodle” wedding with a ceremony and reception. The theme is sort of a mix of medieval meets Australian bush meets Irish settlers meets backyard barbeque. My gown is a mix of gold and cream and the manbeast is wearing a pirate shirt. There may also be kilts involved if the best man has anything to do with it. It’s going to be loads of fun! I’m even doing an extreme bridal shoot (also known as “trash the dress”) a few months after the wedding so I’ll have even more crazy pictures to scrap!
Socks or no socks?
Socks. Definitely, definitely socks. I am cold-blooded.
Other than scrapbooking what hobbies do you enjoy?
I love doing photomanipulations. I can’t draw at all but I can mash photographs together and make completely new and epic scenes that represent some of the more fantastic images floating around in my head. I also make jewelery, though I’ve been buying gemstones more often than actually making anything with them lately. Need to fix that. wink. Lastly, I like to write. Whether it’s just my thoughts and feelings in my blog or something more creative, sometimes I just need to get words out onto paper or a screen. I have stacks of notebooks with ideas for stories and unfinished thoughts.
Have you ever paper scrapped or considered trying some hybrid craft projects?
I tried paper and scissors scrapping a couple of times. I attended a “Creative Memories” workshop (don’t know if you have them in the USA but they’re one of the big party-scheme scrapbooking companies here). I enjoyed it but hated the mess and hated destroying photographs and hated using up all these resources that were hugely expensive to buy in the first place. I have seriously considered doing a hybrid layout though, just as an occasional thing. My aunts have entire rooms devoted to their scrapping obsessions - I’ll leave the real stuff to them and just admire from afar.
Of all the layouts that you have created, which three are your favorites and why?
Argh… only three layouts… That’s hard.
Well, Bindi is definitely one:
As annoying as she can be, she’s the most affectionate cat I’ve known since my original baby boy, Tristan, passed away a few years ago. I love the picture of her because it’s such a typically “Bindi” pose - on her back waiting for a belly scratch.
Babyface would be another:
Seriously, not my best layout but my absolute favourite picture of my nephew as a little bub. Every time he pulled that face I turned to goo. I also love the elements in the Citrus Punch kit, they’re so adaptable to whatever sort of theme you want.
My Geisha is the third:
Finding a real Geisha is a fluke, even though you’ll see loads of young Japanese girls running around looking like them. I was sent a message about this particular girl from a person who found my photograph, knew the young girl and was able to confirm she was indeed a Geisha. That layout, simple as it is, really came together for me and I was pleased I was able to use both my favourite photographs of her.
And the most important question of the day - when do you plan to come visit me in America?
In all seriousness, probably 2010. Hee. Got a big trip planned out.
Anything else you’d like to share with us?
Just a bit more about me; I was born, raised and currently live in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. I am the product of one mother and one father (both of whom I generally get along with pretty well) and am the eldest of two daughters. I have two cats who are practically my kids and they’re little freaks. Dugite is a dark tabby who vomits with monotonous regularity and Bindi is a little mental freak who steals our socks and runs up doorframes.
