Featured Primadonna

Janine Wahl

Tell us a little about yourself:

My name is Janine Wahl. I am living happily in the growing resort town of Sylvan Lake, Alberta with my husband, Trevor and son, Jacob. We are an outdoorsy type of family that likes camping, boating, fishing and quadding. By day, I am a business risk analyst in the agricultural industry and by night, I am a passionate scrapbooker instructor and designer. I am a hopeless "Lost" fanatic. It is the one show I cannot miss! I am addicted to logic puzzles and I think that it is because I need to know "why" rather than just accept that it is.

How did you get started in scrapbooking?

It is my husband's fault. His old secretary is a scrapbooking fanatic. He showed me her stuff and I simply told him that I would do it when we got married or had a child and let the idea pass.
Lo and behold, I became pregnant, and for Mother's Day he bought me an empty scrapbook. He reminded me of what I had said and told me to fill it up. I never looked back. I love all the different mediums that can be incorporated. It fills my need to create.

How would you describe your style?

My style is playful. If I had to name it, I think it would be, "whimsical romantic".
I try to view life in a light-hearted kind of way and I try to reflect that in my projects. It may a bright pop of color, or adding a new twist to something.

Where do you gather inspiration from?

I love wandering stores. Art stores, scrapbooking stores, stamping stores. You name it. I love wandering the aisles and looking at products. I get revved up about creating spending time in my room doing what I like to call, "getting all mucky-muck". It is a time when I sit down in my room and just get my fingers inky trying new things. I love the trial and error process.

What do you love about Fire and Ice designed products?

I love clear! I am all about layers. As I told you, I love puzzles and for me, doing a clear album is like doing exactly that!

Where can we find you?

You can find me on my blog where I post my creations and talk about a new tip, a fun find or where I am out and about.

I am also proud to be a 2008 Prima Flower Girl! I have loved Prima products for a long time and it is an honor to be working with them this year.

You may have also seen my pages in magazines such as Memory Makers, Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbook and Cards Today and Canadian Scrapbooker.

I am also a scrapbook instructor that has taught at various stores and events around Alberta. I always looking to share my love of this wonderful hobby. I want to get people as excited about this scrapbooking and paper arts as I am!

Please list 2-3 inspiring techniques that you display on the work that you shared with us.

In this project I was all about paint! I really wanted to show different techniques on a Build-A-Book to get the most out of creating layers.

First I used watercolor pencils on my Paintable. Water color pencils create a really nice soft accent to the detail of the Paintables. I actually gave a small tutorial on how to use them on my blog.

I also applied acrylic paint directly to the page two ways.
I applied it using a foam stamp and I also used the backing of my Prima Felt Mattie as a mask.
Once dry, I embellished the patterns using a Sakura paint pen and Ranger Stickles.