DEBBIE BARTON!
Several months ago Creative Team member Claire C stepped down due to time constraints. We were so sorry to see her go and will welcome her back with open arms any time. We get it though. Life has this pesky way of getting in the way of our creative endeavours and passions.
With a gap in our team we reached out to our ScrapHappy Membership and the lovely Debbie Barton stepped up. I met her in Charlotte NC at our 2024 Reunion and she invited Alice back to her home after reunion. You know Alice is down for anything so she jumped at the opportunity. Debbie is warm, full of fun, ready to laugh at herself or with others, and filled to the brim with creative talent.
Let’s get to know her a bit.
In her own words:
“I am honored to be given the opportunity to work with the wonderful ScrapHappy Design
Team! I am over the moon with excitement to share this wonderful hobby with my friends and
fellow scrappy people.
My name is Debbie and I am a wife, mom, g’ma, and retired music teacher. I am also our
neighborhood go-to for sourdough bread.
My husband, Ron, and I are originally from central Illinois and were high school sweethearts. We have been blessed to have lived in several states and even in West Germany in the 80’s when Ron was stationed there with the Air Force. We then lived in Cincinnati for 30 years and raised our 2 children. I completed my Music degree & I taught music for about 14 more years before we moved south for warmer winter weather! I sang with the May Festival Symphony Choir for about 15 years in Cincinnati, and I currently sing in both my church choir and the Greenville Chorale.
Since we moved around a lot, I tried to keep photos and stories together. When we retired, 10 years ago, we moved to SC, Upstate area, close to both Greenville and Clemson. His parents followed us to this lovely area. It is nice to have family close by.
Debbie's Scrapbooking Adventures:
As I am a little ADHD, I sometimes move so quickly, that I cannot keep up with myself! Scrapbooking seems to help with this. I can sit down, listen to podcasts, books, or music while I try to put stories and photos on paper. Back in the 80’s I scrapped pages with cut out people glued to pages of construction paper and carefully placed pretty stickers around the people. I still have these pages!!!
My next adventure in scrapbooking was in the 90’s with my friend Darlene, and learning about Creative Memories. Raising 2 teens, getting my degree, teaching full time, & singing a lot, all while my husband was flying, made it difficult to find enough time. Shortly after we moved here, we experienced a lot of upheaval. Traveling to help care for my parents, an F-4 tornado thru town and then Covid. Yikes. But all this actually forced me to sit down and take the time to learn to enjoy my quiet time.
During the Covid shutdowns, I re-discovered scrapbooking on-line. Many different online groups and instructors really helped me to learn about this wonderful hobby, including the ScrapSmarter Experience! In these groups I found my tribe. People who support each other, create together, enjoy working together and building up their cohorts in their creativity!
I have been able to attend several events for scrapbookers, from a cruise and even larger events, but, best of all – 2 ScrapHappy Reunions. Such a wonderful time, I highly recommend! Some of my favorite scrappy layouts often use layers (mmmmmm layers), torn papers, mixed media – not always successfully – but I just keep trying.
I love beautiful paper, bright colors, and …. Sorry, Alice, WONKEY lines. I am learning a lot from Scrap School and having a go-to design. Wow. What great ideas!
I am looking forward to 2026 and the fun new and challenging scrappy fun! Here’s to a wonderful year.”
About Debbie's layouts
Strong – This layout features my grandmother and her mother. Created for LOAD523. The prompt was
to represent the strength and beauty of the Eiffel Tower. I used pink & blue papers to back the
heart cut-files and then moved them around to resemble the Tower. I placed journaling under
the tags in the upper left corner, and typed out the entire story to place on the back of the
layout. The strength behind these women is so commendable. They both loved beauty in life,
therefore, lots of sequins and flowers
Majesty – Going back over some of my favorite layouts, I discovered that I really like so much variety! For LOAD1023 I created a layout with used hidden journaling, a stencil and sequins for sun and sunrays, stamped butterflies & lots of layered die cuts. I compared a beautiful waterfall and rocks to Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul, building her career from her strong roots of family and church. They were her bedrock.
Dominican Republic – I would also like to share a fun 2025 March Calvinball layout. The photos are from a trip to the Dominican Republic and are just pretty views of where we stayed. For the layout, I used 2 Nuvo Glacier pastes through a stencil. I made a stitch line around the outside of the page with pen. In the center, I used all my fun Calvinball ephemera. Palm tree, music notes, avocado, sloth, flamingo, drink, star, dolphin, label, frame, hexagon & the date. I think I counted 12 points for the page. It was so fun trying to get the items in the challenge onto my page.
We are so excited to have Debbie join the team! I think you can see from her pages that she loves colour and isn’t afraid of layering lots of it on her pages. The stencil paste work on her Dominican Republic page is stunning, and I just love that she arranged the hearts on her Strong page to look like the Eiffel Tower. So creative.
Please help us give Debbie a warm welcome. Leave a comment to say hi, or if you know her, share a memory with us. We have a couple of tiny kinks to work out before she’s let loose on the blog but look for a post from her soon.