I'm a certified Tim Coffey fan for as far back as I can remember (I've been scrapbooking for about 6-7 years now). The first time I laid eyes on a Tim Coffey design, I became a scraphead! I love his “playfulness” and his color combinations. Tim's designs got me seriously hooked to scrapbooking. As you might have guessed by now, by the way I drool, I am a “romantic” and I love working with pastels and light colors. Tim's works way back then were just that. His works (daisies, garden icons and butterflies!) were my first love (see my Aspire to Be layout album Cover in the Gallery - red tulips - a Tim Coffey design!).

Since then my scrapping style had mutated and I have confidently explored other techniques giving way to more “favorite products” that are sometimes extremely the opposite of my first style – would you believe my list includes 7 Gypsies and Basic Grey?! (I distress my papers lately for lack of more Basic Grey stocks but hey, I heard The Little Attic carries an entire line of them!)

But a romantic is a romantic is a romantic. I will forever be, deep down in my base, a “romanticist” scrapbooker with the lace, the ribbons, the frills, the flowers and glorious butterflies that goes with it. Hence, falling in love with the works of Brenda Walton came as no surprise to my scrapbooking friends and relatives in the US . (I had my first Brenda Walton paper a year or two ago (a bouquet of blue flowers - see my Walk with Me scrap page at the Gallery). With Brenda's more recent designs, I became a serious Brenda Walton fan!

Her scrapbook supply designs are both romantic and whimsy and as “laid back” as you can get. She's never “cluttered” (My scrapping girlfriends know how much I'm into organized “chaos” in my pages!). She has that “playful and frivolous” style that evokes child-like wonder for the clean, simple and ordinary. Her color combinations are at once striking and muted. I simply had to get whatever latest stocks she had from people flying in from the US --- Yes I got ‘em and believe me, they are beautiful!!!

And wonder of wonders! I also found her “matching” latest book in Fullybooked, Powerplant Makati selling at P1,248.00. You guessed it, I got that too! It's the perfect companion to my latest Brenda Walton paper collection inspiring me to try out some of her techniques I never thought would look THAT gorgeous (trust me, simple stuff doesn't always mean “boring!” Not with Brenda Walton designs!). My latest album which started with some Becky Higgins “lifts” is fast mutating into a Brenda Walton-inspired work!

So what is a Brenda Walton design? Oh a whole lot of scrapheads would describe her style in various ways. Some would quickly say “vintage” --- which to me she would never be because of the sometimes bright and contrasting color combinations she uses. (She's not afraid to use bright print on print and get away with it! -M) Some would say she's the “shabby chic” for scrapbookers… and yup, that sounds good for me too though I would rather describe her, for a lack of a better term, as a true-blue romanticist. Perhaps this “confusion” on what to call her style is the very reason for her undeniably feminine, universal appeal – you can never exactly put your finger into what makes her style so appealing and so beautiful… It's a style that would appeal to all ages, at all times. With her layouts, your pages will NEVER look “dated.”

Personally, Brenda helped me discover a whole new way of looking at creative “framing” rather than simply matting. Ok… ok… framing is two steps more difficult that simply matting a photo but *gawd* Brenda makes such wonderful, wonderful frames! She does even double frame and THEN mat pictures and pushes the envelope further by embellishing the frame with cut-outs one layer on top of the other!

Another thing I “re-learned” is to have enough “chutzpah” (lakas ng loob) to use non-traditional paper combinations (floral over stripes over another bright embellished paper) and let THAT speak of my design as much as the kind of embellishments I use or how. This is like literally “stamping” your layout with your own unique “style” just by paper combination alone.

Honestly? I rediscovered a whole new way of pushing my layouts to “pop” stylishly using Brenda's examples. And those are just for starters.

And so am adding a new item in my wish list --- on top of my AMM 6x6 Accordion Leather Album which by the way I finally got with the help of Angela Lauchengco! I wish a scrapping store would carry Brenda Walton papers and embellishments. Being a K&C issue makes it a little more expensive than the others, I know. But believe me, its still a great buy despite the cost (besides I yet have to find a K&C scrap product I don't like considering BOTH Tim and Brenda are with K&Company!!)

Now head to Fullybooked Powerplant and get your own copy of Designer Scrapbooks with Brenda Walton and I swear you won't regret it!