SYW347 – My Way with Heather Cerulo

Heather Cerulo: [00:00:00] scrapbooking to me is just the most amazing stress reliever. I mean, when I sit down and scrapbook, all my worries kind of go away. And it's my opportunity to be creative, and to just play with things and have fun. So in a very stressful world, I feel like the scrapbooking hobby is a great way to de-stress and just relax, and that's what it is for me.

Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I'm your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 347. In this episode, I'm interviewing Heather Cerulo for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways memory keepers get things done.

We're excited to have Heather as the September featured artist at Simple Scrapper

Jennifer Wilson: Hey, Heather. Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

Heather Cerulo: Hi, Jennifer. How are you doing [00:01:00] today?

Jennifer Wilson: I am doing well, thank you. How are you?

Heather Cerulo: I'm good. Good. Doing good.

Jennifer Wilson: Excellent. I'm excited to chat with you today and learn more about you for this My Way episode. You're one of our upcoming featured artists. Well, I guess when this goes live, you will be our featured artist for September, so I'm excited about that. Um, Heather, can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Heather Cerulo: Sure. Um, I live in northern New Jersey in the United States. I've always lived here. Um, I'm a teacher. I teach fourth grade, and actually I'm go- gearing up to enter my 20th year teaching, which blows my mind. I have a husband, Christopher, and then I have a two-year-old daughter, Abigail.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, wonderful, wonderful. Um, when does school start for you?

Heather Cerulo: We start teachers August 31st. I believe that's the Monday, and then the students will start that Wednesday.

Jennifer Wilson: Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, you get a little bit more time, but then I guess you probably go later than we do. So our first day is tomorrow.

Heather Cerulo: Oh my goodness. Well, we got out June [00:02:00] 24th, which was very late this year, so.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, wow. Yes. Yes.

Heather Cerulo: That balances it all out, right?

Jennifer Wilson: For sure, for sure. So Heather, I always like to ask our guests a few icebreaker questions. Do you have a favorite recent layout or project?

Heather Cerulo: Uh, yeah. I was actually pretty proud to have finished up a, um, beach trip that we took in August of 2025. I worked, um, really hard in July to try to get that finished. And I think it ended up being something like maybe 15 or 16 layouts, and I did get that completed, so I was really proud of that.

Jennifer Wilson: Now, um, how does that come together for you in terms of, like, do you print it as a photo book?

Heather Cerulo: No, I did all, all layouts. So on that trip we sort of went, like, to different beach towns, so I made each beach town a two-page spread. So and then anything that was left I just kind of grouped stuff together, um, onto single pages. So I had... I planned it all out, had it all printed, and th- then just kind of [00:03:00] worked through it all with the same two collections, which I think really helped a lot.

Jennifer Wilson: Excellent. And I do apologize. I've, uh, my last interview was with a digital scrapbooker, and so I was on the wrong train of thought.

Heather Cerulo: No worries. No, I'm all paper. No, no digital around here, unfortunately.

Jennifer Wilson: Um, so is there something new that you're ex- excited to do, use, or try, either in scrapbooking or in your everyday life?

Heather Cerulo: Yeah, so in scrapbooking-wise, it's something of new for me, but I'm also kind of returning to it. Um, so I've seen a lot of scrapbookers have been doing the month in review idea, and I remember doing that a long time ago, um, and just being like so proud of it and loving it. And then I did one year and never did it again. I, I don't really know why. So I've been, um, sort of focusing on that a little bit more. I, I finished 2024, and I'm working on 2025. And then, um, start... I did a couple 2026, but then I was thinking to myself, like, you know, you gotta go finish the ones you already [00:04:00] started before you jump into this year. So that's been kind of fun for me, trying to keep up, um, with the month from previous years. So been fun.

Jennifer Wilson: How are you approaching that design-wise? Is it, is it a two-page spread or?

Heather Cerulo: Yes.

Yeah, so 2024 was the year that I had my daughter. So in that year I did, like the left page was all little, maybe like one and a half inch photos, and then the right page was like her monthly photo for when she turned one month, two month, et cetera. But then when that finished, I had to sort of figure out that format. Um, so it's now kind of turned into a two-page spread using the same sketch each month so it, it flows nicely.

Jennifer Wilson: Lovely, lovely. Yeah, that sounds like a fun project, and I, I, yeah, it's been quite a while since I did something like that too, so

Heather Cerulo: Yeah, and I don't know why I, I... It has to be, like, maybe 15 years ago I did it for the first time, and I remember loving it, and I don't remember why I didn't continue.

Jennifer Wilson: Well, there's, you know, so many other formats, so many other [00:05:00] things that we can be delighted by that it's easy to get distracted by something else

Heather Cerulo: Yeah, so many projects, so little time, unfortunately.

Jennifer Wilson: No doubt, yes. So there's one question that I like to ask in this. What would you say to a non-scrapbooker about why you love this hobby? Kind of like your elevator pitch for scrapbooking.

Heather Cerulo: Got it. Um, so scrapbooking to me is just the most amazing stress reliever. I mean, when I sit down and scrapbook, all my worries kind of go away. And it's my opportunity to be creative, and to just play with things and have fun. So in a very stressful world, I feel like the scrapbooking hobby is a great way to de-stress and just relax, and that's what it is for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. I think, if we can really like, you know kind of sit with that, it can become such a, a wonderful gratitude practice and as you said, a stress reliever as well. I think sometimes though, like I'm a person who's g- like always anxious, and so sometimes I really have to get myself to the place [00:06:00] where I can relax enough to get into it too.

Heather Cerulo: Oh, sure. I totally understand that. But I f- I feel like for me, the scrapbooking part of it does help me get that, where like I feel that in.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Heather Cerulo: Other aspects of my life, but then like even this morning, I'm, you know, gearing up trying to get ready to, to set up my classroom for school, and there's like been some hurdles getting into the, into the sc- into the school to do that. Um, and I sat down at my scrapbook desk before we started chatting, and I feel so much more relaxed right now just being in this environment.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, good.

Heather Cerulo: Yeah, like around my things, and I was planning some layouts before we started chatting. So it's definitely a stress reliever for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Sometimes just, just touching your things, like whether it's your photos or your supplies, helps you reconnect with it even if you aren't ready to actually do something with it yet.

Heather Cerulo: Exactly. And that's something I'll try to do if I only have, you know, like half an hour before I have to go make dinner. I'll come up here and maybe pull out a sketch, pull out some photos. Okay, that's ready to go. Pull out a [00:07:00] collection. Now it sits on my desk until I can come back and have more time to work on that.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Heather Cerulo: Which is nice.

Jennifer Wilson: How long have you been scrapbooking and how'd you get started?

Heather Cerulo: So I don't remember exactly how I got started, but I remember scrapbooking all the way back to l- the late '90s, like when I was in high school. I remember taking my mom's photos and, and putting them with tape down on copy paper and begging her to take me to Staples to get them color copied so that I could then cut them out and scrapbook with them. And then I had a friend, um, in high school that was really into it also, and then I feel like the two of us just, it like took off from there and, and it never kind of ended. So, you know, almost going up on 30 years of scrapbooking. And just, I come from a creative family. My grandmother and my mom are quilters.

My grandmother's a knitter. My mom is a crocheter. They both scrapbook also. So I feel like it's just that, you know, those creative hands-on things have been something [00:08:00] that have always sort of been in my life since I was a little kid.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, that's wonderful. So how has... I mean, I'm, like, I'm assuming you're not still doing color copies of your photos.

Heather Cerulo: No, no.

Jennifer Wilson: At the Kinkos in order to do your scrapbooking. So how has it evolved over time?

Heather Cerulo: So I remember going off to college and, and sort of like entering the card making world a little bit, and then by the time like the early two, 2010s hit, um, my brother had a daughter, so my niece, and like I feel like my scrapbooking was revived, scrapbooking all the cute little baby girl pictures. Um, and then, you know, then just scrapbooking my travels and places I went up until, um, getting married and having my daughter. And having my daughter has completely changed my perspective on scrapbooking. Um, and, and just documenting and, and putting more photos on layouts and things like that. Um, I feel like I'm in a very different place now than I was like five years ago, [00:09:00] scrapbooking-wise.

Jennifer Wilson: Do you feel like, 'cause this is what happened to me, do you feel like that your scrapbooking, uh, is more chronological than it ever was before?

Heather Cerulo: Absolutely.

Jennifer Wilson: Or has it always been chronological? Okay.

Heather Cerulo: No, it used to be more... Like, I just scrapbooked what I was, what I felt like scrapbooking. It didn't matter if.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Heather Cerulo: You're right, it didn't matter if it happened on that February of that year or March of five years ago. If I wanted to scrapbook it, that's when I scrapbooked. You know, it was whatever the mood struck. But now I feel, I just feel like I, I want to keep up with the photos, for her more chronologically. What I try to do is, like, we're in August of 2026 right now. So the layouts I'm trying to work on are either August of 2024 or August of 2025. That's sort of what I've been trying to do this year, and then, like, fill in the albums as I go so that, not that they're gonna be complete, 'cause I don't think we'll ever be caught up with, with scrapbooking all the photos that we take.

But.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:10:00] Yeah, of course.

Heather Cerulo: At least, like, those memories and those things from when she's a baby are scrapbooked, and it's fresh in my brain so I can write about them and I remember what was happening. Because you, oh my gosh, you forget so fast the day to day things.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. Mine's about to turn 15, so I can totally understand that.

Heather Cerulo: You can relate, I'm sure. It's hard to imagine what he was like at one or two years old, right? Yeah, my, my daughter's brought a different perspective to my scrapbooking, for sure.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. I think that's very natural and normal, but it definitely happened to me and really changed, um, the types of, even the types of projects I was interested in working on too.

Heather Cerulo: Yes, absolutely.

Jennifer Wilson: So what sizes and formats are you typically creating in today? Are you exclusively 12 by 12, or do, do you do other sizes?

Heather Cerulo: I pretty much just do 12 by 12. Um, I, I really like 12 by 12 layouts. Sometimes I'll put in like a little six by 12, like little pocket, three by four pocket page or, you know how they have the different configurations, if I have [00:11:00] extra photos or I wanna say more and I don't have room. So like in her month in review for 2025, I do have those in between, like the two spreads just with some extra things. So I don't have to do a whole nother 12 by 12 layout with those things.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. Yeah. Now you kind of already mentioned the, how you're documenting past years, um, and looking back. I think that's, I think going, like, to past months of the current month is really helpful because you can see trends between them, and maybe realize, oh, we haven't done that thing th- yet this month, and we could, we should go do that.

But, are there any other, like, projects or activities that you're focused on this year in your scrapbooking?

Heather Cerulo: Not really. I'm trying, I'm trying to keep up, like, time-wise with the month in review. So I was behind with 2025, so last month I did July and August, and so then I figured once September, October hits this year, I'll do September, October. 'Cause I, I'm very much a seasonal person, like, in all aspects of my life. Like, I love decorating [00:12:00] seasonally, I love drinking the seasonal drinks. Uh.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Heather Cerulo: Just works seasonally. So, like, right now the idea of, like, going to scrapbook, um, I don't know, a Thanksgiving layout, like, I don't know if I could have the motivation for that. Like, right now I'm in summer mode, gearing up to, you know, like, apple picking and those sorts of things. So that's what has kind of worked for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, that's so interesting. And I, and we all obviously are gonna have that transition at different times, and I'm, I'm already feeling, like, the pull of fall, and I'm like, "Okay, let's, let's start pulling these things out. It's not too soon, even though it's, you know, gonna be, like, 89 degrees today. It's okay."

Heather Cerulo: I still love looking at pumpkins and fall leaves and, you know, burning the pumpkin-scented candles. That's okay in August.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. So how would you describe your style in three words, if you can, um, to someone who, you know, isn't looking at your Instagram right now?

Heather Cerulo: Sure. Um, I would say I use lots of color or patterns in my layouts. [00:13:00] I think more recently, I kinda talked about this before, my layouts are more photo heavy. I try to include a

lot more photos now. Um, and, and linear. Like, I really enjoy these sketches for scrapbooking. Um, I really love Alison Davis, um, with Scrapbook Generation, her sketches, and they're, they are very line- linear and laid out. Um, you know, s- either vertical, horizontal lines, and, and I do like those kind of things.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there any particular kind of products or tools or techniques that we can find, like, as a trend across many of your layouts?

Heather Cerulo: Sure. So I've always used stitching in some way on my layout. For years I always did sewing machine, and I would say in the, within the last year and a half or so I've, I've transitioned to hand stitching. Which slows down the process of scrapbooking so much, but it's worth it to me. I, I love the look of the hand stitching.

So you'll definitely, uh, um, I, I would say 99% of my layouts nowadays see hand stitching. And also I, I like die cutting a lot. [00:14:00] Um, I like die cutting shapes, um, like doing repeated shapes or, you know, shapes that go with whatever the season or the theme of the layout is. Um, and I've been really trying to do more journaling because most of my scrapbooking life I was not very good at journaling. But like we mentioned before, like I want my daughter to know the stories behind the photos and.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Heather Cerulo: And what we were doing and the feelings we had, so I'm trying to do that more.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious about the shift , to hand stitching even though it is, like, more time-consuming. Is it because you were looking for, like, a cleaner look? What was, you know, the, the reasoning behind that?

Heather Cerulo: I, I don't even remember why I switched over be- it's funny, like I'll look back in my albums and I'll, I'll actually say to myself, "Oh, this was when I was still mase- machine stitchings." Like I tr- I try to like find when did I switch over to the hand stitching? Um, I think that I just, I started doing it and I really liked it. Because it's something, um, I can sit, you know, like I could sit down and I could watch a TV show or a movie and sit there, [00:15:00] or after we eat dinner and we're just relaxing, my husband and I, I could just sit there and hand stitch.

So it's like something that takes up my time because sometimes, you know, when you're watching something, it's so often just, you know, pick up the phone. We're, we're so distracted all the time now. So then my hands are busy with the hand stitching, so it feels better.

Jennifer Wilson: That's good rather than asking your fam- somebody's like, "Oh my God, did you see that?" And I'm like, "Uh, no, sorry. Can you rewind it?"

Heather Cerulo: Exactly. I was scrolling Instagram or Facebook. I wasn't watching.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I don't know what you're talking about. I was totally paying attention.

Heather Cerulo: All the time, always having to rewind it, right? So I feel like it's a, better use of time.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I can see that for sure. Um, are there any, like, trends in the hobby, like maybe new products coming out or things that you see other people doing that you're curious about or that you've picked up?

Heather Cerulo: So I always really have loved, and I don't know that this is really new, but I love scrapbooking within a collection. That's just, that's just.

Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

Heather Cerulo: A [00:16:00] way to go for me. Like, to me, it's so much work to go through the whole, my whole stash and to figure out what goes together, and I know people love doing that. But scrapbooking in a collection where everything matches and everything's put together, that's really, you know, what I love to do. Um, and really, I see a lot of people do, you know, on all the YouTube videos and, and things that I watch. So I'd say that's a trend, a longtime trend that I love.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, yeah. No, I love it too. Now, is there something we fi- you figured out in our hobby that's absolutely not for you?

Heather Cerulo: So I have figured out mini albums are not really for me. Like, they're adorable and they're cute. I just, I can never finish them. Then I just hate that they sit and collect dust. And it's like, you go to look at them and they're like, it's covered in dust, and I'm like, "I need to look at this more often," or, "I need to clean this or something."

I don't know. It just, I struggle with the mini albums. Um, and I struggle a little with the mixed media. I know a [00:17:00] lot of people say that, too.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Yeah

Heather Cerulo: The extent of mixed media, um, that I'll do, and I haven't, I haven't really done it in a long time, will be like stenciling and the, the Tim Holtz Distress Inks and then, like, flicking a little ink. Like, I like that look. But beyond that, I c- I, I can't deal with the warping of the paper and just.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, it can be frustrating. I

Heather Cerulo: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Get it.

Heather Cerulo: Not for me.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, no, it makes me think about my shelf downstairs with the giant basket of mini albums that are probably collecting dust. 'Cause I know I don't dust, I don't dust that myself, so.

Heather Cerulo: No, exactly.

Jennifer Wilson: Should be in boxes really, but I put them out there in hopes that somebody would look at them and, you know, I'm not sure anybody does. So they probably should be stored more, uh, in a more protective way.

Heather Cerulo: Right. Exactly, yes. And even I had made a little, um, I took a class from SCT Magazine last year. And made a little, um, Halloween album, and I just went to pick it up and move it and, and half the stuff fell off of it.

Jennifer Wilson: [00:18:00] Oh, no. Yeah.

There's always letter stickers especially.

Heather Cerulo: Yeah. Or like the little icons and I thought, "I don't remember where this goes.

We're just gonna figure it out and stick it somewhere on here."

Jennifer Wilson: Aw. Yeah, no, it is very true. That is the truth of mini albums for sure.

Heather Cerulo: Yes. So I, I've tried. It just, I, it just doesn't always work. I have a Christmas one I brought on vacation with me last week thinking I would work on it in between nap time and things. I didn't, I didn't even unpack any of it. I didn't even touch it.

Jennifer Wilson: I understand. Sometimes you just need that rest for yourself when you have some quiet.

Heather Cerulo: Exactly, yes.

Jennifer Wilson: So where and when can we typically find you scrapbooking? Do you have kind of a rhythm or do you fit it in, you know, when you can?

Heather Cerulo: Yeah, so, um, I am lucky that I have the months of July and August off because I am a teacher. So I did get a lot of scrapbooking done in July. This year I've been keeping track of how many layouts, and in July I finished 40 layouts, which blows my mind.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, amazing.

Heather Cerulo: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Heather Cerulo: That was the most by far [00:19:00] of any of the months of the year. Um, but every nap time I was, uh, you know, in my scrap space scrapbooking, so that was amazing. This month is not going to be as prolific for sure. Um, but I, typically during the school year, I try to get to my desk, um, at least a little bit every night. So you know, after my daughter goes to bed and everything is ready to go for, for, um, the evening and the next school day, I'll try to come up here and do a little something. Um, and I, I have a, a scrapbook area on our third floor in our house. Our attic is finished, so up here I have a little scrapbooking area and my husband has like his little area too. So it's nice at night, we kinda get to hang out together and we can see each other from our desks, so that, that works nice.

Jennifer Wilson: That's great. Yeah, yeah. Um, I'm curious if how, like, your visits to the attic, is that different, um, from when before you had your daughter, or was that part of your routine, um, then too?

Heather Cerulo: [00:20:00] Yeah, so actually my scrap space since I had my daughter has moved three times. It was originally up here in the attic, but in a different room. And then I- we moved it downstairs thinking I would be spending more time by her in her bedroom, and that did not work out. So we moved it back up here, but in a different location. Um, and I, I definitely had a lot more time to scrapbook before her, and I think that I didn't appreciate that as much as I should have. Because uh, she does not let me scrapbook when she's awake. She just wants to sit here and see what I'm doing, and that does not lead to, to m- much work getting done. Um, so definitely has been a shift since having her.

Jennifer Wilson: I had some fun with my maybe like, um, older rolls of washi tape that didn't have as much stickiness, that she would love to just like unroll those and, and get tangled up in it. And that, you know, it gave me some time to walk away. I mean, to, to look at the computer next to her. Um.

Heather Cerulo: That's a great idea. That, that, she would love that. She got a balloon at a diner [00:21:00] earlier this week. It's sitting behind me. The balloon has entertained her for hours. Who knew?

Jennifer Wilson: That's awesome. Yes. Yes.

Heather Cerulo: Washi, the washi tape is a great idea.

Jennifer Wilson: Are there any organization strategies that have worked particularly well for you? Particularly as you've been moving around your space, I'm sure you've had to, like, make some decisions about how things are stored.

Heather Cerulo: Yes, definitely. So I actually, I did like a little refresh last month. Um, just I bought a couple more, uh, from Target. They're cube cabinets. IKEA has the same ones, but they just opened a brand new Target like five minutes down the road from me, so I've been there a little too often this summer. But.

Jennifer Wilson: It's dangerous, yeah.

Heather Cerulo: Yeah, it's so dangerous. and I pass it on the way home from work, so very dangerous. Uh, but I picked up a couple more cubes. Um, and that's mostly what I have is cube storage where, um, sort of like all around me, which, which is awesome. Um, but I also kinda wanna talk about photo storage. Um, 'cause I... Or, and photo organization. Um, I [00:22:00] learned a lot from watching Scrap with Penny on YouTube.

I don't know if you're familiar with Penny.

Jennifer Wilson: I'm not, no, but we'll definitely link her channel in the show notes.

Heather Cerulo: Yes. So she, she, um, her, her process videos are awesome, but she also talks just a lot about like storage of photos. Um, I have a Mac, and so it's in photos in there. Um, and just sort of like changed the way that I keep track of what I have scrapbooked. So in photos, I make albums for every month, and then I, I go through all of the photos, and I just put them in the albums.

And then when I'm ready, since I, I, you know, like right now, like I said, I'm scrapbooking August 2025. So I go into that album, I see what photos are left. Once they've been scrapbooked and printed, I take them out of the album, and then I know once that album's empty, everything has been scrapbooked from that month.

So it's helped so much to know what is and isn't scrapbooked, and what I do wanna scrapbook, and what I don't wanna scrapbook. 'Cause it's not all just all your, you know, 50,000 photos together. It's [00:23:00] just seperated out by the month and just the few that I know I want to do. So that's been really big for me.

Jennifer Wilson: I love that. And I love like sometimes we really need that visual reference, um, to be able to, to see what our plans are and to see how things, uh, fit together. Maybe we have some redundancy.

Heather Cerulo: Yes.

Jennifer Wilson: Like you might not see that if it's just a written list.

Heather Cerulo: Exactly, yeah. And then I'll, I'll like pull the album out that has those and, and I'll see, um, like what kind of space do I have? So like, uh, earlier today I was doing that and I said, okay, so there's a space for one single photo he- single layout here before we move on to next event. So I kind of planned out, all right, we're gonna do th- these photos and they're gonna go here in the album. So combining, hold- you know, having the album out and looking through it and the organization in photos has really helped to, to plan it out and it all kind of gels together.

Jennifer Wilson: Oh, fantastic. Yeah, I might have to pick up that strategy myself.

Heather Cerulo: Yeah. It, it's, and it's easy. You, and you can do it on your phone.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

Heather Cerulo: 'Cause you can [00:24:00] make the albums on your phone. So when you're in the car and, or you have downtime, you know, it's, it's, it help, has helped a lot.

Jennifer Wilson: Sure. So where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 years? So when you have, you know, a 12-year-old, she'll be in middle school at that time.

Heather Cerulo: Crazy.

Jennifer Wilson: Getting involved in more things.

Heather Cerulo: Yeah. So I def- I wanna see, uh, people definitely looking through my albums. That's something I feel like does not happen a lot now. Um, my daughter def- she's taken an interest, uh, even just at two years old, to look through the albums, which is nice. But something I want to see in 10 years is definitely people enjoying my albums. Um, and I wanna see my albums full. Not necessarily caught up, because that's, I think, next to impossible, but definitely full of layouts and still enjoying this hobby.

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, that sounds, that sounds wonderful. I think that's what we all, that's what we all want, for sure. And definitely that, that sense of having others appreciate it. Um, while i- it's important to do it for that personal fulfillment, for that relaxation that you mentioned at the [00:25:00] beginning, um, you know, it does help when someone is interested in, in looking through it.

Heather Cerulo: Absolutely. Yeah. Because, I mean, there's been times people have looked through them and you can tell they're not really interested, and sometimes that hurts a little bit, you know? But I, I really wanna see people look through and enjoy them.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, for sure.

Heather Cerulo: Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson: So what has being a scrapbooker taught you?

Heather Cerulo: So I think being a scrapbooker has taught me how important photos are. Because way that I think is like so many of my memories are tied to photos. Like, I'll remember something and I'll say, "Wait a minute. Let me pull the photo up for that." Um, or I remember just remem- just thinking like, "Oh, I know exactly what I wore to that," because I could picture the photo in my mind.

So it's just helped me, like, relive things in my life, and I know the photos are there, and just like a visual memory, but also, like, a trigger to say, "Oh, yeah, I remember all of those wonderful memories."

Jennifer Wilson: For sure. I have kind of one additional follow-up question. You use a lot [00:26:00] of cut files. Do you have any, like, tips for, for using cut files, for storing them? How do you make it something that's, that someone who wants to start using them more doesn't just keep putting off?

Heather Cerulo: Sure. Um, yeah, so a lot of what I'll do, so I, I design for Pear Tree cut files, and so if I'm trying to... So every month with Pear Tree, we create three layouts. One is with, um, she has, like, a monthly prescription, Pearscription, she calls it. Um, so we have to make one with that, one with a new file, and one with an old file.

So what I do and what somebody new can do also is I go right to the website, and I'll just, you know, search, and I'll type in something I'm looking for, and it, it will tell me exactly, um, when you... For her website, when you click on it, it tells you, you know, like, where it came from, what month and what year.

So that helps me to then go find it in my files. But, um, if you're looking for something specific, like, uh, like I was scrapbooking a lot of things for the zoo, so, you know, I went and I typed zoo, and I could find lots of things. So that was really helpful the way that, um, [00:27:00] Marie, who owns Pear Tree, the way she has it organized. Um, and then I d- you can, if you use Silhouette, you can import all your cut files, and you can keep them in there so that you can easily see them. But, um, as part of the design team, um, I do get the cut files every month, and there are so many. So I tried importing them, and it just, it takes way too long. So I just keep them stored in a folder on my computer. Um, and then they're by month. So I usually, I go look at the website, and she, she lists for every cut file what month and year, and then I go find that folder on my computer.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Heather Cerulo: Which, which helps a lot. Um, and then what I've been doing a lot lately is I'll, I'll decide what photos are gonna go with the cut file, and then I'll do most of the scrapbooking and get, like, the layout down with the photos, and then I'll go to the cut file to see what size I wanna make it. 'Cause I used to cut it first, um, and then go scrapbook, but then half the times, you know, oh, this photo's not gonna make the cut because the [00:28:00] cut file's too big, and I didn't wanna go reprint it, so, or recut it. So now, now I've been waiting till the end, um, and then sizing it, measuring the layout, and then sizing it, um, and then cutting it out.

I usually will take the cut file and then turn it, turn the paper that I want to back it with upside down, and then turn the cut file upside down and trace it and cut it by hand. I always, always did it that way, but lately I've been, um... And I've learned a lot through s- that Scrap With Penny again. Um, I've been trying to have the Silhouette cut it for me, which has been really helpful. Um, so I've kind of transitioned to that.

Jennifer Wilson: If you had to recommend one or the other for someone, which would, which approach would you recommend?

Heather Cerulo: Probably the, I would say probably the hand cutting. It's fool proof.

Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

Heather Cerulo: Like, because my, my cutting machine is on, is like across the room from me, so when I'm doing that I'm like up and down, up and down, up and down, 'cause...

Jennifer Wilson: Yep. Yep.[00:29:00]

Heather Cerulo: One, one layout I was making, I, I forgot to make... 'cause when you are, you have to trace it, and then you have to do an offset so that the piece you're, you're backing it with is a little larger, and then I forgot to do that.

I think I set, sent it through the machine like 10 times. And I was like, "What am I doing?" Just get your pencil and your scissors and cut it out. When it works, it's great.

Jennifer Wilson: Sometimes tech can frustrate us, that's for sure. Yes.

Heather Cerulo: Yes. Sometimes it works perfectly, and other times you're, I'm just like, "Oh my gosh, forget it. I'm just gonna go back to the old-fashioned way."

Jennifer Wilson: Yep, yep. It's, there's always ways that work, that's for sure.

Heather Cerulo: Yes, the old school ways.

Jennifer Wilson: So thank you for hanging out and sharing a little bit into your scrapbooking.

Heather Cerulo: I had a blast. Thank you.

Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.