Happy New Year’s Eve Sweet Shoppers!! This is one of my most favorite holidays – I spend it with family and friends playing games, visiting museums and just hanging out always ending the day with a great dinner and just some plain old silliness!!

This last day of 2010 I bring you Valéria {valeriapiemonte} as our featured scrapper this week.  It made me so happy that she was truly honored and gracious to be featured on our Sweet Shoppe Blog!

Here’s a bit more about Valéria and make sure you check out her AWESOME gallery –  http://www.myscrapbookart.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=6298

“Hello I´m Valéria. I´m from a small town called Assis in the country side of Sao Paulo, Brazil. I´ve been married for 7 years to my dear hubby Adriano and we have 2 boys, Giovanni and Guilherme. We work together in a small business ad agency here in Brazil. My story with digiscrap started last year and I haven´t stopped since then. I think it is a wonderful addiction and makes me relax. As I am a graphic designer I began scrapping with Photoshop CS4 and never stopped. In my opinion it´s the best program to scrap. Recently I started paper scrapping as well just to see if I´m capable of creating something out of the digiworld!! And guess what? I am!! I really loved cutting papers!! That´s my newest passion!! When I´m not scrapping the other things I enjoy doing is traveling, meeting new people, watching a good movie, listening to music and the most important: spending good times beside my family.”

Q. How often do you find time to scrap?

I can only scrap when I get back from work and the kiddos are already in bed which leaves me a very short time to do it.

Q. What are the steps you go about when creating a page?

I always begin with the photo. Whenever I´m taking pictures I immediately think of which kit would match perfect to that photo. Then I choose the papers and afterwards the elements. The title is the last thing I put on a page.

Q. What is the most challenging part of a layout for you? For me the most challenging part of a layout is the journaling. I never know what to write and I always struggle with it.

Q. What was the title of your very first layout?
The title of my first layout was: Gui 12 months.

I asked Val to share a few of her favorite pages with us!

“The thing I love about this layout is the fact that depicts my travel to Europe. It was a great time of my life and it was wonderful that I could scrap about it!!”

“I just love this page because of its colors!! This kit matched perfectly to my photo.”

“This layout is my all time favorite. My whole family is there and I really enjoyed scrapping in a different shape. The title work is one of my favorite things in this page.”

Blog Bonus Challenge #5 – It’s a Spin-A-Lift!  Peruse Valéria’s gallery here http://www.myscrapbookart.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=6298 and chose a layout to lift, but make sure you spin it 90 or 45 degrees, flip it and make it yours!  Upload this layout to the SSD gallery and mark your portfolio for December with Blog Bonus Challenge #5 for one point. This challenge can be combined with a new release for an extra point for a total of 2 points.

Here are what the babes came up with!

Here is Jamie’s SAL of teacher Adriana using Libby’s Jelly of the Month:

Shannon picked cool you! and used Jennifer’s Counting Down to Christmas:

Here’s Darla’s spin on Our Christmas Wish using In This Moment 2 Scoops by Shawna and Eva

Here is my Spin on You are all I need using Dani’s A Lot Like Christmas:

I wish you a very Happy New Year to you and your family. May 2011 be the best year ever for you all!