Sweet Shoppe Designs

Erin with some awesome tips on photographing busy boys!

Raise your hand if you’re a mom to a wonderful, sweet, charming boy. How about a wonderful, sweet, charming boy who loves to have his pictures taken? Oh…..we just lost a lot of hands. Oh boy…..literally! Getting your boys to take nice photos for you can be tricky, and if we’re honest, sometimes painful, but it doesn’t always have to be!

With boys always on the go, making goofy faces, never sitting still, you might find yourself just a little frustrated or daunted at the task of trying to get some nice captures of them. As a photographer and mom to my own 5 year old mischief maker, I’ve got some tips for you.

1. Give them something to do. For my little guy, he loves his tractors and trucks and basically anything that goes vrrrooooooooom! Try giving your boy something to do that you know he likes. Then you can just sit back and snap away for a few minutes. In the long run, it may not be the perfectly posed photo you were after, but it’s who he is right now and that’s worth remembering.

2. Don’t be above bribery! It’s not uncommon for child photographers to bring treats in their camera bag to reward children for a job well done, so why can’t us mom-togs do the same? And if not a treat, how about the promise of doing something they like after taking photos? Be careful with this one though. Keep your tone light and positive and praise them often. And follow through with your promises afterwards, even if it didn’t exactly all go according to plan. I bet you next time you make this attempt, little man will remember that you kept your promise and will be a little more willing knowing what’s to come afterwards.

3. Keep it short and sweet. Most kids don’t have a very long attention span, not just boys, so get your “photo sessions” done in smaller increments of time. After a half hour to an hour, most kids are pretty much over it.

4. If a goofy face is all you’re going to get, then roll with it. Going back to tip #1, that’s who they are right now so embrace it.

5. From a technical aspect, keep your shutter speed as fast as your conditions will allow. You’ll save yourself the frustration of a blurred photo because your camera settings weren’t able to freeze all that motion in time. With toddler aged boys, you may just find yourself chasing after them or following them around more than anything. Be prepared so you don’t miss any moments. Also set your camera on continuous shooting mode if you can. While you might miss the shot the first time, the next one or the one after that may just be perfect so keep snapping!

This little boy was super shy, but he looooooved the bubbles I brought for him to play with. However, he certainly was not content to sit on a blanket and let us blow them at him! He wanted to chase the bubbles and blow the bubbles so I had to be fast and keep snapping so I could capture all his movement. Sometimes you just have to let things unfold as they will and be ready to capture whatever comes your way.

6. Use your surroundings to your advantage. You might get your perfect smile and you might not, but by being aware of your lighting and other surroundings you can still create an artistic photo that speaks to you.

In this particular photo, it probably took us approximately 883 frames (just kidding, it wasn’t that many–he actually really liked this idea) to get him to push that dumptruck toward us and look up, but man it was worth it! The trail leading off behind him adds great perspective to this shot, and is also part of what makes this shot, besides the adorable little man.

7. Accept imperfection. Sometimes you’re just not going to get your shot so be prepared for that possibility.

Do you know how many photos I have like this of my son? Oh, about 967. Give or take. He’s so moody and can go from an extreme high to an extreme low. Oh well. This will be a great addition to his graduation slide show one day mwahahahahaha<<<<<<<<<<<<<that’s my evil mom laugh.

8. Have someone help you while you’re taking photos. During this particular session with my son, he would.not. look up at me while he was playing. Wouldn’t do it! But daddy was behind me and got his attention for a couple brief moments and all of a sudden, I had magic….

9. Are there older siblings who can help? This isn’t always fool-proof, but in many situations, the younger siblings look up to the older ones, so get the big brothers and sisters to help get your little guy more into it. Snap a few of big brother so little brother can see how awesome it is.

10. Show them what’s happening on your camera’s LCD screen. I get a lot of , “Oh, mom take a picture of this!” while he holds some random object in his hand and he likes to see how those photos turn out. I often share with my little guy how his pictures are looking in camera and it gives him more motivation to try other things with me.

The moral of the story is: Be patient. Don’t expect perfection. Capture the seemingly small moments. And be fast! Your shining moment with your sweet boys is waiting for you, so don’t get discouraged.

I hope these tips will help you capture more of your favorite moments with your boys. Do you have any of your own tips to share? Please do tell in the comments below!

Get  Heart & Home, a simply charming kit by Nicole, FREE with your $10 purchase in the shoppe between now and June 30! You also won’t want to miss checking out some gorgeous inspiration from our talented Babes featuring this fabulous freebie, too. This is one special offer you won’t want to miss!

1. What is your current bestseller?

That would be It’s Complicated. This was the kit that helped to launch the Heart Art collection that I started a year ago.

 2. What is the product you’re most proud of creating?

This kit is one of my all time favorites. These are some of my favorite colors and I just love the papers here. It was also so much fun to make the little coffee cups and mugs.

3. What is your favorite layout you’ve seen in the gallery created by a customer? 

I thought this page by sugirox was stunning:

Sugi, I’d love for you to choose a kit you’d like from my store for FREE. Just email Robin at admin@sweetshoppedesigns.com with your pick and she’ll get you fixed up!

4. What do you have in the works?

I have a rainbow collection of Heart Art mini kits in the works that will be releasing throughout the summer.

5. Do you have a favorite hybrid project you’ve seen made with one of your kits? 

These amazing wall art pieces by Heather:

6.  Show us some standout recent layouts from your creative team!

I do not know where I would be without my precious creative team–they are simply THE BEST. They are always there for me, even when I’m working at the last minute, and the pages they make are simply amazing! I never feel good about a new kit until I see what they do with it. They bring me so much joy!

Terra:

Melanie:

Alina:

Amy:

LeeAndra:

Maria:

Bexy:

7.  Do you have any products which you think are perfect for this month’s blog theme “About The Boys”?

I am not really known for making kits for the guys… but I do have a few!

You can connect and interact with Nicole in the following ways…

Like her on Facebook

Follow her on Twitter

Visit her Blog

Subscribe to her Newsletter

And don’t forget, when you spend $10 in the shoppe between now and June 30, you’ll get her beautiful featured designer kit, Heart & Home absolutely FREE!

Hey Hey Sweet Shoppers! Your favorite day of the week is here, and as usual, I have lots of yummy stuff from our fabulous designers to show off along with some other happenings around the site to share with you this week too! So without further delay, here’s your first look at this week’s sweet new stuff…

Our team is always crazy busy behind the scenes, and what you see above are just a few of the highlights! If you don’t see something you’re interested in above, don’t forget that you can always get involved with our monthly challenges which will earn you points towards discounts you can use in the shoppe each month during Sweet Rewards week, and SugarBabe Trish has been hosting regular chats in our chatroom again too! We’ll have a brand new Featured Designer interview and freebie hitting the shoppe on Sunday, and we have lots more in store for you throughout the Summer too!

The best place to get all of the latest news and info on the sweetest spot in town is right here in your inbox, so stay tuned for more as I’ll be back here next week with lots, lots more! Until then, keep making memories and scrap MORE!

Lynnette shares ideas and inspiration for interviewing the men in your life.

If you’ve ever asked your dad, husband or son to write up some journaling for you, odds are your request was met with a simple no, eye-rolling, or even a look of “woman, have you lost your mind?” But it’s important as memory-keepers to make sure we’re capturing the stories of the non-scrapbooking men in our lives too.

So what’s an easy way to do this?

By asking them questions!

A simple Q&A about their favorite things or a simple memory can be a great way to break the storytelling ice and capture their life adventures in your family’s albums.

This month for the Sweet Shoppe blog, I was tasked with doing exactly this: interviewing one of the men in my life and sharing my experience. I chose to interview my husband Adam, 20 Questions style. To make things easy on myself, I started with a Google search for random questions and happened upon this list of “Ice Breaker” questions. I copied about 22 of the questions into a word document and when Adam arrived home from work, I pounced with a convo that went a little something like this…

Me: “Hey, so I have a little bit of homework for you.”
A: “Uh, oh, what’s that?”
Me: “I need you to scrapbook a layout for me.” (I’ve jokingly asked him this before, so I already knew what the answer would be.)
A: “Yeah, no, not happening.”
Me: “I’m just kidding, all I need you to do is answer a short list of questions for a layout I’m making.”
A: “Oh ok, that seems easy enough.”

Yes, I fully admit I am not above a little trickery if it’ll get me what I want, haha.

We sat down and a funny thing happened once I got to the end of my list of questions:

Me: “Ok, that’s the last question I’ve got.”
A: “Aww, I’m kind of sad now.”
Me: “Do you want me to ask you some other questions?”
A: “Sure, this is fun.”

Can we say success?

While I’m sure answering a bunch of questions wasn’t exactly the first thing he wanted to do after a long day of work, once we got into it, he seemed to really enjoyed having the tables turned on him. Which reminded me of a valuable lesson: sometimes all you have to do is ask.

And here’s the layout I made based off his answers using Kristin & Zoe’s Life Stories: This Boy kit:

One key bit of advice if you do decide to interview one of the guys in your life: make sure to show them the final result.

No, they probably aren’t going to ooo and ah over your layout design or awesome shadowing, but I can tell you from experience, when Adam sees the result of something he’s helped out with, he’s that much more likely to help out the next time or even offer me up photos and ideas on his own.

Of course, if you’re in need of more interview inspiration, here are few other interview pages I’ve done over the years:

I got Adam to jump on the faves bandwagon by asking him about some of his favorite things at 28 years old:

Here’s a simple He & She interview page where we both answered the same question:

And here are some more awesome interview layouts from the Sweet Shoppe team:

Tracy did a cute Q&A with her son using this template:

Jacinda asked her dad to share what Christmas was like when he was growing up. (You can find page 2 of this two-page layout here.):

Trish scrapped a first day of school interview with her son:

Darcy captured all the men in her life with this family faves page:

A simple Q&A or question is a great way to get the stories of the men you love into your scrapbooks. And hey, if asking a simple question doesn’t break the ice, a little bribery never hurts either.

Tracy shares inspiration for recording the must-have moments in a boy’s life.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails . . . that’s not really all that little boys are made of, right?  I’m here today with a list of some of the little things that are so fun to record in our scrapbooks about those boys in our lives.

Here are a few layouts I found in the galleries created about these very prompts . . .

Feel free to share your own layouts in the comments too.

-Tracy

Kim shows us inspiration for boy scrapbook pages made with “girly” kits.

Hello there, Kim here to talk about one of my favorite subjects . . . using girly kits to scrap boy pages! Are you really wanting to use a kit but all you have are boys and the kit is really girly (and you don’t really want to scrap about yourself in order to use the kit)? Well, I have four boys, and I am here to show you how you can use a girly kit for your boy layouts!

First up, I am going to show you how I used Contagious Joy by Traci Reed & Libby Pritchett. I did this layout of my two year old using this girly kit. Yes, the kit has A LOT of pink in it, but I picked out the blue, brown, and black elements and papers for the bulk of my layout.

It still needed more color, so I went back and added the border, some confetti, and a few pink flowers and buttons. The pink accents were just enough to add some pops of color to the page without making it too girly. Here is my finished layout.

Jenn Barrette is our “In the Spotlight” Designer right now and has this gorgeous Free with $10 Purchase right now, Dream Bigger. I decided to go out on the edge and scrap a picture of one of my boys again, first running a few actions to turn the picture into a black and white photo. I pulled out all the non-purple elements that I wanted to use and then added pops of purple to complete the page. Here is my final page with the kit.

Here are a few tricks to remember when you want to use a girly kit for a boy scrapbook page.

• Remember it is OK to use flowers on boy layouts. There are no unwritten rules that say you can’t. Boys can like flowers too. I won’t lie . . . when I first starting scrapping, there was no way I would use a flower or a girly kit. I was missing out on so many gorgeous kits. I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to tuck in a flower here and there on my pages, because they do add so much more depth to my pages.
• You need to look beyond the primary color in the kit. Even though the two examples above had lots of pink and purple elements and papers, there were other “boy friendly” elements and papers included. Start with the neutral elements and then add colors as needed to give your layout a little pop.

I asked the SugarBabes and designers to link me up with some of their pages they did using girly kits for boy pages! Here is some more inspiration.

Here is a page from Loni, using Hello Summer by Zoe Pearn.

Here’s a page by Trish, using Becoming Me by Traci Reed.

Traci did this layout using The Ones We Cherish by Jady Day Studios.

And Rebecca did this layout using Aloha Sunshine by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Zoe Pearn.

Here is one last one from Brook, using You Should Know-Love Wholly by Meghan Mullens and Traci Reed.

So . . . there you have it! You CAN use girly kits for boy layouts!  Pink, purple, and flowers are ok on boy pages! Go ahead, try it!

Hey Hey Sweet Shoppers! Your favorite day of the week is here and as usual, I have loads of yummy goodies from our fabulous designers to show off to you tonight. Here’s your first look at this week’s sweet new stuff…

Unlike usual, I’m recovering from elective surgery and am feeling a little less than my normal chatty self, so I’m going to keep things short and sweet and encourage you to head into the shoppe NOW to take a peek at all of this week’s amazing new products.

I’ll be here in your inbox next weekend with lots more sweet new stuff. Until then, I’d love wishes for a speedy recovery and of course, I want you to keep making those precious memories and scrap MORE!

Natalie shows us the different ways that the man in her life helps with her memory keeping and scrapping.

I spend a lot of time scrapbooking. It would be very easy for my husband, Curt, to start blaming our messy house on my time spent scrapbooking instead of cleaning. However, he likes that I’m so willing to preserve our children’s lives. In fact there are times that I enlist his help! There are mainly three ways I ask for his help: journaling, paper choices, and title work.

Journaling

I have a horrible memory. It was bad before I had kids. Now . . . well, I have a hard time remembering details from events only months ago. In those times, Curt helps me remember. Sometimes it just takes us talking about it for him to jog my memory. Other times I have to ask him specific questions to fill in the blanks in my memory. Either way, it is a big help to have him lend his assistance for the sake of getting the full story on paper.

This is one page that I definitely needed his help on!

Paper Choices

Sometimes there are just so many yummy papers in a kit that I can’t choose! Other times I just can’t tell if my page is balanced enough or has too many patterned papers, and I just need a fresh set of eyes. On these occasions, I have my husband look over my page, look at different paper combinations, and have him tell me his preference. He always leads me in the right direction, and I love the pages where he helps with the paper choices.

Before—Options I had Curt look over:

After Curt’s input:

Title Work

Coming up with the right title is not easy; especially when you are doing it on page after page after page. The title is always the last thing I do on my pages, and sometimes I am just burnt out or completely at a loss for what to name my page. Luckily for me, I can turn to Curt for help.

Here are some pages for which Curt came up with the title:

What about you? Does your significant other ever have any input on your pages? In what way?

Lydia introduces our blog theme for June . . . including a bonus challenge!

Since Father’s Day falls in June, we thought this would be a great month to focus on the men and boys in our lives. Whether we’re talking about our fathers, grandfathers, husbands, or sons, we all have men in our lives. And, we’re going to turn the memory-keeping spotlight on the boys this month. We have a lot of fun things planned for the coming weeks. You’ll see plenty of inspiration for scrapping layouts about the men and boys in your life; you’ll get some great ideas for encouraging the men in your life to become a part of the memory-keeping process; you’ll learn some photography tips for catching those all-too-active moments; and, as always, you’ll see some fantastic products that will help you scrap all your boyish memories. And, who knows? There may be a few really fun surprises along the way. You’ll definitely want to check in regularly throughout the entire month of June.

To kick things off, how about a bonus challenge? We all know that the men and boys in our lives create messes, right? Well, the girls do too. But, let’s be honest . . . boys have a special knack for mess making. So, your bonus challenge is to use this image as inspiration for a layout:

Blog Bonus Challenge: Earn 1 bonus point for your June Portfolio by using the image above as inspiration. You can focus on the quote itself, the simple color scheme, or anything else that strikes your fancy! Then, upload your layout to the Pinterest Portfolio Challenge Gallery and list it as a Blog Bonus Challenge in your tracker post.

Hey Hey Sweet Shoppers! Your favorite day of the week is here, and not only does it coincide with our latest releases hitting the shoppe, today marks a brand new month which means I have TONS to tell you about in this edition of the Sweet Shoppe newsletter! We have a new featured designer & spend $10 offer, a brand new challenge portfolio which will earn you discounts in the shoppe if you play along, lots of inspiration from our editorial and tutorial blogs and best of all, a brand new designer is making her debut tonight, and I can’t wait to introduce you to her!

Kicking things off, we’re bringing back a popular promotion from a couple of years ago where our designers put a new spin on some of their favorite kits from the past! It’s a twist a kit weekend, and we have oodles of gorgeous new goodies for you to devour tonight. So without further delay, here’s your first look at this week’s sweet new stuff…

While everything above is shaping up to make this a pretty sweet weekend, I am also so thrilled to announce the debut of our newest designer, Erin Tietz! When we set out last month to find a passionate photographer who would focus on creating and selling photography actions for scrappers, we couldn’t have asked for a better candidate than Erin to contact us. You may remember her from her previous experience as a digital designer creating under the name of Secret Stash, and that means not only is she passionate about photography, she’s also passionate about digital scrapping too, which we think is such an asset!

Erin knows that in addition to gorgeous scrapbook products, awesome photos are essential to creating a beautiful page. She’ll be releasing new sets of reasonably priced actions created with scrappers and photographers in mind under the name of Glitter & Co. in the shoppe, so check back often to see what new goodies she has in store for your photos! You also won’t want to miss snagging her freebie, Radioactive! It was a staff favorite behind the scenes as she was preparing for her debut, and she’s offering it to you absolutely FREE!

Before I wish you well for the night, I did want to mention that I’ll be travelling beginning this Wednesday, June 5th, so replies to emails may be a bit slower over the first few days of my trip as I attend to personal matters. Please rest assured that your mails will be answered as quickly as possible. Your patience in the meantime is greatly appreciated!

On that note, I am off for the week, but I’ll be here in your inbox next weekend with lots more sweet new stuff.