September is here and as many of us are sending our little ones back to school, we're reminded how precious time with them really is. This month's Treat of the Month embraces her role as a mom and memory keeper who records the smallest details of her children's lives beautifully in her pages. Nikki Hawkins, known in the community as nikkiARNGwife, has a whimsical and colorful style that we know will inspire you to look at life's little moments in a whole new way.

Most people tend to create layouts about the big events in their lives – marriage, birth of a child or birthdays - but often we forget that it is also those tiny moments that help make up who we are and who our family is.  Browsing through Nikki’s gallery, you can’t help but be in awe at how prolific a scrapper she is and yet her gallery is so incredibly inviting. We are instantly drawn in to see all the little moments in her family’s life – from a child’s fascination with airplanes to enjoying some time with Dad to creating art to playing with puzzles.  If you take the time to see each layout, you will have an opportunity to glimpse at moments of her family’s life being unfolded before your eyes.  When you are done with just a few pages, you cannot help but gain a sense that this is a mother who truly treasures and loves her family.  Nikki’s gallery is a powerful reminder to not overlook the little things in our lives because they are moments to be treasured.

Nikki has been scrapping since the fall of 2005. She creates all of her pages using Paint Shop Pro X2 and shoots her incredible photos using the Canon Rebel XTi.

Sweet Shoppe Designs: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

Nikki Hawkins: I'm a 34 year old SAHM to my son Avery who is 3 and our new baby girl due in early December. My husband is full time active duty national guard and is currently on his 2nd deployment in 3 years. We live in Mississippi where we were both born and raised and we are definately Southern through and through and can't imagine living anywhere else. We recently moved back to my home town in January of this year and we are enjoying living out in the country again.

SSD: What's your scrapping story? How did you begin?

NH: After my son was born in 2005, I went to the craft store and bought some paper scrapping supplies to start a scrapbook for his first year. After 2 pages I was done with the mess of paper and the expense was just crazy. That's when I found digi and never looked back. I started out like most people at that time I think, with Shabby Princess and Miss Mint freebies. After getting my feet wet with freebies, my first digital purchase was in January 2006. I joined the digital scrapping community at Digishoptalk later that year and started uploading to galleries. I was soon a member of several fabulous creative teams and now digital scrapbooking is a daily part of my life.

What inspires you? Where do you get inspiration for your pages?

NH: I'm inspired by many things. Sometimes it's a particular photo or sometimes a beautiful new kit. If I'm in a scrapping slump I love to use templates or do a scraplift of one of my favorite scrappers.

SSD: How do you approach a blank page? How long do you spend on a page? What is your favorite "must have" element to use or one that you find yourself using over and over again?

NH: I usually start a page with a favorite paper from a new kit and then go from there. Next I'll add my photo/photos and get them arranged the way I want, though most times they end up in different places than I started. I'm a fast scrapper and usually can get a page done in less than an hour if I'm not interrupted. If I spend more time than that it's usually because I'm not liking what I've done so far and will end up trashing the whole thing and starting over. I love to use stitching on my pages. Most of my pages have stitching in one form or another.

SSD: We noticed that most of your layouts highlight the big and small moments in your family's life - from your child's cool new shoes to a layout announcing you were expecting a baby girl - do you have any suggestions for those who struggle to journal about these kind of moments?

NH: I think all moments in our lives are worth scrapping about. I don't want my children to look through my scrapbooks years from now and only see the major events in their lives. I want them to see the everyday moments that make life worthwhile. I usually find these moments easier to scrap anyway, since they are so personal.

SSD: Your photographs are always so stunning- do you use any actions to make them look so perfect? Have you had any formal training with photography? What do you recommend for enhancing photos?

NH: When I started scrapping I already had PSP 9 so I was self taught with that program. I now use PSP X2 and as we all know there aren't that many scripts or actions available for PSP. I have been lucky to find some that I use on most of my pictures. My favorites are Michelle Pearson's Colorwash and Urban Pop scripts. I also have PSE5 on my computer that I use just for actions. My favorite to use in PSE is Lauren Barden's Color Pop action.

I haven't had any formal training with photography although I'd love to at some point. I've been using my Rebel XTI for over a year and I'm pretty much self taught through online tutorials and challenges. I'm no where near an expert though and would love to take some formal classes one day.

My favorite new trick for enhancing my photos is to use the unsharp mask in PSP or defog. It makes your photos so much more sharp and I find that it usually enhances the color as well.

SSD: Do you have any crafty hobbies outside of digital scrapbooking?

NH: I love to cross stitch, but since I started digital scrapping I don't find much time for that anymore. Other than that I'm an avid reader and take a book with me wherever I go.

SSD: And for a little fun question - tell us a little known fact about you!

NH: I'm an amateur baker. I love to bake all sorts of sweet, ooey gooey stuffs and share them with my friends and family. I also do birthday cakes and spend a lot of time working on that. I only make them for close friends and family though.

Sweet Shoppe Designs also asked Nikki to share some of her favorite creations with our visitors. It's fascinating to look through someone's gallery with our own eyes but seeing what an artist particularly enjoys from her own collection is always intriguing...

If you would like to see more of Nikki's gorgeous work, be sure to visit her DigiShopTalk Gallery, where you'll find her amazing collection of inspiring pages. It's been such a pleasure to see the fabulous layouts our SugarBabes have created after spending some time looking through her gallery! Those layouts will be featured throughout the month on our homepage so be sure to check them out each time you visit!

Also, don't forget to Scrap with our SugarBabes the entire month of September by picking out a layout you want to lift from Nikki's gallery! Once you're done, come back and share it with us in our special forum & gallery... just for playing along, you'll earn sweet rewards points which can be redeemed for awesome discounts in the shoppe. Thanks for sharing yourself and your beautiful work with us Nikki, it was a treat getting to know one of our favorite scrappers better!