This month, we polled the SugarBabes and asked them who THEY wanted to lift and feature as our Treat of the Month and hands down, Yen Ollosa was the name that came up over and over again. Our Babes are absolutely enamoured with Yen's gorgeous pages and were so excited to start scouring her gallery looking for inspiration for their TOTM layouts this month.

Yen's scrapping is an eclectic mix of colors and textures and it's full of little snippets... Snippets of her life & family and snippets of her favorite things from the digital community. Her pages are packed with eye candy from top to bottom and we found ourselves loving the time we spent looking through her gallery because there is simply so much to take in.

Yen and her family live in Tokyo, Japan and she has been digital scrapping since February of 2006. She creates all of her amazing pages in Photoshop CS2 & PhotoImpact 12 and shoots her gorgeous photos using the Nikon D80.

All of us at here at the Sweet Shoppe hope you enjoy learning more about Yen this month as you read through our interview with her. She has inspired us to think about every last detail on our pages and work towards capturing all of life's little moments. We hope she inspires you to do the same!

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

Yen Ollosa: I am a Mommy to Albert who will be 5 yrs old in June. And a wife of 6 yrs to my hubby and my best friend. I am 28 yrs old. Been digital scrapping for a year. Right now, we're here in Tokyo for 5 yrs but between those years we went back in forth around Asia and a few trips in the US as part of DH job assignments. I also love traveling. It's one of my greatest passion aside from the other things I love to do. I love photography too. I cried when first ever DSLR was stolen in Thailand 4 yrs ago. I'm also a homebody. If I'm not in the mall or park, i'm in the house. I love to just stay at home. I always think, there are a bunch of things that I can do at home than waste my time out. During weekends, Hubby and I make sure we go out and just enjoy being a family of 3. Other thing is, I'm trying to be a good cook. I really dread cooking but DH says I make good food so, I try to be good at that part. I am a Computer Engineer. Worked a year before getting married. I still missed going to work but I love being a SAHM ,taking care of my 2 boys! They make me happy specially my little boy! Watching him grow up and teaching him. I also love scuba diving! I did a lot of diving when I went home last year for a vacation. Hopefully this summer vacation, I can squeeze my time to doing it. I'm a beach junkie too. Love catching sunrise and sunset! It's priceless! I love good food. That said, I love, love and love Thai foods! One of the best cuisine ever! lol There's this restaurant just a mere 15 minutes walk from our place and they have one of the BEST thai foods ever. It's like I'm back in ol' place Bangkok! Hmmm... I guess, this pretty much sums up a little about me:)

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

Yen: Since I had never paper scrap, everything are new to me. Although I see artists runs in the family because my Mom loves to cut and paste bunch of those messy stuff. And I just realized now that she does crafty things when I was growing up. I remember she's soo good with cutting letters,she does until now. And I have a 3 brothers who are painters. The middle one made a charcoal paint of my portrait when I was in Uni. He's soo darn good of that. All 3 of them won prizes from different contests..And I never thought that I can be artsy too. Until someone introduce digital scrapping to me later 2005 but I don't have any idea how this works until I got PhotoImpact 10 by January 2006 and then I realized it's so easy and fast to do. I got my first layout and posted it online by February. But I was totally hooked after a couple of months...

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

Yen: I get inspirations from everything I see around. I pretty have a good "eye" with details like IRL I always see something odd with things when no one can tell the difference that there is actually something wrong. I am inspired even in newspaper adds, drawing book of my little boy and just about every magazine I have. I have tons of fashion magazines. I love flipping through them. I also love scrapbook magazines. Paper mags are awesome. I think, I have a bunch of mags already. It's like a food of my artistic life:) And even my dress it gives me inspirations..It's weird sometimes..

SSD: How do you approach a blank page? How long do you spend on a page?

Yen: It Depends. Sometimes , I start with a paper. And other times, I start with my photo weather it will be colored or black n white or sepia and just about any photo treatment I want. I spend way too long for my pages. I always call it like its a labor of love :) Usually it will take me 4 to 5 hrs to finish a page. 3 days or weeks when I don't know what I'm doing. Sometimes, I'll just erase what I started because its driving me nuts! :)

SSD: How do you organize your digi-scrapping stash?

Yen: Very simple. For example;

CT Name
Designer Name
Kit Name
Alphas
Elements
Paper
Brushes

I wanted to do it by ACDSee but then I think its not for me. First, I am too lazy and second I want my stuff just the way I wanted. It's easy for me just like that.

SSD: What you do you think makes a beautiful layout? What's your favorite element to use? Are there any you have a hard time using?

Yen: I don't think there is a bad layout. Because it's your personal preference. Every layout has its own unique style and I'm open to just any kind of stuff. My favorite element would be brushes. I think my pages this days cannot live without them. :) Hard ones would be scrapping a kit for girly girl..I don't have a girl but I try to do my best that as an artist I can do this and that.

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

Yen: I have IttyBitty photo actions, the whole pack. $99 was never wasted! They're awesome! And PhotoBlast, has great ones too!

SSD: Your brushwork is amazing as well! What are your favorites?

Yen: EI'm a brush work junkie! So, I pretty much have a lot of stash for those babies:) Anna Aspens and Jackie Eckles in DesignerDigitals, rocks my world! They both are simply amazing!

SSD: What is your favorite idea book and why?

Yen: Anything by Autumn Leaves! I specially love the Designing with Stamping and Designing with Fabric! I am soo thankful that I got it. They have a lot of things that will make you inspired to new things. And to try to a new Ievel of scrapping. I really love it!

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

Yen: I keep a diary. Tickets and all stapled in there. Some fun photos and old things I want to remember. Even a tag of the most expensive pants I ever have..lol I am a shopaholic too so I have a lot of stash in my closet like tags. hehe I keep the most expensive and the cheapest tags.Seriously. I do. Its fun:) Though, I'm a slacker in updating them because I got a blog for 2 years now but the memorable ones are safe:) It's easy to say/write just about everything in there without someone can read them except me and sometimes DH ;)

Sweet Shoppe Designs also asked Yen 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 Yen's gorgeous work, be sure to visit her Digi Shop Talk 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 too! 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 April by picking out a layout you want to lift from Yen's gallery! Once you're done, come back and share it with us in our special forum & gallery...just for playing along, you'll be entered into a random drawing to win free stuff from the Sweet Shoppe. Thanks so much for sharing yourself and your work with us Yen, it was a pleasure getting to know more about one of our favorite scrappers...