Happy Friday Sweet Shoppers! We are almost halfway through our Summer Scrap-A-Thon Summer Games how have you been doing with them? You’ll notice today that with the Paris Summer Olympic Games starting, our games will be Olympic Sport themed. The team has worked so hard on making these fun, we hope you enjoy them, I know I’ve enjoyed scrapping along with them!!

Today we get to debut our newest Featured Designer, Kristin Cronin-Barrow , who I think probably doesn’t need much of an introduction as she’s a legend in the digital scrapbooking world. Kristin’s kits are full of great colour palettes, fabulous florals and foliage and fantastic themed elements and man, those Alphas – so many uses for those!!! There is something for everyone in her kits, and I love the natural elements that are found in all her kits.

With a new featured designer we also have a new Featured Designer kit for our Adventure X series. This kit will be FREE with any $10 purchase from now until our next Featured Designer goes live on August 9th.

Kristin’s Adventures in Memory Keeping kit is bursting at the seams with amazing elements, word art and titles, all perfect for documenting your most treasured memories.

And check out these amazing coordinating add-ons!

And now to get to know some more about Kristin!

Tell us about your journey with digital scrapbooking… How did you find out about it? Did you start with paper first? How did you get started designing? Where was your first shop? How and when did you end up at Sweet Shoppe Designs?

I found out about digital scrapbooking way back in 2003… 21 years ago! I was on my year long maternity leave (go Canada!)  and I knew that I wanted to scrapbook but I also knew that I did not have the resources or commitment to do paper scrapbooking. Prior to my maternity leave I worked in a printing shop so I had experience with both photoshop and Illustrator. I had also been in college prior to that for visual arts and this is where I first used photoshop, things were very different back then. It was 1999 and I saved my work to floppy disks! I found digital scrapbooking through a smaller mommy group and the rest as they say is history. At the time there was really only one main site – scrapbook-bytes. It was a forum and gallery but there were no stores selling digital products at the time. We would make freebies and share them with others. Stores started popping up more and more in 2004 and I started selling in 2005. I sold at a handful of stores and then was lucky enough to land my dream gig at the sweet shoppe near the end of 2007. 

Are you an adventurous person?  What has been your greatest adventure?

I am not very adventurous but I wish I was!! I am a little nervous about things but there are so many things I’d love to do – I really enjoy hiking and would love to do higher mountain climbs but it’s all so daunting! I hope to at least do a few of these hikes one day. I live in the mountains and there are so many things I could explore.

What’s your most memorable childhood adventure?

When I was 15 I was lucky enough to travel on my own to visit my sister in Norway. She was on a year-long rotary exchange trip and I was able to go and see her and explore a bit of the country for my spring break in grade 10. It was quite the adventure not only from being able to see another country, but it was also an adventure getting there! I had so many things go wrong from having my luggage stolen (the video camera I brought for us to record things was gone forever) I also had my ticket to return home disappear and I nearly missed a connecting flight. It was quite overwhelming for in-experienced me who did not know what she was doing. It was also pre-internet so it was not as easy to stay notified!

Would you rather go on a relaxing vacation or an adventure hike?

Adventure hike for sure!! When we go on vacations I have always wanted to get out and do things. I’ve never done any sort of all inclusive/tropical vacation because the idea of sitting on a beach or in a pool isn’t all that appealing to me. 

If you had an hour to yourself, but were not allowed to use it to scrapbook or design, what would you spend the hour doing?

Walking and listening to an audiobook – I try to do this for myself daily because I need the activity to help clear my head.

What’s the last really great book you read or tv show you watched?

My husband and I have been going through so many shows these last few years, catching up on years of missed TV. We just finished “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and it was good!

What was your first job?

Technically, my first job was a newspaper carrier but my first “job” where I had things like scheduled hours was a restaurant bussing tables at 15. Fun fact – my now husband was the dishwasher there at the time. I had a crush on him that I didn’t do anything about, we starting dating after high school.

I can’t imagine traveling that far at 15 all alone, that would really be quite the adventure! Before you go, check out these great layouts that the Sugarbabes have created using the new Featured Designer kit.

That’s it for today, check back next Friday to see which 15 products Kristin has chosen for her Featured Designer 15 sale that will start on August 6th. Until then, keep on scrapping!