Featured Staffer 8/6 – Sara Lively
Hey again Sweet Shoppers! I hope everyone is settling into August and getting those portfolios filled up with beautiful pages! This week we’re highlighting one of our amazing Hybrid Babes Sara! (livelys) Sara’s gallery is full of adorable, fabulous and down right awesome hybrid goodies…go on take a peek..you won’t be disappointed. Also be sure to check out the amazing Hybrid Inspiration Gallery there are some really fabulous goodies in there!
and here’s a little more about Sara…
I use Photoshop Elements 6 to plan, chop and change what I intend to make. I’ve been card making since I was given a ‘make your own cards’ kit early in 2008 – it was fun to do, but not really my taste so I went wandering on the internet to see what was out there… I switched from ‘real’ to digi pretty quickly as I loved the idea of kits being constantly available via my beloved pink laptop and being able to play with them to suit my tastes too. I found the Sweet Shoppe via Andrea’s blog in the Autumn of ’08 – and after being a silent member of the community for a couple of months, I started to join in a bit more during that years fabulous Christmas give-aways, and I haven’t looked back .
What is the most challenging part of scrapping to you?
Opening a new kit and finding it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was from the preview, and then coming up with a new plan – also making sure I have all I need to make a card or hybridy something without going out and buying new things. I try to only sale-shop, and then adapt my ideas to work with the tools and trimmings I have, as I need to save most of my spending money for my major consumables: paper, card, card blanks, adhesive and of course ink for my printer. I think time management is also an issue for me as I find it very easy to start playing with a kit and forget what time it is (this has resulted in way too many late nights and a lot of back ache too ‘cos I forget to sit properly when I’m working at my PC!).
What do you do in real life?
I’m mum to my almost 8-year old son Alex, and work as a part-time teaching assistant in his school. This works wonderfully well for me as I’m able to take and collect him from school everyday – though its going to be a little different come September as my son will be in ‘my’ year at school, so I’m going to be Mrs. Lively instead of simply Alex’s mum to him and his friends! Alex, my DH & I live in Surrey in the south of the UK, about an hour’s train ride outside of London and too far away from the rest of our family to get to see them very often unfortunately (I’m a Northerner by birth!). We’re finally extending our house this Autumn, and the new guest room will double as my craft room – I’m going to finally get a decent sized work surface! I currently have a desk <—-this big—->
If you could only use 2 elements on a project what would they be?
If paper/ card are a given, then I like to have chalked or inky edges, and either ribbon (usually organza) or stitching somewhere too whether we’re talking a card, project or LO! Do fonts & alphas count as elements? If they do then I’ll swap the inky edges for fonts & alphas! I can’t resist a new font to add to my ever-growing collection, though I think my all-time fave is Darcy’s DJB Gimme Space, which I have to consciously make myself not use in every card.
What is your favorite color scheme to work with?
This is a tough question – I love colour! I do have a thing for orange and lime, and chocolate brown (emphasis on the chocolate). White and black are invaluable too as they can make a card, or page, just pop …and I do prefer in-you-face-colour to anything pastel. As for patterns, well I really like stripy paper – sometimes I deliberately narrow or widen the paper design so that it creates a subtly different look to the original.
I also asked Sara to share 3 of her favorite projects with us…
These were a mini labour of love for the Shoppe’s 4th Birthday this year – and they turned out just the way I planned (which is always nice!) and got such a wonderful response in the gallery. I love trying this, testing that, messing about with kits – and this project is a prime example of it!
I adore doodles and I am getting more and more into digital stamps too. I love La’s little character doodles and have used them a few times in cards, and truthfully would use them again and again if I didn’t think people would get fed up with them!
I loved this retired kit from Heather and the set I made with it. There are two things I really enjoy making: anything with children in mind (cards, gifts, games…) and a silly play on words or quote –you’ll notice these themes in my gallery time and again.
Featured Staffer Challenge (Bonus #1) for your August 2010 Scrapper’s Portfolio
This week your challenge is to create your very own Hybrid Card inspired by Sara’s Gallery at SSD. (does not have to be a direct scraplift)
**please note this challenge is worth 1 point and cannot be combined with other portfolio prompts except for NR bonus point for a total of 2 points.**
Here is some really cute inspiration from our Hybrid Babes:
Monster by Andrea
Credits: Monster Mash by Zoe Pearn
Surfer Girl Birthday by Jen
Credits: Alphabet Soup for Girls by Zoe Pearn
We Love You Card by Colleen
Credits: Everything You Are 2 Scoops by Lauren Grier and Kristin Cronin-Barrow
Don’t forget to edit your Portfolio with your page for this challenge!
NOTE: These Bonus Challenges are EXTRA on top of the Posted Portfolio Challenges. They CANNOT be combined with any other challenge and stand alone (except New Release bonus pt). Please feel free to PM me with any questions – nikkiARNGwife. Thanks!
