Sweet Shoppe Designs – The Sweetest Digital Scrapbooking Site on the Web

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a member spotlight and I immediately thought of Jenn! Her Work of Art layout jumped out at me in the gallery & is still on my mind from when she created it. She is always creating beautiful layouts (for bingo challenges and personal ones) and a fun presence in the forums. I was excited when she said yes to the spotlight so I won’t waste another second. Here she is! Everyone, meet Jenn…

Let’s get to know her better!

Can you introduce yourself so we all know a little more about you?

Well, my name is Jenn, I’m 33, and I live in Nova Scotia Canada (been here for 29 years – originally from Massachusetts, which makes me what I like to call, an Americanadian). I have 3 sons, Xavier (13), Robbie (10) & Preston (8), as well as a 2 year old Beagle – Snoopy (who really is like our 4th son). Been with my High School sweet heart for 15 years… never felt the need to take the plunge to get married (however, I often joke about renting a dress and tux so I can get some pictures just so I can have the pics to scrap! haha).  I am a Stay at home Mom, it’s been great to be able to do so, even if it has meant money has been tight.  I do what I can as a Consultant, and with making/selling crafts which supports my hobbies and the kids activities so all is good for now.  I volunteer a lot of my time to the youth of our community as a 4H Leader.  I pretty much carry the Lifeskills part of the program (anything that doesn’t have to do with animals – Crafts, Foods, Scrapbooking, Computers, Photography, Heritage), I really enjoy spending time with the kids and watching them learn and grow into such amazing people, it’s a LOT of work, but it’s totally worth it (and it has done wonders for my boys and getting the out of their shell…. me too for that matter.) I study Psychology in my spare time, when I can… I have always been fascinated by the human mind, and have always cared about helping others. I may never have a full medical degree, but I hope to be involved in the field in someway.  I could probably keep writing, but these are the basics and I think a good stopping point for now 🙂

How long have you been scrapping? How did you get into digital scrapbooking?

I have been Scrapbooking pretty much my whole life, from the very old school basic of collecting interesting News articles and pictures and pasting them into a book, to traditional Paper scrapping, to Digital Scrapping.  I’ve always been a computer ‘nerd’ and enjoyed playing with photos, 8 years ago that evolved into making Signature tags in a Mommy’s group I was a part of, and then for a scrapbook group as well.  Somewhere in my creative time I stumbled across Digital Scrapbook Kits. I mostly used them either for tags, or I would make pages just for fun, whether it was to see different ways I could scrap a photo (which I would later recreate on paper), or make simple pages to print out as mini fridge magnets, it was never something I considered doing regularly.  I was a “scrap as it happens” girl, having everything up to date. After a 2 year Loss of my scrappy Mojo, and then another year of all my supplies being stashed in boxes (due to a move where there was no room to have it), I wanted to give up on scrapping altogether. I knew there was NO WAY, I’d ever catch back up to where/how I was.and that was both depressing and discouraging.  Last Summer I decided to try one last thing…. going Digital FULL time! I am so glad I did.  Not only have I been able to catch up on a lot of layouts that needed to be done, but I fell in love with Scrapping all over again. I also fell in love with SSD!  I have had an account here for a long time, posted a few layouts here and there but never much else.  Last year I decided to finally post in the forums and participate and I’m very happy that I did that too!  I have learned so much over the past year from everyone here, and love having a “community” — better yet a “family” feel, and that really drives me to stick with the hobby that I love so much.

Can you describe your page workflow?

Scatter-Brained – LOL  There really is no rhyme or reason to what I do.  What I start out with and the idea I have has all changed by the time I get to my finished page. I guess a few things stay the same, 9 times out of 10 I start with a kit I really want to use (knowing I have a bunch of photos that will work with it, but not knowing exactly which photos I plan on using). Next I look at the elements and pick some I know I want to use (this helps me choose my backgrounds since I can choose papers that aren’t going to be too distracting to the elements, or that I would lose the elements on. I always save my shadows for last. I move things and resie things so many times before I am done, I find if I shadow first and then do that stuff it just doesn’t look right.

What’s a must-have for your layouts?

Must Have Paint, Must Have Flowers, Must have String, Must have Buttons, Must Have Wood, Must Have word strips or strips to write my own words on….. really it depends on my mood…. the only things that are optional are alphas, journaling, and photos (but obviously not all at the same time… oh wait, my art journal pages usually drop all 3 of those things lol).

Do you have a favorite “Go To” font?

No. most times the font I use is whatever it was set to last…. so if you really look at my pages you will see phases where I use one font for a while then switch to another one for a while and so on.  I am not big on journaling (I really wish I was), so it’s not that big of a deal for me at this time (add that to my 2016 things to work on list ;)).

Do you have any specific types of kits/products you’re drawn too? Or maybe certain colors?

Honestly, I love all kits!  So much in fact that I have to tell myself I can’t buy something until I KNOW I have something I can use it for right away (and yes I do break my own rule from time to time). I am less likely to buy a super girly kit just because I don’t have a lot of need for girl pages, but I do still get some. Colors also depend on what mood I’m in… I love bright colors (especially neons), but when it comes to what I use most it’s definitely the darker colors that are found in nature.  If I were to choose 1 color it would have to be green… I love green, I have a lot of need for shades of green (between outdoor photos, and 4H events green is where it’s at).  I especially love a good Kelly Green! **Note to Designers – with my FAVORITE Green kits recently having been retired I am on the market for something amazing!!** Just sayin’  😉

Do you have a favorite tip to share?

Play!  Try something new… my favorite pages I have created all came from thinking outside the box, stepping out of my comfort zone, and using something I normally wouldn’t see myself using.

I LOVE seeing your BINGO layouts in the gallery! What’s been your favorite BINGO Challenge you’ve done so far?

Let me just start by saying how in love with the Bingo Challenges I am.  I KNOW there is no way I would have scrapped so many layouts this year without them.  I love the entire process too, right from the excitement of the new card each month, to the planning what photos I can make work with a challenge, to planning what kits to buy to go with the photos I choose for the challenges. I love having scrappy days where I can just pound out the layouts because everything is already planned, I love how they’ve made me use my stash of kits, do what I never thought I could possibly do with a kit, and test my creative limits, as well as push me beyond them. To be perfectly honest, every page I have done since January has been my favorite until the next layout comes along. 🙂

I then asked Jenn if she could pick out 4 of her favorite layouts. That’s a tough one for everyone! Here’s what she chose…

 “Mom” – I loved this page for a couple of reasons: 1 – I’m pretty obsessed with photo blending especially when I do it with a large photo.  2 – I am not an alpha person, but I love them so much when I do take the time to use them, and 3 – the journaling. Years ago I would journal in poem form, and it was fun to go back to that.

“Gamers” – I purchased this kit the day it was released, my boys are obsessed with games, and minecraft, I knew eventually I would have a need to use it. This page actually came about when my friend sent the boys these matching Creeper Shirts. I couldn’t wait to scrap a layout of the boys wearing them! and I didn’t.  I had this page scrapped and waiting before they even got home from school so I could take some pictures. LOL

“Opposites Attract” – This was a Bingo Challenge I had a lot of fun with.  I had nothing to scrap for it so it all started with the idea to compare myself to my camera (which when I look at these photos I sometimes wonder when my kids were babies if they thought I looked like some sort of robot, cause I know the camera was always there lol).  This was fun right from the start, from coordinating myself to the kit I wanted to use, to taking some fun selfies, to using a pocket template, to coming up with the things that make us opposites like ~ “I’m shy, but you’re not… you’ll flash anyone.” That’s funny stuff right there LOL  I also had fun doing what I really love and that’s playing with my photos, doing the extractions really made this page what it is.

“Selfie” – You ladies can throw a Selfie challenge at me every single month and I will be excited every time!  Again, photo extractions, photo blending, using a large photo, the excuse to take a selfie (or 7), and no I don’t need an excuse, as much as I hate regular photos of myself I love selfies! I got to use a kit that I totally LOVED but had no use for until this challenge came, and the Alpha work!  The Alphas make this page what it is… and I knew when I did it it was going to be a lot of work (and I remembered this is why I don’t use alphas often (same problem I had with traditional scrapping and my Cricut, it was still too much work), but I love how it turned out!  So someone PLEASE remind me how much I love the finished page with alphas when you see I’ve stopped using them for a while.

PS: This month’s challenge to use “no alphas” drove me crazy! I wanted to use them so bad… Go Figure eh?