Featured Designer – Traci Reed
Happy 1st Friday of May and it’s going to be a big weekend here at the Sweet Shoppe! iNSD kicks off pretty soon and that means lots of sales, new goodies and lots of fun! We’ve all been scrapping like crazy all week and the designers have been creating like mad for you. Before we get to all of that excitement, let’s talk about something else exciting, our next featured designer, Traci Reed! If you’re not already following Traci on Instagram and YouTube, you totally should be. She’s going to keep inspiration coming your way all week long!
Keeping with the festive spirit in mind of our big birthday, our designers decided that a year long celebration of everything that makes our lives special would be the perfect way to keep the party going, “Celebrate YOU!” is the theme that will be inspiring our Featured Designer freebies this year! From your job, to your school, to your favorite holidays and more, we’re celebrating all of life’s memorable moments this year, and Traci’s contribution to this year’s series is so bright, cheerful and perfect for celebrating! Happy {birth}day is going to work in every collection! We all have birthdays, so it’s is one of those evergreen kits, that you’ll always be able to use. Happy {birth}day will automatically be added for free to your cart with a $10 purchase.
That is such an adorable kit! I don’t know about you, but I’m always on the hunt for a new birthday collection since we have five members of our family, and five birthdays a year. Traci has also created so many amazing add-ons to coordinate with Happy {birth}day.
Gosh, this is collection is going to fill our gallery with some stunning layouts! We sent Traci our list of interview questions and I can’t wait for you all to see what she had to say.
Do you like to scrapbook? How often do you get around to it?
DO I LIKE TO SCRAPBOOK?? HA! I scrapbook every. single. week. It used to be nearly every day, but that was getting in the way of my actual work, so now I dedicate Saturdays to just relax and play with paper. And I do mean play with PAPER. If you check out my products, you’ll notice I cater them to a hybrid crowd and that’s because I’m a hybrid scrapbooker myself! I LOVE to print my collections and play with them IRL! I have a YouTube channel where a new scrapbooking process video goes up every other day and I even post sketches every other Sunday on my blog! I LOVE scrapbooking! Here are a few of my favorite recent hybrid layouts using my designs.
How far in advance do you start working on your next product? Do you have a list of themes in the queue or do you just decide what feels right from week to week?
I made a silly reel about this,
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but it’s TRUE! Thanks to my ASD, I’m almost always in work mode. Since I juggle digital design with my work for paper and stamp companies, I can really only do about one collection a month, but I make it a GOOD one (and a huge one!) Because I have to schedule everything to fit it all in, I generally know the theme of my next product and maybe have mood boarded it in advance…I like to plan about 3 months at a time in themes/moodboards but sometimes it changes up because what could have been inspiring me in March might not be inspiring me in July and that’s ok! I just go with the flow and create something new. For example, this was the moldboard I’d originally created for May, but I felt like it would be better served later in the year when it came time to design it, so I shelved it in favor of the Happy Day collection!
Any behind the scenes sneak peeks you can share with us?
I’m HUGE on sharing behind-the-scenes stuff on Instagram and if you follow me over there, you get sneak peeks at my process and what I’m working on all the time, including a full 2 weeks of sneak peeks at whatever collection I have coming up next! Here are some fun BTS videos I shared over there for recent products:
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Share a kit or bundle plus the mood board or story that inspired it.
Oh this is a good one!! I almost always moodboard my collections!
Share a photo or video of your workspace at home!
How about a video of me cleaning it?! I have a nice dedicated area of our den with beautiful lighting that I’ve stocked full of plants and art. I use it for work AND scrapbooking and it gets messy!
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I love how willing Traci is to share some much of her journey with all of us, from everyday life, to her weight loss success, to scrapping and everything in between! I hope you enjoyed that interview as much as I did! Before I leave you, let’s see some inspiration from the team.
Until next time, go fill up your shopping cart with $10, and Happy {birth}day will be automatically added for FREE! This special offer will only be available through Friday, May 20th when our new releases go live, so don’t delay! And don’t forget to come back next Friday for a sneak peek at Traci’s Feature Designer 15 sale. It will start Tuesday, May 17th. Have a great weekend!
