Featured Designer – The Nifty Pixel
Hey Hey Hey! It’s Friday and the weather seems to be on the upswing here in Michigan! Fingers crossed, we may actually be transitioning to spring.
This week, The Nifty Pixel aka Emma is in the spotlight with a new page draft collection, Life Your Best Life! This year our theme is ‘Designer’s Choice’ What does that mean? Well, just what it sounds like! This year our wonderful team of designers will be coming up with a heap of fantastic new collections inspired by whatever is exciting or motivating them in the moment. They have total freedom to express themselves however they’d like, and we’re super excited to see where this adventure takes us over the next year. Live Your Best Life: Page Drafts is a lovely collection and I say it every time we featured a designer that designs templates, you’ll need to add these to your collection! And bonus, she has created a matching kit and some other fun add-ons to go with it. Don’t forget you can get Live Your Best Life: Page Drafts for free with a $10 purchase. Just add $10 worth of goodies to your cart and it will automatically be added! The offer is good until our new releases go live on April 21st.
These are just darling! I love the film strips. Emma has put together this amazing bundle for you! If you purchase it, you’ll get the templates for free! Perfect way to get it all!
This year our interview questions for the designers came straight from you all! It’s always so much fun to see what questions the designers picked to answer and to see what their answers were. Here’s our interview with Emma.
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?
Emma: I first started designing sketch templates for my blog Page Drafts and then began creating them for scrapbook challenge sites. They fast became popular and some caught the eye of Digital scrappers who were asking for layered versions so I taught myself how to create them, zip them up and share them with the wider scrapbooking community.
It was around that time that I enjoyed some exciting jobs on magazines from around the world including the eMag Scrapbook News and Review Magazine, Scrapbook Creations and Scrap365 in many different capacities which was fun and a huge learning curve in developing a sense of confidence.
Now that my templates were becoming more popular some established digital scrapbook designers encouraged me to consider selling my designs!
I was like really could I do this? I mean I was still very green around the gills when it came to designing but I had a huge desire to move forward and take it to the next level. Then I saw that SCRAPSTACKS was looking for designers. I applied, was miraculously offered a spot, my first big break and so began the inception of The Nifty Pixel.
When that closed down I was approached by the owner of The Digi Chick store and sold there and learnt more and more about digital design. It was in fact two of our designers Lorie of LJS Designs and Jo of JoCee Designs both showed me huge support and offered me so much great advice a bit like a mentorship in my opinion. Those girls were and are to this day my greatest advocates.
But sadly, TDC closed its doors and even though Robin offered me an opportunity to apply at SSD back then, life was hectic and I needed to focus on that so took a break from designing and continued on my scrapping journey, really working hard on bettering my digital design skills.
Fast forward a couple more years and Ru from Studio Basic Designs slipped into my DM’s and asked if I would consider applying for a designer spot at SSD! It was with her encouragement (Thanks Ru), I took a giant leap of faith that I would even be considered at all let alone offered a spot of which the team and Robin miraculously did! I am so incredibly grateful to be enjoying such a creative job its also my therapy, I know many of you can relate to that hehe.
Show us a preview for one of your first kits, compared to a recent kit you’re proud of. We want to see how far you’ve come!
Emma: Eventually, like anything we set our minds to, with time and practice you really start to find your groove and define your own style. I knew I had some good collections from my early days in designing, well at least the bones of potentially great ones but they needed fleshing out and brought to life in a more resolved way. Check these examples out…quite a difference that’s for sure!
When it comes to collabs, do you usually work with designers that have styles that you’re comfortable with and you think complement your own designs or do you like to challenge yourself and work with designers that have a completely different style?
Emma: I love collaborating. I don’t always look for someone with the same style because I think mixing things up a bit is fun & encourages new things to try as a designer and brings unexpected goodness to collections for our customers.
I’ve been lucky enough to have collaborated with a few ladies now at SSD; like Erica Zane, Amber (Alchemy Wild) and Mirjam (Pink Reptile Designs) these three ladies are gorgeous and a heap of fun to work with.
I have collaborated many times with Ru (Studio Basic Designs) and Jenn (Simple Pleasure Designs) these two are my artsy muses that’s for sure.
But I’d have to say my main collaboration partner is the gorgeous Jo of JoCee Designs. We just gel! Being in the same time zone and having the same sense of humour makes it so much fun and easier to nut ideas out and I love how our styles meld together seamlessly. There are many more planned for future releases.
All these ladies are fantastic and whilst we have differing styles I reckon we make cute collections. I really hope to collaborate with them all again and add some more designers to the mix would be unreal too. I feel super lucky and blessed to get to work with such incredibly creative souls like these ladies.
Show us a recent mood or inspiration board… or two.
Emma: Occasionally I use a mood board especially for collaborations so that each designer is clear on the collection. Often my ideas are inspired by a beautiful picture, a quote or a colour scheme. Inspiration surrounds us, often its just one thing that grabs you and then you explore it more. Pinterest is great for exploring further into an idea and really honing the idea through imagery and word.
Here are a couple of mood boards examples I’ve created and the collections they inspired. Its really cool seeing a collection come together from a seemingly simple kickstarter like these mood boards and below I’ve included the coordinating template packs too.
HARVEST TABLE | BUNDLE by JoCee Designs & The Nifty Pixel
LOVE POTION | BUNDLE by Simple Pleasure Designs & The Nifty Pixel
What brings you joy?
Emma: There are so many things that bring me joy. That morning kiss and cuddle with my husband. Long conversations with family and friends. Trying out new restaurants and cafes with my bestie. A freshly mown and edged lawn. Snuggles with my kitty whilst watching a TV series and seeing our home nearing closer to the end of its renovation…finally!
But the greatest thing to bring me joy is this boy, my son Tige. I just love how he grounds me. How he can make me laugh in an instant with a funny quip or one of these movie star expressions! His abundantly inquisitive mind, his unwavering desire to seek information and how he knows what countries border others including their national flags! He blows my mind everyday and I’m so incredibly proud of him and love the joy he brings.
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Emma: I can distinctly remember Christmas 1975, I was given a nurse’s costume and I loved it! I still remember the smell of that plastic cape. Being an only child I often role played as a doctor or nurse fixing my dolls and teddy bears. For a long time I also wanted to be a Veterinary Surgeon and yet I ended up going to Art School and later becoming a digital designer, go figure lol
Emma: I also have a freebie for everyone that coordinates which can be downloaded from The Nifty Pixel Fans & Friends Group on Facebook or in the Sweet Stuff forum on Saturday morning at around 8:30 am Australian EST.
Emma: Ooh and here is a little tease a sneak peek of next weeks nifty template release!
Before we leave you, here’s a little taste of Emma’s goodies from the team!
Wow, this is a stunning collection! And don’t you just love that adorable photo of Nurse Emma?! So cute! Don’t forget, if you pick up the Live Your Best Life Bundle, you’ll get the Life Your Best Life templates for free! They are free with a $10 purchase until our new releases go live on April 21st. Be sure you come back next Friday to get a look at Emma’s Featured Designer 15 sale.
Jo said...
on April 8th, 2023 at 5:34 am
You are the best Em, an amazing designer and an absolute gem of a friend. Looking forward to all the wonderful collabs we will be designing together in the years to come. Love you lots xxxx