Hello my Sweet Shoppe friends and happy Friday! I’ll be brief, I’m sure a lot of you have busy weekends ahead of you. This week’s featured designer is Allie of Lliella Designs. Allie’s designs are instantly recognizable, she has such a distinct style to her kits and I love that! I think any time you could pick a designer’s products out of a line up and say without a doubt that you know who designed it, they are hitting the nail on the head!
As you know, 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. Allie’s School Day is so much fun! I love the cheerful colors and that adorable little monster/alien on the pencil, so cute! You can get it for free, just add $10 worth of goodies to your cart and it will automatically be added to your cart. The offer is good until our new releases go live on August 25th.
I don’t know about you all, I can’t believe that school is getting ready to start here in our neck of the woods! You know what I can believe? That we have our interview from Allie with questions from our Sweet Shoppe community all ready for you.
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?
Allie: A: I had just given birth to my first child in April 2007, I was usually at a baby forum as I had a lot of questions and insecurities being a first-time mom (especially after 2 miscarriages). There I first got to know The Digichick, as one of the moms there is a designer. I discovered a site with lots of freebies (submitted by anyone) so I started creating my own. I have knowledge of Coreldraw, but I was just learning Photoshop (the jaggies were unbelievable). I have always been artistically inclined (got it from my father) and graduated Fine Arts, but we use our hands to draw. I mostly taught myself photoshop. By the end of the year, I started selling at Art&Scrap, Scrapladies and ScrapScandiStyle (I had to dig my old emails for these stores as I had completely forgotten the names). I quit these stores by mid 2008, then I sold at Funky Playground Designs and then later at Sunshine Studio Scraps.
By 2009, I was ready to give birth to my second child. I was thinking of quitting as I would have my hands full, as there was so much work selling at multiple stores. Then thought to myself, “I would only go exclusive if I can
sell at Sweet Shoppe Designs.” Well, about a month after I gave birth to my daughter, I received a very unexpected email from Robin, inviting me to join Sweet Shoppe Designs! I was over the moon! I debuted in May 2009, I think. Hard to believe I have been at SSD for 14 years now!
Do you use your own art in your kits? Show us some of your favorite original illustrations.
Allie: I draw each flower, leaf or stem individually. Then assemble in Photoshop. I sometimes draw a few variations (like the reindeer) since I cannot decide which one I like better at the time.
If you draw your own doodles or sketches for designs, what do you use for that? Tablet, pen, paper, scanner? Tell us more about your process and tools.
Allie: I draw my own illustrations using Procreate on the Ipad. I started doing this only about 2 years ago. I find it easier to created hand drawn stuff in Procreate than in Illustrator. I draw in layers so it will be easier to edit in Photoshop. Once in Photoshop, I recolor, add textures, adjust the blend modes and add shadows to the layers (making sure no shadows are on the outer edge of the element).
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!
Allie: Not one of my first, but I think this was designed early 2008. I was trying out the grungy, crumpled look so popular those days. Hard to believe that would pass as a “Mega Bundle” haha! I also checked and it was perfectly acceptable to have shadows on the elements!
What brings you joy?
Allie: Travelling. I always look forward to it. We made the most of the kids’ extremely long (almost 4 months) summer vacation this year. We went to my hometown and stayed for 3 weeks. Went to Baguio City and Sagada. Travelled to Taiwan and then to Cagayan de Oro City, Camiguin, Bukidnon and Davao City. Looking forward to my future travels.
If you’ve looked into your family history, can you share a funny story about an ancestor?
Allie: Not really a funny story, but both of my grandmothers have lotus feet. They came from China and were one of the last generations to practice it.
Anyone else google “Lotus feet” to be sure it was what you thought it was after reading Allie’s interview? Very interesting! That trip looks amazing and I wish I could draw like that! So talent!
This weekend be sure you take some time to look around the gallery for some inspiration with School Day, the team didn’t get much time to work with this one, but SugarBabe’s Jacinda & Kim B did put together a couple of lovely layouts for us to share.
Until next time, have a great week! Come back next Friday for a look at the 15 goodies that will be featured in Allie’s Featured Designer 15 sale!
