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

Hey everyone, Sweet Talk is back for 2024 with a slightly new format but the same awesome goal. Getting to know YOU, our amazing community members. Once a month we will indulge in some “sweet talk” and have some fun getting to know you all a little bit better.

“Getting to know a diverse group of people leads to a better understanding of yourself.” — Alexander Den Heijer

Without further ado let’s dive into this month’s Sweet Talk interview with an amazing community member: lizziej

Welcome to Sweet Talk, give us a short introduction of yourself/family and how you found digital scrapbooking.

I am married and have one son. My husband is a retired IT consultant and now works in the school system. Our son graduated from college and works full-time. I work full-time outside the home as a civil litigation paralegal.

I started out as a paper scrapbooker. I frequented the forums of an online paper scrapbooking store, which is where I was introduced to digital scrapbooking in 2006. It really had me intrigued. Many of the devoted paper scrapbookers called it fake scrapbooking. lol I bought some kits there but soon learned about dedicated digital scrapbooking stores that had higher-quality digital goodies, like SSD, which I found back in 2007 or 2008.

Answer a few fun questions for us.

1. Give us [3] must haves for the layouts you create? Every layout must have: (1) at least a date and preferably journaling; (2) at least three elements; and (3) a title. If you don’t see any of these in some of my layouts, it’s usually because a challenge limited my use.
2. When is your prime scrapping time? I usually scrap on the weekends.
3. What is your favorite thing to snack on when scrapping? I try not to snack while I’m scrapping, but when I do, I love to snack on popcorn or tortilla chips.
4. Go to your gallery, what is the date and title of your very first layout here at SSD? My very first layout was actually a desktop layout. I posted it on May 15, 2011, and it is entitled, “Oh Happy Day!” My first actual layout was posted on January 27, 2013, and is entitled, “Blue and Gold Banquet.”
5. Dig in your stash and show (or tell) us a kit/product from your favorite designer here at SSD and why? Decisions, decisions! Clever Monkey Graphics? In the Band Bundle. I have used this bundle numerous times, and it is chock full of music digi goodness!
   
6. In honor of our This or That challenge system taking its bow answer a Fast Five This-or-That: (use bold or underline)
   Templates or Freestyle
   Patterns or Solids
   Journaling or Word Strips
   Minimal or Clustered
   Lots of Photos or Photoless

And of course, please share with us your favorite layouts featuring the below & tell us why you chose them:

• *a cool technique
  I love the cutting file technique because it adds dimension to the layout I?m not sure how anyone else does it, but for this layout, I used a chunky font. I simplified the word and then added a white inside stroke of about 48 px. Then I used the magic wand to select the inside of each letter and deleted the inside. I added a shadow to the cut-out word and added papers underneath. I love this layout because of the large photos, which showed good portions of my son?s high school band.
  *
• *your favorite element(s)
  Scatters and paint splatters are some of my favorite elements. I love using them digitally because there is no mess involved! I chose this layout because it has both of these lements, and it is very simple, which is the way I usually like to scrap.
  
• *your choice
  This is one my favorite layouts because I love using patterned papers, and this one uses quite a few! The photo is one of my favorites of my son when he was a toddler.
  

Before you go, share with us a favorite tip you’ve learned over the years: There is no wrong way to scrap, because you create your layouts the way you like to scrap.

Thanks so much lizziej it’s been so much fun learning more about you. Until next time, keep scrapping. xo Kiana