Featured Designer – Meagan’s Creations
Happy Friday Sweet Shoppers! We are headed into a long weekend here in Canada, and I’m super excited for the memories we are planing to make with camping and a surprise 40th birthday party. Hopefully the weather holds up – we never know if Victoria Day weekend will hold snow or sunshine, so cross your fingers for me it’s a warm, sunny weekend!
I’m here today with a brand new Featured Designer and new Featured Designer kit. I’m super excited to be able to show off Meagan’s Creations’ take on our Adventure X series of FWP kits this year. Meagan’s store truly has something for everyone. Meagan has a traditional scrapbooking style with a modern twist – her kits have lots of themed elements and flowers and pretty goodness to fill up your page. She can make a kit about pretty much any topic – I’ve been known to buy a shirt or toy for my kids just to use one of her sweet kits and have related photos (shhh, don’t tell my husband!).
Wedding Adventure is our newest Featured Designer kit, and as you can see below it is just stunning in classic colours that can be used for any wedding but also for everyday pages or any time you are dressed up. Getting married definitely is one of the biggest adventures most people take, and Meagan thought of everything – from classy pearls and tuxes to a wedding dress and rings, this kit has it all. And best of all it is FREE with your $10 purchase in the Shoppe between now and when the new releases go live on May 31st.
Meagan also created these great Add-ons to the kit – add them to your cart now to get closer to that $10 to get the kit for free!
Now let’s learn a bit more about Meagan!
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?
I learned about digital scrapbooking from a friend in 2008 when I asked how she was making her blog headers. She told me there were a lot of freebies out there. I started playing around with it, starting with GIMP, and then started making word art. I decided to start selling it but wasn’t making much so started branching out to making kits. I was on the Creative team for Cheri of Dream Big Designs and she was a great inspiration and mentor to get started. I had taken art classes in college, mainly focusing on 2D art but did take a commercial design class that planted the seeds of my interest in computer art that helped me as I started digital scrapbooking. I did do paper scrapbooking first, my wedding album! But I found it so expensive and didn’t know how I’d keep up this hobby. Digital is so great! Being able to stop and save anywhere in the process and come back and also share it with others easily are some of my favorite things about digital scrapbooking.
My first shop was Stuff to Scrap. I didn’t quite know how big the digital scrapbooking world was when I joined STS in 2010. I have been at several stores but from the first time I found Sweet Shoppe Designs, I knew it would be my dream home! It took a few times applying but I was accepted in the spring of 2019 and it’s been a fantastic 5 years here! The family is so sweet and caring and I’m so inspired by the talent I’m surrounded by. 💗
How do you stay motivated or deal with the loss of mojo?
I often design projects based on requests. This sometimes means I’m not personally familiar with the subject matter and that can require a lot of research which sometimes I find fun and other times I find it tedious. Making sure to take a break from requests and do a kit about something I’m passionate about helps me keep a more personal focus in my designs. I find that looking up fun phrases and designs I can incorporate help me feel more inspired (thanks Pinterest! ). Looking around online and finding that there are not a lot of kits or designs for a theme also inspires me to bring something new to the table er.. computer! For instance, I was surprised there wasn’t a kit out there for Swifties! Although I like Taylor Swift, I don’t consider myself a “Swiftie” so it was fun learning about friendship bracelets and other items fans love. I think it’s a fun music kit in general whether you’re a fan or not and it’s always fun to make something sparkly when I’m outnumbered by guys in my house!
What comes first when designing… theme or color palette?
The theme definitely comes first. As I start to look around for inspiration and start to compile a list of elements I want to include, that determines the colors I need for the palette. One of my recent collections was Queen of the Castle. I wasn’t quite sure what palette I was going to select for this theme but I knew I wanted a sassy collection that still had a feminine vibe. I saw this collection that wasn’t necessarily a women’s kit but I liked the kind of vintage vibe and felt it was floral and feminine so it worked for what I was going for with Queen of the Castle. I also think the juxtaposition of vintage with modern sassy is really fun.
How do you keep your collections fresh and new for themes that are done again and again like holidays, weddings, scrapbooking, etc.?
There’s always a fun new palette other than the traditional one that you can use. Especially with themes like birthdays and holidays, people have different tastes and like to have different palettes tried out. Sometimes, I think others are trying so hard to think out of the box that they don’t use classic or traditional colors and I like to put a modern twist on a classic look.
I had a blast making Halloween Diva because you don’t normally think of pink and pastel orange for Halloween colors but I knew I wanted a more floral/soft look for this collection so it was fun to step out of the Halloween “norms”.
Word art is also key. I think people really resonate with the word art in a kit and our language and popular phrases are always changing. Using new phrases with a classic look keeps scrapbooking fun and interesting. As an example, I did see people requested birthday kits with a season theme so that’s why I introduced the bday bash series, Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall.
Are there any adventures you’d like to go on in the future?
When I think of adventure, I think of travel. I would love to travel the world. I want to visit Ireland, Japan and Hawaii. I’d love to see the cultural sites and try unique foods. I’m not one for anything too crazy with foods but am willing to give things a shot! I also think it would be amazing to do indoor skydiving sometime- safe while still experiencing weightlessness.
What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done recently?
Last year I helped out at the ropes course of a summer camp for my church. There is this 50 foot (I think? Maybe more) trust leap. You climb this post to a small platform and then jump off! I was pretty nervous the first time and only sat on the platform. The second time I stood and jumped! It was crazy but I was proud of myself for doing it!
What is your current desktop or cell phone wallpaper? Why did you choose that image?
Currently on my phone is this artwork from one of my favorite movies, Howl’s Moving Castle, from Studio Ghibli. We love anime in our house! I thought it was so pretty with the moody blue and pink playing against each other and love how it’s a far off view of the main characters who have a wonderful love story!
What was your first job?
My first job was as a math tutor at the community College I was attending. Since then, I’ve been a math tutor at several places and earned a degree in Math Education. I’ve been a math tutor at Tutor.com for over 15 years. Math is another love of mine alongside art and it’s pretty cool that I can say I’ve been tutoring for over 2 decades!
What’s your favorite movie quote?
Can’t go wrong with anything from The Princess Bride! “As you wish” has to be the most romantic phrase in cinema. And with my husband being 6’1” to my 5’1”, we can often reenact this scene as I request he “fetch” me something from a high cabinet!
Well now I know who to ask about my teenager’s math homework – because I am definitely not that good at math! Before you go, check out these gorgeous pages from the SugarBabes with Wedding Adventure.
That’s it for this week, come back next Friday to see which 15 products Meagan has picked for her Featured Designer 15 sale – you won’t want to miss it! Until then, keep on scrapping!
