Featured Designer – LJS Designs
Happy Friday Sweet Shoppers! I hope you had a fantastic week and made a took a ton of photos to scrap about. We have a house full of company this weekend which will be good for the soul, to see family and all the laughs and fun that will go with that (not to mention the food!).
Today I get to bring you our newest Featured Designer – Lorie of LJS Designs. Lorie’s kits are always brimming with exquisite elements that add charm and character to every page. She has some of the best themes in her kits that inspire all of us to craft our stories with beauty and a distinct flair. If that wasn’t enough she also has a slew of templates in her store that will help you create pages quickly and efficiently.
For the next two weeks we will have the spotlight on Lorie and her designs, and she also designed this fantastic kit, It’s Your Birthday, will be FREE with any $10 purchase in the Shoppe from now until the new releases go live on April 4. It’s such a fun kit for scrapping about any birthday in your life, from baby through adulthood – who doesn’t love to “Eat Cake!” like the wordart says?
Now let’s find out more about Lorie!
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’ve been scrapping in some form for as long as I can remember, but actually learned about digital scrapbooking through another hobby – genealogy. I wanted to be able to put my old family photos into the book I was creating, went looking for a way to do it and came across a digital scrapbooking magazine. For many years I had a My.Family.com site where I taught other genealogists digital scrapbooking. At some point, I began making them supplies and one of the partners in the site said I should look at going “professional.” LOL I dithered for a long time until my partner actually set up my blog as a way to push me forward. When I finally decided to go for it, I set my mind on selling at SSD and then set to work improving my skills and building my brand. I started my first shop in October of 2013 and joined the SSD team in January of 2018. Yep, it took 5 years to get here, but it was worth it. Really, it was a dream come true for me.
How do you define your style? What does that style include? How has your style changed over the years?
I believe my style mimics traditional paper scrapbooking. I love creating paper products – cardstocks, paper pieced elements, paper flowers, pocket cards, etc. Basically, I am drawn to the Items that you would find in any traditional scrapbook store.
Where do you see your designs going in the future? Is your focus changing in any way?
Recently, I have become fascinated with junk journaling with all the layers, pockets and tags that make it so interesting and fun. I have been thinking on ways to digitally expand on that concept by creating more layered products that can be customized by the individual scrapper. I just created a junk journal inspired template album that puts some of my thoughts and ideas into action. I also created some travel papers and elements that can be used with the album since it is full of photos, frames, tags, pocket cards, envelopes and other elements that are perfect for, but not limited to, a vacation album.
Where do you find inspiration for a new kit or template?
I find inspiration everywhere. For instance, Love My Herd was inspired by my kitchen which is decorated with cows and signs with cow quotes and puns like “I will love you till the cows come home” and “Kitchen Closed: This heifer’s had it.”
Lately though, a lot of my inspiration comes from being a first time grandma. My grandson has inspired a lot of the kits I have created in the past two years. Before he was born, I was creating kits for him.
I really enjoy being a Grammy, so I really enjoy creating products that can be used to document his life.
Are you an adventurous person? What has been your greatest adventure?
I am not at all adventurous. I have experienced my share of loss and had a lot of upheavals in my life, so I prefer less excitement. I was widowed at 24, then became a single mom 4 months later. I was diagnosed with cancer at 34 and then lost my dad 4 months after that. I was stalked by a former co-worker and received death threats from an employee with mental health issues. Those experiences have really made me appreciate a calm and quiet life. My greatest adventure is my son and now my grandson. I am a caretaker at heart, so being a mom and grandma fill my life in all the ways that matter to me.
If you could pick anyone in the past or present to go on an adventure with, who would you pick and what would you do?
If I could, I would love to go back and spend time with my dad working on our family history together. The Starchers have been in the same area of VA/WVA since 1603; they actually founded a good deal of Virginia, so I would love to explore that history with him. He told the best stories about his family, stories that I didn’t always appreciate the way I should have or would now. I think spending time with him and learning more about the people we come from would be the adventure of a lifetime for me.
Given the choice, would you pick an indoor or outdoor adventure?
I would most likely stay indoors and choose a small, safe adventure. But then, I recently gave myself a 3rd degree burn crafting with my sister, so safety is a relative thing for me. LOL
If you had an hour to yourself, but were not allowed to use it to scrapbook or design, what would you spend the hour doing?
I would probably read and end up falling asleep. I only sleep about 4 hours a day, so if I sit down with nothing to do, I wind up napping. LOL
Do you have hobbies other than scrapbooking, photography, or memory keeping? Tell us about them.
Besides genealogy, one of the strangest hobbies/fascinations I have is learning about Mountaineering and all the things that go wrong on the peaks of the world. We have already covered the fact that I am not at all adventurous, but I am completely intrigued by people who feel the need to spend a fortune to climb a mountain. Their willingness to leave their families, risk life and limb, suffer extreme cold and more just to stand on top of a rock is unfathomable to me. To be honest, listening to their stories makes me feel so much better about not being adventurous. LOL
I love learning more about our designers, and I 100% related to Lorie and that “Safety” is relative!
Now check out these pages that the SugarBabes created using the It’s Your Birthday.
That’s it for this week – come back next Friday to see which 15 products Lorie has chosen for her Featured Designer 15 sale. Until then, keep on scrapping!
