{"id":79937,"date":"2023-07-14T17:03:05","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T21:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/?p=79937"},"modified":"2023-07-14T17:03:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T21:03:05","slug":"featured-designer-ljs-designs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/featured-designer-ljs-designs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Featured Designer – LJS Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone!\u00a0 How is July going for you?\u00a0 Things are finally slowing down in my neck of the woods, so maybe I’ll find time to do a little scrapping!\u00a0 It looks like everyone is really enjoying our Summer Scrap a Thon!\u00a0 Just as exciting as the scrap a thon, is introducing our next featured designer, Lorie aka LJS Designs! I love Lorie’s illustrations and word snips, they give her collections such a unique feel.\u00a0 Plus, I’m always looking for extra words, I love that she includes extras like these.<\/p>\n

As you know, this year our theme is \u2018Designer\u2019s Choice\u2019 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\u2019d like, and we\u2019re super excited to see where this adventure takes us over the next year. Lorie’s\u00a0\u00a0Seas the Day<\/a> is so much fun for summer!\u00a0 Everyone that’s hitting the beach can absolutely use this beauty, but even if you’re not, the colors are so neutral, it will work in any collection.\u00a0 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\u00a0July 28th.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Gosh, I love it!\u00a0 I’m such a sucker for blues and teals in a kit!\u00a0 Plus all the red.\u00a0 So pretty!\u00a0 Do you need even more?\u00a0 Just look at these add-ons she’s created!<\/p>\n

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Now, as you all know, we always interview our designers for this feature and this year the questions are straight from the Sweet Shoppe community, let’s sweet what Lorie had to say.<\/p>\n

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?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: I have been scrapbooking is some form for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 I can recall putting family photos into an album at a young age and going back to rearrange them over and over.\u00a0 Or at least until Mom said enough.\u00a0 LOL\u00a0<\/em>When my son was a baby, I was still using regular photo albums, but when we went to Disney for the first time when he was nine, I purchased a scrapbook kit and quickly became hooked on papers, washi, alphas, etc. I created a number of traditional albums for him through the years.<\/em><\/div>\n
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I transitioned to digital scrapbooking through my genealogy hobby.\u00a0 I wanted to included photos and personal information together on a page in my records, so I created basic \u201clayouts\u201d in my genealogy program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>One day at the grocery store, in or around 2008, I saw a magazine called Digital Scrapbooking and knew I had found my new passion.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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Again, my genealogy hobby was a big part of my learning process for digital scrapbooking.\u00a0 So much so, that I started a MyFamily.Com site called Simply Scrapbooking to teach others to scrap their family history.\u00a0 Just like me, my members became hooked on scrapping and we moved as a group from just creating genealogy layouts to scrapping everything and everyone we knew.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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Because I was teaching other people to scrap, I needed supplies for them to use and had no place where I could affordably purchase the amount I would need for everyone in the group.\u00a0<\/em>That was when I started creating little things for them.\u00a0 I stuck with that site and dabbled in designing for a few years until my friend, Anita Hill, who is a web designer \u201cpushed me out of the nest\u201d by buying me a domain and creating my blog.\u00a0 She had a lot of faith in my abilities, more than I did, and was the driving force behind my design career.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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After creating and giving away freebies on my blog for a while, I was fortunate enough to take Traci Reed\u2019s Design Star class at Scrapaneers.\u00a0 I learned so much from Traci, not only about design but about Photoshop itself.\u00a0 She really helped me step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to become a Sweet Shoppe Designer.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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While I knew going into designing that I wanted to sell at SSD, I also knew I couldn’t start at the top, I had a lot of work to do.\u00a0 \u00a0I opened my first shop at Memories.Com on October 13, 2013 and put my energy into learning everything I could about this craft.\u00a0 It took me years and stints at O Scraps, Scraps Stacks, Ginger Scraps, The Digital Press and a few other shops before I was invited to join the SSD team in December of 2018. It’s hard to believe it has been five years, but time really does fly when you are having fun.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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What comes first when designing? theme or color palette?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: My design process always begins with a title, which establishes my theme, and then the color palette.\u00a0 I love color, but I struggle to create palettes that I feel are cohesive without being repetitive.\u00a0 I usually use Pinterest as my mood board by pinning images that inspire me to theme boards.\u00a0 From there I pull images into Photoshop and start pulling different colors from them.\u00a0 I fine tune the colors while I am creating my paper patterns and have been known to totally redo all my papers because of a slight change in color.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Show us a recent mood or inspiration board? or two.<\/i><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: You can find my pinterest color board, where I pin palettes created by others, here:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/loriebug66\/ljs-colors\/<\/a><\/div>\n
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Here is a mood board that I put together for my FD kit, Seas The Day<\/div>\n
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How do you stay motivated or deal with the loss of mojo?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: I’ve always believed that motivation is simply showing up and doing the work.\u00a0 Having said that, this year I haven’t released as much as I have in previous years because I have struggled with my energy levels.\u00a0 I’ve been pushing myself for the past 10 year to design full time while working full time and trying to maintain that pace took a toll on my health.\u00a0 I have struggled with reoccuring infections that left me feeling depleted and defeated.\u00a0 That is when I struggle with my creativity. I have to feel well to feel creative.\u00a0 Thankfully, my doctor was able to get to the root cause of my infections — they’re actually caused by too much histamine in my body — and developed a game plan to help me deal with them.\u00a0 I am feeling better and creating more these days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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How long does it take you to put a collection together from start to finish?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: Forever.\u00a0 Here at SSD, we make big kits and even bigger bundles, so it usually takes me two weeks to create a collection.\u00a0 I do most of my work on the weekends, putting in at least 8 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday and then usually about 3 to four hours in the evening during the week.\u00a0 I tend to work better at night so I usually end up staying up longer than I should and paying for it in the morning.\u00a0 Now that I am an empty nester, designing helps keep me busy and out of trouble.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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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!<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: This is the first kit I ever created for sale:\u00a0 Parking Lot Party.<\/div>\n
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A recent one I did that I really love is Mouse Trip.\u00a0\u00a0I love planning a trip to Disney, so this kit was a must have for me before we went in March.<\/div>\n
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What brings you joy?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: I am easily amused and find joy in the silliest things.\u00a0 For instance, I love watching videos of Walter the French Bulldog. He makes me laugh so hard.\u00a0 I enjoy spending time with my small family.\u00a0 There may not be many of us, but we are tight and always have a good time together.\u00a0 \u00a0I am an introvert who is very good at entertaining herself and can always find enjoyable things to do.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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If you’ve\u00a0looked into your family history, can you share a funny story about an ancestor?<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: I have been researching my family history for the last twenty years and have discovered a lot of interesting facts about my ancestors.\u00a0 For instance, my dad’s family were in Virgina by 1603, my mom is a Mayflower descendent and both my dad and mom had ancestors at VallForge with Washington.\u00a0 Through my dad, I am related to Thomas Jefferson and to Alexander Graham Bell and Daniel Boone through my mom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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There are not as many funny stories to share, but I do love the story about my great Aunt Mary, who, depending on who you talked to, was a healer, or a witch.\u00a0 One day when her brother, Joss, was a small boy, he threw a rock and hit a stray black cat in the back leg on his way to school.\u00a0 When he got home later that day, Mary, his oldest sister, was limping badly. When he asked her what was wrong, she took him to task for hitting her with a rock earlier that morning.\u00a0 Mary passed away before I was born, but my Uncle Joss told me the story and was absolutely convinced that Mary was a witch who could become a cat.\u00a0 What surprised me even more is that my father, who knew Mary, believed it as well. But, as he said, it was okay, because she was a good witch.\u00a0 LOL<\/div>\n
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Do you have hobbies other than scrapbooking, photography, or memory keeping? Tell us about them.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Lorie: Besides genealogy, I love to read, decorate tier trays and have recently taken up diamond painting, thanks to our fearless leader Robin’s answer to a forum post about hobbies.\u00a0 I find the process very relaxing and am surprised about how quickly it goes.\u00a0 I am currently working on this kit:\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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Ohh, maybe I need to try this diamond painting, but you know what, I think we need a kit based off this photo!\u00a0 Lorie, hint hint!\u00a0 Now, before I let you all go shopping, let’s see how the babes have been using Seas the Day this week.<\/div>\n
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Ok everyone!\u00a0 Don’t forget, Seas the Day is yours for free with a $10 purchase!\u00a0 You have until our new releases go live on Friday, July 28th!\u00a0 Don’t wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone!\u00a0 How is July going for you?\u00a0 Things are finally slowing down in my neck of the woods, so maybe I’ll find time to do a little scrapping!\u00a0 It looks like everyone is really enjoying our Summer Scrap a Thon!\u00a0 Just as exciting as the scrap a thon, is introducing our next featured designer, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":79938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27],"tags":[207,203,209,324,269,88,204,377,227,578,469,340,461],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79937"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79961,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79937\/revisions\/79961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}