{"id":85418,"date":"2024-10-04T17:05:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T21:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/?p=85418"},"modified":"2024-10-04T17:05:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T21:05:07","slug":"featured-designer-connection-keeping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/featured-designer-connection-keeping\/","title":{"rendered":"Featured Designer – Connection Keeping"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy Friday Sweet Shoppers, and Happy Digital Scrapbooking day weekend! I hope you’re ready for all the scrapping fun we have ready for you in the forum, we can’t wait to see what you create!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with DSD fun, I get to introduce you to our newest Featured Designer, who debut today – Kelly of Connection Keeping.<\/a><\/strong> I can’t wait to find out more about Kelly, as this is her first Featured Designer post since joining us at SSD in February. Her kits are so fun and full of amazing elements and papers, and they’re perfect for creating pages about every theme imaginable! From artsy to more traditional pages, her style can be used in so many ways!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course with a new Featured Designer comes with a new product that is FREE with any $10 purchase. Kelly’s contribution to our Adventure X series<\/a> is stunning! Adventures with Friends<\/a><\/strong> is such a bright colourful kit celebrating connections between people. Everything about this kit is perfect for scrapping about friendships – both as an adult and as a kid. From hanging on the couch to Girls Night Out, you can use this kit for all your events and friendships. I couldn’t wait to scrap with this one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adventures<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not only that, but Kelly has created both a fantastic coordinating add-on bundle AND a full coordinating separate kit. I seriously love this, that Flip Clock Alpha and can see using it on so many pages!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Adventures<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And the coordinating full it: Favorites: Me Time.<\/a><\/strong> The perfect juxtaposition to Adventures with Friends, this kit celebrates those things you do in your time alone that refresh and recharge you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Favorites:<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What better way to get Adventures with Friends for free than by picking up the coordinating Add-ons and extra kit? Adventures with Friends is FREE with your $10 purchase until the new releases go live on October 18th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now let’s learn more about Kelly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about your journey with digital scrapbooking\u2026 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>

Hi there Sweet Scrappers. I\u2019m guessing my scrapbooking journey is similar to many of yours! I started paper scrapping with the birth of my first child. I loved it so much and even joined a card club, where a group of us got together and created paper cards for different occasions. We would make 11 duplicates of our card design and then at the end of the night we would each have 12 unique cards. It was so much fun and encouraged my love of paper scrapping. I also loved to go to Creative Memory Monthly scraps. I loved scrapping in community. However, 3 years later, my second child was born and I wasn\u2019t able to take out the supplies every time and found digital scrapping to be much easier. I used Photoshop Elements and liked it a lot after I learned enough to make my layouts more like the paper ones. In 2014, we became foster parents and I switched to using the Project Life App for a couple of years since life was so busy, but that wasn\u2019t as satisfying. Now I use Photoshop and I use pocket scrapbooking templates to make our family\u2019s yearbooks. If you\u2019ve ever bought one of my monthly calendar kits there are lots of papers because I use the one kit for the whole month and I like the variety. I didn\u2019t start designing until 2021 and then not professionally until the end of 2022 at Oscraps. I had been telling my family that my dream was to one day design at Sweet Shoppe Designs, but I was afraid to ask for it. My daughter and I made a deal that I\u2019d put in an application if she tried out for a national lacrosse team that she was also wanting to try out for, but was nervous. I started at SSD on 2\/24\/24. Side note, her American Select team won the National Championship so I\u2019m extra glad we both went out on a limb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you find inspiration for a new kit or template?

<\/strong>I am definitely one of those people whose mind wanders constantly. I am curious about everything and the engineer in me is always trying to figure stuff out. So as I\u2019m thinking about life, my mind will wander to kits or templates or it\u2019ll be triggered to wonder about topics. I think because I\u2019m still a very new designer it feels like the ideas are limitless, but maybe in my featured designer 2026 interview I\u2019ll talk about the need for new inspiration :). Below is a video on how my Gradient Templates work. I am always drawn to gradient papers and how layouts look when the gradient is coordinated with corresponding colored elements. So I wanted to figure out if it would be possible to create templates that could change color, not just the papers but layers and\/or elements on top. I spent a month trying to perfect it, but it led to inspiration for other things too. I think I tend to have snowballing inspiration, one new thing, leads to another thing, then to ten things, and I just have to remember to write it all down or it will leave as quickly as it came!<\/p>\n\n\n\n