Scrap Like A Sugarbabe: Heather Greenwood
Today I’d love to introduce you to Heather! Heather is not only an amazing scrapper but a wonderful person too! Her insight into her life that she provides through her scrap therapy pages inspires many of us to scrap the hard stuff as well and use our scrapping as a means to let the emotions out. Never afraid of using color and pattern, Heather doesn’t shy away from the beautiful patterned papers that are the Sweet Shoppe’s trademark style!
My Claim To Fame:
Hi there, Heather here and today I’m going to share a little bit about my love for scrap therapy and patterned papers. Looking through my gallery, you’ll find that I’m pretty much an open book, especially when recording the not so happy moments in my life and I’m not afraid to use big and bold papers for my backgrounds and use lots of papers on my layout.Why is scrap therapy so important:
I feel it’s so important to record even the hard times, not just the good times and the fun memories, so that you can look back on them and see how much you’ve grown from the experience. I have a hard time keeping an actual journal but sometimes I just need to vent on paper. I thought, what better way to do that by creating a pretty scrapbook page. I know if I do journal, I end up getting distracted and like to look at pretty things, so it’s kind of a combination of how my brain works and it helps me get it out and work through my feelings and also use my creativity to make it all artsy and stuff.
Heather’s favorite scrap therapy pages:
Tips for scrap therapy pages:
- Just start typing, let it out like you would write in your diary or journal
- If there is a lesson learned, make sure to talk about it so that you can look back and see that you have grown in that area
- You’re probably going to cry, so a box of tissues is good to have on hand
- A good scream before you start sometimes helps to get things started
- It will be unnatural at first if you’ve never done it before… it’s ok, the goal is to just start and it will start flowing the more natural it become for you
- Make it nice and pretty… you can even make it hard to read too by lowering the opacity of the journaling if you don’t want people to be able to read it… I did that in this layout, but not enough for people to not be able to read it, but just so it looked like the background of the layout, you can lower the opacity even more so that people really can’t read it though…
Why patterned paper inspires me:
I think it stems from my addition to fabric. I love bold, eclectic fabrics and I find that I like that on my scrapbook pages too. It’s probably because it’s a way of expressing myself and my loves on my pages and I’m totally an eclectic person in my style. Just like I use bold, eclectic fabrics and often a mix of several coordinated fabrics on my clothes and in my house, I like the same for my layouts. I don’t really seem to stick to one particular style and like to mix styles up. I can’t seem to use just one paper either. I need to use lots of paper on my pages. The more the merrier, in my opinion. I think it’s this shy girl’s way of expressing who she really is inside. In my head I’m a bold, eclectic and outspoken person, but the shyness keeps me from actually being that person, so my pages represent that side of me when I’m too afraid to be who I am, if that makes sense, LOL
Heather’s favorite pages using patterned paper:
Tips for using patterned papers in a layout:
- “Mesh” the patterned papers in the kit by making one of the multi colored papers the main paper, like a plaid or striped paper
- Make a statement by using a bold patterned paper as your main background paper
- Use a solid background paper and lots of snippets of patterned paper
- If you’re going to journal, go with one of the subtle patterned papers for the background or use journal cards for journaling on
- Pile all the patterned papers on and then just tilt and slant them in several different directions or off the page
- Use interesting shapes like chevron, or hexagons to make a quilt like effect for your background
- Use big shapes like circles and bigger paper blocks for bigger patterns and use paper strips or smaller shapes for the smaller patterns
- Use a frame to frame some papers instead of inserting photos in the frame
- Only use a few elements to make the papers really stand out and show them off
- Just don’t be afraid, the designers work hard on creating them so let them shine!!!
Calvina said...
on February 20th, 2012 at 7:46 pm
Great article Heather! I always enjoy your layouts in the gallery!
mrshobbes said...
on February 20th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
YAY Heather!!!! What an awesome tutorial and I can’t wait to try these tips on using pattern papers! 😀
Amanda said...
on February 22nd, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Such a great article. Heather you are an amazing scrapper, thanks for sharing some of your ways with us.
Christine said...
on November 19th, 2012 at 4:32 am
Heather, this is a really great post and soe wonderful doable ideas. Scrapping the hard stuff has been something I have been putting off. We lost our baby at 20 weeks in May and I need to get it from the word docs to layouts. Your journaling is giving me the encouragement to do that.
Wendy said...
on March 31st, 2013 at 1:10 pm
I simple love it! A lot of inspiration in many ways for me. !
Tutorials by Sweet Shoppe Designs » Scrap Like A Sugarbabe: Heather Greenwood, Part II said...
on July 7th, 2013 at 5:02 am
[…] it’s been a year and a half since I did my Scrap Like A Sugarbabe tutorial, and while I still like to use patterned papers, I’ve definitely gone through some […]