This post is part of a series on our blog that will introduce you to the designers and team members that work behind the scenes at Plain Digital Wrapper to make it a fun-loving, digi-family. We would love to get to know you better as well, so if you aren’t already hanging out with us in the forum, please take a moment to say good morning to us, introduce yourself, and find some inspiration from our many challenges or in our gallery.

This month we are excited to introduce one of our two guest designers for the month of October, Terra, who designs as Sugar Kissed Designs. You can find her blog here and her Facebook Page here and check out her guest store here. I saw a fun little blog train freebie she has up on her blog so make sure you stop by and check it out.

Sugar Kissed Designs has been designing for a little over two years and designs with both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and has taken several college courses in Digital Arts.  She told us that these classes were what really cemented her desire to digitally design. Although she was a paper scrapper before she started designing, she first came to the world of digital design through tagging. “I actually started out as a tagger.  Soon I found that I could create my own graphics.  Two years ago I participated in Designer Survivor.  I freely admit I was completely unprepared for what I got into.  However, it stretched my designing beyond what I thought I could do.  It also gave me my first taste and ultimate love for designing for scrappers.”

Terra shared the following with us.

What was your favorite childhood toy or game? My favorite toy was a doll house that my grandmother had given me for Christmas one year.  She had painted it herself and we decorated it with patterned contact paper for the walls and floors.

Do you sing in the shower or car? I sing everywhere… I’m passionate about music almost as much as I am design.

What are your favorite colors? I love purples, and yet I never seem to design with them as much.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Plum

What is your favorite snack to scrap with? This probably sounds very egocentric, but I love the Original Terra Chips. The taro root ones are my favorite.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Everywhere, but almost always music.  Music will inspire a feeling which will inspire and idea.

What is your least favorite part of designing? Hindsight.  Whenever I finish a kit and have it in the store, that’s when I see things I could’ve added or done differently.  I think every good designer feels that way, though.

What is your favorite part of designing? Papers.  I love designing papers and patterns.

What was the hardest part about starting out as a designer? Patience.  I think we all want to come out guns blazing our way to the top, and it really takes patience, dedication and a willingness to learn.

If you had to have one color in every kit, what color would it be and why? Some sort of cream or white.  I think it adds a brightness and neutrality that can be so versatile.  There are very few kits that I can’t see using a creamy white color in.

Describe your design style. I think of my design style as contemporary transitional.  A cross between traditional and modern.

Do you use a tablet when designing? I actually don’t.  I use a mouse.

Where do you design? I feel like I design everywhere.  My mind is forever coming up with ideas and pictures of things I’d love to put in a kit.  Primarily I work at my kitchen table.  I don’t think I’ve ever had an actual meal on it since it’s covered with my computer, scanner, and designing bits and bobs.

Sugar Kissed Designs has two exclusive kits for Plain Digital Wrapper this month.  The first is called “Boo”. “I wanted to create this funky fun kit with colors that weren’t your traditional black and orange. It’s perfect for all your Halloween layouts or hybrid projects.”

You can purchase the Boo page kit, which includes 12 papers and 21 elements and is on sale for $5, or the papers and elements separately. There is also a matching alpha which is included with the page kit or can be purchased separately.

The second kit Sugar Kissed Designs has for you is called “Grace”.  “I really love the soft hues next to this dramatic black. This kit is simplistic in design and will complement any layout!”

You can purchase the complete “Grace” page kit which includes 12 papers and 24 elements plus an alpha and is on sale for $5, or purchase the papers, elements or alpha separately.

Sugar Kissed Designs has made a wonderful quickpage from Boo as a gift for you.

Download: Boo Quickpage (239)

Because Terra is really awesome, she is also giving our blog readers a coupon for 25 percent off!

Happy Scrapping!

Filed under: Design Team Unwrapped, Freebies, General Posts and Updates, Guest Designers by Candy
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This post is part of a series on our blog that will introduce you to the designers and team members that work behind the scenes at Plain Digital Wrapper to make it a fun-loving, digi-family. We would love to get to know you better as well, so if you aren’t already hanging out with us in the forum, please take a moment to say good morning to us, introduce yourself, and find some inspiration from our many challenges!

This week we are shining our design spotlight on April Staker. You can find April on Facebook here or on her blog here.

April has been designing for about five years and originally joined the Plain Digital Wrapper design team in 2007 and was with us until 2009 when she took a little break to go back to school full time. She returned to PDW this past spring. She told us she got her start as a designer because  she was a paper scrapper that wanted specific papers, colors, and themes and couldn’t find. “I am a fine arts major, and so I knew I could create my own stuff, but I started doing it on the computer so that I could have it printed. Some friends saw the papers and encouraged me to sell my papers so I started learning how to use CS2 better. That led to designing kits. I actually started by giving them away for free to some rubber stampers I was friends with! And that led me to forums with digital scrapbookers. I actually designed for about a year before I became a digital scrapper. It was hard to give up all the paper sitting in my cabinet… which is still in my cabinet….’

‘After discovering that digital scrapping made no messes on my tables, counters, floors, etc., I fell in head over heels. So it wasn’t long before I applied to a designer call. I actually took on too many stores when I first started and quickly realized I couldn’t keep up that pace. So I cut back to two stores. And then to just one, and PDW has been my favorite place for a while now!”

April shared the following with us:

Do you have any formal training in design? Yes and no. I have the fine arts career and schooling- so I have a lot of training in color theory, design, things like that. Most of my art training is actually oil painting, drawing, sculpture, things that don’t usually involve a computer. The computer end is all self-taught. I either play with CS2 until I figure out how to do what I want, or sometimes I can find a good book or tutorial that helps me sort it out. I play pretty well with computers, and I love the creative end of the process the best!

What was your favorite childhood toy or game? The swing set.  I think back and wonder how I did not ever get a concussion from jumping off of them and having contests with my brothers to see who could go the furthest.  *there were railroad ties that I remember seeing a little too up-close and personal*  And I learned to do a lot of tricks on the bar across the top of the swing set.  Again, not sure how I didn’t ever get any broken bones, or really any injuries.  I must have had a whole army of guardian angels assigned to me.

Who is/was your nemesis? Myself.  I know it sounds dumb, but sometimes I really am my own problem.  Either I do too much at once and burn out, or I completely lack motivation.  I also am terrible about being hard on myself, like I am my worst competition.  Sometimes it does push me to do better, but sometimes I cause my own ruts.

What are your hobbies or pastimes? I love to try new things, so my hobbies and pastimes change.  I tried snowboarding this last winter and fell in love (and fell a lot).  I didn’t grow up by the mountains and the thought of flying down the side of one on a plastic covered slicked up piece of whatever it is scared me to death.  But I had this terrible thought that because of my own fear my kids wouldn’t ever get the chance to try it, which seemed really lame.  So I planned to take my kids and just “watch” from the bottom of the slope.  My hubby laughed at me, and said, “you realize you have to go WITH them, right?”  Since I had already told the kids I was taking them I was pretty much stuck trying it, too.  And I am really glad I did!

I also love to garden.  I have about a 5,000 square foot garden.  I have chickens in there which I have come to just love to pieces.  I grow lots of herbs, veggies, fruits and flowers.  Nothing beats eating home grown food.

And lately, now that I am done with school for the moment, and not homeschooling my kiddos this year, I am spending a lot of time in my art studio.  I teach classes and I am working on my own portfolio.  I am hoping to have a lot of paintings and drawings done this year.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple-licious.  I don’t think that is actually a color, but it would be a lovely shade of plum-ish purple.  The kind that can actually be a cool or warm color depending on what is around it.  And it would also be a little bit sparkly.

What is your favorite snack to scrap with? Diet Mountain Dew, and any number of chocolate treats I have been able to hide from my kids.  Although, when I eat too much of the chocolate I need to balance the sugar with some salt, so then I have yellow corn tortilla chips… and then it is back to the chocolate to balance out the salt…

Do you sing in the shower/car? In the car, when my hubby isn’t there.  The kids can be there, but not my hubby.  I do not know why, I just get way more self -conscious when he is there.

What is your weakness? Sugar.  All things sugar. mmmmmmmmm………

What are your favorite colors? Plum-ish purple, mustard yellow and a medium shade of gray.  The plum-ish color has been my fave since like 4th grade.  The others change frequently, the layers of paint in my homes will attest to this.  I haven’t even mentioned to hubby how I’d like to repaint it all again…..

What is your biggest pet peeve? Hypocrites.  I have serious issues with this.  SERIOUSLY.

You just inherited the Witch’s Candy House from Hanzel and Gretel, what do you do now? Sell it to Willy Wonka.

Wii, Playstation, X-box or No, thank you? Yes.  But I have to really watch it, I get totally addicted.  I have the “just one more try and I bet I can do that” syndrome.  And then the one more try turns into 5 hours later…..  I do love karaoke with my family though!

Where do you get your inspiration from? Lots of things: photos I need to scrap, colors I like, something I saw outdoors, sometimes things just kind of “hit” me and I get ideas out of nowhere.

What one thing is essential for putting you in a creative mood? Not being stressed out is a major factor.  I can be busy, but if I am stressed over thigns I have a really hard ime being creative.  So if I am stressed and want to create taking a good hour long walk/jog with my dogs will set things right.  It clears my mind (probably because I work things out in my head as we are out and about), and the exercise gives me a burst of energy that makes me just feel good.

What is your least favorite part of designing? Sometimes I totally burn out on a kit before I feel like I have enough elements.  Sometimes it is because I am on a time crunch.  Other times I just hit a wall and can’t focus.  I never have that problem with papers and I think that only adds to my frustration.

What is your favorite part of designing? Papers, I LOVE making papers.

What was the hardest part about starting out as a designer? It hasn’t changed- it is still how to get your name out there and get your kits seen.  When I started there were fewer designers and stores.  But I was new and had to start from scratch.  After I left to go back to school, and then came back everything was so different.  Now it is mind-boggling how many stores and designers there are.  I don’t even know where to begin.  So this is a constant struggle for me.

If you had to have one color in every kit, what color would it be and why? White- it works with everything.

Do you use a tablet when designing? No.  I bought a really nice Wacom, but I don’t love it.  I like using real pencils when I draw and I never got that feel from the tablet.  So it ended up making me more frustrated, and I quit using it.

What’s the scene when you design? Usually I am curled up in my nice leather office chair my hubby bought me.  My computer is in my bedroom right now, which isn’t my fave.  But I like being upstairs because it is warmer, and I get cold pretty easily.  So I just sit in the chair curled up and my desk is covered in lots of papers reminding me of all the things I should be doing, but will get to later.  And I will have a drink on the desk, and scrap paper and pens and pencils.  Maybe my cell phone if I am worried my kids might need to get a hold of me for something.  If I have been feeling lonely my Saint Bernard, Bear will be laying by me, and my golden retriever, Sammie will be curled up under the desk.  There isn’t any music or noise, just quiet so I can do my best thinking with my right brain.

And then there are times when the kids are home, and it is chaos all around me.  Those times are good, too, just not as productive! LOL!

Do you have a designated designing spot? If so, where? Well, since my computer for designing is not my laptop, I have a pretty designated spot in teh corner of my bedroom.  It is next to my window, and through the window I have a killer view of a gorgeous mountain range and a lake, and a yard I should be weeding… but I can’t see the yard when I am in my chair, so I can pretend it is just perfectly manicured.

If you could only do one or other, would you rather design papers or elements? Papers.  Because I am a paper hoarder.  But I can hoard papers on my computer and I never have to explain why I have them. Hahahaha.

Here are some of April’s favorite things she has designed:

No. 10 – This kit is one of my favorites right now, partly because the latest kit usually is my favorite, but also I just had a lot of fun making it. It got to be a really big kit because I kept thinking of more things to add to it. Not many kits keep me entertained for that long! It may have something to do with the fun colors, or the summer theme.

Templates No. 4 - I  love making templates. Some days my creative mojo is too tired to think of kit elements, but I love designing templates and a lot of times that can get me back in the groove for making kits.

Layout by Atusia using Templates No. 4 and Kit No. 8.

No. 9 – This kit is one of my favorite color palettes ever. I love the soft colors that are still bright and happy. It was fun to create with and worked really well for boys and girls, which I need when I scrap!

Layout by mommiakai.

No. 8 - This kit was kind of an end-to-summer kit. The colors reminded me of the transition from summer to fall. And I kind of took a more laid back approach with it. This time of year probably causes me to do reflecting on memories than any other time, and I still get that feeling from this kit.

No. 7 – I like the softer colors and theme of this kit. It reminds me of quiet moments, new babies, and just some of the simple pleasures of motherhood.

Layout by Stephanie.

April has created this template for you as a gift today. Use coupon code AprilBlogFreebie by September 21, 2011 to grab the template for free.

Happy Creating!

Filed under: Design Team Unwrapped, General Posts and Updates by Candy
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This post is part of a series on our blog that will introduce you to the designers and team members that work behind the scenes at Plain Digital Wrapper to make it a fun-loving, digi-family. We would love to get to know you better as well, so if you aren’t already hanging out with us in the forum, please take a moment to say good morning to us, introduce yourself, and find some inspiration from our many challenges!

This week we are highlighting a new member of our design family, Laramie, of Artgal Style. You can check out her store here or visit her blog here. You can also find her on Facebook here.

Laramie celebrated her one-year design anniversary in July. Although she has just joined the team at Plain Digital Wrapper, she has already made herself right at home here and says it is a “wonderful place” that she is glad to be. She mostly designs in Photoshop Elements but occasionally will use Paint Shop Pro for making some items. Before designing, she was a CT member for Stacey’s Scraps, A Work in Progress, and Sweet Blossom designs. She is also a traditional paper scrapper, but says she doesn’t find much time for paper since designing keeps her pretty busy.

In our interview with Laramie, she shared the following about herself.

How did you get started in your design career? I knew right off that I wanted to design. I’m too much of an artist.  I started taking design classes and still am at the local community college. I want to be a really good designer.

What was your favorite childhood toy or game? That would be my Barbie’s.  My sister, girl friend and I would set up an entire Barbie town with Ranch, Camper, Airplane in our friends basement and we would play from 9-5 for a week at a time.  Great Fun!

What flavor of drink would you be? Almost anything Cola

What are your hobbies or pastimes? My favorite is digiscrapping but I love to read and can lose myself in a great story.  I love to ride my mountain bike and used to love to ride my motorcycle but having a family made me feel mortal so I don’t ride any more.  Miss it on nice days. I love to watercolor but don’t have as much time as I like for it.  Need to paint a good one for a show next month.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Black, because we use it everyday, because it tones down brighter colors and you always look slimmer in Black. Ha!

What would you do with a million dollars? Make life a little easier for people I know, help my church and the poor all over the world especially those who don’t have fresh water.

What is your greatest accomplishment? My artistic talent with my watercolors. I should do more with it but the economy just hasn’t been there for fine art.

Do you sing in the shower/car? The car and the loud hard stuff is the best.  Of course that’s only when the kid’s are in school or I’m off by myself.  When we are together we listen to kid’s music or something mellow.  They can damage their hearing when they are out on their own.

What is your weakness? CHOCOLATE!!!!

What is your favorite color? Lavender

What is your biggest pet peeve? People who don’t pay attention when driving and go slower than the marked speed limit.  I have too much of my Dad in me (He loved to Drag Race).

Where do you get your inspiration from? Anywhere, something someone says, I see it in carpet, material, art, nature.  I write down all my idea’s and kit names in a notebook for when I’m feeling uninspired.  I think scrapping constantly.

What one thing is essential for putting you in a creative mood? Music

What is your least favorite part of designing? Probably like others having to get out there and promote.  It’s so time consuming and I have ADD so I’m easily side tracked. Hee!  Hee!

What is your favorite part of designing? When I first start a new kit and have the theme and colors chosen.  When it starts coming together I get so excited and wonder how my Creative Team and my customers will like it.

What would you like to learn how to design? I really want to spend more time at school and really learn to us Illustrator to make vector art.  It doesn’t matter how big or small it is it looks great.

Do you have a designated designing spot? If so, where? I have a room that I share with my husband (he’s an IT guy) and we have both our computers there. I love having photos of my family and my art around me. I like having my stereo on and listening to my favorite tunes.

Do you have a personal CT? I have a wonderful Creative Team.  They do such an amazing job of making my kit’s look amazing and they are so wonderful about posting their layouts at lots of different sites to advertise for me.  Great bunch of Ladies.

What keeps you designing? I love to create beautiful things.  When I see how different people use my kits and how they make their photo’s look so wonderful it makes me feel good. I love looking at peoples photos.  It is a bonus when I can get money for them.  I would love to be able to make a living doing what I love to do.

Who would your dream collab be with and why? I have three that I love their work. Megan of Flergalicious, Amber of Stolen Moments and Krista of Sahlin Studio.  They are amazing designers and I have followed their work for a long time.

What is your all-time favorite kit that you have designed and why? So far it is Ocean Mist.  I will be glad when I have all my kit’s from STI here at PDW.  Trying to decide each week which ones to put in is a challenge.

Here are some other fun and fabulous kits you can find in Artgal Style’s store (images are linked).

Artgal Style has a fun little sampler of her work for you as a gift today.

You can grab it here until September 14. Use coupon code DesignerTHANKS.

Filed under: Design Team Unwrapped, Freebies, General Posts and Updates by Candy
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This post is part of a series on our blog that will introduce you to the designers and team members that work behind the scenes at Plain Digital Wrapper to make it a fun-loving, digi-family. We would love to get to know you better as well, so if you aren’t already hanging out with us in the forum, please take a moment to say good morning to us, introduce yourself, and find some inspiration from our many challenges!

This week we are highlighting our resident template designer, Scraps of Candy. You can check out her store here or visit her blog here.

Candy has been a designer for PDW since November 2009 and creates most things in Photoshop CS4. She does occasionally still go back and play with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 though too. She started digital scrapbooking in the fall of 2006, shortly after having her second child and realizing she hadn’t printed a single picture since her son (who was three and half at the time) was six months old. She decided that she needed to get her children out of her computer and show them off and digital scrapbooking (a craft a friend had told her about earlier that same year) seemed to be a great way to do that. Coming from an educational background in Journalism: Magazine Layout and Design and a career in Information Technology, digital scrapbooking seemed like a perfect fit for her. Candy started making templates for fun and hadn’t really considered selling them until a store approached her about doing so. Unfortunately, that store was in French and despite a year of French (a long time ago) in High School she wasn’t really comfortable applying there so decided to look for a store that was a better fit.

Here is what Candy shared with us about herself:

What one thing would you want on a deserted island and why? If we are ruling out people and only going with “things”, I would have to say my iPhone (with an Internet connection)! It has a camera plus I could Facebook someone to come rescue me after I am done taking pictures of the island.

What was your favorite childhood toy or game? I don’t recall having a favorite toy. I did carry a Cabbage Patch (named Miracle Dawn) with me for a little while so I suppose it would have been that, mostly I spent my time lost in books though.

Do you sing in the shower/car? Unfortunately for those who are in the car with me, yes, I do sing in the car.

What is your biggest pet peeve? I have a real hard time with disorganization. (If you saw my house right now, you would find great irony in this though. We moved in November and I still haven’t been able to find a place for everything. When I started trying, hubby said we weren’t staying here passed our lease so it seemed pointless.)

What is/was your nemesis? I have a hard time with perfectionism, not necessarily in others but in myself. I find this sometimes keeps me from doing certain things that I know I am bad at (like video games or sports) or trying new things for fear of not succeeding at it.

Where do you get your inspiration from? I have discovered that I find inspiration in some strange places; browsing the clearance aisle at Wal-mart the other day I saw a puzzle I thought would make a great template and snapped a picture of it; the inspiration for two of templates came from day care bulletin boards. Mostly though, my inspiration for my templates comes directly from my own layouts.

What is your least favorite part of designing? I am still struggling to figure out the magic formula for marketing. If you have any tips, feel free to send them my way!

What is your favorite part of designing? I love seeing how my templates are used by scrappers. There is something amazing about seeing a layout and knowing you helped inspire it.

What are some your favorite products you have designed?

I love multi-photo layouts like those in Candy Wrappers: Flavor G.

Layout by Modgee.

One of the templates in Candy Wrappers: Flavor E was inspired by my letter to my son’s teacher about what makes him special when he was student of the week so that template set holds a special place in my heart.

Candy Wrappers: Flavor I was created from layouts from my wedding album which I finally finished this year.

I love nature photography almost as much as scrapbooking and that was the inspiration for my Candy Fillers: Farm Fresh Backgrounds.

My Hybrid Wrap: Baby Word Album was created to make a gift for a very special newborn.

In addition to being a designer, Candy is also on the Creative Teams for Southern Creek Designs and Sherwood Studio as well as a site administrator for Plain Digital Wrapper.

Be sure to stop by Scrap of Candy’s blog to pick up a limited-time taste test of her templates.

Happy Scrapping!

Filed under: Design Team Unwrapped, General Posts and Updates by Candy
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This feature is part of a new series on our blog that will introduce you to the designers and team members that work behind the scenes at Plain Digital Wrapper to make it the fun-loving, digi-family that we are very thankful to be a part of. We would love to get to know you better as well, so if you aren’t already hanging out with us in the forum, please take a moment to say good morning to us, introduce yourself, and find some inspiration from our many challenges.

Our featured designer this week is: Kimeric Kreations. You can find her fabulous designs in her store here. She is also the creator of the Everyday Moments product line, a full line of digital scrapbook products all designed around a common color scheme which are also available here at Plain Digital Wrapper.

Kim has been designing for just over two years and joined the Plain Digital Wrapper Team six months ago. She creates exclusively with Paint Shop Pro 9. She came to digital scrapbook design from a career in web design/graphics and on-line advertising. She first joined the Plain Digital Wrapper team as a member of the Creative Team (check out her beautiful layout gallery here) but once we found out how talented she is, we were quick to offer her a spot as a designer as well.

Here is what Kim had to tell us about herself:

What was your favorite childhood toy or game? Hide and seek just as the sun was setting with my brothers.

What are your other hobbies or pastimes? Gardening, quilting, candlemaking, cooking.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Blurple – that bluish purple color.

What would you do with a million dollars? Buy a fantastic piece of land with a fantastic view (better than we have now) and build our dream house.

What is your greatest accomplishment? Raising four kids – and living thru it.

What are your favorite colors? Deep blues, teals, purples,deep reds, rust,copper..greens….um..all of ‘em.

What is your biggest pet peeve? People who talk to much, or just to hear themselves talk.  People who NEED to be the center of attention.  I’m generally very quiet by nature.

You just inherited the Witch’s Candy House from Hanzel and Gretel, what do you do now? Redecorate.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Music, mostly.

What one thing is essential for putting you in a creative mood? Quiet, as in no ‘outside’ noise…but music playing in the background.

If you had to have one color in every kit, what color would it be and why? An off-white/very light beige.  Its essential.

Do you have a designated designing spot? If so, where? My work area is right in between the kitchen and the “great room”.  There is a huge built in counter…my monitor is on it, along with my keyboard and tablet…everything else is underneath in shelves that Eric built in for me.  I have a huge bulletin board directly behind the monitor to pin notes on, and an antique wooden ironing board to my left for more notes.  I have shelves upon shelves of notebooks, quilting magazines that I get a lot of inspiration from….you name it …all around me at all times.

What is your all-time favorite kit that you have designed and why? Eccentricity – [It is my favorite because] its organized clutter and full of the colors found in our home.

Kim created this gorgeous layout from Eccentricity.

Here are a few of Kim’s other kits she loves:

Digin’ in the Dirt - She likes this one because diggin in the dirt is “her passion”.

Brand New Day – This is a favorite because it reminds her of her favorite pair of jeans.

One Summer Dream – This one was inspired by a song from Electric Light Orchestra and she loves all the funky elements.

Thanks, Kim!

Here is a little gift Kimeric Kreations created just for you.

Be sure to check out her Designer’s Gallery for inspiration on the many ways you can use her kits.

You can keep up with Kimeric Kreations through her blog or newsletter.

Happy scrapping!

Filed under: Design Team Unwrapped, General Posts and Updates by Candy
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