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About Shauna:
For Shauna, scrapping is in the details. Whether it’s a carefully collaged mixed media embellishment or a decorative mat, it’s Shauna’s little touches that make her layouts spectacular. Most recently, Shauna’s work was featured in Slide Mount Mania where she came up with wonderfully innovative ideas for how to decorate and use slide mounts. Her pages were also featured in Scrapbook Recipes for Journaling where she shared some of her top ideas for telling the story behind a scrapbook page. Shauna’s work is also published in Making Designer Scrapbook Pages–It’s Easier than You Think! and More Altered Books.
As a busy mom, Shauna is often found working into the wee hours of the morning, both on her own personal paper crafting projects and her designs for Hot Off The Press. Shauna is also active in the online scrapping community, where she enjoys chatting, swapping ideas and sharing techniques. Shauna lives in Oregon with her husband Dave and their two children.
Q & A with Shauna:
What gives you creative inspiration?
So many things…my talented co-workers, my online friends at the Cropping Cactus, Metroscrappers and twopeasinabucket, taking great classes at local scrapbook and rubber stamping stores, expos and CKU as well as entering contests. I’m also inspired by all the fabulous magazines and idea books out there, my children and family, music and song lyrics, children’s books, poetry, sports, Starbucks Coffee Frappuccinos, colors and great photos.
What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment in terms of your work?
By far, my greatest accomplishment was working all night every night for two months in order to finish my book, Shauna’s Secrets of Scrapbooking. Outside of work, though, I’m proud of earning first place in the survivor category of the Memory Makers Page for the Cure contest and getting First Place Overall Excellence for my Splash Dance layout at CKU-Anaheim.
What is it you enjoy the most about your job?
I’m getting paid to do what I love while using my talents and my art degree! I also enjoy my co-workers, working with new products and having the freedom to create each day.
What is your absolute favorite technique?
I love photography, journaling, inking, playing with paint, texture, big alphabet stamps, mixed media and using different computer fonts.
What excites you about the future of this industry?
The possibilities! I love that this industry is constantly changing and evolving and that it incorporates so many different crafts and other paper arts, as well as photography. It draws from so many things: Creative writing, advertising, graphic design, mixed media, rubber stamping, etc. There’s always something to learn and try and so much talent out there. I just love to see what others come up with!
Shauna’s advice to other paper crafters:
Everyone has their own reason and passion for scrapbooking and paper crafting and that’s great! Some of us scrapbook for the purpose of not only preserving memories, but also as a creative outlet and to express ourselves. Other people may have the goal of getting their photos into albums and keeping them up to date. Either way, enjoy the process—go to crops, expos and retreats and make new friends; take classes to learn about new products and techniques. Find inspiration from those classes as well as from online paper crafting sites, magazines and idea books.
Shauna’s top Hot Off The Press product picks:
- Tall sarabinders™. As fun as decorating altered book covers, but better! These are so fun to custom decorate to fit your needs, and they make wonderful, useful gifts! You can paint them fabulous colors, direct-to-paper ink them, walnut ink them and/or cover them in your favorite patterned paper. They are so fun to decorate, you can’t make just one!
- Personal Shopper. I look forward to working with the new kit every month! There are so many fun colors, patterns, papers, artwork and 3-D embellishments that are already coordinated for you.
- Retro sarapapers™. I love color and color is definitely back in! The colors and patterns in this book of papers with coordinating tags are to die for! They have so much personality and energy and are fun to play with. Perfect for photos of my active, energetic six year old!
- 8”x8” Birthday Papers. These papers are packed with colorful patterns and coordinating artwork. Not only do they make festive scrapbook pages, but they’re also perfect for making your own handmade birthday cards.
- Cardmaker’s™ Citrus Ribbons. How can you not love these? Fabulous colors, widths and textures that coordinate with the Cardmaker’s™ Citrus Creative Pack and even my favorite 8”x8” Birthday Papers!
Shauna’s other top paper crafting product picks:
- Daylight Compact Lamp. I often work all day and late into the night and, as the hours go by, the light changes which can make it challenging to coordinate colors. I love to mix and match papers and patterns and the Daylight Lamp allows me to see the true colors, night or day.
- Metal Edged Acrylic Ruler. I can’t scrapbook without it! I’m not handy with a paper trimmer and rely solely on my ruler and X-acto® knife. The clear ruler allows me to cut my photo mat precisely and the metal edge ensures a straight, sturdy cut.
- 12”x18” Cutting Mat. My favorite non-HOTP products are all about the tools! I’m very particular about my workspace and tools and I can’t work without my cutting mat! If you don’t have good tools, it makes the process less enjoyable and more work and the quality of your projects can suffer. For me, the bigger the cutting mat, the better! I use it as my work space and like to spread out my double page spreads and work directly on it. The grid pattern on the mat allows me to measure and cut evenly, and it’s easy to clean (and I can even carry it to crops with me!).
- Tropical Mini Brads. The bright colors of these brads go hand in hand with the Cardmaker’s™ Citrus Ribbons and so many of my favorite paper books like Retro sarapapers™, Fresh Citrus sarapapers™, Busy Scrapper’s Solution Girl: Baby & Toddler Papers and 8”x8” Birthday Papers. I love how versatile they are and how such a little detail like a colorful brad can really add to a page or card. I seem to put these on everything lately!
Shauna’s favorite project published by HOTP:
I love the “Ballet” page I did for Scrapbook Recipes for Journaling. One of my favorite journaling techniques is combining handwritten or computer journaling with word fragments–I certainly got to take advantage of that on this layout! I also like to get inspiration for embellishments from the patterns on the papers I use. The pink ephemera paper used in the background has a faux stitching pattern printed on it, so I used a needle and thread to sew the edges of my journaling block to my background paper, repeating the stitched look. To mimic the bow on Emma Rose’s outfit, I tied lengths of pink ribbon to the edge of the main photo.
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