Jen’s Life | Jen lives in a small farming community in Northwest Indiana with her husband, Nick, and five sons. Her sons keep her very busy, as you can imagine! They range in age from her oldest, who is in college, all the way down to her youngest, who will start kindergarten next fall. With so many boys, her days are full, but she loves having all the boys around. It takes someone special to handle that much activity, but Jen loves it! As she says, “There is never a dull moment!”

Jen’s Style & Inspiration | Jen was introduced to the world of digital scrapbooking in 2009 while working on a manufacturer’s design team. The company asked her to design digital pages for promotional purposes, and Jen jumped in with enthusiasm. She was hooked on digital scrapping immediately and, within a few months, had started creating and designing her own products.  She is very inspired by color and says that, “I almost always start with a color palette when I design.” When asked about her design style, it’s an easy answer, “Simple, colorful and fun!”

And she also let me in on a secret. “I can NOT draw with pen and paper. My kids tell me I could mess up a stick figure! But in Adobe Illustrator, I have learned that I can do much more.”

Back to School Papers by Jen Martakis

Lovely by Jen Martakis

Dream by Jen Martakis

Jen’s Team | Jen’s design team consists of 16 very talented design team members. Jen usually has a design team call every fall but she’s always open to adding new designers to her team. Interested designers can email her at jmartakis@hotmail.com with links to their work and she will consider them. More information about her current design team and a full list with links to their galleries can be found here.

Color Blast 1 – Celebrate Bundle by Jen Martakis

Fun Facts | Although her boys keep her very busy, Jen still finds some quiet time at home with them. Her favorite Friday night activity is staying in and watching a movie with her family. Her favorite food is pizza and that is also her favorite part of Friday night – ordering in a pizza to go with their family movie night. Her favorite color is yellow because “it just makes me happy.”

Where to find Jen | Besides Two Peas in a Bucket, you can find Jen at Facebook/Jen Martakis Designs and at Twitter/JenMartakis. For more information about Jen, her designs and her creative team, visit Jen’s blog.

I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting Jen Martakis! If you’d like to suggest a designer for a future column, please let me know at steph@scrapbookupdate.com or leave me a comment here.

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However, the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. There is an understated elegance to it that comes from the layering of neutrals. This beautiful locker is centered perfectly in the middle of the photo and the accents only complement the symmetry of the entire photo. Built of oak and stained with a weathered finish, the locker is solid and grounds the photo. And the different neutrals of the locker and the hardware lend a simple elegance to the entire photo.

This is a beautiful photo and does a great job of marketing this hallway locker for Restoration Hardware. As a scrapbooker, I decided to use it as an inspiration for a layout built on a neutral palette.

All supplies from Designer Digitals | Patterned Paper: Krafty Elegance Paper Pack by Katie Pertiet (floral swirl paper) and Krafty Ledger Paper Pack by Katie Pertiet (grid and lined papers). Cardstock: Krafty Ledger Paper Pack by Katie Pertiet. Flowers: Elise Kit by Lynn Grieveson and Yesteryear Element Pack by Katie Pertiet. Photo turn:  Yesteryear Element Pack by Katie Pertiet. Word Art: Fine Lines Titles No. 02 Brushes and Stamps by Katie Pertiet.

Just as there are layers of neutral items in the inspiration photo, I wanted to build my layout on layers of neutral paper. I started by framing the page with a piece of kraft cardstock and then added a trimmed piece of floral kraft paper on top of the cardstock. Because the photos also contain florals, I didn’t want them to blend into the background so I added yet another layer of patterned kraft paper – this time a kraft paper with a weathered-grid pattern. I trimmed yet another piece of neutral paper to ground the journaling and added a few fabric flowers to the edge of the photos. I finished the layout by adding a metal photo turn and a slightly-darker title – similar to the hues found in the hardware in the inspiration photo.

I had a lot of fun playing with a completely neutral color palette and love the simple elegance that it adds to the feel of the layout. I hope that you are inspired by this photo, too. Let me know where you find inspiration and maybe I’ll use it in a future column. You can also follow my Pinterest boards here.

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Meet the Designer | I am happy to introduce you to an incredibly talented designer that you are probably already familiar with – Katie Pertiet. Katie is both the owner of, and lead designer at, Designer Digitals. I hope you enjoy getting to know her!

Katie’s Background | Katie grew up as a middle child of four children and earned a degree in graphic design from Iowa State University. After working at various ad agencies in several design positions, she started her own business in 1993 and freelanced for textbook publishers and corporate design departments. She has been a hobby scrapbooker and photographer since high school and worked as a professional photographer in college. Combining those two loves with her extensive design experience led her to digital scrapbooking in 2004.

Just a year later, she founded Designer Digitals and then found herself moving across the country. With the move, she decided to forego developing a new corporate client base and instead focused all of her energy into building Designer Digitals.

Katie’s Style & Inspiration | Katie’s style is varied – she designs vintage products as well as products with a more modern, graphic feel. She seems to effortlessly bring together vintage-based products and the art world to create timeless designs. As she says, “ I can easily go from designing vintage products, to whimsical graphic, and everything in between.” When asked about her favorite style, it was an easy answer, “My favorite things to create are vintage products.” Katie is very open to inspiration in the world around her and finds inspiration everywhere. “Advertisements, music videos, magazines, the mall! It all stirs up something!”

The forums at Designer Digitals are very active and customers often make specific product requests. Balancing her desire to create what personally inspires her with her need to create what consumers have requested is not always easy. “I really just follow my creativity and hope it all comes together.”

Oiselet Bleu Kit by Katie Pertiet

Katie’s Digital Designs | Katie’s digital scrapbooking products can be found at Designer Digitals. She typically releases 15 – 20 new products every Friday evening and all of her products can be found here. She also releases three free challenge products every Friday evening and those can be found in the Designer Digitals’ Challenge Gallery. Katie’s favorite types of products to create are papers and brushes. As she says, “Papers can become like works of art and the same with brushes.”

Bookshelf Scrap Pack No. 01

Taped Together Photo Frames No. 01

Katie’s Team | Besides the other very talented product designers at Designer Digitals, Katie currently has over 40 members on her creative team. There are no positions available immediately but when asked about how best to apply for a spot on the team, she advised: “Posting in the Designer Digitals gallery with our products is the best way to get noticed for a spot on the CT. Consistency, loyalty and length involved at Designer Digitals are all factors that are considered when adding to the Creative Team. We will likely add again later in the year.”

Vintage Blendables No. 06

Fun Facts | Along with running her own business and designing digital products and artwork, Katie is a busy mom and wife. When she has down time, her favorite food is Mexican, specifically queso and chips because she “loves the casualness of it”. Her favorite color is sage green because it feels very calming and her favorite Friday night activity is watching the TV show, “Who Do You Think You Are?”, with her husband, Randy.

Where to find Katie | Besides Designer Digitals, you can find Katie at Facebook/Katie Pertiet and at Twitter/katiepertiet. She also designs art work for home decor and it is available at Art.com/KatiePertiet. For more information about Katie, her designs and her artwork, visit Katie’s blog.

I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting Katie Pertiet! If you’d like to suggest a designer for a future column, please let me know at steph@scrapbookupdate.com or leave me a comment here.

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Sweet Shoppe Designs

Two kits at Sweet Shoppe Designs immediately drew me in – a beautiful banner kit with optional stitching by Traci Reed and a lovely faith-based kit by Kristin Cronin-Barrow.

Traci Reed’s new banner kit includes a lot of options – six different kinds of banners and 15 pastel colors.

Blissful Stitching – Banners

Kristin Cronin-Barrow’s new kit is full of beautifully-textured products, including patterned paper, solids, and a variety of embellishments.

Grace

Designer Digitals

At Designer Digitals, Katie Pertiet, Lynn Grieveson and Maplebrook Studios have all released beautiful soft pastel kits this week.  [Disclaimer: This author is a long-time member of the Designer Digitals creative team.]

Katie Pertiet’s new twist kit includes 6 different composited twists with adorable icons, including spring bunnies and butterflies.

Spring Twists No. 01

Lynn Grieveson’s new paper pack features a wonderfully-unique pattern in 6 soft spring colors.

Spring Bursts Paper Pack

Maplebrook Studios released an entire collection of paper packs last weekend, available in 7 soft shades with 10 patterned papers in each shade.

Finer Things No. 01 Paper Pack Collection

The Digichick

Both Sherwood Studio and Kimeric Kreations at The Digichick released pastel kits recently.

Sherwood Studios’ new kit includes 15 papers in light pinks and greens, plus a variety of coordinating embellishments.

A Sunny Disposition

Kimeric Kreations’ Sweet Nothings Kit includes both pastels and brighter coordinating patterned papers in its kit.

Sweet Nothings

Pastel hues are such a soft, lovely way to add a fresh, light feel to your scrapbook page.  I love seeing the selections that digital designers have offered recently and I can’t wait to see layouts popping up all over the web using these hues.

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Jessica Sprague

KI Memories and Linda Roos both have some newer chevron products available through Jessica Sprague’s Digital Store.

The KI Memories “Hot Date” collection (originally offered in print form) offers bright colors and fun chevrons throughout the collection. What really caught my eye, though, was the neutral alphabet with a tiny chevron pattern – just lovely!

Hot Date Paper Pack

Hot Date Alphabets

Linda Roos’ “Free Spirit Kit” offers two different chevron papers – one is a smaller turquoise patterned paper and the other one offers chevrons of varying colors on the same paper – both sized beautifully so as not to be overwhelming when used on a layout.

Free Spirit Paper Pack

 Two Peas In A Bucket

Two designers at Two Peas have new products that prominently feature chevrons.

Erica Hernandez’s “Chevol: Big Kit” consists solely of 12 chevron-patterned papers. It includes a wide variety of colors and beautifully-muted tones that compliment the larger pattern well.

Chevol: Big Paper Pack

Jen Martakis’  new overlay kit includes multiple chevron patterns that allow you to create your own papers.

Toolbox Kit Overlays – Chevron & Houndstooth

Jen’s “Colorblast Celebration” collection also includes several chevron variations, including a free journaling card set.

Color Blast – Celebrate Patterns

Color Blast – Celebrate Journal Cards FREEBIE

Designer Digitals

Katie Pertiet, Studio Double D, and Pattie Knox from Designer Digitals have brand-new chevron-themed products available this week. [Disclaimer: This author is a long-time member of the Designer Digitals creative team.]

Katie’s soft chevron brushes are a unique interpretation of the trend and true to Katie’s softly-blended style of scrapbooking.

Watery Chevrons No. 01

Studio Double D has a new layered template that utilizes chevrons as one of the main embellishments – this template makes a very bold and striking layout while still showcasing the main photo.

Layer Works No. 166

Pattie Knox has a soft pastel paper pack featuring a nice variety of chevron sizes perfectly themed for spring layouts.

Springtime Chevrons Paper Pack

The Lily Pad

Both Amy Martin and Amy Jaz Designs from The Lilypad have newer chevron-themed kits, too.

Amy Martin’s “Winter Chevies” includes 15 different digital papers, all with varied sizes and colors of chevrons. Most chevron patterns alternate just two colors but this kit also offers a beautiful multi-colored chevron pattern that I was immediately drawn to.

Winter Chevies

Amy Jaz Designs’ “You + Me” collection includes some very subtle chevron papers, embellishments, and templates.

You + Me Kit

You + Me Quick Pages

A chevron pattern can make a bold statement and add a fun, modern touch to a layout. I love seeing the selections that digital designers have offered recently. There’s a nice variety of patterns and colors – from soft, muted tones to bigger, bolder patterns – and truly something for every design style.

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