Every once in a while I rediscover an “old” digital scrapbook designer who I loved and can’t remember why I ever stopped purchasing their designs. I have to tell you I LOVE Erica Zane’s kits. As I was scrolling through her store I added a BUNCH of her stuff to my wishlist. Not only is she an amazing designer, she is also a delightful human being! You can read our interview below:

Meredith: Let’s talk about your design career. 

Erica: I started designing around the time my first daughter was born, so maybe around 10 years ago, I can never remember exactly, time flies!  This was the very first kit I ever made and oh my goodness…just yikes.  But somehow I managed to finally join the perfect home at the amazing Sweet Shoppe Designs 5 years ago and am still so happy to be here!

Meredith: Describe your work day

Erica:  With 4 children running around our townhouse making all manner of noises, I often have ear buds in with a movie playing on my netbook next to me while I work.  I always have to have a glass of water on my desk and snacks are always awesome but I don’t always have good ones on hand, so sad.  I can take forever choosing colors and will tweak them a hundred times it seems.  Papers are usually first and elements come later…usually in creating papers I can get a feel for a theme if I don’t have one already.  Sometimes my themeless kits that turn themed end up being my faves!

Meredith: Can you share three of your favorite kits with me?

Erica:

Chasing Fireflies has always been one of my faves – the colors just make me happy & it has a warm summer vibe that I love!  I miss summer…

Grieving Hearts is a sad one but it is so special to me, I made it in the middle of being weighed down with grief and I will freely admit I cried while making it, especially the word art pieces.

One of the Boys has always been another one that always makes my top 10 list – the colors, the theme, the fun elements – it just makes me smile.

Meredith: Let’s talk about scrapbooking!

Erica: I feel like I’ve been scrapbooking in one way or another for a long time!  I started doing paper scrapping more when my first son was born in 2001 and found digital around the time of my second son.  I had been using Photoshop since high school so I was ecstatic to find this whole new world I was missing!  Digital is for sure my favorite form of scrapping – the undo button is my best friend!  It’s much less frustrating than when a paper page doesn’t turn out how you envisioned…that’s harder to redo!  I try to scrap with my new kits when they are complete to “test them out”, sometimes I even end up adding things based on what I feel my page needs.  I mostly scrap my kids and our extended family, I am so behind on my scrapping!

This is my favorite recent [layout], I think mostly because it is so hard getting my daughter to look natural in a photo and I somehow managed to capture TWO of her smiling normally – it was an amazing day, LOL!

Meredith: Do you have any scrapbook goals?

Erica: I am hoping to just be able to be on my computer more in general, designing AND scrapping!  I’ve been having carpal tunnel & other issues like my arms/legs going numb when I sit at my desk too long so it’s always a struggle finding the balance!

Meredith: Do you have any resolutions?

Erica: I do want to start eating healthy again and I can’t wait for warmer weather so we can get out hiking the nature trails around us again – that’s my favorite!!

Meredith: Do you have a method or any tips for photo organization?

Erica: I am not the best at being organized…I feel like I am more of an organized chaos kinda gal.  When I get photos off my camera, it puts them in a folder for the date they were taken, so I have just continued that but sometimes when I pull them off my phone I just add them a folder with a fairly close date instead of making new folders, that seems like too much work. 😉

Meredith: Do you have any big events coming up?

Erica: February is the Sweet Shoppe’s birthday celebration so there will be much fun going on throughout the month!

Erica, THANK YOU for being our Featured Designer in January. It has been an absolute delight to get to know you a bit better! And now, I’ve got a REALLY long wish list at Sweet Shoppe! And just so that I’m not the only one, I’m going to share some of my favorites with you. I LOVE that Erica uses bright fun colors! She adorable little animals sprinkled through her kits. And I LOVE that she isn’t afraid to tackle the hard subjects. She has several kits that help deal with loss, fear, diagnosis, and even grief. She even has a beautiful kit that deals with pregnancy loss.