Stolen Moments: Spotlighting Sya

The end of the month has crept to an end. With the end of the month comes our last guest spotlight. She has been working hard all month for Amber. I think she definitely deserves some attention! Let me introduce you to...

Sya

{aka syapotter}

I'm 25 years old, from Malaysia, a small country in South East Asia and currently teaching at a local private university, mostly teaching English Language. I'm doing my Master's in Education (TESL) and hopefully will graduate next year. I am not yet married but am blessed with 3 nieces and a nephew, so my layouts are mostly about them.

1. How long have you been scrapping? Have you ever paper scrapped? When did you make the switch to digi and why? I started scrapping back in June 2007. Earlier that year, I discovered paper scrapbooking and started getting hooked to it but because it has yet to become well-known in Malaysia, I started to search for other alternatives and came upon digiscrapping. It was like love at first sight and I have never looked back since.

2. What do you feel is your strongest scrapping skill? Your weakest? My strongest would definitely be my layering and clustering and weakest would definitely be the fact that I sometimes seem to stick to only one style instead of branching out to other styles of scrapping. I try to do that once in a while but I always go back to my comfort zone and what I know I am able to do well.

3. What advice would you give someone just starting out digi-scrapping?

I would tell them to just go out there and play with whatever is available. I was self-taught in PS and I find that the best way to learn to do something is just by trying.

4. Describe your scrapping "system"... What program do you use? Where do you start first - photos, papers, elements, journaling? Do you always have something in mind when you start, or do you let your creativity guide you? How long does it take you to complete a layout? I am currently using PS CS3 and hopes to upgrade to CS5 someday. As for starting a layout, it all depends on the mojo really. Sometimes I would see the photos and knew immediately what I wanted to do for the layout but more often than not, what I ended up with was usually different from what I envisioned at first. Sometimes it would take me hours just to complete a layout but when the mojo is flowing, the shortest time it would take me to complete a layout is 30 minutes.

5. On average, how much time do you spend scrapping each week? I'm not really sure about this, but probably about 15 hours more or less.

6. Describe your perfect scrapping environment - coffee? soda? music? snacks? I definitely have to have music. Sometimes I would get inspiration from the music that I listened to. I love listening to most Top 40 songs but I draw the line at Hard Core Rock. Definitely NOT my type of music!

7. What's your favorite thing to do BESIDES scrapping? Spare time is really hard to come by these days but I do love to read. I recently bought a Barnes & Nobles Nook and am so in love with it and it goes with me wherever I go.

8. What is one thing you would love to do, just so you could scrap it? Visit all the Disneyland parks in the world, which is really ironic because I recently visited Disneyland Hong Kong and I was kinda afraid to start scrapping photos from that visit because it felt kinda sacred to me somehow.

9. Who inspires you in the scrapping community? Any person or site in particular that you look to for inspiration? A lot of scrappers inspire me in the community but if I have to name one person, it would have to be Cindy Schneider. I just love her style of scrapping.. As for inspiration, I found that just browsing around the galleries help. Sometimes I would stumble upon some scrappers that I have not yet discovered.

10. If you could have Amber create a kit just for you, what colors, theme, etc would it be and why?

I like all things girly and definitely have a crush on anything pink, white and brown. And oh, I recently fell in love with the English style type of decorating so it would be great if there's a kit like that.

Oldest Layout

This is not my first LO but the oldest one that I still have. It's of my nephew. I cringe when I look at this because of the lack of shadows and the use of the different colored alphas.

Favorite Layouts

This one was of my college friends taken 2 years before we graduated. It was really crazy that most of us are on different life path and scattered all over the place now.