SYW296 – Disrupting the Status Quo in #Digiscrap

[00:01:02] Jennifer Wilson: Elif, welcome to Scrapbook Your Way. I'm excited to chat with you today.

[00:02:08] Elif Sahin: Hi Jennifer, thank you for inviting me. I'm excited to talk with you too.

[00:02:14] Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful. I think we're going to have a good conversation. I know I'm so curious about your new endeavor. But before we get into all that, can you share a little bit about yourself?

[00:02:26] Elif Sahin: Oh, yeah, uh, I'm Elif Sahin. Uh, I am known as Sahin Designs in this industry. I live in Turkey with family. I'm also, uh, a graduate student, studying international relations. I know it's a little bit too far from designing, but I do both together. Yeah.

[00:02:50] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's exciting. Um, do you know how, where are you in your graduate program? When will you be finishing up or do you expect to?

[00:02:59] Elif Sahin: I, I am in the first semester. Uh, actually I returned to graduate school after, um, many years. Uh, I've, um, it's been actual seven years. Since I took a break, so I just started to, um, feel like I need to, uh, turn back to it. So I did.

[00:03:19] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's so exciting. I can't wait to kind of watch your journey. And, you know, as you're learning things, I know that for myself, when I am doing things elsewhere in my life, there's always so much intersection with the things I'm doing and scrapbooking in my own business. I'd like to take from one and apply it to the other and vice versa. So it, I think it's helpful to have completely separate parts of our lives too.

[00:03:45] Elif Sahin: Yeah. It's refreshing, really.

[00:03:47] Jennifer Wilson: So do you have anything that you have made recently, whether it's, it's in memory keeping or elsewhere, a favorite new creative project?

[00:03:57] Elif Sahin: Oh, well, last year I started doing this, um, vision board. Uh, it's like, um, scrapbooking, um, but I do it in a corkboard, um, to visualize my goals and, um, things I need to do and some inspirational images, quotes. And I started doing the, um, uh, word of the year, uh, last.

[00:04:25] Jennifer Wilson: Huh.

[00:04:26] Elif Sahin: I started doing that and I think it's very useful concept to, uh, build your goals around.

[00:04:34] Um, I really love that and I am, uh, trying to, uh, keep up with it this year too.

[00:04:42] Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious for your corkboard. Are you pulling items from magazines, printing out things you find online, combination of both?

[00:04:50] Elif Sahin: Well, actually I'm doing, uh, uh, with my own products, uh, printing digital scrapbook products. Yeah. Frames, little labels and tags, uh, some, uh, notepapers. And, um, I'm writing my goals and, uh, things I looking forward to. And I gather some inspirational images too for travels or decorations I want to do around my, uh, home. Um, and I do a bit of listing in there too. Uh, uh, I love a good checklist.

[00:05:27] Jennifer Wilson: That's really fun. I love using scrapbook supplies for vision boards, or even, um, I'm doing One Little Word myself this year. And I used, uh, my Cocoa Daisy stickers for my February vision board. I just, you know, I just picked a bunch of stickers and put them all together. No need to cut things out or find something else. I was able to just pick the sentiments that, that stood out to me.

[00:05:52] Elif Sahin: Yeah.

[00:05:53] Jennifer Wilson: I love that we have these tools already.

[00:05:55] Elif Sahin: Mm-hmm . Um, and ribbons and sequins uh, do great. well, on, on the corkboard too.

[00:06:03] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, yeah. Good point. I never thought about that. I have a, like a metal board. I need to I think I'd like to have a cork board so I can add even more to it. The metal one I can put magnets and like clips on. So, but not so much little pieces of paper at all.

[00:06:19] Elif Sahin: Uh, even the brads uh, that, uh, you know, the push up, uh, buttons.

[00:06:24] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, yeah.

[00:06:25] Elif Sahin: Scrapbooks, they do, um, look great on the cork board. And, uh, you know, and enamel pieces do get yellow a bit. And you wouldn't want to use that on scrapbooks. So, um, using those on cork boards, um, are great supplies.

[00:06:44] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, fun. Yeah, I can see so many possibilities with that. And a way to put your, your dreams and, and a reminder of your creativity right in front of you.

[00:06:54] Elif Sahin: That's correct. Yeah.

[00:06:56] Jennifer Wilson: So is, there something that you're excited to do, use or try this year?

[00:07:01] Elif Sahin: Um, I have been using an app called Journey, uh, for memory keeping. Um, it's quite a bit fun, uh, with, um, ability to add photos and pin, um, memories on the map. So I'm looking forward to using that this year too. It, it has this feature called Atlas. It, it, um, records the places where you journal, uh, from your app settings. And it creates this beautiful visual, uh, A world map. Uh, and I'm thinking that it would, uh, make great, um, six by eight page if printed out as a map. And so I'm looking forward to that. But I also realized that I can also record, um, my daily mood for scrapbooking, for memory keeping, uh, right from my iPhone. Uh, from the Health app. So that's interesting to, uh, explore. Um, yeah, those are the two that I use regularly for memory keeping. Um, and jot down my ideas and what I think at that moment and add my photos too.

[00:08:36] Jennifer Wilson: I love that. I think that one, one topic that I've thought a lot about over the years is just the connection between how we're feeling like physically and our energy and motivation for scrapbooking and creative projects. Like for some, I think it draws you towards them because you want maybe an escape or, but for others, I think it could be even a barrier if you're not, if you're not feeling good, you may be putting that aside in favor of maybe, uh, easier gratification. Scrolling on social media or TV or things like that. So.

[00:09:15] Elif Sahin: In recent years, I focus more about self care in scrapbooking rather than documenting what has happened and where I go to. But documenting the thoughts intrigues more right now. So storytelling is really what's all about for me right now.

[00:09:40] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. And that, I think that can change over time too, whether we're more into, um, the artistic side or we have like emotions that we're trying to, to capture and, and process and figure out. Particularly, I think as we, we get older, it leans a little more that way sometimes.

[00:09:57] Elif Sahin: That's true. I was interested in day by day projects, you know, the ones that you capture a photo, but you also combine it with journaling, what you're thinking at that moment. That really speaks to me. And I've done a 10 day challenge for myself, personally, to do that day by day project, which was, um, it was really, um, different than just scrapbooking. I really like combining the storytelling aspect of it.

[00:10:36] Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I think something like a short term challenge has a lot of value while also acknowledging that maybe It doesn't fit into your life to do it every single day for the whole year.

[00:10:48] Elif Sahin: Yes, we don't have to record every day, but doing that from time to time is a different challenge to yourself. You don't even have to share about it.

[00:10:59] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, I love that. So let's dive into more of your, you know, history in the industry. Can you tell us about your journey as a digital designer?

[00:11:10] Elif Sahin: Well, my design journey was really, um, an accident. Um, I, I was, um, into other crafts like crochet, knitting, and, um, crafting with felt. And, um, I was blogging a lot of about them and I cared about, um, designing the blog. And one day I, I was looking for pretty graphics and I came across this website called Pixel Scrapper.

[00:11:48] Where they were giving out free designs and I was instantly in love with it. Um, so I said to myself, I can do this. And I, I had a bit of, um, Photoshop knowledge. But, um, it was all about clipping photos into text, so. But, um, I, uh, learned a lot from community, uh, how to use Photoshop. And I started doing a little bit of design myself. But, um, Marisa Lerin of Pixel Scrapper, sold my designs, my early designs, which were not very good. Uh, but she, uh, called me on board to design with them. And that's how I got into designing. And from that day on I added a little more to my knowledge, um, I designed a little more every day.

[00:12:46] Uh, while I was in college. And, uh, when I graduated, I decided to take things professionally. That's how, uh, I got into designing.

[00:12:58] Jennifer Wilson: What a fun story. I think there's a lot of, uh, accident, happenstance, chance that happens for many of us and how we, we got to be where we are. Um, are there any particular like themes or, uh, motifs that you, we can tease about in terms of new products or kits that you're working on?

[00:13:18] Elif Sahin: Yeah, um, when I create my designs, I, from time to time, I survey my customers for, uh, ideas, what they want to scrapbook about. And, uh, one of the themes that coming up again and again is self care, um, everyday life, taking things slowly. So, I, um, have an idea to, uh, make a collection about that. Self care and mental health and crafting, reading books and documenting about them.

[00:13:57] Um, but, um, there's also this idea that I want to bring to life is about a masculine, masculine themed collection. Um, for not for just, um, documenting, uh, boys, but also, um, the men in our lives from dads to granddads and, uh, our partners. Um, that's something on my mind, which actually, um, I've, uh, designed, um, some templates for, for a client work.

[00:14:37] Um, I will be working, um, with the designs from that. Uh, um, with typography and clean lines and, um, you know, color neutral, um, patterns. I'm thinking about that. Um, and there was this fun, uh, idea that came from, uh, community uh, about, uh, museums and concerts. Um, And when I think about it, there is a need for that and there are not many collections to document about museum visits. So I'm thinking about working on that this year too.

[00:15:20] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that would be really fun. Yeah. I, I love the, as you said, clean, minimalist aesthetic that you design in. Um, and as you said, with self care themes, it does lean a little feminine. So it'd be exciting to see, uh, more gender neutral or masculine products too. So I, yeah, I always appreciate everything that you create. Definitely some of my favorite products in the digital world. Well, across all the, all the worlds for sure. What do you love about the digital scrapbook community? Because it's, I mean, it, you know, it is a, a niche, a subset of the larger scrapbooking community. There's a lot of overlap today, more than there ever has been, but it is, you know, a very kind of close knit group at the same time.

[00:16:07] Elif Sahin: Yeah. What I love is really the people themselves. We are working in such a community. That people are so positive, our customers and people we engage in forums are such people to care about without knowing you. And they love supporting designers and their peers and crafting world. Um, when I opened my, um, Instagram app, I usually find, um, one or two DM about, um, how they like certain product and how they appreciate, uh, what I do. So, there are really, um, such beautiful people in our community and you wouldn't find that in other industries. That's really interesting to see.

[00:17:02] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, just the support that, um, everyone has for each other, even like just among the designers themselves.

[00:17:10] Elif Sahin: Yeah.

[00:17:11] Jennifer Wilson: You know, I guess this, this is business, but still the, the, even just to have so many different collaboration type projects that happen in digital, um, it just shows how kind of everyone is in it together.

[00:17:24] Elif Sahin: Yes, people, uh, don't hold information from each other and they want to teach and share their knowledge. And that's really, um, beautiful thing.

[00:17:34] Jennifer Wilson: As we like kind of transition here to a new shop in the digital landscape for those who maybe are very like traditional paper scrapbookers who may be used to, um, a seasonal release schedule from major manufacturers. Down to, you know, maybe like monthly from someone like Ali Edwards. Um, can you talk a little about the release schedule and the types of activities that are common at digital scrapbooking shops? Um, it's a little bit more fast paced, if you will.

[00:18:05] Elif Sahin: It is. Um, we, we would usually see weekly releases, uh, from designers. And, their world is really fast. We always put out new designs, um, into the world. Um, and if there's no new products, you would often find discounts on old products and sales, something featured. Um, but we also focus a lot on communities and forums. Which you wouldn't see other in the, in other industries. There are a lot of things going on in the forums from inspirations to tips to challenges. Uh, there are really a lot of resources out there to learn from digital scrapbooking communities. So, yeah, we are a bit different from other industries.

[00:19:00] Jennifer Wilson: And so with that, you just launched a new shop called Hey Scrapper. Can you tell us about why now was the right time for this move?

[00:19:08] Elif Sahin: Well, I didn't, , I didn't plan on opening a shop, uh, to say the truth. But, me and my designer friends always wanted to be part of, um, more positive environment where we get to create what we want to create. Without a lot of responsibilities, without us working much on the promotion and introduction of the products. So I, I was talking a lot, uh, with designer friends, uh, chatting about what would, it look like if we had a new store where we would, um, sell, uh, modern designs in a modern website, uh, that would look great. And uh, focus more on the printable side of the industry rather than just the digital scrapbooking part.

[00:20:11] So, uh, I gathered some interest and, uh, I saw that, um, there were many designers looking for, uh, such a creative environment. I was also very concerned about the recent developments in AI and how it's affecting our industry. Uh, what we see as product. Um, so we want to get away from that. And we formed a small group, uh, to open this new shop.

[00:20:43] Jennifer Wilson: And so it's very, you know, you could consider it a hybrid scrapbooking shop kind of built on the model of the digital world. But really trying to attract, you know, a broader audience. Um, are all of the products, do they all have kind of a companion, you know, PDF or like easier to print type file in addition to digital files?

[00:21:05] Elif Sahin: In my own product offering, I, uh, it's been quite some time that I've included PDFs, printables, and cut files into my product offerings. Uh, but my designer friends at Hey Scrapper are, uh, some of them are like Andrea of Retro Hip Co. Uh, is offering such printables too. But our other designers are, uh, more, uh, developing and, and hybrid scrapbooking. And they want to offer that for their future products. But even I, um, go and design printable PDFs for my older collections. So that's happening, uh, at the backend. And we want to, uh, increase our, uh, printable products in the, in the store.

[00:21:59] Jennifer Wilson: From like the consumer's perspective, um, you know, especially given the context now of everything getting more and more expensive. Not to mention shipping, but physical supplies that are imported, um, from country to country.

[00:22:15] And, and for those of you who, like, like you who don't live in the U. S.

[00:22:19] Elif Sahin: Mm hmm.

[00:22:20] Jennifer Wilson: Many of the scrapbooking supplies are, are sold, um, what does hybrid and printable products, what do they really offer in terms of kind of, you know, ease, convenience, best of both worlds. Can you talk more on that for a bit?

[00:22:35] Elif Sahin: Well, as you said, um, I'm not in the States and scrapbooking is not a thing in, in here. Uh, you wouldn't, uh, find any people that know scrapbooking. Um, so, um, shipping, international shipping is really expensive plus customs fees. And the scrapbooking brands are shutting down their product offerings.

[00:23:05] There are not many left in the industry. And in that regard, using digital scrapbook, digital scrapbooking products is really bringing ease to shopping experience. With a printer at home or with a copy center, you can take your files and turn them into paper products. And you can't run out of these products. That's the beauty of it.

[00:23:37] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I love how it just, it creates a new, um, a new level of accessibility for a variety of, of different needs. Um, even just now I love, I'm loving the, the translucent sticker paper. I printed out a bunch of digital products that way to put in my planner. Um, so it's Yeah, it just, it creates this new levels of flexibility. And as you said, you want kind of run out. So if you want more of those flowers, since I'm always the one that runs out of the flowers on the physical products, you can just print more.

[00:24:11] Elif Sahin: Yes, and if you're not happy about the colors or the size of, uh, of a word art, for example, you can resize it, recolor it, print it again and again on vellum or sticker paper. Um, it's, it's really limitless.

[00:24:29] Jennifer Wilson: Can you talk more as you were planning the new shop and planning in collaboration with the designers you knew were going to come on board? What were the things that you knew were essential to have, and perhaps, you know, also essential to not have?

[00:24:45] Elif Sahin: Well, first and foremost, uh, I knew that I had to put the designers in an environment that their creative vision is not restricted with store collaborations, forced color palettes, and free work they have to do for the store. So I wanted to remove all of that restrictions from the designers workload. And took on the marketing for them to offer their products to their customers so that they can only focus on their creative work. Um, after establishing a safe and creative environment for the designers, I knew that having a creative hub for our community was essential.

[00:25:33] Um, that's where our community forum came into play. Uh, it's, it's a place to, uh, gather, uh, provide information to those who are new to digital or hybrid scrapbooking. And also inspiration for their projects. Um, how they can use our products to tell their stories. But it's also a place where they can share their knowledge with other newcomers. Because I believe creativity flourishes with creativity. So, if you pass on your knowledge to others, it's both satisfying for you, and also you're helping another memory keeper.

[00:26:17] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, for sure. I think we all, we all thrive on that, that type of sharing. It's so interesting to kind of think of the, um, Oh, what is the right word? Kind of, uh, you're, you're building a new, perhaps a new model of, of doing business. That's a little bit different than how it's been done. And so it will be interesting to observe how that could shift things. You know, anytime anybody does something different, others take a look and say, oh, well that's really working for them. Maybe maybe we do need to think about this, particularly if folks are more drawn to that environment that is perhaps more supportive of the designers and their, you know, limited bandwidth in this day and age.

[00:27:04] Elif Sahin: Yes, attending to many shops to this day. Um, I, I believe that stores usually thrive on the free work of designers. And I wanted to change that for forever. I hope other stores take note too.

[00:27:24] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. And I think we will, we will underscore that point in this episode, cause I think that's really, really important. Um, particularly also in light of that, digital designers maybe haven't gotten the same kind of accolade or pedestal in the same way that, you know, traditional paper designers have. I don't know, like maybe not anymore, but does that make sense?

[00:27:51] Elif Sahin: Yes, the phased pace of, um, the digital scrapbooking world, uh, is one thing. And it's a big toll on the designers. Um, that's, that's why I wanted to limit our releases in a month. Who, who would need so many products in a month? And designers create from their creative pool and it has very limited resources. You have to take care of yourself too. We are human at the end of the day. And, I wanted to give our designers some space to fill up their creative tank to be able to create better products.

[00:28:36] Jennifer Wilson: I love this. Yeah. I love this so much. Um, what are you most excited about when it comes to Hey Scrapper and the year ahead?

[00:28:44] Elif Sahin: Well, first, first of all, um, I love the designers that onboarded with us. I, uh, I'm so happy to see their designs, uh, next to mine in the store. Um, but other than that, I'm happy to bring to life a project that's called Daily. Which focuses more on documenting the life in a meaningful way. Rather than forcing our community to create more and more with products. Uh, it's more about providing prompts for their daily memory keeping to intentionally start creating for themselves, not for others. And I'm also excited about, um, some bite sized classes that we are going to do with prominent names, uh, in our community. To teach techniques or get some inspiration from their projects.

[00:29:49] And we are working on bringing a feature called clubs into our community. Where we will have a niche within a niche, a scrapbooking community, for example. A club dedicated for pocket scrapbookers, uh, or hybrid scrapbookers, or just digital scrapbooking. Or even, uh, people who want to just focus on journaling or photography. So, so that they can share their, um, projects within the clubs. Uh, but as well as, uh, have the privilege to share their own articles or videos about the niche topics within the clubs.

[00:30:41] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that sounds neat. Yeah, I love, I love this. I can tell that you are, uh, really planning ahead and trying to just foster, um, a encouraging and welcoming environment for, for anyone who wants to check it out.

[00:30:55] Elif Sahin: Yeah, thank you.

[00:30:57] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think we would be remiss if we did not ask you to list all the designers that are currently on board with Hey Scrapper and make sure that we acknowledge all of them in this episode.

[00:31:07] Elif Sahin: Yeah, uh, we have Dunia Designs, Jamiee of Just Jamiee, Christine Middlecamp of Layered Life, uh, Liz Tamanaha of Paislee Press, Andrea of Retro Hip Co, and Elizabeth of Scrapping with Liz. And I also have my own products in the store.

[00:31:29] Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you. Can you share where our listeners can find Hey Scrapper online? And are there any other additional sneak peeks you haven't mentioned you've offered so much about what's coming? Um, anything else you didn't mention?

[00:31:43] Elif Sahin: Uh, well, you can find everything at heyscrapper. com and we are on Instagram, uh, with heyscrapper shop. If you can, subscribe to our newsletter, we post everything, every feature, uh, in there as well.

[00:32:00] Jennifer Wilson: Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much for spending time with me.

[00:32:04] Elif Sahin: Thank you, Jennifer.

[00:32:05] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to scrapbook your way.