Featured Designer: Biograffiti

When I started planning for this year’s series of template designer features, I knew Biograffiti was a must-have on my list! Molly’s templates are so simple, but she doesn’t simple so well! I’m so excited to have her here with us this month.

When you’re finished reading her interview and checking out her generous gift, make sure you head over to the Biograffiti blog for a chance to win some amazing prizes!

You’re a relatively new template designer, right? What inspired you to start your business?
Yes I am a new designer. I was inspired to start my business after designing my first template set – Baby’s First Year. I created my daughter’s baby book (paper style) before she was even born. I had all the pages ready to go, journaling prompts, etc. Just add photos. Well, I wanted to include every little detail so her baby book ended up being HUGE – two 12×12 heavy-duty albums. I kept up on it really well for about the first 8 months (probably around the time she started crawling LOL) and then it became a huge chore to dig it all out, get the adhesive, the acid free pens, etc, etc.

I was frustrated and I had recently converted to digi scrapping exclusively with all my other layouts. I decided enough was enough. I made the template set so that when/if I ever have another baby I can do it all digi style, in any theme I want and it will be EASY and FAST. And one day I will finish my daughter’s book using these templates. While admiring my new creation it dawned on me that I wasn’t the only mama struggling to keep up with life + scrapping. I knew this collection would be appreciated and useful to others too. So, I started my design business Biograffiti (pronounced biography-tee) and never looked back.

What do you love most about designing templates?
I love seeing the end result. I love to see how someone has taken my templates and created their own layout. It’s crazy to me that you can start with one template and end up with so many layouts that look and feel so different. Even if the basics of the template have not changed, like my P365 series, seeing each person’s take and how the layouts are still so different from one another is just really cool for me.

Do you have any time-saving tips you swear by?
Yes! I still need to get better at following them but here they are…. Ok, first and foremost you need to be productive with your time. Here are my tips for making the most of your time…

• Tip No. 1: Know exactly what you’re scrapping. Are you scrapping a super fab picture or are you scrapping a story, a relationship, etc that may or may not include a photo or maybe you’ve got a great photo & a story.
• Tip No. 2: Exit out of your email program entirely. No email interruptions!
• Tip No. 3: Find your digi supplies. Whether you’re buying a new template or kit online or searching through your stash give yourself a time limit. I’d say no longer than 10-15 minutes tops. You might not find the perfect kit but you will definitely find something that will work.
• Tip No. 4: Need layout inspiration? Start with a template (mine are great LOL!)
• Tip No. 5: Stay focused Add your photos & story first (see tip no.1) and build upon that.
• Tip No. 6: When finished use Actions to save your files to different folders. I save my PSD, Save a JPG for printing and Save for Web to share online.

What is your most popular product? What about it do you think gives it a broad appeal?
Hip to be Square is my most popular product. It’s a 20 page template album. It has appeal because it’s so versatile. No two pages are alike so you can flip or rotate the templates and end up with 78 pages that hold 295 pictures! You can create an album entirely of photos without any papers or embellishments, you can do just a minimal amount while still leaving some pages untouched (like my Life is Beautiful Collab album with Cinzia Loosemore) or you can get really creative and go all out. There aren’t left and right pages so you can use each page a template to create individual layouts too like this one by Gabi.

Templates can be fabulous launch pads, allowing scrappers to build on a great foundation with their own creativity. Can you share with us one of your favorite templates and examples of its use in a variety of styles?
This is Page No. 13 from Hip to be Square:

What tips do you have for helping scrappers customize a template and give it their own creative spin?
My tip is not to stress too much about it. Templates are made to help you simplify your scrapping process and to spark your creativity. You might follow the template to a T one day and the next time you’re inspired to rotate the template or make the photo spots smaller, reposition, etc. to better suite the layout you envision.

For me it’s all about telling my story creatively. It’s not going to bother me one bit to have layouts in my collection that follow a template exactly. The benefit of using a template is that the core of the layout is done for you! Feel free to run with it as-is and know you are putting your own spin on it just by adding *your* story!

Simple Scrapper is all about making digital scrapbooking easier and more fun. What are you best tips for keeping it simple?

• Tip No. 1: Remember your WHY. This might be different depending on the layout but if you are focused on the task at hand you’re more likely to be productive.
• Tip No. 2: Not all layouts need to be uber-creative works of art. Like we talked about before it’s totally ok to follow a template exactly. You’ll be surprised at how simple this is and how much time you’ll save.
• Tip No 3: Have a System in place. A plan for organizing your photos, deciding what you’re going to scrap, keeping track of what you want to scrap, etc. I highly recommend the Library of Memories Class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. If this doesn’t work for you then create your own system. Organization is key.
• Tip No. 4: This is just for fun- create a gift album. Make a book for your husband, your mom, your dad, his mom, grandparents, or a friend, etc. I am a huge fan of quick albums and template albums. Using these make creating an entire album pretty fast and painless. There’s something about holding a finished book that just makes me feel good, like I accomplished something big. It’s even more special and meaningful to me when I give that book to someone else. Such a personal and heartfelt gift is always appreciated. I love the immediate gratification I get from doing this. And, it’s digital so I can just print myself an additional copy and relive that instant gratification anytime I want.

Ok, if you’re still reading this I just want to say THANK YOU. Thanks for listening to me share ideas, thanks for supporting me and thanks for being a part of this great community here in digi-scrap-land.

Bookmark Alert: Where to Find Biograffiti

• Store
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook

A Gift from Biograffiti

Molly has been so generous to offer a $2 coupon to her store, where many template singles are only $1.99!

Chat with Biograffiti

We’re so lucky that Molly is also sponsoring tonight’s #scrapchat Twitter party. You’ll have a chance to win more fun goodies and talk all about scrapbooking your everyday! Join us at 9pm central in the chat room.

Next Month

Coming up in May, we’ll be featuring Le Pingouin Designs.