SYW160 – My Way with Suzanna Lee

Suzanna Lee 0:02

Again I'm Type A, highlighted, bolded, and underlined. So I like structure in my pages.

Jennifer Wilson 0:08

Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a Memory Keeper today. I'm your host Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper, and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking. This is episode 160.

Jennifer Wilson 0:27

In this episode, I'm interviewing Suzanna Lee for the My Way series. My Way is all about celebrating the unique ways Memory Keepers get things done. We're excited to have Suzanna as the March featured artist at Simple Scrapper.

Jennifer Wilson 0:41

Hey, Suzanna, welcome to the podcast.

Suzanna Lee 0:43

Thanks for having me, Jennifer.

Jennifer Wilson 0:46

Yes, I'm looking forward to getting to know you better on this My Way episode. You are one of our featured artists at Simple Scrapper. But can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

Suzanna Lee 0:57

Sure. I am Suzanna. I am a wife, Mom, I have multiple hats. I work part time as a physical therapist. I have two cats. I live in central Virginia. So I live in suburbia. But I am a big city girl. I grew up in Hong Kong went to school in Boston. So this is kind of we've been here 14 years, but it's still an adjustment for me.

Jennifer Wilson 1:25

Oh, so do you like to travel to bigger cities, then when you get a chance to do that?

Suzanna Lee 1:29

Absolutely. Yes. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 1:31

Very cool. So what's exciting you right now in memory keeping? This can really be anything, runs the gamut product, an app, class, person? What's you know, making you happy?

Suzanna Lee 1:43

This year, I have started keeping a memory, memory planner. And that is that has totally captivated my, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

Jennifer Wilson 1:55

What do you, what do you love about it so much compared to formats that you've used in the past?

Suzanna Lee 1:59

So I am primarily a scrapbooker. And to me, while I've been evolving into more daily memories, I love that this is more my daily memory. It's not just the big events. It's not just birthdays and holidays and vacations. This is snippets of our everyday life. And I like that.

Jennifer Wilson 2:24

And what you know, is there like a suite of products that you're focusing on for your memory planning?

Suzanna Lee 2:30

Um, not really No, I like that. It's actually helping me bust through my stash. So yes, I got sucked into Heidi's Stop The Blur. But really, it's more just about using my stuff, because I have a lot of it. So yeah, it's nice to bust through the stash.

Jennifer Wilson 2:53

Now, I always love to ask our guests as well about some of the stories that are just still on their list, and particularly on their memory keeping Bucket List. So these tend to be more meaningful, important, significant stories, they don't have to be hard or difficult, but they just feel really important to capture. So what's one story that's still on your Bucket List?

Suzanna Lee 3:14

My wedding. 20 some years ago. I haven't done that. I we didn't have, we had a really small wedding. And we didn't have a photographer who put together a book, you know, as a lot of photographers do. And so I would still like to do that, which will be interesting, because I've actually started it a long, long time ago, products have changed, my style has changed. But I still want to leave those early pages, and then go ahead and do some currently. We'll see how that goes.

Jennifer Wilson 3:51

That sounds really fun. And that, you know, that really triggers something for me too. So I'm gonna have this, I'm gonna go put that on my list. Because I, I had a really, really tiny wedding as well, we actually did. We basically paid for an engagement shoot to just have a few photos taken before the wedding. And I made a little tiny photo book that has pictures, but I have nothing that really captures the stories of why, you know, we made all these choices that we did about our wedding. So I feel like yeah, I need to do that too. Yeah. So as I mentioned, this is a My Way episode. So we're really peeking behind the scenes of everything that you do inside of your hobby. But I wanted to kind of give our audience a little teaser about what makes you tick because right now we're talking about organization. So do you have one or two favorite organizing tips or solutions?

Suzanna Lee 4:45

You should see my space. So I do YouTube videos and everybody keeps saying Suzanna, show us your space. Suzanna, show us your space and I will answer any question, I will show you anything you want, but I will not show you my space, because It is a hot mess. So, I my best organization tip is I love my Raskog. Those IKEA carts and I my best organized things are my Elle's Studio goodies. And I love using kitchen, in Tuesday Morning, the kitchen, the kitchen storage things. That's what I have divided everything up by. But otherwise, yeah, I'm not I'm not one to come to for organization I'm sorry.

Jennifer Wilson 5:34

No, don't apologize.

Suzanna Lee 5:36

It's funny because I am Type A, highlighted, bolded, and underlined. I am the most organized person in every aspect of my life except for my craft.

Jennifer Wilson 5:47

Oh, that is so fascinating. And maybe, maybe the takeaway here is that you don't have to be organized in order to be creative. To make YouTube videos to really have a productive successful, you know, vibrant hobby, you can do it within, you know, what doesn't feel like an organized space, or it's, you know, a hot mess, as you say. And it doesn't, it is what it is. But it's what it is doesn't have to be a barrier.

Suzanna Lee 6:14

I don't always find what I need, what I want to find. I read that as well, then that was not meant to be, something else was meant to be. That's okay, I you know, we can't control all areas of our lives. And that is one that I have learned to surrender.

Jennifer Wilson 6:31

Nice, nice. I think it's a healthy approach.

Suzanna Lee 6:34

Thank you.

Jennifer Wilson 6:35

Can you share a little bit about how you got started scrapbooking and how your hobby has evolved since that time?

Suzanna Lee 6:41

So I come from a long maternal line of crafters. My mom sews, my grandmother sews, my great grandmother sews. And my grandmother, actually she's from England, used to cut out magazines for us and stick our heads on them and make like collages of memories. And so I learned to do that from her. And then that evolved to scrapbooking and memory keeping, more than just cutting out magazines. So I've been scrapbooking a really long time. My first official quote unquote scrapbook was a trip down the New England coast with a boyfriend in college. And then I kind of collected things from there. And then my son's baby book, 19 years ago, was sort of the kicker to the real scrapbooking world, per se.

Jennifer Wilson 7:32

Yeah, and how has your hobby kind of evolved since that time? Because you've been mentioned that those pages you made for your wedding album, don't look anything like the pages you might make now.

Suzanna Lee 7:40

Not at all. So like many of us, I think I started in Creative Memories, right? Where you cut everything in a circle or those shapes and stick them on the page. And I always joke that I was my own first fussy, I was my own first digital cutting machine. I cut, you know all the shapes that came on pages, I would fussy cut around them and stick them on the page. And it's just evolved from there to more. I got involved in design teams probably 15 years ago. And I think that's a different world too because you are creating, I don't necessarily create along my timeline. I create along what to do.

Jennifer Wilson 8:24

Sure.

Suzanna Lee 8:25

Next assignment, per se.

Jennifer Wilson 8:27

Yeah, well, there's a certain degree and I've heard this from other guests as well that some of us need, need some of those deadlines to keep us going.

Suzanna Lee 8:35

Absolutely. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 8:36

So and if you can find that other ways, then that helps as well.

Suzanna Lee 8:41

They can also be a challenge, you know if they send you a baby boy collection. Yeah, well, I have a 19 year old boy, that's not going to work, you know, so trying to make it work with what I want to do currently. I don't want to go back into 19 years ago. Does that make sense?

Jennifer Wilson 9:03

Oh, it does. And I think we all have certain some will certainly desire to do that. And some will, you know, pair past and present but you have to kind of find your own. How do I blend this assignment with my current desires?

Suzanna Lee 9:18

Absolutely. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 9:20

So what sizes or formats are you typically creating in right now?

Suzanna Lee 9:25

I am all over the board. I'm typically a 12 by 12 scrapper. And my latest I'm all about large photos. I, that's been kind of my niche lately. Is or multi photo layouts too. So I'll do 12 by 12 but I also do 9 by 12. I've done a couple of pocket pages lately, traveler's notebooks. Like I said I'm all over the place.

Jennifer Wilson 9:50

When you do large photos are these like full page 12 by 12 or 9 by 12? Are they five by seven, what is what is large in your world?

Suzanna Lee 9:58

I have a, my own, I print at home all of my printing I do at home. And so yes, they are often 12 by 12, or they're going to be 9 by 12. Because 6 by 4 blows up to 9 by 12, I think 7 by 12, something like that, fully across the page.

Jennifer Wilson 10:17

Now, in terms of kind of your style, when you're using these full page photos, do you embellish on top? Do you do anything hybrid on top or is the photo kind of standing alone, next to other things?

Suzanna Lee 10:31

Both I, I do like hybrid, I've just because I now I'm printing at home, I'm printing more, more journal cards and those sorts of things. But I'm not afraid to go on top of the photo either. I, I just like I again, I'm Type A, highlighted, bolded, and underlined. So I like structure in my pages. I'm very much about the visual triangles. So if I need to build something on top of the photo, I will, but a lot of it depends on the photo too, right. If you've got a full face on the page. There's not a lot of room in that. But I like to have photos that are more the object and then the scene behind it. And then I don't mind covering up some of this scene.

Jennifer Wilson 11:19

Yeah, for sure. I think the It's so strange that the more we do larger photos, whether that's large, like even three by eight, it could be large. There's a full page photo, the more we're looking for whitespace or intentionally cropping our photos with whitespace because we know we want a scrapbook on top of it.

Suzanna Lee 11:37

Absolutely. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 11:39

Now I'm curious what type of photo printer do you have? I'm sure our audience will be curious about that.

Suzanna Lee 11:44

So my large format is a Canon. And I honestly don't know it's, it's one of the crafter's Canons.

Jennifer Wilson 11:52

Okay.

Suzanna Lee 11:53

But then my four by sixes, I use an Epson Picturemate. So those are smaller format ones. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 11:59

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now, whose products are you completely obsessed with these days?

Suzanna Lee 12:05

Elle's Studio and I'm just laughing because I design for them. That but I it is truly a match made in heaven for me, as far as scrapbook stuff goes. It's a silly saying a match made in heaven with scrapbook stuff. But yeah, I I like that they are, I when I say generic I, you it's not baby stuff. It's not sports stuff. It's literally everyday memory keeping. But you can also use it for the high days and holidays as well.

Jennifer Wilson 12:37

Oh, certainly. And you know, they have a very kind of crisp, clean color style. I'm curious if that if that's part of what stands out to you is kind of just the the high contrast look.

Suzanna Lee 12:51

It's definitely the high contrast look. And I am a bright colors kind of gal. I can't do pastels. I'm not, I can. But I prefer the bright colors. Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 13:02

Is there something that you think you do or you use on most of your pages?

Suzanna Lee 13:09

I am not a mixed media gal. So it definitely it's not that, but. I the visual triangle. I like I I firmly believe in the visual triangle when I'm designing. And so it's not necessarily that I always use a circle punch or a star, but I always have those three things. Three clusters, typically on a page.

Jennifer Wilson 13:34

Now I'm curious, do you have any like rules for yourself and having a cluster? Like do you always have like an odd number of items in the cluster?

Suzanna Lee 13:41

No.

Jennifer Wilson 13:42

Okay, I'm just curious.

Suzanna Lee 13:45

No, I, I like my visual triangle to go from, it not in any order, but it has to travel through the picture through the title and through the journaling. To me.

Jennifer Wilson 13:56

Interesting.

Suzanna Lee 13:57

Something that guides your eye around the page to those three key elements in my storytelling.

Jennifer Wilson 14:03

Oh, nice. Yeah, you certainly do have a lot of structure like even just how you're thinking about it. That's terrific. I'm curious when you, I know you get products from design teams, but when you are trying to fill your shopping cart, what's kind of pulling your attention these days? Like I know I started to acquire dies and of course stamp sets. What are you, what are the kind of the non paper and embellishment things that you're kind of acquiring?

Suzanna Lee 14:34

That's a tough one because I don't really shop much.

Jennifer Wilson 14:38

Really? Okay.

Suzanna Lee 14:39

Yeah, I'm I've been on design teams for about 15 years truly. And I have so much stuff. It's just, I've done a couple of major clean outs. But a lot of it is still in my house. And so I'm really truly just trying to use things up.

Jennifer Wilson 15:06

All right, that makes sense. That's fair.

Suzanna Lee 15:08

So if I buy anything, it's cardstock. Honestly, it's white cardstock.

Jennifer Wilson 15:13

And what's your favorite white cardstock?

Suzanna Lee 15:16

It's Bazzil. Bazzil. Bazzil. How do you

Jennifer Wilson 15:20

Yes, that I say Bazzil, but...

Suzanna Lee 15:22

Okay.

Jennifer Wilson 15:22

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, you know, so funny I bought and I think I mentioned this already in the podcast, but I had bought some American Crafts white, because that's what I always used to buy. And then I'm like, Wait, this isn't quite the right white. And so I pulled out the ones I've really been using recently. And it was Bazzil. And I'm like, oh, it's the Bazzil White that I really like, because it almost makes the American Crafts white look blue.

Suzanna Lee 15:48

Doesn't it? Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 15:49

Yeah. Yeah. So funny.

Suzanna Lee 15:52

But even within, you have to buy the same lot. Like I try and buy bulk when I buy cardstock. Because even the lines differ slightly from from one print cast, whatever you call it, to the next one.

Jennifer Wilson 16:07

Oh, sure. I mean, that is still technically a natural product. Right? So yeah, yeah, we're starting with wood to make the paper.

Suzanna Lee 16:15

Right, Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 16:17

So when do you typically find the time and energy for scrapbooking?

Suzanna Lee 16:21

I only work part time. I consider scrapbooking, my other part time job. And so I have the afternoons between my daughter coming home from school and lunch. So I have about two hours every day that I work on things.

Jennifer Wilson 16:38

And do you kind of do you maintain consistent energy, or sometimes, or does it ebb and flow for you?

Suzanna Lee 16:44

No, I think it's pretty consistent.

Jennifer Wilson 16:47

Do you have any strategies that you use to kind of stay motivated? Or are you just like, I just love to scrapbook so much? It's never it's never a question.

Suzanna Lee 16:58

See, I don't want to jinx myself there. If I answer your question. No, I, I try. I I like to stay current in my memory keeping like, I will go back. I don't think that I have to do anything by a timeline. Right? I don't have to do. I don't have to follow sequential events. I will go back and do things. But I do like to really record today's memories, because I don't journal. I don't keep a journal, when I say I don't journal. And so that's why while the memories are fresh, I want to do last week's events or the week before that's events, I don't really want to go back to a year. I will. But my preference is to do it more currently. And so I think in keeping, and that's part of why I think the the memory, the memory planner is so invigorating to me, because that's a way of being able to do that. I don't think I answered your question though, did I?

Jennifer Wilson 18:00

No, it's fine. And I'm curious if, what's the role of your photo management? Is your photo management more organized than your space?

Suzanna Lee 18:09

No.

Jennifer Wilson 18:10

Okay.

Suzanna Lee 18:14

You know, there's always that that age old question in scrapbooking. What inspires you? Is it the product? Or is it the photos?

Jennifer Wilson 18:22

Yeah.

Suzanna Lee 18:23

And I usually pull my photos to match my product. So for me, I have to do design team, it's assignment. So I pull my photos to go with what it is that I have to work with. But then try and incorporate current photos into that product. And if it doesn't match the color scheme, then I'm going to convert my photo to black and white.

Jennifer Wilson 18:47

There you go. Well, and I think that, you know, obviously not, the vast majority of our listeners are not creating from the same perspective of a design team, but they may have a strong desire to work through their stash. And so being product first isn't, isn't bad by any means. It just means you're you're taking a starting point that's a little bit different. And using that to inspire the next choices, you know, the photos and the other supplies, so and that that's okay. And that's awesome. And I love how we can showcase all different ways to get started. And some of us may even, you know, that changes over time that every page doesn't even start in the same place either. You may, I'm sure sometimes you have a photo that you're like, oh, I need to scrapbook this photo. And then I have to go find supplies to to match that. So yeah. So is there anything in scrapbooking, whether it's a supply, a technique, a size, or a format that you've decided is just not for you? Maybe besides mixed media since you already mentioned that one?

Suzanna Lee 19:54

See, my answer was going to be mixed media because I've dabbled in it. Um, but it's just, I you I used to say stamping was not my thing. Oh, I have, I have a good answer.

Jennifer Wilson 20:09

Okay.

Suzanna Lee 20:10

Hand coloring.

Jennifer Wilson 20:11

Oh.

Suzanna Lee 20:12

Copic markers.

Jennifer Wilson 20:13

Yeah.

Suzanna Lee 20:14

I can't do that blending nope, not my thing. I think part of it too, and this goes to mixed media, is I'm too much of a control freak. Then I can't, my skill level isn't good enough that I get the outcome that I want. Like you visualize in your head what you want that to be. And I just, I can't achieve that end outcome. And so I'm not interested.

Jennifer Wilson 20:42

That's fair, it's important to honor yourself. And what keeps you feeling fulfilled moving forward? I'm curious, you mentioned that you would have used to say, stamping, so how did you kind of grow out of that?

Suzanna Lee 20:57

Elle's Studio. I think some of it too is in my head stamping used to be that you would have the cute stamp of the cat. And then you would have to color it in. And that would be how you would use it in your page. But what has evolved for me is that stamping is no longer the cute cat, the critter, the the person, its words, its phrases, or stars, generic things, that to me are much more applicable to anything that I do instead of specific to a topic.

Jennifer Wilson 21:37

Yes, No, I totally agree. I, I really struggled with stamping for a long time until we went into this era of all the word stamps. And now it's just so exciting. And I can't, I can't get enough. Because they're especially the smallest ones they're so easy to stamp with. And, you know, you really have to worry about it messing up. So I love Yeah, I love stamps. So where would you like your scrapbooking to be in 10 years from now?

Suzanna Lee 22:07

It's actually an interesting question that you asked that because my son just went off to college. And so I've lost one of my subject matters, per se. And my daughter will be gone to which I think that's part of why also the memory planner has also become a bigger part for me. Because now I'm, those big subjects that used to be big subjects will no longer be there. And so this allows me to evolve into more of my everyday memory keeping in me, more than my children and my family. They're still my family. Right? But you trying to get pictures from your teenager? But yeah, no. You probably already know about that. Right? You're dealing with an eyeball or something crazy like that. So while they're very cooperative about my requests, you don't want to ask and be intrusive into their life.

Jennifer Wilson 23:06

Oh, for sure.

Suzanna Lee 23:09

So I see a bit more me.

Jennifer Wilson 23:12

Yeah, for sure. Do you take a lot of selfies? Are you like a selfie person or not?

Suzanna Lee 23:17

I am not a selfie person.

Jennifer Wilson 23:19

No. Okay. Okay. Do you think that might increasingly become part of your process? If if your scrapbooks are gonna be more about you? Will you be more of the photos?

Suzanna Lee 23:31

I might be? Although I do a pretty good job of being in the photos, I think.

Jennifer Wilson 23:36

Okay.

Suzanna Lee 23:36

I will say. But that's partly because my husband is very considerate. He takes pictures too. Knowing that yeah, I appreciate that about him a lot. But I am a foodie. And I love to travel. So hopefully once the kids leave, travel will go will increase. And COVID won't limit that.

Jennifer Wilson 23:58

Yeah.

Suzanna Lee 24:01

But yeah, I can see doing a lot of food. You know, like Amy Tangerine kinda type. Those kinds of pictures. But I also have a lot. Like I would say there's a huge gap between my son's baby book and my daughter's baby book. I did parts of their lives, but not a lot. And so there's also a lot to go back to as well and revisit.

Jennifer Wilson 24:26

So do you think you will do that? Because you've mentioned that you don't have a strong pull to go go to the past? Do you think with them being off into the world that in this season of life, you might want to do more of that?

Suzanna Lee 24:38

I might. I mean, there will definitely be more time for those sorts of things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 24:45

Now I'm curious about your being a foodie. Have you documented that in the past at all?

Suzanna Lee 24:51

There's much more of it in my memory planner than there used to be. I also, you know, my parents are, I think a lot of us, our parents are getting older. And with kids going off to college learning to cook. I another project, this is going to answer an earlier question that I am trying to figure out how I want to do is like a recipe book. Family recipes that have been passed on through time. But I need to figure out food pictures to stylize them.

Jennifer Wilson 25:27

It's hard. Yeah.

Suzanna Lee 25:30

So I want to include the recipes. And I want to include them in my grandmother's handwriting or my handwriting. And I bought and I want to have a picture of the finished product. Next to the recipe. I just am not sure how that picture is going to play out?

Jennifer Wilson 25:47

Well, I think there's a lot of because there's a whole, you know, food blog industry, there's a lot of resources online, just like you'd learn how to, to take better photos of your scrapbook pages or anything. There are a lot of photos on how to take a lot of like video tutorials on how to take better food photos and how to style it properly. So it looks delicious, versus sometimes how our food photos look.

Suzanna Lee 26:10

Yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Wilson 26:12

Well and it seems like that format would lend itself well to a photo book, just because you could then print, you know, multiple copies, you know, one for each of your children. And if you want to have one for yourself, versus trying to you doing multiples in a physical format is always is quite challenging.

Suzanna Lee 26:34

Yes, I agree with you. That would Yeah, that's a great idea. Thank you.

Jennifer Wilson 26:40

So looking back over your, you know, quite a long experience as a scrapbooker. What has it taught you?

Suzanna Lee 26:47

Balance. You know, we, I think there's a lot of scrapbookers who get obsessed with it. That they live their lives to take pictures, match their children's outfits to their papers. And I think we, we take the pendulum and life tends to be black or white, it swings one way, far the right or far left. But I've learned that when I let scrapbooking consume my life, that I forget to live my life, I'm living my life for the wrong reason. So letting it be more about the memory keeping and making the memories rather than living to make the memories does that...

Jennifer Wilson 27:31

Oh, for sure.

Suzanna Lee 27:32

Yeah.

Jennifer Wilson 27:33

Yeah, I think, I remember when I got my first, you know, quote unquote, big camera. I had to force myself to stop taking pictures, because I was finding myself not in the moment because I was behind the lens too much.

Suzanna Lee 27:48

Yep. Yeah. And your children, if you have children, not everybody does, but they start to resent that you're doing that too. Which I definitely learned that hard lesson.

Jennifer Wilson 28:00

Yes, yes, there's, yeah, I think balance is an is a really great word. Because we're all we're all striving that, in for in so many areas of our life. But to respect that even throughout the course of the year, there's going to be natural seasons that are more for memory making and then ones that are more for memory keeping. I know in the summer, I'm we're outside, we're going for walks every night, you know, there's a lot less scrapbooking happening, because we're just outside more.

Suzanna Lee 28:28

But you can also tell a story without a photo too. I think that's that's worth remembering as well, that you can live in the moment and not have to have your camera out all the time, but still be able to record that memory.

Jennifer Wilson 28:42

Oh, yes. 100%. Well, this has been so fun. Suzanna, can you share where we can find you online and anything you might have new or coming up.

Suzanna Lee 28:51

I am on YouTube. And if you just put in Suzanna Lee, if I'm the first I think I'm the only Suzanna Lee that pulls up. And then I'm on Instagram. I don't keep a blog anymore. And then things that I have coming up, I would like, I'm going to do a series about Me , Past and Present. So recording your childhood as well as your current memories and sort of going back and forth in time and how one influenced the other.

Jennifer Wilson 29:19

Oh, very fun.

Suzanna Lee 29:20

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Jennifer Wilson 29:22

We will include all your links in the show notes for this episode. And again, thank you for your time.

Suzanna Lee 29:28

Thank you. Thanks for having me, Jennifer.

Jennifer Wilson 29:30

And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way. Are you ready to start implementing the great ideas you hear on the podcast? The Simple Scrapper membership offers a welcoming space to connect with fellow Memory Keepers and find the creative accountability you've been craving. Visit simple scrapper.com/membership to learn more and join our community. It's the best it's ever been.