A NIFTY SCRAPPER SPOTLIGHT- Patty Anne Henderson

This month will be the first of many customer/scrapper spotlights something I’ve been wanting to do in such a long time. There are so many amazing and inspiring scrappers in the galleries and when I discovered Patty Anne (justpattyanne) sometime ago I knew I had to invite her to be the inaugural scrapper in the spotlight series! 

When you delve into her designs you discover her mad talent at combining many collections from numerous designers into the one marvellous creation, it truly is mind-blowing! Patty Anne also has such a way with words that not only do her loving comments leave you feeling humbled and inspired! For me it’s Patty Anne’s personal journaling that is so emotive and thought provoking, often I find myself really reflective, it’s like Patty is thinking for me. Patty Anne has a truly remarkable gift for story telling through both word and imagery. Do yourself a favour and check out Patty Anne’s colourful and energetic Sweet Shoppe Gallery you’ll be inspired I promise! 

Her quirky style just grabs you from the gallery beckoning you in to explore her pages more intently and I’ve poured over them wanting to know more, so I’ve asked Patty Anne a few questions to learn some more about her gorgeous self and scrapping process. Soooooo, without further ado, let me introduce you to this remarkable and talented woman!

Howdy Y’all! I am (just) Patty Anne, a 55 year old widow with a 19 yr old dot (daughter) and our 3 fur baby rescues living in the gorgeous rural piney woods of NE Texas. 

I scrapbook for me. I would like to tell you that I scrapbook for some noble purpose like leaving a legacy for future generations or chronicling my daughter’s every move and achievement, but the truth is, I scrapbook for me. While I enjoy making pages about my dot and hope she will treasure them, showing them to her own daughter someday, I still scrapbook for me. My scrapbook pages are visual soundbites from my life. They are a creative outlet, but most importantly, they are my therapy.

I tend towards more art journal-y style pages that feel like extensions of my journals, which I have kept religiously since I was in the 5^thgrade. My scrapbooking pages are my visual journals.

The process of creating is at least as important as the final page. In creating my pages, I can create in concept and color emotions that I don’t yet have the words for. First, it slows my brain down and I begin to focus. In deciding what photos or images I want to play with, and arranging them onto a page, I find that I am also illuminating and interpreting any free-floating emotions that I might not have the words for yet. By cutting away the superfluous details and events, I can map my way down to my emotional truths and connect with the universal wisdoms they contain. 

While I have been a stalker and customer of Sweet Shoppe Designs since 2008, I didn’t get active at SSD until this year. I was in such a depressive creative slump, needing to create and learn more. 

This is when my creative brain tripped over and fell down The Nifty Pixels’ rabbit hole. Oddly enough, it was her templates that gave me my first creative jolt. I’m not typically a template user, but I saw a page using one of her template sets that looked like it could have been my own planner. It had all kinds of papers and pics and bits of ephemera tucked in – all with the most amazing shadows and curls included. WOW! WHAT?! I mean, Em’s templates felt like a whole new genre, like the next evolution of templates! Now, not only did I have a page that truly looked like a page from my own real life, but I was studying these things to glean all of the tricks and AHA’s that they were more than happy to share with me!

I was creatively charged and actively learning new techniques - clustering and better shadows at the top of the list. Before, with templates or with clusters, it was as if I created a page and then vacuum packed all of the oxygen and life out of it, not allowing it to breathe, to have any depth or space. Em’s templates were a true revelation for me. A fun and ironic side effect is that I have created more pages just because and featuring my dot this year than I have in the 19 years of her life.

As I began to raid The Nifty Pixels shoppe, I found myself falling in love all over again, this time it was her kits, her glorious kits! The warmth, depth and choice of her colors are sumptuous and just to die for! She obviously used ALL the crayons in her crayon box! She always provides the gamut of elements, from the painterly to the ultimate 3D reality ones --- giving all of us the tools that we might need no matter our typical style of creating. 

My 2 favorite TNP kits are “Gunkel’s Apothecary” and “Remember Them”. The warm colors, the mix of textures, surfaces and elements all make me want to be able to reach out and touch them, rifle through them like you would a box containing all of your family’s favorite treasures. I created this page about my Grandfather using these 2 kits.

Em’s papers have so much depth and all the grunginess (as in loved and used and as if there are years of paint and collage that have been laid down and then worn off) I gravitate towards. Even her 'solid' papers have a depth & texture to them - they're never 'flat'.

Em also tends towards elements that are part of my own personal symbology story - which makes it so easy to put in all those 'hidden in plain sight' personal touches - things that come from a more vulnerable private story, but the general public wouldn't realize was any more than a cute element. 

A favorite page of mine demonstrating this and that contains a sampling of my favorite techniques and style would be “Something Will Grow”. It is an example of the ‘hidden in plain sight’ vulnerability expressed through symbology that I mentioned. 

I have a group of 5 friends, of soul sisters, whose friendships span nearly 50 years. At the time I created this, we had just lost one of our girls when her entire family went down in a tragic plane crash. This page is a note of encouragement to the 4 of us left behind as well as a love note to the friendships we all share. 

Yellow is the color of hope for me so I concentrated on yellows & golds as a nod to that hope and to all our golden moments together and memories that we will carry forever. The molten gold along the top represents our hot tears of grief. There are 5 butterflies on the page, 4 in flight and one separate from us but glowing brighter than any of us as she knows only love and light now. The flowers that I used are all pressed & dried (rather than fresh), like the ones we press in our scrapbooks & journals from our most treasured memories. The trinkets that are hanging are symbolic of our shared interests, experiences, faith and friendships. Rather than using a photograph, I used the contemplative line drawing to represent each of us – or any woman who is wrestling with life’s issues.

This page also shows my love of blending and recoloring to better tell and demonstrate my stories. Everything was recolored and blended to achieve the golds I sought, 3D objects were blended into the background and in the case of the 2D line drawing, I added styling to make her more 3D and to stand out from the canvas a bit.

In my life, I have been fortunate to be able to meet so many artists, musicians and actors (as my late hubby was a career musician and we made our living traveling the U.S., Europe & Scandinavia bringing music to a town near you) – and when you get to meet them and you find out what fantastic human beings they are as well, their particular art shines even brighter for me. And I am SO thrilled to say that Em’s art now shines brighter for me. She is such a genuine and authentic lady, a cheerleader for the rest of us trying to create something beautiful with the toys she shares with us. I can see and hear her smiles through the way that she connects. 

SO, I am always excited to see what else she has cooking in that wonderland of creativity that is her imagination and amazing skill set. I love getting to wander down that rabbit hole and skip about her playground. She has given ME such a creative jump start and I am so thankful that our paths have crossed through the ether. She’s a treasure. Thank you, Em! You ROCK!

Wow just wow! Patty Anne, its you that rocks! Your kind words about me and nifty product and sharing an insight into your incredible art has been really interesting and inspiring, I feel very lucky to rub shoulders with you! Thank you so very much for being the first Nifty Scrapper spotlight you’ve set the bar high!

This week over at Sweet Shoppe Designs the Oldies But Goodies sale is on the CHRISTMAS & WINTER Categories. Be sure to check out these awesome savings I have a few festive templates and collections in there ready for you to capture all those celebratory moments with your loved ones!

And yep you guessed it Patty Anne has been scrapping up a festivity of Christmas goodness using some of my nifty collections and templates, so here is our final dish of nifty goodness served up by Patty Anne!

If you’d like to connect with Patty Anne try these links:

Patty Anne & I would like to wish you all a fabulous festive season.

May you have a fun & safe new year with 2022 bringing you great joy and hope.

With much love and gratefulness for all your support this past year!