LOD 2022 | February 18 | Rachel Jefferies

LOVE our Designers | February 18th, 2022 | Rachel Jefferies​

Rachel Jefferies is our daily crush for today.

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Welcome to the 2022 edition of Love Our Designers. This event isn't a traditional challenge in that there aren't any real rules. It’s a fun event to scrap with products from a fave designer or try a new (to you) designer. It’s all about having fun and celebrating the uniqueness of all of our Lilypad Designers!
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Create a new layout or page for Rachel's love our designers special day, and upload it to this thread, and two lucky participants will be selected at random to win an $8 coupon to her shop.

Here is the gift that will be available to new e-mail subscribers, you will receive a welcome e-mail a few minutes after subscribing with instructions of how to download the mini kit. Never fear - existing subscribers will receive this freebie too. You can sign up HERE.


I asked Rachel some burning questions:

1. How has the last couple of years impacted your creative process and are you still as passionate about documenting the little details and joys of everyday life?

It's been hard for all of us hasn't it? Sigh. So I'm not milking the sympathy vote here but it has impacted my creative process in a huge way. With School being in or out and then in or out again etc. a mix of home schooling coupled with my Sons learning difficulties and then lots of bugs and illnesses swooping us as lockdown restrictions have come and gone etc. and then us all being Covid Positive in the summer of 2021. My daughter started nursery school in the midst of the Pandemic, there has been so many challenges all around.

I actually am still in survival mode and I'm still very much playing catch up in a lot of ways. The Pandemic hasn't wavered my passion for documenting all the little details and joys of everyday life though, more so, like many of you I'm sure, it brings a realisation of how fragile life is and how important it really is to document all of the little details.

My love and passion for design and memory keeping has kept me pushing on and pushing through. My muse and creativity is leading me more and more towards designing about daily life and all of the tiny details.

2. How do your creative hobbies at home relate to your work of designing?

The two go hand in hand and intertwine very closely. Creating just for me keeps me in a creative flow, sparks new ideas for collections and part of my own artwork will often feature as textures or elements in my products. I enjoy all styles of creative journaling and collage in my spare time and I thoroughly enjoy having hand crafted pieces from my art in my collections, they make my work uniquely mine. You probably have several fingerprints of mine somewhere sitting on your hard drive

3. If you're in a little slump, what do you do to re-energize and rediscover your joy in creating and crafting?

It depends on the circumstance and how bad the slump is! I will often always start with being in denial and try and push through it but then get very angry and realise it's time to step away

Keeping busy with something like housework or laundry or pottering in the garden helps to relax my mind and often things work themselves out during that down time.

Taking a break - stepping away from it and looking at it again in a few hours or a few days later with fresh eyes.

Tidying my work area - something as simple as that can often be a winner!

Creative Journaling - Make some Collages or do some Art Journaling

4. Are there any colours that you avoid at all costs? Or any kind of medium that you don't gravitate towards?

Variety is the spice of life and we all have certain things that we gravitate towards. I have been designing for a long long time, over ten years, and my design work tends to follow the aesthetic of my creative journaling at home.

I adore nature and greenery and love love love working with neutrals and limited colour swatches in my journals and that naturally follows through with my scrapbook products. Lately I am really enjoying adding bold contrast with pops of black and white.

I've experimented with colours in the past, and of course have opportunity to work with other colours in the BYOC collections that I wouldn't normally pick myself but I know what works for me and what makes me tick. So i tend to avoid bright and bold swatches and follow my muse and gut instinct when designing and if I follow what I feel is true to me it results in the best work.

5. What is the easiest thing for you to create? What is the most fun or what excites you easily?

That's a toughie, but if it's fun, or excites me easily it's the most natural thing to create and hence the easiest, because it's fun and enjoyable. So most definitely, my signature Mixed Media Papers & Collages and I adore creating my messy stitches/threads, those have become a real fixture of my look over the last two years!

6. What layout would you create as a bucket list layout, the next story that has to be shared or the next detail that has to be captured and documented?

That's a good question . . I am actually a terribly disorganised scrapbooker I think? I don't tend to scrap chronologically or per album and I actually really need to organise my layouts and consider what system I want to use to get them printed

I take all of my photos on my iphone so if a Kit is inspiring me to scrap I browse my feed to find a photo that matches the sentiment and colours of the Kit that I want to scrap with and get the page done.

I love to record what I consider to be the little details in everyday life that I never want to forget, that's the kind of scrapbooker I am vs big events or themes. So my next layout would be serendipity in terms of what aligns with my feelings and emotions, photos and kits that inspire me on any given day!

Shop: https://the-lilypad.com/store/Rachel-Jefferies/
E-mail Updates: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/61c4d40f14ec6db2d2b53a48
Blog: https://www.racheljefferies.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/racheljefferiesdesigns
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/racheljefferiesdesigns/ @racheljefferiesdesigns
(Use hashtag #racheljefferiesdesigns to share your creations with her on Instagram)
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/racheljefferies/
TLP username: Rachel Jefferies


40% off, Plus Spend $35 and Save 55% - Some product Exclusions may apply.

I asked Rachel for some of her favourite products:

Pocket Art Signature Kit 5 holds a special place in my heart as I designed it to scrapbook these photos of Mackenzie and I remember the design process flowing so easily!





The Messy Marks Date Stamps Series is a product that I use every single time I create a layout. Here is the 2022 version that I'm currently using when I am scrapping recent photos.



The Anisoptera Collection is another with wonderful memories, it was created with inspirations from the dragonflies and outside spaces during a family holiday.



Finally, I think all designers have a collection where it felt like pulling teeth to start with and the flow just wasn't there, I have all those feelings about this Collection BUT once I found my rhythm and had completed it, this collection is actually one of my ALL TIME favourites!! I want to show you the pretty element pack but you can find the full collection here.


Because Rachel herself loves scrapbooking, I asked her to share some of her favourite layouts:











and some from her amazing design team:


Page design by Aly


Page design by Gaelle


Page design by Farwen


Page design by Alina

Rachel says: "I don't have an up to date photo of my workspace, but as we have just three bedrooms and two children now I literally work from a small desk in the corner of our dining room. I have a nine drawer metal cabinet and two Ikea trolleys which store my art supplies, a Canon printer, an Epson Scanner, an IPad Pro and an Imac for my creative work!

Here is a little peek behind the scenes of things that have been on my desk"





I created a layout using Right Now: Misc Mixed Media Basics, Mixed Media Paperie, Mixed Media Artistry and her Right Now Mixed Media Mini kit - that will be free to email subscribers, you can sign up here.

Now it's your turn to make a page with Rachel Jefferies Designs. Check out her store and see what irresistible goodies you can find, or use your own Rachel Jefferies stash.

Please make sure you meet the gallery guidelines of 50% TLP product.
Post in Rachel Jefferies Gallery and share your page in this thread.

Be sure to check out our LOVE Our Designers event daily since you never know WHO is going to be featured when! And who knows, the designer(s) may pop in here and there with special surprises and interactions while we are scrapping!!!

 

@Cath_
I am not seeing what you see. If you click on the image I posted - it takes you to the collection in Rachel's store.
It is definitely Rachel's and not One Little Bird's, Rachel's BYOC from August 2021 not even sure why it says April.

 

@Rachel Jefferies @mrs2a50 @lmccandless

This Anisoptera bundle is indeed showing up in One Little Bird's store?