Graphic 45 Spotlight With Designer Susan Lui

Here is the latest installment of our Graphic 45 Guest Designers. Many of you may remember that back in April we hosted a Graphic 45 Week on the Paper Crafter’s Library Blog. It was week filled with projects and inspiration using Graphic 45’s Tropical Travelogue Collection. We had such a great experience partnering with Graphic 45 and their design team, and such a great response from you, that we’ve decided to partner with them on an ongoing basis. The first and third week of every month one of the Graphic 45 Designers will share a project they’ve created here on the PCL Blog. We started with our monthly designers in June and before I introduce you to our latest Designer, I just wanted to take a minute to re-introduce Graphic 45 for those of you that may not be familiar with the company.

Graphic 45 is an award-winning scrapbook and paper crafting company­— owned and operated by a mother and her two daughters.

Diane Schultz (pictured center)—Designer and CEO (aka mother)

“I’m passionate about being creative and eager to make it possible for others to find their creative voice. My background includes stints as a designer for, McCalls, Simplicity, Vogue/ Butterick, Mattel Toy Company and a host of other jobs that each, in some way, led me to what I do now. At 45 I went back to school and got my degree in graphic design— I named the company to celebrate that achievement.”

Aimee Filimoehala (pictured left) —Director of Operations

“I wear a lot of hats and love it that way. Business, marketing, operations, etc. have made me a pro at multitasking (aka juggling‑figuratively and literally). When we launched Graphic 45 just three years ago we had no idea what was in store, working together as a family has been an amazing journey that we all feel so grateful to be apart of.”

Charee Filimoehala (pictured right)—Director of Customer Service and Design Team Coordinator

“I joined the team a little over three years ago and haven’t looked back…what a life-changing experience this has been. I love working with and around creative people and products (not to mention I like my co-workers quite a bit). I spend my days working with our friendly stores and talented design team…the occasional trip to a workshop or tradeshow pretty nice too.”

Together we create vintage inspired crafting products that capture the flamboyant style of the 1920’s and 30’s – with vibrant color, irresistible texture and imaginative design to create products with decades-old appeal that’s both fresh and familiar. Let our products inspire your next scrapbook layout, card, album or home decor project.

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Here’s a picture of their booth at the CHA show which absolutely blows us away every year! The artwork inside is absolutely stunning and totally unique. At the last show as we were speaking with Diane she told us that many of the altered pieces were vintage finds which she and her team transformed with their gorgeous Graphic 45 products. We can’t wait to stop by their booth at the Chicago CHA and see what they’ve got in store this year!

Here’s a picture of the Graphic 45 team – they’re always dressed in period costumes to complement the themes in their collections – every day of the show brings a new set of costumes. The ones shown below were for their Little Darlings collection.

Graphic 45 Designer Susan Lui

Our next Graphic 45 Guest Designer for this month is Susan Lui who is part of the 2012 Graphic 45 Design Team. We are very excited to share her project with you.  We know you will love it as much as we do!

You can see Susan’s fabulous project below, but first, here is a little more about Susan:

Hello! I’m Susan Lui and I’m delighted to be featured on PaperCrafter’s Library as part of the wonderful Graphic 45 Design Team.  I’m from Singapore. I started scrapping a few years ago and fell in love with papercrafting because it allows me to record and preserve memories for my family in a manner that appeals to the creative side of me. I have a fondness for shabby-chic designs with a vintage touch but will frequently venture over to the dark side for a distressed grungy adventure with mediums. I like my projects to have lots of texture and dimension and my layouts frequently end up very three-dimensional because of the mediums and embellishments I use. Aside from papercrafting, I enjoy travelling and photography.

I was on the Graphic 45 design team in 2009/2010 and have really fond memories of my term then and am so happy to be back on the design team of my favourite manufacturer again. If you’d like to see more of my creations, please visit my blog at www.luv2scrap-pages.blogspot.com.

 

 

Thank you and happy scrapping!  I’ve created a layout on my cute little doggie using Graphic 45’s new Place In Time collection:

 

 

I’ve used Place In Time’s May Cut-Aparts and May Foundation papers in this layout. I love the purple on this patterned paper and the wonderful springtime images of flowers and butterflies. I created a circular background, using doily punchers to create a lacey scrunched up border, and layered this over more patterned paper and doilies.

 

To compliment the floral images in the patterned paper, I’ve embellished the layout with a flower cluster on either side of the photo, with cut-out butterflies flitting through the flowers.

 

The title is on a purple banner using sticker alphabets from Graphic 45’s Happy Haunting Alphabet Stickers. I layered the alpha stickers on a couple of sheets of purple patterned paper, popping them up with 3D foam dots for more dimension. The banner is linked together using a lovely green silk ribbon from May Arts and the ends of the banner ribbon flow into the flower clusters in a soft swirl.

I hope you liked this layout of mine, the supplies are listed below.  For a look at more of my creations, please visit my blog at www.luv2scrap-pages.blogspot.com

Happy Scrapping!

List of Supplies:

Patterned Paper – Graphic 45 Place In Time May Cut-Aparts & May Foundation

Alphabets – Graphic 45 Happy Haunting Alphabet Stickers

Adhesive – Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares

Ribbons – May Arts Ribbons silk ribbon

We hope you have enjoyed this fun creation from Susa. I would also like to extend a warm thank you to Susan for sharing her exciting holiday gift idea with us! Please take a minute to stop by Susan’s Blog and of course the Graphic 45 blog to check out all their amazing creations!