Ready for a new Designer Spotlight?! I’m thrilled to bring you the quirky designing duo, Julie & Donna of Sissy Sparrows!!!!! I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about them & don’t forget to snag the gift they’ve made especially for OSD readers!
Q: Where are you from?
A: As kids, we were raised in the Outback of Australia, before moving to the Sunshine Coast on Queensland’s East Coast.
Q: Where do you sell your products?
A: We sell exclusively to One Story Down.
Q: Describe your design style.
A: We are a two person team, twin sisters, and besties… we love to doodle, we love wonky, and we LOVE grungy. We both design, but mainly this is how it happens… Donna hand draws our ideas on paper, and then we both bring them to life digitally, by adding textures to our designs but still keeping within our own illustration style.
Q: When did you start designing?
A: Mmm… well, I guess you can say this is our first year at designing in the scrapbooking world, however, we have been selling our illustrated printable goods since 2009. We have been crafty chicks from an early age… our grandparents were a huge influence… our grandma taught us inside craft like knitting and crocheting and our pa taught us all the outdoorsy stuff. In fact, our pa fondly name us a pair of Sparrows…. hence our design name Sissy Sparrows!
Donna is extremely passionate about drawing and painting both realistic and non realistic, and Julie’s creative flair is more to do with graphic designing, so together we are able to complete our hand drawn digital designs the way we both love them.
Q: Do you scrapbook as well?
A: No…. we haven’t really dabbled as yet, but it’s really really early days…. we are concentrating mostly on our designs at this stage… but we’d have to admit the beautiful layouts that we’ve seen to date has stirred a desire that we can see is already becoming obsessive… we just need a bit more practice!
Q: Favorite thing to design?
A: Hard to say… all sorts of things really… whatever we design we always like to grunge it up a little. We like to stay clear of clean cliparty type designs. Basically, we want to design things that we want to draw… we probably lean more towards older things like bikes and cameras… but get inspired by things that have an indie feel about them.
Q: All time favorite product you’ve made?
A: We don’t really have a favourite as such… but we are really really pleased with how our Retro packs turned out… but we do really love our latest product.
Q: What’s your latest product?
A: Our newest product is The Tan Suitcase, we are sooo pleased with it.
Q: What’s your FAVORITE thing about being a designer?
A: The mad excitement and flutters we get inside when we start the ideas flowing …. then moving into the design part … and finally seeing the finished product…. It’s ALL great!! Oh… and the most COOLEST thing ever, is when we see AWESOME layouts with our products!!
To give you a little taste of Sissy Sparrow’s designs in action, our Creative Team whipped up some pretties & gave a review of what they thought!
by Denise | credits: tan suitcase by sissy sparrows, pocketful of posies tape by tracy martin and the ardent sparrow, mask it case: 2 by the edits, story time font by the domesticated lady
“How fun are the suitcases and travel stamps in this kit? I knew I needed to use them as soon as I saw them. The travel elements in this kit are just perfect. We travel a lot and I love how many different countries are highlighted in this kit. The hand drawn elements are terrific and the colors in this kit really make it so you could scrap any kind of photos you have. I love being inspired by a kit.”
by Lilja | credits: Tan Suitcase; alpha & 1 wordart from Tell Me a Story Collab by the OSD Designers
“I am a sucker for travel kits and I’m always on the look out for new ones. This one is absolutely fabulous. The papers are grungy and gorgeous and all the fun elements just make this the perfect kit to scrap those travel photos. I especially like the arrows and the words - and those grungy airline tags are fantastic.”
by whatannaloves | credits: The Tan Suitcase Papers and Elements by Sissy Sparrows, Perfect Picnic element pack by Sissy Sparrows, Pocketful of Posies Alpha by Tracy Martin and The Ardent Sparrow, Fun Freakin’-tastic Alpha by Flutter Expressions, Tranformers v14 by Lauren Reid, Mels Storytime Font by Domesticated Lady, and My Happiness by Tracy Martin.
“I was thrilled when I downloaded my first pack of hand doodled elements by Sissy Sparrows. Their unique and free-spirited sketches turned digi are perfectly in-perfect and full of personality. I adore all of the textures in their paper packs, and their kits are so versatile you can pair them almost anything. This isn’t your run of the mill “travel” themed kit, Sissy Sparrows took it to another level with their fun, and fresh, hand drawn creations. The Tan Suitcase is ideal for the shabby chic scrapper, like me, that loves to add a bit of “grunge” to their layouts.”
by kym | credits: Tan Suitcase by Sissy Sparrows, Wonky Stitched Templates by Lauren Reid, Call Me Alpha by Lauren Reid
“I’ve had these photos from a trip to Italy that have never made it on a layout before, until now. When I first saw this kit, I just knew that I HAD to use the journal. It was so much fun and so easy to slip in a photo and do some journaling on the opposite page. The doodled suitcases, camera, and Italy sticker gave it the finishing touches. Sissy Sparrows are new to designing but they have a great eye for color and talent!”
by tania | credits: Tan Suitcase Papers and Elements by Sissy Sparrows, Bitty Stitches 2 by Lauren Reid, Claire Alpha by The Ardent Sparrow, Creative Commons Photos from Flickr users Jimmy Harris and Santana Artist
“I just love a hand drawn element, there is something so organic and fun about using doodles and I’ve always been a fan. New design team Sissy Sparrows have a unique knack for doodling and I am enamored with all their element packs and matching papers. Their doodles are unique and their kits are full of humor and energy. I love the grungy textures in this fun travel kit.”
by audneal | credits: Tan Suitcase papers and elements by Sissy Sparrows, stitched frame from Bitty Stitchies 3 by Lauren Reid, pencil from Tell Me a Story collaboration by OSD Designers; fonts: Traveling Typewriter, Pea Amy Jo Jo
“Lots of digital kits are designed around a particular theme, & this kit is no exception. The mixture of grungy & hand-drawn travel elements, combined with scuffed & vintage papers, makes this a perfect kit for vacation layouts. But to me, the mark of a great kit is its flexibility — & Sissy Sparrows really hits the mark here. I was able to put together a layout about my oldest daughter’s state academic team competition using items exclusively from this kit (well, I did use some stitches & a pencil from). The elements lend themselves just as easily to a memorabilia-type page, & it was easy to customize a couple of pieces (the camera & the tag) to make them fit my needs.”
Sissy Sparrows is hooking you up with a sweet set of journaling cards that coordinate with their Tan Suitcase set!
Click below to download this gift!
(all together) THANK YOU JULIE & DONNA!!!!
It’s been great getting to know a bit more about you both!
Want even MORE Sissy Sparrows? Find them here:
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So much fun to learn more about you Julie and Donna!! Thank you so much for the freebie
You are SOOO welcome.
Absolutely LOVED this feature on the ladies! Those JC’s are too cute! Personally, I think they are on fire and they are rockin’ the digi world like no others. So happy to have them around
WOW! i’m in love with your stuff, girls! you rock!!
thanks for the jc’s
Awesome getting to know you Thanks for the lovely giftie!
I am so happy the girlies were the focus of the day! It was great to find out more about them and their amazing designs. So super cool!
Melting the hearts here ladies!! Thanks for all the neato comments and glad you all like the freebie.
Great freebie! You’ve been featured on the Quality DigiScrap Freebies blog.
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ohhhhhhhhhhhhh girls!!! nice to know a little more about you!! and THANKSSSSSSSSS!!! love love it
thanks for the freebie! I love to discover new (to me) designers and sample their work.