How did you find SSD?
 

I was reading another thread yesterday and it got me wondering, many of us have come and gone. Some of us have lost digi-homes and discovered Sweet Shoppe. Some of us have been here from day one. How did you find Sweet Shoppe Designs?

What's your story?

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I stumbled upon ssd while googling digital clip art and scrapbooking back in 2014. My little baby boy had started walking and grabbing for my scrapbook stuff (paper and ellies) and with another teeny baby in the cot I figured it was time to look into alternatives. And voila, dedicated digiscrapper ever since.

I honestly don't remember!

summer games hosted by ssd in 2012

I just started into games/challenges/forums. the pages that were done for those challenges blew me away :w00t:
so I stay to admire those and stuck here since :D

some of those pages really are some of the best created i think! that was a lot of work put into those games from those that organized the event to those that participated!! it was crazy

I started by making signatures for mommy's groups. One of the other ladies in the forum was a Sugarbabe here. Oddly enough, I don't even remember her name (it was back in 2008 and she was only on the team for a hot second). Anyway, she got me hooked on the products and I transitioned to scrapbooking quickly.

great now you have me curious on who that might have been. lol

It's really bugging me! I was trying to look through the member galleries, oldest to newest, but that's not a feature. She worked at Starbucks, lived in the Portland, OR area. She had an olive complexion. That's all I remember!

I found her!! It was actually Eugene, not Portland.
https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com...e=gyllenhaalic

Similar story, I was in a mommy forum and learned siggies, I think I happened upon digi supply freebies looking for things to use to make the siggies and found SSD that way.

Sheri, what mommy group?

It was back in the iVilliage days (my 12 year old's birth club). I actually still friends with many of them and have been to several meet ups - there are about 100 of us in FB group and we also pay for a private forum outside of FB with 75 members). Some of them are still wearing signatures I made them 10+ years ago, it's funny.

I'm pretty sure I followed a designer here or 'found' a designer- I think it was Libby (my first guest CT spot here at SSD) :D

I found SSD through Scrapaneers. I participated in a contest there in 2017 when I first made my comeback to digi and a lot of the participants were from here. I fell in love with the products and stuck around!

Yeap! I have a similar journey to Sheri (and It's crazy that we've 'known' each other for like 12 years!!)

iVillage Signature Showcase --> Crumbsnatchers --> 9th & Bloom --> Scrap Orchard --> TLP/Sweet Shoppe

When I first started out I had a ZERO budget, so I entered RAKs etc from DST. I won a few of them from here at SSD. My digihome was ScrapMatters though. When they closed, I followed my designers to their new homes throughout digiland. I started posting at SSD when I followed Cheri (Dream Big Designs here). I wasn't quite active though, I felt intimiated by the scrappers, site, etc and didn't want to fully commit to hanging out here.

I believe it was last year (Jan 2018) when Wendy and I decided to fully make SSD our home, cutting pretty much all ties outside the site. (I could be wrong, parts of last year were pretty bad and a blur, she'll have to tell you what year it was).

oh, and even though my forum says member since 2014, I had to reset my account at that time, but my original was much earlier.

Oh my goodness, this is totally memory lane! Crumbsnatchers! I remembered the forum, but couldn't remember the name! A dozen years, that is kind of crazy ... and cool! :wub:

I came from another store when it closed. Fell in love with the designs here and decided to stay. I didn't scrap much one year but I'm baaaack! I stopped all CTs from designers at other stores because SSD feels like "home."

I found SSD through The Daily Digi. But, I was too intimidated as a newbie to become active, so I basically started "collecting" supplies. I was active at another site until December of 2016 when I had some health issues and couldn't sit long enough to scrap.
When I came back to scrapping towards the end of 2017, I moved over to SSD. I love it here!!

I was all over the place when I first got into digi. I was spending time here and a few other stores, Scrap Matters, A Cherry On Top, After Five, Gotta Pixel, Little Dreamer, Scrap Orchard, MScraps....holy moly....what a trip down memory lane this is.

I think I found SSD thru Daily Digi, then ended up getting onto Ru's team, and then fell in love with Kristin's stuff. I I tried out a few times for store CT and didn't get in so ended up migrating to TLP when I got on with a few of their designers, it was where I was for yrs and was on their store CT but at this point in my life I want a "home" where I feel comfortable, where the challenges inspire and excite me, and where the designers fit my style. I did a lot of soul searching this year and decided that SSD was where I felt the most comfortable before and sure enough, it's where I feel the most comfortable now that I've come back again. I couldn't ask for anything more in the designers, they are amazing and I feel like you are all my scrap buddies, everyone is so friendly. So....here I am.

I was here when the doors opened. I feel like there was a big digiland-wide contest that Robin won & then SSD opened after that... maybe?

She will have to check in to confirm that as it was a very long time ago & I am too old to remember the exact details. :D:p

I, too, found SSD by making siggies for mommy boards...mostly Babycenter before they changed formats.

I 'knew' SSD from the designers that CTed for - Amy Stoffel and Meghan Mullens. I wasn't active immediately, because I was more active and a store CT for Scrap Orchard at the time. When SO closed, I moved here, because some of the designers moved here.
Then I got into the challenges and was loving it. Without realizing, I spent my time here a lot and SSD has become a home to me.

YES! was it through the magazine thing? or something? I know i for some strange reason was a judge for it so I must have been on the design team.

Robin did a super cool layout with a GIF in it.. it was awesome.

Can’t remember totally but am thinking it might have been from participating in the amazing digi scrapping race possibly

Well, my join date says Jan 2014, that's the month my daughter was born. So, that's all a blur ;) I know I had made purchases here for some time before joining the forums... I'm not sure what made me decide to sign in on the forums at that time.
Almost 5 years later, I finally started reading/posting on the forum when I was wrapping up my project life album for the year & searching for favorite print companies and other PL tips. The threads in the long-term project section were really motivating & kept me going! And I've done sooooo much more scrapbooking this year than last, probably a combination of the community/challenges/inspiration here and the "high" of having completed PL!

Cindy Schneider brought me here. :wub: I was looking for templates and then I found her. And Sweet Shoppe Designs. :wub:
And then I fell in love with Kristin's design and all the other designers.
I never want to leave here... :wub:

Was it at Peppermint Creative? I feel like Miss Mint did a big contest ages and ages ago. Or maybe I just made that up in my head.

I was here when it opened its doors; I hadn't really found a home anywhere else, so once the forum opened, I found the place where I belonged.

I see others have come from other store "homes" when the store closed. It's been several years now since the store where I was on the store CT closed. But it was traumatic! I'd met many other scrappers/staff/designers there and was very involved so knew that the friendships I'd made would never be the same. Maybe the more you're involved and the closer you become to people the harder it is to move on! Did anyone else have "scrap trauma" with a store closing? It sounds really crazy now that I write that.....LOL

I just went searching in the forums and found out - it was called Ultimate Digi Scrapper

(the funniest part of finding this information was it was in a thread where we were talking about the history of SSD in the staff forums and it this was posted back in 2008 - by you kellie ;) haha (the contest itself was 2005 or 2006)

Almost the same as Sheri, I think the Digi Chick was I was spending most of my time, but I was on Fee and Heather’s CT’s. When they moved over here, I came with them.

I started digi scrapping in the summer of 2006. Before SSD had a forum.

I was at another store home it was so sad when it closed. It was Digital Scrapbook Place. DSP days man that was long ago.

I thought I replied yesterday, but I don't see my post....
Have you been active here since the beginning (of your join date in 2013)? Or have you come/gone during that time?

I loved Daily Digi--I wish they didn't close their doors because it was a great way to try new designers while getting designer's products that you know and love already. I understand why they closed, but it was a good thing while it lasted!

This is what started it all for me as well--those siggys on the mom groups (Babyzone is where I was at!)

Wow that's a blast from the past looking through her gallery!

9th & Bloom---that one didn't last long, but it had a lot of talent!!

I have the WORST memory in the world!! Do you think I remember?! :thumbdown: I do think it was Jan of last year though. I could be wrong because that happens A LOT! :D

Yup, that's what I did as well!!

Yay!!! Love reading these! :wub:
well not that you had medical issues Tammy....love reading what brought you here!

LOL! :p Thanks, Wendy :wub:

Wendy, you didn't answer your own question... how did you find SSD? I noticed your join date is 2008.

I honestly didn't remember until I read other people responses. I'll have to guess that it was a combination of Cindy Schneider (I was downloading her templates from another site before she came here), and since it was June of 2008, I'm guess I might have gotten a birthday email from DigiShopTalk with discounts from all over digiland.

I don't remember how I found SSD?? I vividly remember finding digiscrap but not SSD. Booo... I discovered digi on what happened to be NSD weekend 2013 so I can only guess that I came across someone's FB post or something that led me here!

YES! I was at ScrapMatters for a VERY long time and made some amazing friends (many whom I am still friends with!) I was an SMG (my job was to leave love in the gallery, and we were "paid" with free products), then I was on their newsletter team, then site CT, then an admin. When they closed, it was so hard to find a place where I felt I belonged. I wandered for a LOT! I was all over the place, participating in challenges at different sites, on different ct's. But never felt like any one place was home. I eventually moved over to ScrapOrchard, but it still wasn't fully home, more like a college dorm, where I was living for a while. Once they closed, I was homeless again! (Hopefully stores don't close once I decide to make them my home!)

Now I am here. Wendy and I made the decision together. But unfortunately, I'm not sure it's home yet. While I love the designers, and the challenges are ok (I'm learning to like the Passport system), and I feel I have a few friends. But I am still feeling like an outsider. I'm still not quite sure I fully fit in. But, this is where we agreed, so until we agree to move on again, this is where I will be! :)

You're not an outsider. I think you fit in perfectly! I love having you here. :wub:
I hope your feelings will change and you'll feel like SSD is your home.

Awww, thank you Sarah! I love seeing your sweet, smiling face here, and I definitely feel a warm welcome from you! I'm working on it. :)

You definitely do! Everyone fits in here and I think in some ways we all feel like that a little. It's really REALLY hard to put yourself out there in a forum like this and the fact that you're posting is a huge thing. I'm sure there are a lot of people that may even look or read but aren't sure they feel like they should post. Everyone is welcome :)

This is me. Oh man, I was terrified to post here and thought everyone was secretly laughing at me or thinking "who does she think she is!?". I was never one of the "in-crowd" growing up and that's carried through to my adulthood. But I finally decided that I was the only person holding myself back from belonging and that I was meaner to myself than anyone would be to me in real life. (Working on that btw) I decided that if I wanted a digi-home and to belong then I was going to have to put myself out there. It gets easier in time, I promise! And I've learned that I'm still not all that chatty or really close to many people compared to some but we each have our own unique personalities and everyone has something to bring to a community! For the record, I think you fit in beautifully here Dawn! I love reading your comments in the forums and seeing your pages in the gallery! I can't think of a single page where your girls smiles aren't lighting up the page and that makes me smile too!

My paper scrapping "home" closed...I don't remember when, probably 3-4 years ago. I think I was #2 or #3 in post count and had been there just about daily for 10 years! It was very traumatic! The people there were my friends! We migrated to a FB group, but it's definitely NOT the same. At all. :(

I love reading thru this, I've read thru it a few times yesterday and today. So many memories of other sites. I'd forgotten about 9th and Bloom. The good thing is....with all the closures over the yrs....it brought us all here and SSD rocks, as do all you members, designers and Babes.

Yes, I never want to leave either! They'll have to kick me out.
Someday I'll be a sugarbabe like you :D

I'll be crossing my fingers for you. :hugs:

Thank you for the encouragement! It helps to feel a little extra love once in a while! :hugs:

Just curious, were you on iVillage? I was there back in 2004/2005 on May 2005 babies group :)