Featured Artist: Simply Sentimental

Hello all! Before the mad rush of the holidays I asked Sydnei, the great woman behind the wonderful Etsy shop Simply Sentimental and one of my favorite blogs Simply Sentimental The Blog, if she would like to be a featured artist on my blog. Well, of course she was more than gracious and even told me that no one had ever asked her before! Can you believe it? The woman who features Etsy artists on HER blog and never been featured on anyone else's! Well, I am honored to be the one to ask the crazy questions and post her interview!
Tell us a bit about yourself and your shop:

Hello my name is Sydnei and I'm the sole creator behind Simply Sentimental. I create handmade greeting cards and scrapbooking embellishments. I got my start by scrapbooking for my family and soon realized I didn't have the attention span to work on layouts and tried my hand at greeting cards and here I am today....There are NO die cuts involved in my paper piecings. I hand trace, cut and ink each and every piece.....I've been married to my hubby Jim for 12 years this Feb. and we have 2 beautiful, but WILD little boys...Kaden is 6 and Kase is 3. They keep me on my toes, but I wouldn't trade a moment with them...My hubby works very long hours so that I have the opportunity to stay at home with them....I'm also the fingers behind the blog Simply Sentimental The Blog. It's been up and running since March and I focus on showcasing all the wonderful shops out there in Etsy land. I have Fibromyglia and was looking for something to fill my time when it was too painful for me to work with paper and that's when I decided to try my hand at blogging..I spend about 10-15 hours per week working on my blog. It's very time consuming, but I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world....

What is your favorite item in your shop?

That's a hard one because I love each and every one of my creations, but I'd have to say I LOVE my monogram note cards. They are a big seller for me with the ladies within my community and I personally use them to. I always try and have some on hand for those last minute thank you notes...

What is your inspiration?

I'm always looking at clipart on the computer or looking through my boys coloring books for great pictures that I can turn into a paper piecing. My boys have even learned that when they get a new coloring book mommy gets to look through it first to see if there's anything in there I can use....I'm also always trying to come up with "corny"sayings for my cards..It drives my hubby crazy with some of the silly things I come up with....


Apart from creating things, what do you do?

There's not much time to do anything but work with my paper and my blog...First and fore most I'm a mom and a wife...So after the household chores are done and the kids are taken care of if there's any time for paper it's mostly at night while I'm watching TV. I did buy some felt this summer in hopes of turning some of my paper piecings into felt scrapbooking embellishments but I just ran out of time..That's on my To Do List for this winter....


Name your top five books, movies, songs/musical groups, and web sites besides Etsy.

I don't have much time to read these day but I will have to say that I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan..I've read all the books 10 times over and can't wait for my boys to get old enough to read them..These days my reading is limited to The Magic Tree House chapter books with Kaden....I'm a total country music fan, that's the only thing I really listen too...Movies, gosh we don't get to the movies that often but my hubby did suffer through Mamma Mia this summer...I know ladies, can you believe it...I owe him a football movie for that one...I don't really have much time for anything other than Etsy..THAT is my favorite website....as it should be..LOL...


How do you promote your work?

I use Project Wonderful to promote my shop and my blog. I also use my blog to promote. I also use paid advertising on other blogs..I LOVE to give my cards away a little gifts to Kaden's teachers and friends..I think that's the best way to get your items out there...

In ten years I'd like to be...

Sad to say in 10 years I see myself back out in the work force. My boys will be in school so it's back to work for me and I don't mind...Never fear though, Simply Sentimental will always be around because I'll always have time for my paper just might not be as much as I'd like...