Featured Mom - Jennifer Palao of Sassy Style Designs

Today's Featured Mom is Jen of Sassy Style Designs - a graphic design venture that allows her to create birth announcements, invitations and scrapbook pages. In essence, she's celebrating along with her customers in whatever event they've asked her to document.

H: How long have you been doing what you do?

J: I've officially been "open" for almost three months. I've been doing digital designs for fun for around a year.

H: Tell me about what you do.

J: I love all aspects of my work!. Taking a picture and creating something from it - invitations, announcements, scrapbook pages - every one is a challenge, and I love challenges! Nothing is better than a satisfied customer. Sharing your family with someone is very personal. Having people put their memories into your hands to enhance them is a huge job! Things like scrapbooks tend to have an emotional response. I love being a part of that, in a small way.

H: Tell me about how you got started.

J: Honestly it was on a whim! A good friend of mine had a new baby girl. She was talking about ordering birth announcements and I offered to make one up for her. The response I got was amazing!! I never though I'd be getting paid for this!

H: Are you finding success?

J: Yes, slowly but surely. It's a very competitive world out there. I don't have the desire to be huge - just comfortable with repeat business. It can be a challenge to get your name out there with so many great mom's doing the same type of work. You have to try to be a notch above, and innovative all the time.

H: Were you creative before you had children?

J: No, I'm not your typical crafty person. But, I am a bulldog - when I want or need to learn something, I will keep at it until I get it. I'm not a great home-maker and I don't have many creative genes in my body. My inspiration comes from my kids. I got into this because I wanted to make our memories last, in a unique way. I fell in love with it, and luckily I'm pretty good at it.

H: Have your methods changed?

J: Yes. I am a very stubborn person, and I like what I like. When you're creating things for other people, you have to put that aside. It can be a struggle for me at times. Ultimately you have to please the customer. You have to get a feel for their life, their tastes and their goals for the project.

H: How do you find time to stay creative?

J: This is a hard one! I'm a SAHM and I've got two girls (3 and 1) - inspiration doesn't always strike at the best time. I can be in the middle of story time and get a great idea, but it has to be put aside because my kids come first. Typically I'm up until the middle of the night working and it's hard to be creative when you're exhausted! Luckily, I have a very supportive husband who gives me time in the evenings to work, though I try to limit that as that's our time as a family.

H: Do your kids show any creative spirit?

J: Is drama creative? Yes, they both love to color, and play make-believe. I love their imaginations.

H: What have you learned after having your kids (in relation to your art)?

J: Well I didn't start this until after I had them, but I will say that having kids forces you to become creative. You have to play Barbie, and Cinderella, even on days that you don't want to! It forces you to dig deep inside and pull out the best parts of you. I like to think that comes through in my work.

Jen can be found at her website and in honor of her feature here at Maternal Spark she's put a $25 gift certificate towards her services up for grabs. What fun! To enter, just go to her site, scroll down and sign up for her mailing list. That's it!

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