Designer Spotlight with Paige Evans: Carson Riutta

Today I’m excited to help you get to know Carson Riutta of Pine & Plum!

Name: Carson Riutta
Location: Apex, North Carolina
Blog: pineandplum.com
Instagram: @pineandplum
Pinterest: @pineNplum

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started crafting: Hello everyone, I’m super excited to be here sharing my work with you today. I’m currently a stay-at-home mom of two boys ages 2 and 5 yrs and wife to my video game designing husband. We’ve been chasing jobs and his career across the country these last few years and are currently calling North Carolina our home. When I’m not hanging with my boys, I can be found playing with paper in our shared family office. I was first introduced to paper crafts in 2008 by my then soon to be sister-in-law. She was an avid card maker and opened my eyes to all the possibilities. I then went to a Paper Source store and was hooked. The cardmaking led to art journaling, Project Life, and eventually to traditional 12 x 12″ scrapbooking. I still dabble in all of the above and really enjoy going back and forth between the styles to keep my creative juices flowing freely. I try to create something new daily. Tags and journal cards are the perfect project for those spare moments on a busy day and you can find my creations posted on my Instagram account which I also attempt to update daily.

Favorite thing to create: Cards will always be my first love, but lately I have really been enjoying the process of creating traditional 12 x 12″ or 9 x 12″ layouts. I think the enjoyment comes from the photography aspect and being able to add a story to my photos as well as play with all the pretty paper bits and bobs.

What do you love about this hobby? In my teens I was a very competitive athlete and I love that with scrapbooking I can achieve that same level of flow and focus that I could on the field and also have those similar feelings of accomplishment and pride in my performance/creations. I also really love the online community and the connections I’ve made since taking up the hobby and sharing my work online. You ladies are really pretty wonderful!

5 fun facts about yourself:
1. Growing up I was the only person I knew with the name Carson. Now every eight year old boy has that name and it still startles me when I hear it yelled out in a supermarket or public place.
2. After being a college softball pitcher, I went on to teach the sport to young girls for about 15 years. Now that I’ve stopped coaching and I have boys of my own, I lament almost daily that my days of watching softball and other girls’ sports are probably at an end.
3. I spent a few months in college trekking through the jungles of Papua New Guinea studying frog behavior. It remains one of the coolest and scariest things I’ve ever done and I hope to top it someday soon, on both accounts.
4. I’m a crier 🙂 If someone on the screen is crying, then so am I. Fortunately, my husband thinks it’s cute, but it truly is out of my control. It’s gets especially bad during the Olympics.
5. I’m in love with my vintage typewriter! I’m not fond of my handwriting and so when I found my typewriter at a garage sale, I fell in love and use it almost exclusively for journaling in my traditional and pocket page albums.

Check out the lovely layout Carson made exclusively for her Weekly Scrapper spotlight:

SNOW DAY by Carson Riutta

Since I only began my scrapbooking journey this past year, I wanted to go back and scrap some of my favorite pictures and moments from previous years. This picture is from one of our first snow days of 2013. We were in a new home and this kid had a blast playing for hours in the snow-filled backyard. I love how that gorgeous background paper matches his colorful hat in the photo. The letters are chipboard and were originally a mint green color, but were easily heat embossed with the metallic silver you see here. Nothing makes me happier than converting everyday items into holiday items.

HERE & NOW CARD by Carson Riutta

This card has me written all over it. The zig zag stitch marks and sloppy ink splatters are my go-to techniques when it comes to cardmaking. On this card I was challenging myself to use an untouched stamp in my collection and that’s where the glasses background came from. I’ve used the stamp quite a bit since then and the challenge gave me a much greater appreciation for the whole stamp set.

GET LOST CARD by Carson Riutta

I love this card because of how cheeky and colorful it is. I haven’t actually sent this one yet as it needs to go to a recipient who will appreciate the humor in it. The star background was fun to build and I love using thread to create more texture on my cards.

KINDY 2015 by Carson Riutta

This layout is one of my faves because I am just so proud of this guy’s zest for life. I love how the colors and patterns really illustrate his attitude and enthusiasm. I also love how the sheet of Thickers looks against the other elements in the spread. This was my first time doing something so bold with my supplies and it was definitely an eye opener. There is no fear now, when it comes to over-using my supplies, it feels so good to get them onto a layout!

SHINE BRIGHTLY by Carson Riutta

This is a recent layout I created that came about after I spent a day organizing some supplies. I had just put all my transparencies into a little bowl on my desk and that night when I sat down to create, I found the circle paper and quickly decided to try and use every transparency in the bowl. Some didn’t make into onto the layout due to color, but again, it felt great to use my supplies and make room for new ones.

Thanks for stopping by today and getting to know Carson – be sure to visit her blog and other sites (at the top of this post) to see even more of her stunning creations!