Hello! Thank you so much for being our featured tutorial writer!

Sure! I’m Sonya or as most know me "Devious". I’m 42 years old, single, no children except my two furbabies, Garfield and Mystery. I live in the USA in Louisiana (coonass country not cajun lol - meaning I speak redneck not french haha). However, I grew up in Texas and I will always be a Texas girl at heart. I’ve been a paralegal for 21 years almost 22 years now and I truly love everything about the law. 

The law I deal with, or have been dealing with for the last 9 years is estate planning (last will & testament, power of attorney, trusts, and living wills), corporate & copyright laws, real estate and personal injury. 

I found out early on that I dislike criminal law with a passion lol.

I’ve also worked with the American Cancer Society and volunteered working with Down Syndrome and Autistic Children and adults. (Which was and still is the most enjoyable experience of my life. Working with Cancer survivors and patients really made me appreciate life so much more and working with the Down Syndrome and Autistic children and adults really showed me how special and loving they are that even with their diseases they are so loving (even when having a horrible tantrum...seems I could calm them down a lot...even had 1 always tell everyone I was his girlfriend lol). 

I’m also a published poet and a singer. I’ve been doing both all of my life.

Funny story actually. About 7-8 years ago now, I found myself in an online chatroom for the CBS Big Brother tv show. I got to know quite a few people and some invited me to msn to chat and be in the groups. This is where I saw my first tag and went oh my I want one...then started giving ideas on them lol. Well, a good friend finally said, you need to learn to psp and I’m like yeah right I could not ever do that and I was told "girl with your creative mind I have a feeling you can do anything." So I got psp 9 and was gifted my first Keith Garvey, Ted Hammond and Jay Trembly tubes (I was hooked after this lol) I didn’t really have any lessons. I started playing with things and slowly figuring them out. Then Foxy a/k/a Ann Montgomery and Trese a/k/a Theresa Scott and I all became friends. I learned a lot from both of them answering my silly questions. 

THEN Foxy got me hooked on her scrapkits...that’s all it took for me to really get hooked on teaching myself things like the different plugins, etc. lol. I tried animation did like 3 tags and decided then and there no way too much work so no animation for me lol. My biggest cheerleader telling me I could do it is my best friend, Pam Barga. I don't think I could have gone as far as I am if it wasn't for her or for Foxy and Trese either.

I had been making tags for a few years by the time I was encouraged to write my first tutorial. 

I honestly had no idea what to do. Cinnamon Scraps, Candy’s Treats, Vix and Clarey’s Designz were actually some of my first tut writers I followed and said ok I can do this after much encouragement from my greatest and dearest friend, Foxys Designz. 

Here is a link to the very first tut I ever wrote (on my old tut site of course lol)

I’ve gotten hooked on gothy, red & black kits a lot lol. My favorite artists would consist of Keith Garvey (who got me hooked with his art from day 1), Arthur Crowe, Jose Cano, Elias Chatzoudis, Anna Marine, Tiffany Toland-Scott, Jessica Dougherty, Jennifer Janesko, Jasmine Beckett-Griffith, Pinuptoons (yes I know they’re not too gothy but I love them lol), Martin Abel (just started getting hooked on him), Barbara Jensen, Ismael Rac, Dark Yarrow, Zindy, Michael Calandra, I’m really getting hooked on Alicia Mujica’s cute style of artwork and I’m loving the artists at picsfordesign. In all honesty, I could probably list every single artist cuz I’m in awe of all that they do and love working with it all. Give me a challenge and I’ll come up with something lol.

Really depends on my mood to be honest. I can turn the tv on to my favorite shows, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, etc and sit there while watching and make a tag/write a tut (might take me a little longer cuz I’m drooling over the hotties on the shows lol but it gets done eventually haha). I can sit and listen to my favorite radio station or even pull up my blog and listen to the songs I have playing on it lol. Or if I’m in a really concentrating type mood have to get this done...silence will do just fine as long as my two cats don’t start up trying to get my attention lol.

If I’m in a musical inspiration mood then yes it can inspire me. Sometimes when it happens I can listen to Xandria "Vampire" over and over while in a gothy cynical type mood, or needing to feel upbeat then it’s Sara Evans "A Little Stronger" playing over and over. Or let me listen to Adele, Lifehouse, Nickelback, Coldplay, Steel Magnolia, Sugarland or Rascal Flatts and ya never know what I’ll come up with LOL.

Oh yes a lot. I’ve trimmed down a lot lol. I figured a tut is just an example for someone to go by. They can and will always do something a little different than what you originally did as the idea is to make it your own. So I stopped saying put this element here, etc...I let them choose what they want to use and where to put it especially when the kit I use has a ton of awesome elements to choose from lol. I also don’t screenshot my steps cuz for one everyone’s going to try something different and I have an organization of my tuts per month that I need to get out...I try and do at least two tuts a night and more on the weekends (except when I’m backed up and off organization like now...it’s driving me crazy lol).

My computer of course, psp (any version) but I’m using psp x10 now, my wireless mouse, my notebook, comfy chair and pillow lol...hmm that’s a lot haha. 

The best piece of advice I was given was never give up something you love to do just because someone’s jealous and is trying their best to make you stop. I’ve learned a lot over the years. Our psp community is unfortunately full of drama at some point on any given day really and there will always be someone who is a hater, even if they don’t really know you. I learned to keep my head high and continue being the person that I’ve always been...ME...no need to try and be anyone else cuz there’s only 1 me and I like ME.

My advice would be exactly what was said to me. I would also like to add...everyone always thinks their own work is horrible, not worth trying to tut, etc but remember to always say "I think I can I know I can" and take that chance because something you thought was horrible could be something someone else thinks is gorgeous and it helped them, whether it was a smile, a laugh, or reopening psp they gave up on and begin psping again. Also, to everyone who tags and never wrote a tut...try it you just might enjoy doing it and when you get your first response of someone actually doing your tut, you’ll realize it was worth it and really it’s not that hard to write a tut.

You can find my current tuts here: http://deviousdesires40.blogspot.com

My old tuts (which links are probably broken to supplies, etc.) can be found here: