Get to Know Vada

Woman with long red hair and red lipstick in sunlight, wearing a black sleeveless top, standing against a wall with shadows and dried flowers.

Hi Friend!

I am Vada Morrison, and I run this little creative studio.

Scandinative started back in 2008 when I got really obsessed with Tumblr, just like every other Millenial girl you know, and I tried to come up with an edgy-cool-artsy-no-one-else-would-think-of-this name for my “blog”.

Scandinative is the mash up of “Scandinavian” and “Creative”, harkening back to my danish roots and, of course, letting you know that I am, in fact, creative.

From there, Instagram became a thing and I re-used the name for that. I spent the next decade building up an online following by sharing all sorts of content from makeup looks, fashion, photography, random quotes I found on Pinterest etc. I am basically who the song “white woman’s instagram” was written about.

I steadily built a business doing makeup, writing product reviews, creating content, and sharing pictures I took of myself, and of clients. I started doing makeup for weddings and photographing weddings too. It got to the point where I thought makeup + photography for weddings was what I was going to do full time and I was trying really hard to build up my clientele and make it happen.

Then 2020 happened.

All my clients cancelled their weddings.

And I was out of a job.

Thankfully in February of 2020 I purchased my first iPad Pro and started sharing more of my artwork with my followers. Soon I ordered my first round of stickers, started selling pet portraits, and somehow managed to keep the lights on!

Nowadays I don’t do makeup for clients anymore, but my love for photographing weddings, families, and couples is stronger than ever, and I get to make fun things that people connect with and I am enjoying every minute of it.

I don’t know where this little side hustle is going to take me, but I have loved the journey of building new relationships, learning so much, and doing what I love.

Young girl at a birthday party with a tiara, sitting in front of a birthday cake and a balloon overhead.
Young child with serious expression in a pink patterned shirt.
Young girl with long hair smiling at the camera, sitting on the floor with an open art set. Surrounding her are toys and art supplies, with a wooden crib in the background.

As you can see, I’ve always been really into art.

Truths & Lies

Expand each fun fact to see if it’s true or not!

  • This is completely true. Unfortunately. I was probably 9 or 10 at the city pool and completely broke off my teeth on the bottom. Probably should have had some goggles so I could see where I was! Thankfully the dentist was able to put my back together.

  • This is also completely true. I told him I had to use a fake name so no one at school would know and that I could live a real life as a normal kid even though I was actually a famous movie star. I let him believe it for a week before I broke down and told him the truth. It helped my scheme that I had really curly bushy hair.

  • Or 13 siblings? I can't actually remember the real number. But there's a lot! Growing up it was just me and my dad though. And the step mothers. and the Foster families. And the friends families.... I went to 5 different elementary schools and moved more times than I can count. I met one of my sisters when I was 16, and another when i was 26. I knew both of those sisters existed but my dad either put them up for adoption or left their mothers before I was even born so I didnt grow up with them. Most of my brothers grew up in southern California and were in and out of foster care themselves, and then I had one little brother who visit sometimes on the weekends. For the most part though, I was completely alone as a kid since my dad worked and often didn't come home until late.

  • Surprise! They are all true.

What I’m Listening To