Design Team Introductions {Part 2}

Hello, everyone! Last Friday, we introduced the first half of the design team. Today, you'll get to know the remaining half, and here they are.

"I'm a SAHM to 8-year-old twins and wife to a supportive hubby of almost 14 years. I started as a card maker/rubber stamper about 13 or so years ago and more recently started to get involved with the mixed media world. I'm loving messing around with inks, sprays and mediums. I'm excited to be a part of this card challenge team." ~ Maria L.

"I have been a paper lover since I was a little girl. I used to draw and craft for hours and hours. After my children were born, I discovered scrapbooking and have been hooked ever since. My recent passion is mixed media. I cannot imagine my life without handicrafts. I love to create and crafting is my way of relaxing. No particular style I like most and I usually create based on how I am feeling. I love to create, experiment, learn new techniques and share my projects and ideas. I am very excited to be a part of The Mixed Media Card Challenge team!" ~ Sanna

"Hello! I am Deepti and I am from Cleveland, Ohio. Sketching and painting has been my hobby since childhood but card-making is a newly acquired passion. I made a few cards for the new year in 2013 and I have been hooked ever since. I have come a long way and learnt at every step. Besides being a creative outlet, card-making has introduced me to a lot of amazing and talented people like you, who I can proudly call as my friends. Being on a few design teams keep me all the more busy and and I am enjoying every bit of this :) I am so excited to be a part of The Mixed Media Card Challenge Design team for two reasons: one, it is a unique challenge, which will be an amazing platform to learn new techniques and art forms; and two, it has an awesome team. I hope to inspire you!!" ~ Deepti

"Hi there, I'm Jenny. I live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm lucky to be a SAHM to 2 teenagers, wife to a wonderful Scottish man (which means we travel to Scotland very couple of years, with exciting stopovers) and I'm also 'mum' to the craziest 2 dogs ever! I've been dabbling in card making for a long time but took it up seriously about 3 years ago when I discovered challenges and blogging. I can honestly say this changed my life because I have been able to share my passion with like-minded people. I've made lots of friends in 'blog land' and have even crafted with some of them in real life! I don't really have a 'style' because I like to change things up! I'm never happier than when I have inky fingers and recently I've been getting messy with paint because I discovered the Gelli plate. This is my first DT gig and I'm really looking forward to playing with lots of media to create for this fun challenge!" ~ Jenny

"My name is Elina, and I’m a paper crafter and photographer from southern Finland. I’ve been married for 11 years, and we have two kids aged 6 and 8. Crafting is my way to unwind. The busier the days are at the office, the more important it is to me to steal a short moment just for myself and make something beautiful. I love to get my hands dirty and play with paints and inks. Experimenting is a great way to discover new things especially in mixed media, and I love the fact that this hobby is all about learning something new every day. When crafting, I pay a lot of attention to textures and colors, and tend to add some mixed media elements to most of my crafting project. I’m thrilled to be part of this design team, and I know for sure this team’s talent will keep my creative juices flowing!" ~ Elina

"Hi everyone. I’m Loll and I love paper crafting! I have been making cards for about ten years and enjoy learning new techniques and working with new mediums. I’m thrilled to be part of this wonderfully talented design team where I get to have fun playing with all types of mixed media. CAS is my usual style, but I’ve been adding more mixed media elements to my creations since taking a stenciling course about six months ago. I live in a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I’m married with two grown children, and one beautiful grandson." ~ Loll

Challenge Creator

"I'm a writer/editor by trade and an art/craft junkie the rest of the time. Before I made the leap to the wonderful world of paper crafting and started blogging about my cards in July 2013, I have been running my online businesses since 1997 and providing services (content writing/editing, ghostwriting, copywriting, web design/development) to various companies around the globe. I'm a mixed media girl at heart who has fallen in love with card-making. I love fusing my favorite styles: one layers, clean-and-simple, and mixed media, as well as incorporating different art mediums to my projects. I am happiest when my fingers are inky, sticky, and stained. My husband and I have been married since 2004 and we live in Central California with our two German shepherds and feisty cat. I started this challenge blog for those who, like me, love getting messy and artsy in their card-making and enjoy playing with various art mediums." ~ Shery

Get your craft table and favorite art supplies ready because tomorrow at 6 a.m. PDT (GMT-700), Challenge #1 begins! Until then...be messy, be artsy, be creative!

Design Team Introductions {Part 1}

Hello, everyone! It's time to introduce the design team so we can get to know each of them a little better. Here's the first half of the design team.

"Hi everyone! I'm Julia Aston and I live in Massachusetts, USA just north of Boston. I've been doing some kind of crafting since I was about 5 years old when my mother would set my sister and I up on the dining room table with papers, stickers and crayons! I've jumped from sewing, to quilling, to papier mache and calligraphy and scrapbooking - finally settling on stamping and crafting where I've stuck for the past 9 or so years! I just love how I can create a beautiful card or craft with all the stamps, dies, and inks. About a year ago I decided I needed to stretch myself and started working with mixed media as well. I was a school teacher in the past - but I presently work full time as the administrative assistant in the Trauma Division at a Boston hospital. I have a grown son out living on his own with his lady and a wonderful husband who tolerates my stamping addiction with very good humor and support! We also share our home with two sweet sister cats, Scout and Boo. I am Grand Aunt to two sweet little boys, a toddler girl and a brand new baby girl 2 months old. I make a lot of my cards/crafts around photos of them! Since I have to be at work all day - I'm usually up late at night stamping away in my craft room. When I'm not stamping you will find me walking, reading, or gardening. I'm also active at my church. I am on the Design Teams for a stamp company, an on-line craft shop, and a template company as well as being on a biweekly Blog Challenge team and I'm thrilled to have been invited to work with Shery and the talented ladies on the Mixed Media Card Challenge design team where I know I'll find lots of mixed media inspiration!" ~ Julia

"I'm Shirley and I'm thrilled to be part of this new Mixed Media Card Challenge Team! There's a mixed media "artist" that's been lurking within me for some time and with the popularity of Distress Inks, stencils, dyes, paints and pastes, I'm enjoying incorporating mixed media into my cards. They can end up CAS, full-on or anything in between! I live in a pretty village in north-west England with my husband and rescue dog." ~ Shirley

"I'm so happy to be here! I started paper crafting six years ago. My first love is card making and I also love altered projects. I make jewelry, paint and pretty much anything that involves creating. I love to go antiquing and find vintage treasures to scrap with...maybe some lace doilies, or vintage clothes pins or maybe an item to alter. When I'm not crafting, my absolute favorite place is the ocean. I love to visit waterfalls and walk in the forest along streams. I love to have the grand kids over for a sleep over and craft night. They love to make cards already!" ~ Charlene

"Guten Tag, I'm Maria F. and I'm an American gal living in the Rhine valley region of Germany - came for a job, stayed for a guy! We've two teenagers, two rabbits and a dog in our family. I've always loved making things and after choosing cardmaking over scrapbooking - I found the smaller canvas less intimidating - even started blogging about two years ago. I love challenges and submitting for publications. Check out my work on my blog. I've called my style 'artsy fartsy CAS' in the past and I'm thrilled to join Shery's super-talented team here. I'll be creating mostly CAS cards for you but getting messy fingers in the process (thus my new word 'cassy')!" ~ Maria F.

" Hi there! Lyndal here from Melbourne, Australia. I began my paper crafting journey back in 2006, when I stumbled upon scrapbooking, and was lucky enough to be invited to teach at my local store. When the owner retired a couple of years later, my paper crafting supplies gathered dust, until 2011 when my daughter and her friend decided they’d like to have a stall at their school fair, so I offered to make a few cards – and I was hooked! I LOVE this creative outlet and the on-line community that surrounds it. Lately, I have been experimenting more with mixed media, and The Mixed Media Card Challenge is a perfect way to combine my loves, and an easy introduction into mixed media - so I hope you are inspired to experiment here too!" ~ Lyndal

"Rubber stamping has been one of my passions for the last 20 years. Throughout my life I have enjoyed making a variety of handmade crafts but now I mostly focus on creating greeting cards with layers of ink. I find it fun to begin with white paper and incorporate ink/paint techniques into my projects as well as materials beyond paper. Natural found elements and particularly dried flowers are all-time favorites. I have lived in Alaska for the last 28 years. I came to this land of extremes for a 2-year job contract to direct the Girl Scouts in Northern Alaska. The warmth of the people and the beauty of the land are captivating which I now continue to enjoy in my retirement. I was one of the early stampers on the internet and continue to use my screen name of Far North but now Gmail sometimes automatically adds Janj as my name when I leave comments." ~ Jan

"I have always loved handmade and dabbled with paints from as far back as my memory goes - art journalling, oil pastels, glass painting, tile painting, pottery, embroidery and the list goes on. Then, there was a gap of almost 7 years when I didn’t do anything. My art journey made a comeback in the form of scrapbooking a little over a year ago when I made a mini album with pictures of my baby boy. I had no idea back then that I would get hooked onto it, let alone start a blog and meet so many talented people like you all. I look forward to enjoying and sharing my artsy journey with you all." ~ Kripa

On Monday, we'll introduce the second half and then we're going to start playing on Tuesday, July 1! Until then...be messy, be artsy, be creative!

Announcing the Mixed Media Card Challenge Design Team

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm ready to announce the ladies joining me in The Mixed Media Card Challenge design team.

When I posted the design team call, I wasn't expecting to receive many applications -- perhaps just 10 or so. Instead, 27 talented crafters applied. So to all of you who responded to my DT call, thank you so much for sharing your talents! I spent a lot of time on each of your blogs and had a truly wonderful time. I didn't want to simply base my decision on one entry, so I looked at past projects too and factored those in.

Let me just say that it was tough to narrow down the list, as every entry was inspiring and creative. I started with 27 names and in the end, I was left with these 13 creative ladies I'm certain will rock at creating and inspiring all of us with their mixed media cards each month. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Julia Aston

Shirley Bampton

Charlene Cundy

Maria Fischer

Lyndal Higgins

Jan Jenitis

Kripa Koushik

Maria Levine

Sanna Lippert

Deepti Malik

Jenny Martin

Elina Stromberg

Loll Thompson

Starting Friday, you'll get to know a little more about us in the design team, and on Tuesday, July 1, The Mixed Media Card Challenge begins! 

Grab the badge and get your stamps, inks, paints, sprays, gesso, and whatever else you like to play with ready.

Be artsy. Be messy. Be creative!

~Shery

The Mixed Media Card Challenge Design Team Call

Do you enjoy playing with a variety of mediums and techniques in your cards? Do you often find yourself creating cards that are a little more than CAS? I'm looking for a few talented card-makers who aren't afraid to get messy in their card-making to join me in this monthly mixed media card challenge.

As a design team member, you'll:

• create one mixed media card a month based on a theme (reminder cards are optional)
• comment on your assigned entries
• pick your favorite and vote on the winner

Interested? Please enter your name in the linky at the end of this post. Link to a mixed media card you have made before on your blog. Feel free to create a new card as your design team entry too. It's up to you.

You may be wondering what I'm looking for in a mixed media card. Straight up, a mixed media card is a card that is created using different mediums. For this card challenge blog, it means using any of the following in addition to the usual stamps and inks:

• Mediums that add texture. Some examples: fabric, stitching, embossing paste, texture gel, gel medium, modeling paste, gesso, textured paper, glitter, found objects
• Mediums that give dimension. Some examples: die-cuts, chipboard, embossing powders, epoxy/thick stickers, embellishments, found objects
• Mediums that allow you to use (and even combine) different techniques. Some examples: watercolor, pastels, alcohol inks, markers, chalks, acrylic paints, oils, crayons
• Even using various tools and supplies in creating a card is okay. Some examples: die-cutting machine (manual or electronic), monoprinting tools (Gelli plate), punches, dies, stencils, templates

Basically, a card that has stamps and inks PLUS at least any two of the above (embossing paste and alcohol inks, for example) is a mixed media card in my book :o)

This call is open until June 20 and the new design team members will be announced here on the blog on June 23. The first challenge starts on July 1.

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to visiting your blog!

~Shery

A little about me: I'm a mixed media girl who has fallen in love with card-making. My cards tend to be artsy, as I love mixing different mediums in my projects -- watercolor, inks, pigments, gesso, markers, alcohol inks, paints, etc. Samples of my mixed media cards: here, here, here, and here.