A New Year- A New Beginning - A New Design Team!

Hello crafty friends and family!

We hope you have a fabulous Christmas and New Year.

We want to start this year off by introducing you to 

the 2014 Crafty Scrapper Design Team.

Some of these ladies are familiar to you and a couple are new.

Please make them all feel welcome by hopping by their blogs to say hi!

Amy

My name is Amy Lanford and I live in Irving, Texas.  I have been around crafting my whole life. My grandma is a seamstress and my mom had her own ceramic business that we helped with all through my childhood.  I grew up with a love of crafting and understanding the healing powers of it! I had been very into needlepoint until I found out I was expecting my daughter. At that point arthritis in my hands made hours of holding a small needle impossible! I wanted to find a way to make things for my daughter Emilyann and that's when my love of paper crafting began. When I married my best friend Fred in 2007, he came with our two other kids - Amy and Lee. The magic of crafting gave me a bridge through the world of step parenting. It quickly became something Amy and I enjoyed doing together and it was exploring local crafting shops with her that led me to my favorite store The Crafty Scrapper! This is where the real addiction began and where I transitioned from 12 x 12 layouts into all the other wonderful ways there are to paper craft! In late 2012 I realized I needed to put my art out there as our home was overflowing with all my projects.  While working a full time stressful job and managing our busy home life I started a blog and began taking custom orders for mini albums for friends. It has been so rewarding!  I am so excited to be a member of this year's design team and get to share my art with others! www.scrappygirl0203.blogspot.com

Anita H. 

 I was raised in the mountains of New Mexico, but I've also lived in El Paso, Morton (West Texas) and San Antonio before settling down in Midland, after my husband, Rick, graduated Law School. We were married right after I graduated collage from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales in 1993, with a degree in Education. I taught elementary school for 10 years, before quitting to help my husband run his businesses, as well as spend more time with our family. We have three crazy, smart, and gorgeous children, who pretty much run our lives, ages 16, 13, and 10.

I've been interested in creating things ever since I can remember. The wonderful and vivid memory of my first box of 48 Crayola Crayons still resonates within me whenever I see a box. Pure euphoria of the box of 96 (With the ultra cool sharpener!) a few years later, was the highlight of my 6th grade year! I took every craft oriented style class I could in Junior High and High School...from Wood Shop to Leather Tooling to Welding. Cooking, baking, and crafting with my talented Mother was a way of life for me, and we participated in Craft Shows from my Junior High years and on. We made and sold so many things for extra income, and I adopted that philosophy all through college as well. I even took in a Jewelry Making class, and sold my wares. If Basket Weaving would have been offered I would have taken it too.

I'm thankful I have the opportunity to pass my love for cooking, baking, and crafting to my daughter, who also likes to create with me.

You can see my work, tutorials, and video tutorials on my blog The Artful Maven Haven at www.artfulmaven.net . 

Gena

 My name is Gena Glover and I have been crafting for 16 years and I love it all! I scrapbook traditional layouts, but also enjoy creating chipboard books. I started with a small card table in my living room and over the years in has grown into a designated room full of scrappy goodness.

I have been a customer of the Crafty Scrapper since Carolyn opened the store, next became a member of the design team and then Carolyn took pity on me and hired me to work part time. Now, I am the manager! I love my job and I treasure her friendship and all the friendships I have made with our customers along the way.

I have been married to my best friend, Kris, for 16 years. We have 4 children... 3 grown and on their own and 1 left at home. Kris also has an older son who is married to a wonderful lady and they have 3 awesome little ones. So I have plenty of scrapping subjects!

I look forward to sharing and creating with you! 

Please stop by my blog HandCraftedDreamsByGena to say hi sometime!

 Ginger

I have been scrapbooking for 10 years and I love each and every day that I get to scrap. I have been married for 43 years and my husband Eddie is my best supporter. We have four grown children, two daughters and two sons, and each one is married. I also have four grandchildren, two boys and two girls. They are my greatest source of inspiration. I have studied art for ten years and I find that scrapbooking is a way to express one self. I have used many unconventional methods and I hope each one of you enjoy seeing what I have created.

I was asked to join the Design Team at The Crafty Scrapper which is such an honor. I look forward to seeing comments and hopefully will have the opportunity to meet you. www.gingersnapsandbutterflies.blogspot.com

Melissa

Melissa Hines, Business Analyst by day and artist by nite. She is a self taught 

art nerd who begain scrapbooking 14 years ago. She and Annette Prudhomme

 formed 2 Scrappy Chicks and were exclusive teachers at The Crafty Scrapper 

when it first opened 7 years ago. Over the last few years she has focused on 

digital art and art journaling. She has a quirky style with a vintage flair mixing 

vintage elements, digital images, paper and every kind of ink, paint and paste. Design

 team for Crowabout Studio, Hidden Vintage Studio, Tumblefish Studio, Craft 

Attitude and The Crafty Scrapper

 Patty

 

I am a big fan of The Crafty Scrapper. I never mind driving here from Arlington because it is the best scrapbook store in all of Texas! Believe me; I’ve been to many of them. What a joy it is to see the latest supplies here and think of ways to use them. 

My wonderful husband supports and encourages my scrappy "addiction", and so do our two grown children. My family is the joy of my life and the subject of much of my scrapbooking. When I’m not working on layouts of my immediate family, I enjoy going through my mother’s pictures of our ancestors. The stories and pictures that she has shared with me make our family tree come alive.

Officially, I’ve been scrapbooking for about twenty years, but my scrapbooking began while in grade school, and I still have the first album that I made then! New techniques and products are of great interest to me and I consider myself lucky to live during a time when resources for scrapbookers are plentiful and ever-changing. I rely heavily on the training I received at Texas Christian University, where I majored in education and minored in art. The challenge of creating scrapbook art that hopefully will be cherished by generations to come drives me to tell the stories of my family and friends in an interesting and creative way.

You can find more of Patty at http://asassyscrapper.blogspot.com.

Shelley

I live in Mansfield, Texas, just a short drive away from The Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie. I love it there!

I began scrapbooking around six years ago, and since then I have been thoroughly enjoying the hobby. I love spending time with my family, and then scrapping our photos. I scrap vacations, birthdays, sports, and practically everything else I can get my hands on. I like to try new techniques and use the newest stuff! I like making gifts for my family and friends. I have been married to my wonderful husband, John for 12 years, and we have two children together. Our son, Evan, is 11, and he loves to play sports, and I love photographing him and scrapping those photos in mini albums. Our daughter, Macy, who is 9, likes to play sports, and she also loves to scrapbook--go figure! I also have a son named Blake, who is 22 now, and of course, he has been the subject of many of my projects, as well. Professionally, I teach Statistics full-time at UTA. Overall, I enjoy people, I am crazy about my family and friends, I love to scrapbook, and I am super excited to meet you at The Crafty Scrapper, hopefully in one of my classes!

You can find more of Shelley at shelley-hamilton.blogspot.com.

Sonia

I’m Sonia Doneghue, also known in the crafting and photography world as Ms. Ruin.  Like so many of you, I lead a pretty busy life and I’m blessed to have very few dull moments.  I work full time for a faith-based healthcare system and on my spare time I enjoy community service, creating things, capturing the world around me through my camera’s lens, spending time with friends, traveling with my husband and I’m kind of a gym rat too. 

I will be the first person to tell you that traditional scrapbooking is not for me.  In fact, the sight of a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper sends me running in the opposite direction.  But when I do “scrap”, it’s simple.  I let my photos tell the story and try not to take too much away from the image at hand.  I have a knack for mini albums, canvas art, and other mixed media.  You will see a lot of raw emotion in my work, subjects that might make others uncomfortable, but what fun is your work if you are catering to the comfort of others?  Art is irrepressible, we should be too!  I have a motto in my photography because I love to photograph abandoned places and spaces, and that’s “I find beauty where most see atrophy.”  I think the same can be said with some of my own art.

Learn more about me through my images and words on my blog:  http://ms-ruin.blogspot.com.  You will also find links to my facebook art page, my photography pages, pinterest and much more.

Tina

I have been a rubber stamper and paper crafter for over 17 years. For 14 years, I owned Imprints, a rubber stamp store in Fort Worth, Texas. I closed my store in June 2009. My hubby, Gary, had retired from General Motors a year before I closed my store. To downsize, we moved out to the country and now live on Cedar Creek Lake. Not too long after moving, I found the Crafty Scrapper to be a perfect spot to meet my friends for crafting, fun and fellowship. In 2010, I figured I made more cards (at least 225 of them) than I had in the fourteen years I owned my store. At every crop, I would bring a bunch of cards I had made and that is how the teaching “gig” happened, as several of the ladies really wanted me to teach and I finally said “yes”! And, I am so glad I did. I look forward to sharing my card creations with you.  Happy Stamping!
You can see more of Tina on her blog Live, Love & Stamp

Anita S

 

Hi! I'm  Anita Scroggins and I am a rabid scrapbooker! I am so happy to be the DT Coordinator for The Crafty Scrapper this year~!! I love to make layouts and mini-albums, and I dabble in altered projects from time to time. I am a wife, a gardener, a Girl Scout Volunteer and a life long crafter. I keep busy these days redoing my house and yard, designing for several companies and teaching.

 I have the best husband ever - as long as there is dinner on the table and the cable bill is paid he doesn't care.  So far he hasn't noticed the 2nd electronic die cutter setting on my counter- I just got a Cameo on the mail last week! So far so good :o)

My style changes  a little here and there, but one thing remains the same - I am not a fan of "less is more". Less is less and more is best, and white space is my enemy.

I would love for you to stop by my blog www.theflamingochronicals.blogspot.com and my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/theflamingochronicals - you can never have too many scrapbook friends, right? I am so blessed to be able to spend my time doing what I love!

WOW! What an amazing team we have! 

I am super excited to be working with all of these ladies.

 When you are in the store next, be sure to check out the new

projects they have made.  

There will be lots of fun things happening here on the blog and on the Facebook page

in the next few weeks, so be sure to stay tuned.

Thanks so much for stopping by to see us today!

See you again soon.