Time to Meet Our Newest Team Member!

Hello folks!  I hope you are enjoying your week so far.

In just an hour our midway will be posted but beforehand I would like to introduce you all to the newest Design Team Member of The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up. 

I reached out to a talented friend of mine that was back to blogging after a few years absence and asked her if she might be interested in joining the team and boy was I excited when she said yes! So, it is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to this wonderful and accomplished lady. Let's get to know her a bit, shall we?

 Joining the The Merry Maidens we have...

 

My Name is Amanda or Mandy to my friends and Made by Mandy in the crafty community.

I am 48 years old. Not quite sure how that happened so quickly as I still feel like I am 21! I live in Sutton Coldfield, just outside of Birmingham in the UK with my wonderful husband Paul. We have been together for over 30 years and I am very lucky to spend my life with such a lovely man.

I have been crafty ever since I could use children’s safety scissors! I have dabbled in quilting, dressmaking, crochet, knitting, embroidery, cross stitch and since November 2002 pretty much exclusively cardmaking after seeing a demo at the NEC. I have been blogging my cards since May of 2007. I love taking part in the challenges and the blogosphere is a constant source of inspiration.

My signature style is bright and colourful. I like to make unusual cards and adore using pretty papers. I’ve never been happy with the stamped images I produce so digi stamps have been an amazing way of improving my cardmaking skills. I love the flexibility of resizing and combining images. I can also experiment with different styles of images that I wouldn’t have purchased as a rubber stamp.

I had a break from making cards for a number of years but now I am back in. A new house, a new craft room, a little bit older but not necessarily wiser LOL.

Please join us in welcoming Mandy to the team. You will get to see her first creation in an hour! To visit Mandy beforehand, just click on her name above.

Well, that is it for now folks. I hope that you will join us again later today when we'll be back with the midway for our current link up.

See you all again soon!

Time to Meet Our Newest Team Member!

Hello folks!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

This coming Wednesday our May challenge will start and beforehand I would like to introduce you all to the newest Design Team Member of The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up. 

I reached out to this talented lady and asked her if she might be interested in joining the team and boy was I excited when she said yes! So, it is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to this wonderful and talented lady. Let's get to know her a bit, shall we?

 Joining the The Sleigh Belles we have...

 

I was very excited when Lisa asked me to join her team. My favourite cards to make are Christmas cards so obviously I jumped at the chance. Having worked with other crafts over the years (dressmaking, embroidery, crochet) once I was introduced to card making I was hooked. Everything else has pretty much taken a back seat. Since I retired I now have more time to spend crafting but, alas, not quite as much money to spend !!!

I have been married to John for 46 years and we live in beautiful Oxfordshire in the UK on the edge of the Cotswolds, an Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Our house is in a very isolated position and we get cut off when it snows heavily – a problem when I was still working, now it’s just an excuse to do more crafting! The superb views certainly make up for the isolation.

I have made some wonderful friends since I started my blog and have been lucky enough to meet up with some of them on occasion.

My other hobbies are cycling, walking and fell walking. So I have hobbies for both good weather and bad weather. Not a bad combination.

Please join us in welcoming Christine to the team. You will get to see her first creation on Wednesday. To visit Christine beforehand, just click on her name above.

Well, that is it for now folks. I hope that you will join us again on May 1st for our latest link up.

See you all again soon!

Time to Meet Our New Team Members

Hello everyone.  Tomorrow our February challenge starts but first I wanted you all to meet the newest Design Team Members of The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up. 

Now, as many of you know we recently had a DT Call and we were very lucky that a few inspiring individuals heard our call and tried out for the team.  So it is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to five wonderful ladies.  As everyone on this team, these newbies are very talented and all uniquely different.  Let's get to know them a bit, shall we?

 Joining the The Sleigh Belles we have...

Hi, I'm Sherry, I was born in Kentucky but have lived in Washington for 17 yrs. I am happily married, have three children and four beautiful grandchildren. I have enjoyed all types of arts and crafts ever since I can remember. Now I have found that I really enjoy creating cards. I am so very excited to be a part of the 12 Months of Christmas Link Up!

 Hi my name is Lisa , I am a craftaholic , I live in Cramlington , next to Newcastle upon Tyne .Best of both next to the city or close to the countryside and the sea xx

I was born in the Midlands , did art at school that was my favourite subject a long with home economics ( cookery). Always loved to play with craft stuff.

I live in the north east with my husband and my two daughters and two cats. I work part time for a cleaning company so that gives me time then for my family and my crafts. Love to make cards , jewellery making, scrap booking. I love to craft as you forget about all your worries and keeps my mind happy and very relaxing.

I have made lots of friends on social media , and have a chat with a few on a personal messages. I am on a couple of Design Teams , my dream job would be to take my craft into a job.

 Joining the The Merry Maidens we have...

  

Hello its Diane Louise here... I am delighted to join this wonderful design team.   I live in the North West of England with my lovely Hubby and 2 fabulous grown up children, along with our beautiful big bundle of gorgeousness, Mutley, our black Labrador dog, who brings so much fun to our household. 

I have been paper crafting since 1998 when a friend introduced me to the world of decoupage, I fell in love with card making and very quickly became addicted to my hobby... The best thing though was opening my Blog called Diane Louise's Favourite Cards & Gifts and finding Blogland and Challenge Blogs, which inspired me to try new techniques and styles of cards. I have made so many lovely crafty friends along the way.  I own so much crafty stuff now that we really do need to move into a bigger house :o)    I also belong to design teams over at 'Crafty Friends', 'Moving Along With The Times', 'Scribbles Designs' and Classic DT Challenge.

I always said that I wasn't creative. My mother and sister were always busy knitting, sewing, making cards and other stuff. But I hated it all! But then I met a clown and he made balloon animals, I Loved it so much that I learned it myself and after a short while I made my own creations and didn't need examples anymore, I was creative!!!

So a few years later a friend of mine told me that she had something I would ike also, it was a Silhouette Cameo. I said what?? What should I do with that? I went to visit her and we played with the Cameo, and I liked it a lot, I had one a few days later also. I made lot's of things on shirts, I made stickers of vinyl and I made cards. Then I met the mother of my daughter's friend. She had problems with her Cameo, I helped her and we became friends also. She was making cards as DT for blogs and I said, for what?? Why would you do that?? I don't think I need to explain what happened next do I?

So here I am, addicted to making (Christmas) cards, colouring digi's, having multiple DT jobs and I have my own blog. Because I am a DT for Sherri Baldy I made a lot of cards with Besties, so I'm looking forward to work with all new digi's. It will be a fun challenge!

My name is Helen, married and mum of 2 teens and I live in a small village in the southern part of the Netherlands. I work at an export department for about 25 hours a week. As long as I can remember I am crafting in all different ways. But the last years I find time to relax with paper crafting, colouring stamps (rubber as well as digi), making cards, etc.

One of my best friends has her own webshop with craft stuff and whenever she has craft fairs in my neighbourhood I am there as well to help her out. 

Christmas, next to summer, is my favourite time of the year, so love making Christmas cards and decorations. I am delighted to be part of the team, thanks Lisa and Pat for the opportunity.

Please join us in welcoming Sherry, Lisa D., Diane Louise, Petra and Helen G. to the team. You will get to see Sherry's and Lisa's first creations tomorrow and then Diane Louise, Petra and Helen G. in a couple week's time.  To visit any of our new teammies beforehand, just click on their names above.

Well, that is it for now folks.  I hope that you will join us again tomorrow evening to find out what the optional theme of Challenge #26 will be.

See you all again soon!

Time to Meet Our New Team Members

Hello everyone.  Tomorrow our March challenge starts but first I wanted you all to meet the newest Design Team Members of The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up.  First up though I must share that Sharon will be leaving us.  The March challenge will be her last one.  Sharon has been a wonderful asset to this team and she will definitely be missed!  Please join me in wishing Sharon all the best as she moves on to new adventures in her crafting life!

Now, as many of you know we recently had a DT Call and we were very lucky that a few inspiring individuals heard our call and tried out for the team.  So it is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to five wonderful ladies.  As everyone on this team, these newbies are very talented and all uniquely different.  Let's get to know them a bit, shall we?

 Joining the The Sleigh Belles we have...

Mother of 3 kids (2 boys and a girl) and married to my best friend for 39 years. I've been making cards since 2007. My mother inspired me. She never made her own cards but she sent cards to everyone for every occasion. After she passed away a friend introduced me to stamping and the rest is history. I love stamping but I also love using digital stamps. I also crochet and do cross stitch. I hope to retire from my job at Indiana University some time this year. My bucket list is full of crafty things I'd like to try. I want to learn to knit and do quilling among other things.

 My name is Sheena and I have been with my partner John for 17 years. We also have a 15 year old daughter Breanna who is not only growing up too fast but is my whole world. The other member of our family is a crazy Jack Russell Terror named Smudge. As long as I can remember I have always been arty, at school I was always getting top marks but instead of going on to college I entered the workforce instead. When my full time job turned part time I needed something to fill the gap in my days and that is where crafting came in, that was well over over 8 years ago now. I started off with card kits but found them too limiting, I then moved onto CDs and stamping. I then discovered the unlimited possibilities of digital stamps and here we are. I'm very passionate about what I do and I hope that shows in my work. If you would like to see more of my work please head over to my blog at Cards by Sheena

 

Joining the The Merry Maidens we have...

Hi my name is Christine Garner and I am 50 years old.  I have been making cards for several years now.  I use Spectrum Noir Markers and Pencils on my images.  I love doing all kinds of paper projects, including fancy folds and 3Dprojects.  I have been married for 24 years to a wonderful man that encourages me on my crafty things.  I have a son and daughter that are seniors this year yahoo!!!  We have two Guinea Pigs  Coffee and Buttons.  We also have a four legged fur baby Jack.  Looking forward seeing your wonderful creations.

 

 

My name is Janet Hines and I've been a crafter from the year dot. I'm married to a great guy who doesn't mind all my craft stash around the house. Over the years I've had a go at most types of crafting, knitting, crochet, glass Painting, jewellery making to name but a few. But I love making card and getting messy with inky and altered things too. I hope I can bring you some good inspirational ideas but joining the talented ladies here.

I am 70 and live in Sydney, Australia with my husband Tony.  I have two daughters and four granddaughters.  My granddaughters and all their friends call me Granmargaret.  I was made redundant at work at the end of January 2013 so after working for 53 years so I am now retired.

I started stamping and making cards in 1995 and started scrapbooking about 1999 and making ATCs in 2005.  I am still a cute stamper and make simple cards.  My favourite colours are purples and pinks. I started my blog in April 2012 with the help of cyber friends and started joining challenges to give me ideas for my cards and then was happy to be invited to join some design teams.  I have lots of rubber and clear stamps but use mostly digital stamps now as they are easier on my sore hands.

I am group Mum on some yahoo stamping groups.  I suffer from fibromyalgia and arthritis and have eye problems so spend my days making cards, a little scrapbooking and talking to my cyber friends on the internet.  This helps take my mind off the pain.

I have made many more cyber friends since starting my blog.  My eldest daughter Lynda and I are cancer survivors and we thank God for every day and for all our friends who pray for us.  I was excited to be invited to be on the design team for 12 Months of Christmas Link Up.

Please join us in welcoming Donna, Sheena, Christine, Janet and Margaret to the team. You will get to see Donna's and Sheena's first creations tomorrow and then Christine, Janet and Margaret's in a couple week's time.  To visit any of our new teammies beforehand, just click on their names above.

Well, that is it for now folks.  I hope that you will join us again tomorrow evening to find out what the optional theme of Challenge #15 will be.

See you all again soon!

Time to Meet Our New Team Members

Hello everyone.  In just about an hour we will be posting about our new challenge but first I wanted you all to meet the newest Design Team Members of The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up.  As many of you know we recently had a DT Call and we were very lucky that a few inspiring individuals heard our call and tried out for the team.

So it is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to four very lovely ladies.  Each of whom is uniquely different and very talented.  Let's get to know them a bit, shall we?

 Joining the The Sleigh Belles we have...

I am honored to be joining the talented 12 Months of Christmas Link Up design team. Originally from Massachusetts, I now live in sunny Southern California. I'm a kids entertainment/toy marketing professional by day and paper junkie by night, but let’s be honest… I love paper at all hours of the day! Paper crafting is my creative escape. I am always on the lookout for new crafting tools, techniques, and fun paper & stationery trends in general. I LOVE Christmas all-year round, so love the idea of making holiday cards throughout the year is well… fa la la la la… la lots of fun! I can’t wait to create with all of you!

Crafting has always been my hobby – in fact my husband would say it’s my obsession! I enjoy all sorts of crafts but my current passion is paper crafting. At the moment I live in the UK but for the previous 17 years I have been an expat, living in Australia, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and India. Whilst overseas I always managed to find friends who also wanted to craft! Now back in England I spend a lot of time in my craft room. I like to play with different techniques, making both mainstream items and more left of centre projects. I use a lot of digi images but also like getting inky…and I love different folds, ATCs and fat pages!

Joining the The Merry Maidens we have...

 Hi I'm Helen. I live in the UK with my golf fanatic husband and soppy dog.

I've been crafting for more years than I care to remember and like many started with cross-stitch. I am now an avid paper-crafter and love to colour using alcohol markers, pencils and distress inks. If it doesn't move I'll colour it! I like to create my own backgrounds but can't resist all those beautiful papers and dies out there.

I also like to knit and have recently learnt to crochet and do rag rugging. I even made a rag rug Christmas tree last year. I love to learn new techniques for crafting of any description and love mixed media. I had a go at Fimo once, needless to say slight disaster making a little Alice in Wonderland who looks more like a bumper car. I keep her for reference, must practice!!

I've been making cards for over 20 years, I love all crafts but paper is my first love. I am a stay at home mom to a feisty 5 year old. She keeps me busy and we enjoy crafting together. I live in Central Florida, been here almost 30 years!

Please join us in welcoming Christina, Susan, Helen and Marji to the team. You will get to see Christina's and Susan's first creations later today and then Helen's and Marji's in a couple week's time.  To visit any of our new teammies beforehand, just click on their names above.

Well, that is it for now folks.  I hope that you will join us again at 6:00 p.m. to find out what the optional theme of Challenge #9 will be.

See you all again soon!