Paper Crafts Connection » Linda Beeson

Who’s Up for a Challenge?

paper crafts online — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:00:57 +0000

Cath Edvalson

In the March/April issue of Paper Crafts magazine, we always feature both babies and brides. Springtime is a good time to be thinking about new beginnings and whether it’s a baby just coming into the world or a bride and groom starting their lives together, these events are some of the most important milestones in our lives.

In addition to finding an entire feature on this topic in the magazine (see pages 48-57), we thought you would also enjoy showing off baby and/or bride projects you’ve created yourself.

Join us in our March Gallery Challenge where you can submit cards for brides and grooms, babies, and new moms and dads. But your creativity doesn’t have to stop there! We’d love to also see shower ensembles, décor for the nursery, gift bags and tags, gift card holders and any other non-card projects you’d love to whip up! Click HERE for all the details on how to enter and scroll down for some heartfelt inspiration straight from the pages of the magazine:

This card by Kim Hughes makes me grin from ear-to-ear. What a super cute way to say congrats to the happy couple!

I love the pun in this card, don’t you? Thanks for the cutie-pie chuckle, Angie Hagist!

I love the simplicity of this card by Linda Beeson. Only three quick steps to gorgeous!

The airy lift in this card by Danni Reid is so baby--and so hip! What’s not to love?

We can’t wait to see what you’ve got up your sleeves for this challenge! You’ve got until Monday, March 22!

Yours in celebrating babies and brides,
Cath

P.S. Speaking of babies, the Paper Crafts team gets to meet baby Cooper tomorrow! Stay tuned for this much-anticipated love fest!

P.P.S. It’s time to announce the two winners from Susan’s Tips, Tools, & Technique Trivia post!

1. Anita Young (Winner of the i-top, punches)
2. Lori Beseke (Winner of the glitter package)

Congrats, winners! Susan will be contacting you shortly to get your mailing addresses. Thanks to all who left comments!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

paper crafts online — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:00:01 +0000

Jennifer Schaerer

Sometime during the months leading into December, my life becomes one that is characterized by Christmas carols because I start thinking in lyrics. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and it’s definitely the most wonderful time of the year.

Although I love the drama of the decor, the sweet sounds of singing voices and the promise of tasty pastries and other festive holiday foods, it’s the spirit of giving that really helps me dance my way through the season. There’s nothing better than the feeling of helping those who need it most.

In the spirit of giving, the elves in the Paper Crafts workshop have been busy the last few weeks. Monday was decorating day for our donated tree for Utah’s Festival of Trees, and this year’s labor of love is now complete.

This was Holly's very first Festival of the Trees. Judging from that big smile, she really enjoyed herself.

Cath, our moxie fab elf, helped us wire ornaments.

Our chief wire elves Brenda and Kelly whistled while they worked.

Brandy became our chief garland elf and did a great job.

Susan was our chief bag elf since she went around and picked up little bits of trash. After all, every artist needs a clean workspace!

And every artist needs a canvas to paint on. I happily took on the role as chief tree elf. Does it look straight?

Ta da! What do you think of our finished tree?

This event is an annual fundraiser for the patients at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, and every penny raised at the event goes directly to the children at the hospital who couldn’t otherwise pay for treatment.

Brandy Jesperson, our managing editor, has been involved with this fundraiser for 10 years after being a patient at Primary Children’s as a teenager. She urged us to get involved, and we decorated our first Paper Crafts team tree a few years ago and have been doing it ever since.

Here's last year's "Home for the Holidays" tree.

This year’s tree was auctioned off to the highest bidder and we’re certain that it brought a generous sum for the hospital. All of us at Paper Crafts are grateful to the manufacturers who helped make this tree possible with their heartfelt donations:

We’d also like to say a very special thanks to all the designers who sent in handmade card sets for us to include with the tree:

: All of our lovely donated cards!

It’s definitely the most wonderful time of the year!
Jennifer

Welcome Go-to Gal, Teri Anderson!

paper crafts online — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:00:35 +0000

Susan R. Opel

And now for the last of our big reveals – please welcome Paper Crafts Go-to Gal, Teri Anderson! It’s been a long, secretive journey, but like any good Paper Crafts soldier, Teri has served her magazine honorably (and discreetly!) and has thus earned her day in the spotlight. In fact, she just told me this week, “I’m mean it’s light at the end of the secrecy tunnel, baby!”

Since Teri knew she would have the last laugh with her announcement today, she’s been leaving cryptic comments for all of her fellow Go-to Gals. Here’s just a few that brought smiles to our faces:

Jessica: “Congrats Jess! I’m so happy to see you are one of the new GTGs! Such a great group of gals you are with.”

Maren: “Yay, Maren! I’m so happy for you. You are quite the secret keeper!”

Kim Hughes: “Yay Kim! You are one of my favorites, ya know. Congrats! Can’t wait to see who joins you and Kim K. on the team!”

That jokester! Just another reason why we love this gal… Besides her quick wit, Teri’s instantly recognizable simple and graphic designs certainly inspire me, and we look forward to sharing her talents with you, our readers!

So sit back a bit and learn some fascinating stuff about totally talented Teri!

Go-to Gal Teri Anderson

1. Where did you grow up? I grew up in the Pacific Northwest near Portland, Oregon.

2. Do you work outside the home? If so, what do you do? I occasionally work a day here and there as an extra for movies. I’ve been an extra for Untraceable, The Burning Plain, and a yet untitled movie starring Harrison Ford, Keri Russell, and Brendan Fraser. I’ve been on a call a few times for other projects as well.

[Ladies, Teri was almost an extra on the set of Twilight! She came this close to seeing Robert Pattinson in all of his vampire glory! Personally, I'm glad Hollywood didn't snatch this gal up. They couldn't handle her talent anyway.]

3. If a movie were to be made of your life, who would you cast to play the part of you? Drew Barrymore. It seems like she doesn’t take herself too seriously.

4. What song would you choose as the theme song for your life? “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey.

5. What is one thing most people would be surprised to hear about you? I once spent a summer as an intern for a professional roller hockey team. I wrote post-game press releases, represented the team at a couple small-town parades, gave players rides home, and did pretty much anything else asked of me.

6. What/who inspired you to start paper crafting? I saw Becky Higgins’ Creative Cards: The Complete Guide to Card Making book. I had scrapbooked and made a few cards with stamps before that, but Becky’s book really clicked with me. It inspired me to use supplies I’d been using for scrapbook pages on cards. Six or seven years later I’m still making cards.

7. What is your biggest paper crafting challenge? No matter how many times I say that I won’t hoard, I think it will always be using up those special things I’ve tucked away.

8. If you were only allowed two items to create a card beside cardstock and adhesive, what would they be? Letter stickers and a corner rounder.

Teri’s Relax Card is soothing with its simple and serene landscape. It was featured in Card Creations: Quick & Easy, which means you can make it in 5 steps or less!

9. What is your favorite occasion or holiday to paper craft and why? I love to make general occasion cards. I also have a thing for making encouragement and sympathy cards. I really like the challenge of trying to come up with just the right words for those situations.

10. How would you describe your style? Paper crafting for the busy gal or guy. I tend to make projects that do not take a lot of time. My style is simple yet a little bit funky with a few flecks of technique on top. I stray once in awhile, but I am generally happiest with my simplest projects.

Teri's You Measure Up Card appears in our upcoming September/October issue.

11.When is your favorite time to craft? I’m a total night owl, so I love working late at night.

12. What sort of music do you listen to while crafting? I make no secret that I have great appreciation for John Mayer’s music, but I also like a lot of other musicians. Nirvana, Jessica Harp, Goo Goo Dolls, The Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Maroon 5 and the Lovehammers are also favorites of mine.

13. How does your family participate in your paper crafting passion? My mom does it, too. We like to go to conventions and crops together.

14. When it comes to calls and deadlines, how do you keep yourself organized? I keep lists. I have a clipboard which has assignments and calls that I want to work on and follow-up work I need to do.

15. Do you remember what Paper Crafts issue your first project appeared in? How has your style changed since then? I had a tag in the second issue of Paper Crafts. It was a baby tag and had cute baby stickers on it. My style has changed a few times since then but has finally settled on a “less is more” look.

Teri's Smile Card was featured in our March/April 2009 issue.

16. What are you looking forward to most about being a Paper Crafts Go to Gal? Um. Pretty much everything.

17. Have you contributed to any design teams in the past or present? If so, which ones? I’m currently on one design team, a rubber stamp company called Art Declassified. In the past I’ve also been on the design teams for Wordsworth, Paper Love Designs and SEI. I also did some design work for Webster’s Pages in their early days.

18. Name three designers whose styles you like and why they appeal to you.

Danni Reid has such a simply complicated style that I just love. Her cards are so clean, but they have a lot of great little details that put them over the top.
Alli Miles makes so many cheery, stamped cards. They make me want to dig out my stamps and play.
Linda Beeson is a card maker whom I have admired for years. She is one of the first designers who caught my eye in Paper Crafts because her cards are so well-designed and thought out. It always excites me to see one of her projects.

19. Do you have any advice/tips for someone who’s never been published or who wants to submit for the first time?

Watch for the calls. This blog is a great place to find out about new calls. [Just posted March/April 2010!]
Don’t fuss over submitting, just take the chance. Pick a call you like, make a couple cards and submit. If they do not get picked up, don’t give up. Try again.
Try not to lose your joy for paper crafting. If submitting takes the fun out of it for you, take a breather and step back a minute. No one is going to get mad at you for not submitting. Just enjoying the paper crafting process.

Wow! It’s amazing to think that we have a movie star in our midst. I, for one, am a little star struck! And I’m so with you, Teri – Don’t Stop Believin’!

Head on over to Teri’s blog, and see her card of the day. Her cute cards seem almost like little people since Teri asks her readers to “meet” each card. And you’ll definitely benefit from her tips and techniques that she throws in each day.

So let’s give Teri a ton of Paper Crafts love today and a big high-five for being a Paper Crafts Go-to Gal! I’ll pick five lucky people to receive three sets of Art Declassified stamps. All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Friday, July 24. The winners will be announced on Monday’s blog!

Rolling out a big welcome mat for Teri,
Susan

P.S. Today is the last day to vote for our button-themed round of Gallery Idol! Click here to see the Top 10′s cards and to vote for your favorite project. Note: Voting ends at 12:00 p.m. (MST), so make sure you get to the “polls” early! And check back here tomorrow when we announce the Top 5 finalists!

P.P.S. It’s time to announce the three winners from Brandy’s Welcome Go-to Gal, Jessica Witty post! Here they are in no particular order:

1. Jennifer Scull (July 22, 12:47 a.m.)
2. Karisa (July 21, 8:42 a.m.)
3. Tina B. (July 21, 8:14 a.m.)

Congrats, ladies! You’ve each won a copy of Stamp It! Cards and some itty bitty stamps. Kelly will be contacting you shortly to get your mailing addresses. Thanks to all who left comments for Jessica!

Winners of our Stamp It! Week Challenge

paper crafts online — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:00:38 +0000

Jennifer Schaerer

Hey there…fancy meeting you here! I bet you’re wondering about the winners from the Stamp It! Week Challenge we tossed out as part of all the fun last week. The five categories (stamp kissing, build a scene, creating patterned paper with stamps, adding color with markers and adding color with dye ink sprays) yielded hundreds of entries and we sure did have a tough time choosing winners. Luckily, we split the challenge between our happy home here at Paper Crafts Connection and over at Moxie Fab World with Cath. Yay for us and double yay for the double set of winners!

STAMP KISSING: Parker Laine

What a lovely effect adding detail to the petals of her focal point flower with stamp kissing in this card!

BUILD A SCENE: Pam Smerker

I am just imagining the thoughts in that little bunny’s head as he looks over the garden fence and into the rolling green hills.

CREATING PATTERNED PAPER WITH STAMPS: Ashley Newell

Damask has never looked classier than it does in this cool ocean blue with an orange ribbon to make it really pop!

ADDING COLOR WITH MARKERS: CatDidIt

Just look at the depth of color layering in the tiger lily bouquet!

ADDING COLOR WITH DYE INK SPRAY: Linda Beeson

Not only did Linda use dye ink spray to spice up her card, but she also made patterned paper with the dictionary stamp.

A great big cheer of congratulations to all five of these talented ladies! Email me at jschaerer (at) ckmedia.com so I can send each of you a prize package that includes five stamp sets from some of our favorite manufacturers as well as a copy of Stamp It! Cards. I hope each one of you also sent the card to us for our annual Stamping Royalty Contest so you have a second chance to win!

Wrapping up a happy Stamp It! Week,
Jennifer

P.S. If you’re anywhere near Louisville, KY this weekend, go visit our own Susan Opel at the Creating Keepsakes Convention there! Pssssst…she even made cards to swap at the Paper Crafts Card Swap class!

Guess what? These cards have a little secret!