Meet the Design Team…

As it is now August, it’s time for the start of a new Design Team. Our Design Team is a little unusual as they help us extend on the techniques we show rather than promoting specific items. To get them started gently, we asked each member for a photo and a bio…

In no particular order… 🙂

Design team member 1: Tracy Stephens-Wood

“I blame you, Natalie LOL! I’ve never been hands on crafty type of person till I came along and started watching your channel. I have always been digitally creative; then went on to sublimation, making shirts and mugs and other things for family and friends. Also I took on a few paid things for friends who wanted projects done.

Origins

I think my love of creation of any kind once again, as most of you, comes from my mother . My mother is an artist with different types of paint and multimedia items as well. I used to watch her as a kid; I remember she would describe the colours to me and explain the effect she was going for. Then, on sunday drives with the family; I started to notice the different colours that were in the tree, the surrounds; Then I could start to see what I assume my Mum saw.

Afterwards I never really did anything about it when I was younger and still at school. Instead, I turned to cooking as my creative outlet; I only had to taste a meal that I liked at a restaurant; then go home and recreate it myself. Then time went on and I started to figure technology was a passion of mine.

Education

So, I went to TAFE which stands for technical and further education; I did quite a few bachelor’s degrees that were events management to special cooking classes. The last one I did, which I must say was the hardest I had ever done; brought back all the creativity with colours I had learnt as a kid from my mum,

The course was a bachelors diploma in building a website from nothing to something. This included creating your own pictures which is where I first learned photoshop, and absolutely loved, it.

The rest of the course I think I could have skipped lol! Coding of websites was not a joy of mine; I admit, and I will never do again, I made so many mistakes with it; it’s a wonder I even passed but I did, 

Then life goes on as normal didn’t end up using my degree in a job; it definitely wasn’t the field for me; but my love of digital work was still there and photoshop at the time to…

Electronic cutters and more…

Then my mother had someone show her a Cricut machine ; all the things she could do with it about 3 years ago, so my mother had to have it LOL. So, I went over to mums house one day; she showed me her Cricut and she said “I have no idea what to do, Tracy can you show me?”. This led to learning design space so I could show my mum, who till this day doesn’t understand it; and would only ever do anything if I was there with her.

Anyway I was looking at YouTube videos of different things I could do with design space; that I hadn’t thought of yet… and came across the scan and cut machine. I kept looking every day for months at different videos; and I fell more in love with the scan and cut every day. Eventually, I convinced my husband (no idea how) and he brought it for me. This led to me buying all the stuff for sublimation as well, and then I found Natalie’s classes online. Now I have been invited to her design team with all the other lovely people below.

So now my kitchen dining table is now my (Head office) craft room; with an epson WF-7720 sublimation printer and continuous ink supply; a scan and cut sdx 1200, my iMac computer and accessories; 7 huge tubs of crafting things and accessories and the last addition to this crafting table is mum’s Cricut machine. I just bought it off her she gave up with it; so now I just make things for her like my last creation, I will include pics.

Design team member 2: Sarah Lou

Hi I’m Sarah a mum of twin girls who are almost 21. Both are trainee accountants and they’ve followed in their dad’s/my husbands footsteps. He’s a Finance Director for a School Academy group.
I also have two retired greyhounds Choco and Rodney. We all live in Rochester in Kent, UK.
In my spare time I am a Brownie and Guide Leader and invigilate all exams in a Secondary School. 

I love crafting, but especially my Scan n cuts. I had my first one when they were first released 6 ish years ago, but I had the American CM250. Then I upgraded to a CM900 3 years later and I also have the SDX1200. I really enjoy all aspects of the machine but especially vinyl and htv. Additionally I love all papercraft from stamping, to inking and blending, stencilling, mixed media …….

So that’s me. I look forward to working with you all and can’t wait to see your designs.

Why not check out Tracys first blog piece here and Sarah’s first piece here.

Design team member 3: Deb Hallett

I started making a few birthday cards for my family about 10 years ago. Over the years this evolved into a craft room instead of a spare bedroom and making cards for friends, family and anyone else who needed a card to send.

When I retired a couple of years ago; which has allowed me more time to spend crafting. Also I have also created mixed media canvases and altered art projects. I love to learn new things, I purchased my first ScanNCut a couple of months ago, and have recently started working on digital art; mainly creating pictures of my dogs and my friends dogs.

My card making style is very eclectic ranging from really grungy to clean and simple. I make a lot of my cards to suit the recipients so I produce various styles. Some examples of my cards can be seen on Pinterest.

You can find out more about us and our design team on Facebook.