Much {Blog} Excitement Ahead

Hi everyone

Well we have been scheming for the last few months, but to be honest, this is an idea I have been mulling over for about 2 years. But it required the right person to co-ordinate, and finally last year the right person popped up to co-ordinate it for me, so we are all action stations! but first let me explain to you what I see happening here this year.

The whole Design Team blog thing can easily become a chore, for the organisers, the contributors and so on, it's so much more work than you would ever expect to keep everyone on task, and my schedule isn't consistent enough for me to be able to do that as efficiently as i would like, so I came up with a solution that works for me, and most importantly gives you, the blog follower, more variety of content and therefore in theory it should keep it fresh with a far wider variety of content from a number of fabulous people.

So we have enlisted a bunch of people to be short-term Guest Contributors for a semester only. Some of them may be well known bloggers (but not necessarily from your neck of the woods), and others you may not know at all. It really doesn't matter to me how long they have been blogging or doing what they do or how many followers they have etc. That is not what this is about.

What matters to me is they are passionate about what they do and how they do it. They are uniquely creative and perhaps i have noticed they show a real strength with a particular PaperArtsy product line. They are sure of their own style and, most importantly they are all very willing to share the utter nitty gritty of how they create with you! Sounds good to me!

I am so excited to see what is going on in their heads as they work, how they recover if it doesn't go quite to plan, and if they actually have a master plan, how do they get there? Some of them are nervous and feel a bit out of their depth because they are quite new to crafting or stamping even, others are like the energizer bunny bouncing of the walls in anticipation, but each of them I am so absolutely grateful to for agreeing to share with you their spin on using PaperArtsy Products. It's so nice for me to see how other people like to use our stuff, and to be able to feature those ideas on this blog is awesome!

I don't want a bunch of mini-me's out there, I know what I like, and how I like to do it, but that might not be your thing. You need to find your *thing*. I guess that is why I tend to teach techniques, because it's a starting point from which you can easily twist to find your own personal preference.  My passion for the readers of this blog is for you each to find your own unique style, colour preferences, mediums, products etc. and to express using them in a way that you enjoy. 

We all can always grow, move on and learn something new, whether we are beginners, intermediates or experienced, the learning curve never ends, there is always something new around the corner. Being willing to learn, try things out, have a go, that is what helps you to find yourself, how you like to create, and the things that push your buttons. What others think isn't important, it's what you enjoy doing that is.  So my wish for you, is that this blog, and these people will be a small part in your creative path this year, and that you will find and adapt ideas into new and interesting ways to express yourself.

Every Sunday night we will let you know who is up the following week. But for now, can I say how happy I am that Gillian Simson has offered to be the Chief coordinator behind the scenes. Thank you sooooo much (from all of us) in advance!

So, look out this coming Sunday to see who will be first up for 2013!

Amazing piece by Paula Tidman

And while Mark was mooching about setting up our PaperArtsy Pinterest page he stumbled on this Fabulous piece by Paula Tidman featured here on the That's Crafty blog. Go check it out, I love the colours. She has used Lynne Perrella Stamps, they look gorgeous!

Happy stamping times ahead of us all!

Leandra