In search of: 12 Innovative Guest Designers for 2014

12 Guest Designers wanted  

Closing Date: 8th December 2013 

We are looking for 12 Short-Term Guest Designers for the 2014 calendar year. We will consider people from UK and beyond.  

The 12 new Inspirational Guests we appoint for 2014 have a tough act to follow after the amazing contributors we have brought to our blog in the last 12 months. 

On that note, it's appropriate for me to say a huge thank you for their amazing work in 2013 to our fabulous Guests:

Semester 1: Michelle Webb, Helen Chilton, Linda Cain, Suzz Czosek  

Semester 2: Sue Carrington, France Papillon, Carol Quance, Darcy Wilkinson

Semester 3: Alison Bomber, Joanne Wardle, Liz Borer (no blog), Jo Myhill

If you have seen our blog this year, you will be aware we split the year into 3 semesters (4 months duration). 4 Guest Designers were appointed per semester, and allocated a week of each month to showcase their innovative ideas and talents predominantly using products from the PaperArtsy Brand, combined with the variety of other brands we sell. Each week there is a challenge running alongside the posts to encourage blog followers to try out an idea they may not have tried before.

For 2014 we will continue this format, and we aim to recruit all sorts of crafting styles; clean and simple, altered, painty, inky, sparkly, frilly, textile, interiors, journallers, assemblage, vintage, modern… whatever your floats YOUR boat, we want to see your individuality shine through showcasing your particular strengths.

Each week of the month you are scheduled, we expect 3 articles (that’s a max of 12 posts in total over the 4 months) showing detailed step by step instructions of how you thunk up your cunning project. A clear explanation with multiple photos showing how you got from A to B, hopefully incurring happy accidents and recovering from unanticipated mistakes along the way. It’s particularly the thought process and development of unique ideas that we are looking for. Attention to detail, quality stamping, correct use of product for the right purpose, we take it as a given that you know how to achieve these basic tasks correctly. 

We are looking for crafters who go the extra mile. Are you an experimental, adventurous, think-outside-the-box person? Do you take your time to thoughtfully create with a clear level of planning, professionalism and finesse in attention to the small details? Do you deliberately try to create new ideas with unusual and/or day-to-day products? Have you got a specific area of expertise not featured on the PA blog before? Do you think you have something new to bring to the table? If the answer is yes, then you are possibly a crafty trailblazer, and we want to see what  YOU can do!  .... well 12 of you....anyway, that's all we have space for at this time...

Interested? Fahhhbulous! What’s in it for you?

• We work together to negotiate a loose plan of the items you will work with each of your 4 weeks. You give us a wish list, and we’ll send a mega-generous box of stash for you to create all those amazing ideas buzzing around in your head! …BTW…that’s a super exciting mail day when the ‘box of blog stash’ arrives!!
• You get a nice discount code to use in our shop for any additional stuff that you realise you might *need* as you refine your ideas.
• You get support form our blog admin peeps who let you know all the low down on nitty gritty of getting stuff to us in the right format and on time.
• You need to be able to keep secrets, as you will often be working with brand new unreleased stuff. Shhhh….so exciting…you can blab on our private GD forum tho…
• We love it if you communicate regularly during your semester with our #PAtwits on twitter, FB, and maybe come to a PA tweet up at a show near you to meet us all.

What’s the catch?

Ideally we prefer to work with people who are not currently doing blog work for direct competitors in our genre (that would be a conflict of interest for all parties). If you have had a prior history with other UK based stamp companies, then it's best to reveal all so we can decide and ensure it's appropriate for us to work with you. We love and desire fresh blood, so if all this is new to you, then you might be perfect! Don’t be scared, of course we’ll nurture and support you all we can. It’s exciting for us and our blog followers to see your twist on all the products we have to offer, and the buzz of watching you inspire our blog followers, retailers and crafters all over the world is amazing! Don’t be scared. DO IT!

How to apply...

In your application please include:

• A bit about yourself, how you started crafting, and what you do in your normal days away from blog land.
• Links to your blog, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and other similar online places you like to inhabit, or post to regularly. (so we can stalk you)
• Links to a couple of your blog posts from 2013 that you feel best represent your style
• A paragraph or so outlining how you describe your current crafting style, and what sorts of new ideas you think you can bring to the PaperArtsy table for 2014
• A max of 4 additional photos to support your application (not mahoosive files please)

Ideally, if you could please present this info as a word document or pdf with pictures embedded, then it makes it easier for us to process your application.

If this short-term blog position floats your boat, please apply directly and privately to Leandra Franich Sales@paperartsy.co.uk

We have a small team making carefully considered decisions about who to appoint for 2014. Of course, the team will keep all your information and applications confidential. 

We are aiming to have 4 completely different styles each semester. To make the short list you really need to be offering us something we have not seen on our blog before. 

Applications close December 8th 2013