3UP winners and Welcome to Semester 2, 2014

Hi everyone, Darcy here. Last week we had some amazing #3UP contributions each evening. They only slightly scratched the surface of the new 2014 product releases, but didn't they do well! Brave and talented. Thankyou!

Thanks to everyone who joined in and made projects alongside the 3-Upsters. There will be a surprise prize to the value of £50 coming to one of you this week! Enjoy!

1. And the winner is... Emma {from Emma's Craft Shed}

Please get in touch with Darcy (darcydotneedles@hotmail.com) with your full  name and address to claim your prize.  

2. The semester ahead...
Guest Designers

Hello, Leandra here. as you know we have a new bunch of Guest Designers for the next 4 months waiting in the wings. Each designer is allocated a week of the month to post, either week 1, 2, 3 or 4, and they post Sunday thru Tuesday in depth, technique based ideas to show how they use PaperArtsy products in their preferred style. These posts will be supported with plenty of step by step pictures of how they got from A to B and the issues and happy accidents they encountered along the way.

The designer gets introduced at 7pm on Sunday night, and we put a link-share facility on that 7pm post so that during the week you can join in with the ideas they develop and play along. Shortly after at 7:15 the first post of the week is published. We encourage you to participate as much as you can. Learning new skills, colour combinations and enjoying being creative is not only a great way to relax, but it is also a wonderful way to add to your repertoire of crafty skills, and the designers love it when you have a go at their ideas. They are often available on twitter or facebook to answer questions around the time the blog post goes live.

For 2014 we have deliberately appointed a wide variety of styles, and some of them are shaking in their boots, and others are well seasoned at this kind of thing. We love what every single one of them has to offer us all this year, and I hope you will welcome them warmly to their new home.

Past Designers

in the same vein as last semester, we will continue to have guest posts from various people for the remainder of the week. These are short post that might inspire you to find an hour to do a quick weekend make. Of course, you can use the Sunday night inLinkz link-tool to show how you are inspired all week long by these guests.

Signature designers

Darcy will continue with her monthly Journalling feature through semester 2. We also have regular posts scheduled with Jo Firth-Young, Lin Brown, Ellen Vargo and some other surprise people, maybe even really famous ones! Leandra will be adding more videos now that the PA schedule is not so hectic as it was in Semester 1. 

Shows
As you know, we do just a few retail events during the year, a full listing of the events for 2014 is on the side bar of the retail shop, and here on the blog too. 
This semester you will find PaperArtsy at the following events:

June 8 (Sunday): 10-4pm Stamp Magic
The Dome (Lakeside), Bawtry Road, Doncaster, DN4 7PD
Emma and Darcy demoing with our newest PaperArtsy products.

June 7/8 (Sat/Sun): 10-5pm Craft Barn Extravaganza
The Craft barn, Sandy Lane, South Nutfield, Surrey, RH1 4EJ, Tel 01737 822961
Leandra  demoing both days with all things PaperArtsy

August 3rd (Sunday): 10-4pm, Stamperama
Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre, Stevenage
Leandra and Lin demoing with our newest 2014 PaperArtsy Product releases.

3. The week ahead...

Tonight we welcome our first guest of Semester 2, 2014, Liesbeth Fidder. Liesbeth's work has caught my eye for several years. What she does is simply stunning. I can;t wait to see what she does! Here is a few words from the lady herself .... 

Hi, my name is Liesbeth, I live in the Netherlands, happily married, with two adult kids and I love everything creative! I have been totally addicted to rubber stamping and mixed media for about 7 years now. I’m thrilled and delighted to be a PaperArtsy Guest Designer!

I hope you enjoy and give it a try yourself. Take a look at some of the work I found on her blog.

Here she has used Ink and the Dog stamps

  

Stamping with Hot Picks

She uses ink and stamps so beautifully, with fantastic strong use of colour, even purple!. 

Speaking of Slide-mailers earlier this week, here Liesbeth has used a quadruple with 4 Lynne Perrella stamps

You might have seen her work often featured in the UK's own Craft Stamper Magazine, and I know she has a particular fondness for Lynne Perrella stamps.

Liesbeth works very closely with Art Journey in the Netherlands who were our first stockist in the Netherlands many years ago. 

For those of you for whom stamping is your primary crafty love, I think you are really going to enjoy Liesbeth's contributions this semester. 

We hope to see more of you joining in the weekly challenge with Liesbeth! Have a great week.

4. P.A.Weekly Challenge from....{Liesbeth and other guests}

Liesbeth will be joined in the latter part of the week with other surprise guests, and of course, if you are inspired by any item you see on the blog this week, then please share what you get up to, and link your creativity here on the weekly challenge link. 

Your challenge entry can link to your own blog, Pinterest or Flickr pages, or any webpage that shows us what you have made in response to the posts on the blog this week. Just make sure you come back to this post, and use the linking tool below to show us your entry. We have extended the challenge entry deadline to 5pm on Sunday evenings.

Make sure on Sunday 11th April 2014 by 17:00 (5pm London time) you  have your link entered below, and you will go into one of 2 draws to win new stuff.

To help you find the linky tool when you need it, just look at the final green paragraph on each blog post, there you will find a link that brings you back to this post.

An InLinkz Link-up

Weekly Challenge guidelines

The first draw is for every single entry listed, so if you have multiple entries, you get entered multiple times. 

The second draw is only for one entry per name, and the winner of Draw 1 is not included in this second draw. Having 2 draws makes it fair for everyone, no matter how many times you can join in during the week.

As this challenge is to show how you have been inspired to action by this week's designer, make sure in your blog post you explain what prompted you to create.

Please don't feel you need to copy a designer's work exactly, it may be one small aspect or idea that you want to explore that sends you into the creative zone. You are also welcome to use any stamps/ products / substrates you have to hand, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - but of course it is lovely when you do!

The winners are announced Sunday evenings in the 7pm blog post (as above). It is your responsibility to check back and see if you have won. If you are a winner, email Darcy darcydotneedles@hotmail.com with the name of the stamp you would like, and your snail address. We do not chase people for unclaimed prizes.

If we are away at an event, then the winners post would generally be updated by Monday evening with draw details.