So, are you all enjoying yourselves? You all have been so excited about our announcements so far! It's so fun to be on the sidelines and see everyone having such a great time already!
Today I am thrilled to focus a bit on the team of stamp designers we have lined up for 2009. Most of them will be familiar to you but there are a few new faces!
Before I concentrate on each of them individually, I wanted to thank the existing designers for all they contributed to our company last year. It has been so invigorating to see each of their unique styles and points of view shine through in their stamp designs. Beyond that, their artwork has allowed us to diversify our product line and offer something for any stamper. Each and every one of them is quick to complete any work that needs to be done and makes it so easy for me to coordinate the releases each month. They have truly been instrumental in our growth and we can't possibly express that enough!
Along with that, we are very proud to be releasing MORE stamp sets from all of our current designers this year! And just as a small side note... you *may* want to be sure to visit each of their blogs today by clicking on their individual names. *wink*wink*
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Candice Aguilar is someone I was first introduced to by my sister. She is first and foremost a professionally trained graphic design and currently owns and operates her very own design firm, also referred to as Madra Design. I will never forget the first peek I had at the portfolio that Candice presented to me when we had contacted her about our interest in her work. All of it instantly resignated with me and I really respected the precision and thought that went into each of her designs. I just knew she would be a perfect fit! And was I ever right! Candice has adapted to the stamping industry seamlessly and some of her stamp sets, such as Honey Bees and Simply Stationery, have been our best sellers to date! We look forward to the opportunity of working with her for another year!
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Melissa Bickford and I have been friends for nearly eight years. She is a fellow Mainer, growing up a mere 30-minutes from my hometown. She has completely self taught herself the design programs that we work with, all the while keeping busy with her two children. Her stylings are very simple and clean, with just a twist of whimsy. She is a very thoughtful designer and really thinks through each image she adds to a stamp set and how it will work with the other images the set contains. This is especially true in both Men of Life and Women of Life. I have already approved the sets she will be releasing throughout 2009, and all I can say is that you'll need to hang onto your hats, ladies! It is amazing to see how much Melissa has developed as a designer in the past year, and you will really see that exemplified when each of her new sets are revealed.
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Lisa Johnson has not only been wearing the hat of a stamp designer, but also as a member of our design team. She does well balancing the two roles, and really in the end, I think it helps her to be in more tune with what the average stamper wants from a set. Lisa works really hard to integrate as many images as possible in each set along with as much versatility as possible. She is a huge fan of the complete collection of Marvy punches and often creates images that coordinate with them. Lisa's style embraces the look of doodling with an element of sophistication, (especially apparent in Remember), which is really a style all her own. I always love seeing the projects she ends up creating with her own stamp images, because it always serves as a learning experience as she visually represents the intention behind the set.
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Alli Miles is a breath of fresh air with her distinctive, stamper friendly designs. I have gotten the opportunity to get to know her on a personal level this year, and really appreciate what a kind & thoughtful friend she is. Her two small children keep her very busy at home along with the job she has as an online school teacher. Alli is a self-taught graphic designer that has invested many hours learning the ins and outs of our programs. She has told me in the past that she really gets inspired by things from the world around her, such as home decor, clothing and media. This is very apparent with her work included in the background building set Shapes by Design. We are SO excited about the sets Alli has been working on for us that will be revealed throughout 2009!
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Heather Nichols' style is really all her own and I usually like to refer to it as "modern rustic". It tends to contain a lot of nuances found in folk art, but all with a clean modern twist. The sets she has designed thus far have appealed to a wide variety of stampers because of this. One of the things I admire most about Heather's work is her approach to the basics. Many of her sets, such as Around & About Sentiments and Rustic Branches, look simple at first glance, but then when you actually start stamping with them its a different story. Your creativity just starts going crazy with ALL of the things you can do with the images. Heather has really helped bring the fun back into stamping for many people and the sets she has developed for 2009 are no different.
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Now for the NEW girls on the block! The following women are SO talented and we are super excited about introducing them today in this capacity. Please be sure to stop by to visit each of them and give them a warm welcome!
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Dawn McVey is no stranger to many of you. Her blog is one of the most popular stops for card makers on the web, and you obviously recognize her for her work on our very own design team this past year. She has been working throughout 2008 refining her own skills within our design programs and developing her very own stamp sets! She's been a very busy girl! Her style is very modern, hip and trendy. All three of these traits are found to be prominent in her stamp design work. It is almost as if she takes things straight from your favorite fashions & home decor and interprets them directly into stamp design. Just fabulous! And I promise, you won't have to wait very long to see her very first set! Congratulations, Dawn! You did it, girl!
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I had the privilege of meeting Tiffany Pastor while on our cruise this past fall. She works for Cruise & Crop, which is the agency that helped to coordinate everything for the event. We ended up having a very animated conversation about our favorite graphic design program at the end of class one day, talking about how much we loved it. A bit later on she communicated to me that she would be interested in actually dabbling in stamp design herself. I had her submit a few things and REALLY liked what I saw! I was just blown away! And her look is SO different from anything else that we offer! Flourishes and *grunge* are a repetitive theme in all of her work and the manner is which she combines the two is just stunning! I can hardly wait to reveal to you some of the things she has worked on for later this year! All I can say is, hold onto your hats!!! And thanks for sharing your talents with us, Tiffany!
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Beth Silaika. This woman is just amazing. Six kids. Amazing graphic design capabilities. A fantastic stamper. A huge heart that holds nothing but kindness. A sense of humor that has already had me laughing out loud a few times in front of my computer monitor. She is definitely the COMPLETE Papertrey package when it comes to a stamp designer!!! Some of you may already be familiar with her because of her work as a blog banner designer and other web graphic design. She has SUCH a fabulous, fun style that I am just thrilled to be able to share with all of you through her stamps! And since Beth is such an avid stamper, she is really able to *get inside your head* and make the images as versatile as possible. You're just going to love this girl (that is if you don't already!) Welcome aboard, Beth!
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So, are you as excited as we are about all of the talent contained between these eight women?!?!? To celebrate their achievements...
each of the artists are giving away their favorite Papertrey stamp set that they themselves designed!
The three new girls got in on the fun too by giving away their overall favorite! It's so fun to see what each designer wrote about their set and why it has a special place in their heart! It makes for good reading material! Leave your words of encouragement & thanks with each of them for eight different chances to win!
DO NOT post here for a chance to win big, just visit each of THEIR blogs to enter!
The winners of all the individual blog contests today (and in the future) will be listed on our special Anniversary Prize Page
after 12 noon EST, February 4th. You can always access this list through the NEW!
Anniversary Quick Link list to the upper left sidebar here. A copy of
the list will also be updated daily in our customer forum.
Be sure to tune in tomorrow for more BIG news and even more ways to win!
