Spotlight on...Tiff Sawyer

Tiff Sawyer is a wife and stay at home mum to 2 beautiful children and lives in Camden NSW, about 45 mins from Sydney.

After almost 15 years in the Real Estate industry, with an extensive background in public speaking, Tiff put her career on hold to become a stay at home mum and focus on her two small children, which is where her love of documenting the everyday began. What started as an interest in scrapbooking quickly developed into a sheer love of the craft. Tiff has achieved some wonderful scrapbooking accreditations in a short period of time. Since starting her blog Merry Memoirs Of Me in September 2008 and getting serious by submitting her work to magazines worldwide, Tiff has had over 60 projects published and been accepted onto several design teams including American manufacturer Rusty Pickle where she was assigned to seeking new talent and writing an article for the monthly newsletter and Australian chipboard manufacturer Twiddleybitz, for whom she currently coordinates the DT for Eastern Australia and international. Tiff has also had some of her work featured by Basic Grey and Websters Pages in addition to being featured for 3 consecutive days in the No 1 spot at 2 Peas for her December Daily album featuring Twiddleybitz products. Tiff also achieved an honourable mention in the 2009 Scrapbooking Memories Masters Competition for whom she has created commissioned work as well as being awarded the opportunity to create work for a major Australian scrapbook distributor, details of which will be released shortly.

After recently converted her garage space to a scrapbook studio, she hosts regular crop nights with mix of friends, experienced scrapbooker's and beginners to whom she provides step by step tutorials, much needed guidance and valuable tips and tricks of the trade.

Tiff's daily ritual of blog hopping and conversing with her fellow crafters, some of whom she's had the pleasure of meeting in real life is now such a major part of her life that she could not imagine life without them. She mentioned she could quite easily live without a mobile phone but not without her blog or computer LOL.

Tiff is honoured to be representing and teaching a super exciting class for Twiddleybitz at SIA this year and looks forward to inspiring and meeting many new friends in the process. You can learn more about Tiff by visiting her blog at http://scraplee.blogspot.com/.

Spotlight on...Sherry Mendoza

Hi my name is Sherry, I have been doing hands on scrapbooking for about 10 years. About a year ago took the plunge and gave digi scrapping a go and found that I really enjoyed being able to put together a layout on my computer! There are some fabulous digital designers out there and I am so happy to have Pickleberry Pop sponsoring my class at SIA.

Spotlight on...Lori Craig

Lori Craig has been a lover of all things paper for as long as she can remember. She is one of those girls who loved indoor recess as a child so she could color just a little bit longer, and she still has her fourth grade sticker and stationery collection.

Lori took up stamping in 1999 and has never looked back. She regularly blogs her creations on her site, Make a Difference (http://loricraig.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com) and has been published in popular crafting magazines, including: Paper Crafts, Crafts 'n Things, CardMaker and Cards Magazine. 

Lori holds the Advertising Account Manager position at Splitcoaststampers, (www.splitcoaststampers.com) a thriving online crafting community with both galleries and discussion forums. In addition to her work at Splitcoast, she maintains a teaching schedule which includes Copic Marker Certification classes for other marker addicts like herself. When she's not getting crafty, you'll find her at home in the Midwest with her husband and two girls, likely on the front porch swing, snapping peas.

We are thrilled that Lori will be demoing at the X-Press Graph-X booth this year.

Spotlight on...Marianne Walker

Marianne Walker is an artist turned crafter. She has been drawing her

whole life, and has been playing with scraps of paper as long as she

can remember. Marianne began stamping in middle school and moved away

from it, but in the last few years has returned to putting rubber to

paper. Colouring was not her favorite part of art, rather, drawing was

what she spent her hours working on. In art school Marianne found

Copic markers and instantly fell in love. Now coloring is her passion.

Marianne was first published at age 17 when she illustrated and did

graphic design on a series of books teaching kids safety. Since then

she has illustrated and worked on a number of publications including

training developing nations how to purify water, teaching kids how to

read, and most recently, training manuals for using Copic Markers. You

can follow her marker tutorials on her blog www.ilikemarkers.blogspot.com

Marianne is currently the product specialist for Copic Markers in the

United States (www.copicmarker.com) and Senior Artist for the stamp

company Our Craft Lounge (www.ourcraftlounge.com) as well as the

annual designer for the Oregon Asian Celebration (www.aaforegon.com/asiancelebration).

Marianne's specialty is graphic design and illustration. This year

she will have worked 10 years for Copic in the U.S. as

their product specialist and graphic designer. She established the

worldwide Copic Papercrafting Certification program, which to date has

trained over 1,600 crafters. She teaches community workshops on

everything from Comic Drawing to Photoshop, and most recently,

Papercrafting. Marianne has a degree in Multimedia Design from the

University of Oregon and is a happily married mother of two kids.

Marianne will be demoing at the X-Press Graph-X / Copic booth at SIA this year.

What if...the competition entries were starting to arrive!

Competition entries are starting to arrive...I love this part! I love seeing the amazing talent that is out their and the wonderful ways you are all interpreting our "What if..." theme. Check these out!

Spotlight on...Sarah Gladman

Sarah Gladman is a Visual Arts and Photography teacher, currently living in the Hunter Valley of NSW. After finishing her Masters in Art Education in 1996, Sarah had several solo exhibitions in Graphic Art and Photography - then discovered scrapbooking. After the birth of her first child 9 years ago, Sarah has since worked as a Design Team member for several online sites both here in Australia and in the USA. Becoming a Design Team member for Upsy Daisy Designs and Chatterbox scrapbooking companies has also been a highlight of her scrapbooking career. She also spent a year designing digital scrapbooking papers and elements for a New Zealand company, Eidou. Sarah also tends to her blog, "Leonardo's Apprentice" which offers online Tips and Techniques for scrapbooking, stamping and photography. Her work can be found published in Scrapbooking Memories, Scrapbook Creations, Cardmaking and Papercraft and Somerset Memories magazines.
Sarah currently represents Addicted To Craft Wholesale here in Australia and has been thrilled to be awarded the position of Scrapbooking Memories Master for 2010.

...you trusted that you are exactly

where you are meant to be.

Spotlight on...Becky Fleck

My name is Becky Fleck and I live in the beautiful Stillwater Valley of Columbus, Montana. I am an illustrator and graphic designer by trade and have been drawing in some form or another since I was a kid. I freelance design for several scrapbook and stamp manufacturers in our industry. I love the creative process and am particularly fond of stippling with Rapidograph pens.

I own and operate www.pagemaps.com, a free community resource of sketches for scrapbookers and cardmakers. In February 2008, I released a new book from Memory Makers called Scrapbook PageMaps, featuring 60 never-before-seen sketches in five popular sizes. The book also comes with a really cool card deck that detaches from the book. Each card has a sketch on one side, and a finished layout on the other. The card deck is super handy to take to crops, classes and shopping.

When I’m not designing or scrapbooking, I also enjoy fly fishing, camping, and watching football. I am a diehard Minnesota Vikings fan and cheer on my alma, the ASU Sun Devils. My husband and I live on an old cattle ranch on the Yellowstone River with our retrievers, Jackson, Harper and Libby.

Spotlight on...Dawn Lewis

Dawn Lewis is a freelance multimedia artist & designer, living on the NSW Central Coast with her family. She has been designing & demonstrating for Brandcorp for 4 years, including Francheville, Semco paints, Semco cross-stitch, Milford Threads and Easy Peasy brands. Dawn is a passionate teacher of all things creative. "My philosophy is that arts & crafts should be affordable, achievable & accessible. Brandcorp's many product lines fit so well with that philosophy, which is one of many reasons why I'm proud to work with them".

In 2009 Dawn toured around Australia demonstrating the Martha Stewart papercraft range at Spotlight stores. Dawn teaches scrapbooking and painting as well as designing project sheets to accompany Francheville & Martha Stewart products at your local Spotlight store. She is the designer & creator of the Semco 'Fifi & Frankie' cross stitch kits, and she has been published in Handmade magazine and Fine Art & Decorative Painting magazine. Other recent projects include co-writing a crochet pattern book for Milford Threads and filming a 'how to' segment for Scrap It TV (season 3) which airs on 15th July on Foxtel/Ausstar. She is actively involved in album creation for Southern Cross Kids Camps and painting memory boxes distributed by the Folk & Decorative Artists Association of Australia.

What if...attendee registrations were open!

They are! Woohoo! Attendee registrations went out today. If you didn't get it and you want it let me know.

...the weather would just make up it's mind

for cryin' out loud!

Spotlight on...Sandra Staples

I am a wife, mum, store owner and scrapbooker from the beautiful south coast of NSW. I entered the world of scrapbooking via a friend about 7 years ago and since that first dabble in this craft, I was hooked completely and I have been enjoying the adventure of discovery everyday since.

I love paper and trying to use different mediums and ‘stuff” on my pages. My friends would probably say I had an eclectic style. Add a bit here and a bit there take some away and then add another bit…yep that’s me!

OTP is a big part of my DT work and I love to create gifts with a difference for my friends.

I teach at my store and have the honor of being on the DT for BELLA.

Scrapbooking is a huge part of my life; it has enabled me to find wonderful new friends and like-minded people who make my world a better place. I love to create a place for my families’ memories to be kept, honoring the past, preserving the now and holding them safe for the future.

you were given two extra hours every day...

would you use them for work or would you

use them for play?

Spotlight on...Nic Howard

A scrapbooker for eleven years, Nic Howard lives in New Zealand with her husband Paul, and their three children. Although residing in the total opposite end of the world, Nic still finds herself involved in the scrapbooking scene in the U.S.A, her most notable acheivements include tutoring alongside the amazing staff at Big Picture Scrapbooking and working with several manufacturers including Prima Marketing, Tattered Angels and BasicGrey.

Nic finds joy in the small everyday things and she has her camera ready to photograph them.

Nic's first large scrapbooking acheivement was becoming a 2005 Memory Makers Master . Since then her work has been found in numerous international books and magazines as well as in advertising and galleries of the manufacturers she works for. To date Nic's largest and most fulfilling accomplishment is the completion of a sole authored book, released mid-2007 through F+W publications, "That's Life, Finding Scrapbooking Inspiration in the Everyday" It was through writing this book she learnt to appreciate the little things that make her an enthusiastic scrapbooker - and she learnt to create pages about them.

Nic's style can be described as detailed and layered. She loves cutting, crafting and altering paper to create dimensional layouts. As an experienced teacher, Nic looks forward to bringing her classes to Australia. You can find out more about Nic here. http://nichoward.typepad.com

...we embraced the imperfections.

Pondering a "What if..."

I went and saw the movie 'The Blind Side' today with my mum.

Which then left me wondering...What if I had been in the same position, would I have been brave enough to make the decisions she made?

It's a great movie, you should definitely take a look.

Spotlight on...Rachel Greig

Rachel is a professional photographer and product designer for Darkroom Door. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree majoring in Photography, is a Certified Instructor for Ranger Industries, writes articles for numerous craft magazines, and teaches craft and photography workshops throughout Australia and overseas.

Slide your mouse over to the right and click on the Darkroom Door link or to see more from this ultra talented Aussie check out www.rachelgreig.typepad.com