Design Team

      Design Team Members

                                            Aileen Ryan (Creator & Designer)
                                          

                     
Hi I'm Aileen,  I have my own business involving teaching Sign Language and drawing Sign Language graphics. This is temporarily on hold as I am co-sharing the roll of carer of both parents who have dementia and  my daughter with special needs, grandmother, babysitter, card making fanatic. When I'm not doing all that I read.

I love to colour, that is my passion whether its Copics, pencils, paints, Zigs, Inktense Pencils. The majority of my cards have colouring on them. If not colouring then its bright anyway. I don't seem to know the word subtle when it comes to colour, though I do try, sometimes.

I started blogging 18 months ago at Colour and Sparkle and then decided a few months ago I would like to try starting a Challenge.   A Challenge involving flowers/flora. I am obsessed with floral stamps and could blog everyday for a year I think, and not repeat a stamp.

I found a few other blog friends who felt the same way and asked them if they would like to join me in this adventure. I cannot believe the positive responses. Everyone said yes, even though a few of them are on other Design Teams and very busy in themselves.

Now we are all ready to start these Challenges and hope you will enjoy the journey with us.

        Barbara (Bobby) Hagen (Designer)

I'm honoured and excited to be a member of The Flower Challenge team. I live in central Michigan

and am a mother of 4, grandmother of 7 and great grandmother of 2. I also have 3 step-children, 8 step-grands and 10 step-greats. Not a blended family but a busy one.

My paper crafting journey has been a long and varied one. I started with scrapbooking almost 20 years ago using digital images from PC Crafter, and then a Cricut. While researching my Cricut online, I found the card making world and was hooked.

I started my blog almost 7 years ago to share my cards and with inspiration  of other bloggers and challenges, I delved into stamps, inks, embossing, watercoloring and other techniques. I am now on several design teams and the friends I have made there and in Blogland are some of the best, always kind with their comments and support.

I named my blog "Bits and Pieces" because I am also a quilter and used to do mosaic, which means most of my crafting uses bits and pieces of paper, fabric or china.

 Cara (Designer)

   (See blog for more details.)

       Ericka Strange (Designer)

Hey there, I’m Ericka aka Strangely Creative and I’m so excited to be joining The Flower Challenge! I never knew how much I loved coloring flowers until I started making cards. 

I’m originally for Oregon but have lived on the East Coast and now just outside of Houston, TX. I worked in international development but once my husband and I moved to Texas, I became a stay at home mom to two active girls, ages 7 & 3, and two Frisbee loving Border Collies. When I’m not in my craft room, I’m usually outside in the vegetable garden.

I’ve always loved crafting and making things. Five years ago, I started making cards from my daughter’s abstract finger paintings to send to family and friends. But I really got into card making three years ago, a friend introduced me to die cutting and the world of stamping and I’ve been filling and playing in my craft room ever since.

I love working with a variety of mediums and getting inky to creating colorful backgrounds and cards. I started a blog last year and love being part of a crafting community that is so encouraging and kind. I look forward to inspiring others and seeing all of your beautiful floral creations!

Karen Dunbrook (Designer)

                              

 Hi, I'm Karen from Ontario Canada and I am very excited to be joining the new Flower Blog Challenge Design Team.

I am a mom of 2, happily married and work as a full-time home daycare provider.

I started stamping many years ago, making card to give to friends and family.  I got really hooked after finding Splitcoast Stampers and all the inspiration it had to offer.

 I love using floral images on my cards and I would say that my style is clean and simple with a twist of creating backgrounds using inks and other mediums.  I am addicted to Distress inks and also love playing with watercolors.

I am a contributor for Penny Black, help as a Challenge Moderator at Splitcoast and am a part of other Challenge Blogs.

We are so excited about our new venture and hope that you will enjoy our upcoming challenges and join us in creating.

                                     

    
                              Maria Rodriguez (Designer)

                   

                         

 Hello, my name is Maria and I'm originally from Mexico City. I'm a wife of 43 years, a mom of two great, married girls, a grandma of 5 amazing grandchildren, a card maker and an Iron Man Triathlete.

I live in Crown Point, IN. USA, I've been making cards for over 10 years but only ventured into blogging in 2014. Water coloring is my most favorite medium for my cards but I've also like to use Prismacolor pencils with Gamsol or Baby Oil.

 I love making all kinds of cards, I'm always open for learning something new. I love swimming, biking and running to workout my 60+ year old body and making cards keep my brain active too. Love reading and baking, if you must know, I have a weakness for chocolate covered raisins.

 Another hobby of mine is my 75 gal. marine fish tank, I just love it!!! I was thrilled that Aileen asked me to join her in this awesome Journey, being in the company of these amazing crafters is truly a joy!! We are all very excited to start this new venture together and hope you will join us sharing your creations in our gallery. 

Milla  (Designer)

Hello everyone, my name is Milla and I live in Finland. I’m a mother to two little boys, a wife to one man, and owned by two cats! I am thrilled to join The Flower Challenge and hope to inspire you with my cards.  I have been making cards for some years now and I tend to lean towards the clean and simple style, although I love all styles from full and layered to vintage to cute to artsy to you name it. I love colouring, I love to watercolour but I’m also very partial to coloured pencils (I use Faber-Castell Polychromos) and Copics. I love floral stamps and most of my cards have flowers on them, although I do love a cute critter or two as well!   I contribute to Penny Black’s CAS style blog, SIMPLICITY At Its Best, as a Simplicity Sister, and now I am excited, honoured, and grateful to design for The Flower Challenge as well.

                                     Rachel Vass (Designer)

Hi, I’m Rachel and am absolutely thrilled to be part of this design team with so many talented ladies. I am in my mid-thirties, a part-time civil servant and permanently tired Mum of a very mischievous nearly three year old called Harvey.

I am extremely fortunate to have a wonderful husband of seven years Euan who is a stay at home Dad and does most of the cleaning too! This means in the evenings I can relax with my hobbies - card making and painting.

I don’t have a specific style, I design dependent on my mood and the weather but like all the ladies here I have a love of floral images and they are my ‘go-to’, I just love flowers. I would have my house full of them if I could.

                     

Shona Chambers (Designer)

Hi everyone, I'm a card maker from Blenheim, New Zealand. I've been married to Dave for 13yrs and have two children Phoebe and Max. I started my blog and card making 3yrs ago and haven't looked back. I'm very lucky to belong to a few other challenge design teams and also CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

My style is more CAS and love nothing better than a one-layer design. I love water colouring (though I'm not very good) and using pencils to colour my images. I'm addicted to Peanut M&M's, have two huge golden retrievers and love nothing better than watching a horror movie in bed. I'm so excited to be part of this new challenge, especially with all these other fabulous designers and can't wait for it to begin!!

                                     Tae-Eun Yoo (Designer)
                                                    

Hi, I'm TaeEun from New Jersey USA. I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea and lived in

Germany for 18 years, before I came over to here in 2013. I'm a happily married SAHM to two kids and a furry baby with a wet nose.

I fell in love with card making as a hobby, as I watched some video tutorial's in 2015 with my little girl who loves crafting too. I'm actually a beginner in crafty blogland and therefore even more excited about the opportunity to work with new crafty friends.

I love coloring floral images and seeing creations made by others. So there couldn't be a better place for me than here ;) I'm looking forward to being inspired by all of you !

                                                                                   
                   

Vivien Hodge (Administrator & Designer)

     

Hi everyone, my name is Vivien Hodge and I live in Norfolk, UK. I am retired now but used to be a hairdresser and owned my own salon. Health issues forced me to retire so I looked for a hobby. I have been making cards and wire jewellery for about 13 yrs now. Happily married with three children and four grandchildren now too.

My husband is also into crafts and makes lovely things out of wood, and now model houses also. I like to make quite simple CAS cards mostly, using stamps, digital images, die-cuts etc. I love my Happy Cuts machine, Copic markers, Promarkers etc. I love using my Distress inks and the lovely effects they can achieve. Watercolouring is my new joy just lately.

I really enjoy messing with graphics and digital things too and have been involved with all graphics here. It's how I got involved with this challenge really as Aileen asked me to design a header and it went from there.

I am really enjoying The Flower Challenge as a fellow Designer, so exciting. What an honour to be chosen thank you so much Aileen ;)