Meet Bethany!

What do you mean it's June already? Where the heck did May go? I'm sure it was just here...but now POOF! It's gone. Doncha love how when were were kids time seemed to move so slow (like molasses in January) and now it's more like, "What do you mean it's Christmas in a week? Didn't we just do Christmas?!" Anyone out there relate?? LOL

So we're in the midst of all kinds of change around here! We're working with a new team of designers and had to say goodbye to the last group, additionally we're welcoming our newest Monthly Guest Designer, Bethany Kartchner! We're thrilled to have her on board for June and can't wait to show you her wicked style!

And we know how much you love free stuff so be sure to check out her 3 fave layouts of all time (shown below) and upload the link to your scraplift in the comments section. Who knows, YOUR layout could win!

This is the winning scraplift of Amy's layouts. April Yap is the lucky winner! Congrats! Be sure to email us at (info at lotuspaperie dot com) with your mailing info so we can ship out your exclusive, Limited Edition Couture Collection!


Q:Tell us a bit about you and your family.

A: I’m a domestic engineer: mother, wife, nurse, nutritionist, non-professional organizer, maid, interior decorator, fashion consultant, chef, landscaper, do-it-yourself-er, seamstress, taxi-driver, secretary, teacher, personal shopper, hair stylist, mixed-media artist, scrapper, did I miss anything? to a very busy family of 5 sweet children, 2 highly-shedding dogs and a great husband of 10 years. My oldest daughter will be 8 in July and my youngest son is 7 months old. (And no, I’m not done yet!)

Q: How long have you been scrapbooking and where did you get your start in this craft?

A: I’ve been scrapbooking for over 13 years! Long before it got popular. (I’m no fair-weather fan, people.) I got started after a summer internship in Belgium. I really wanted to preserve every single moment of that experience. I didn’t get really serious about it until a little over a year ago when I discovered the big world of designing and online forums. Wow, that changed my life forever.

Q:What inspires your creativity when you are scrapbooking?

A: I find inspiration in almost everything: children’s books, candy colors, fashion, technique books, other artists, challenge blogs, you name it, I like it!

Q: Describe your creative style

A: I’d say I’m whimsical freestyle. I bounce around a lot, but I love layouts with some doodling, some cuteness and bright happy colors.

Q: What are your three favorite products/techniques right now?

A: Hmmmm. This is tough.
Products:
1. Chipboard (I love the dimension and versatility),
2. Stamps (an old stand-by that never lets me down),
3. Colored Pencils (I love these for adding color to my doodles!) Can I add just one more thing? My charcoal pencil. I love the soft edge it adds.

Techniques:
1. Painting: I’m totally into paint right now. I used to be afraid of it, but I decided that I wanted to get better so I’ve been practicing…a lot.
2. Doodling: LOVE it! And YES, you can do it! I’m certainly no MC Escher!
3. Distressing. It is so fun to make something new and shiny look worn and tired. Hehehe

Q: What project(s) are you currently working on?

A: Gosh, I’ve always got many many projects in the works. Right now, I’m working on a few skirts for myself, an art journal page and a few layouts. No wonder I feel stretched sometimes!

Q: Describe your perfect day

A: As a stay-at-home mother, I’m living the life I always wanted so my perfect day would be a regular day just with 10 extra hours added on. Oh, and I’d have magic powers. I would wiggle my nose and my floors would be clean, all the windows would be fingerprint free, the fridge would be sanitary, and the toys would be organized and tidy so I’d have time to play more. On my magical-extra-extended-perfect-day, I would definitely scrap a lot and I’d eat dessert all day long and never gain a pound. Can the magic thing extend to more than just one day please?

Q: What are your three favorite layouts of all time that you’ve created (published or not)?

Challenge 126

Here it is...Friday. The end of the week and the end of a session of amazingly talented designers. Not only is this the last week for Amy Tangerine as our Guest Designer, but it is also the last week for Zoe, Kirsten, and Christi. Carol will be sticking around for a while longer as she was invited to stay on the team for the next session. Of course, Tania L and I will still be here too to keep you inspired over the coming weeks.

As much as we love change around here (because change is sooooo inspiring!) we are also sad to see such talented designers go on to other creative endeavors. We have been privileged to have you share your beautiful creations with us over the past six months and we sincerely hope you won't be strangers! Come back often and share more of what you've been up to!

Below, you'll find not only our departing designers' layouts for the week but also the super cool sketch that the did all that creating from. If you are inspired by this sketch go to our 411 (information) page to see how you can participate in our contests n' stuff.

Vanessa
I did a 45 degree rotation of the sketch.

Tania L

Kirsten

Christi

Carol

Amy
Don't forget thatyou have until the end of the month to scraplift Amy's layouts...go to the link at the top sidebar to find out where to upload the links to your pages...

Challenge 125

Today is a good day. I'm off to a scrapbooking retreat at a local 'resort' (really just a bunch of cabins on a giant property) for the entire weekend with a few gals and lots of scrap supplies (okay, and maybe a few drinks too). Take a look at this week's challenge. I have to tell you, I was unsure as to how I was gonna pull this one together. Our challenge this week was to

USE MEMORABILIA / EPHEMERA

and it's not really my style...or so I thought. I chose to do this challenge because I knew it would force me to challenge my creative self and open an artistic door. I was SO right! I am delighted with how my page turned out and I actually went and bought a whole bunch more vintage embellishments to use just this way again! Now we wanna see what YOU can do! Check out the 411 page if you are new to our challenges to get the lowdown on how it all works (not to mention all the stuff you could win!)

Vanessa

Tania

Carol

Christi

Zoe

Kristin


Amy
Remember to visit the link at the top sidebar to share your scraplift of Amy's favorite pages so that YOU can win a limited edition Couture Collection bursting with scrappy goodness!

Challenge 124

Alright, here we go with another challenge. This week we are working with a sketch. I decided to flip it around a little to make it work for me, I think everyone went with pretty much the same idea! :)
Check out our new 411! Need any information on how to play along? That's where you go! Hopefully it answers any questions you may have.

OK, here's the wonderful layouts our DT came up with...

Tania

Vanessa

Kirsten

Christi

Carol

Zoe

Amy

Don't forget the scraplift challenge that's going on with Amy's layouts. Check out the link on the upper right side.

Challenge 123

Say what? One hundred and twenty three challenges...dude, that's just crazy-talk! So it would seem that we've been at this for a while! Well, why stop now...The challenge this week was awesome! I spotted a hunk of the most amazing turquoise and tangerine ribbon and knew I just HAD to make a layout around it but didn't know how it would manifest...till I thought about this week's challenge.

USE CRAYONS

Everyone's layouts are gorgeous, colorful and nothing short of artistic. I, on the other hand, took this one literally (Zoe did too!) . I used crayons as my subject for a quick photo session and truthfully, it was entirely built around that dang ribbon! I couldn't be happier with the results...Here's everyone's wicked-awesome work for this week ::

Oh, and be sure to check out the new (sorry if it's still under construction...that's temporary!) 411 page for all the info you'll need on how to play along!

Vanessa

Tania

Kirsten

edited:: I posted the wrong page earlier...this is the correct layout for this week!

Christi

Carol

Zoe

Amy

Don't forget to go to Amy's Introduction post (link at the top right of the page) to scraplift one of her wicked pages...there's prizes in it for ya!

Challenge 122

Another wonderful Friday full of inspiration. Can't wait to share, but business first...

This month our guest designer is Amy Tangerine. Lift one of her layouts and link here for a chance to win a few goodies. She has some awesome inspiration.

This week's challenge is a sketch. Join us on Flickr and get a chance to be one of our top three finalists, you can also win some scrap goodies!

Alright, on with the good stuff. Here's the Design Team's work for this week.

Tania
Vanessa

Kirsten

Christi

ETA...Christi's computer has been down all week so she digi scrapped a layout for us using her husbands computer...

Carol

Zoe

Amy

edited:: the weird purple line that appeared beside Amy's layout is now gone!

Meet Amy!

Dude. Vee Jennings was such an amazing contributor as our Guest Designer for April. We're sad to see her go (don't be a stranger, Vee!) Now, I just re-read my last 2 posts and realized that I kinda forgot to remind you guys to scraplift one of the LO's Vee shared with us when we introduced here HERE. Please note that I've extended the window within which to upload the link to you scraplift by one week (that means by May 7). I want to see what you can do with Vee's incredibly inspiring pages and show us your stuff! Post the link to your page in the comments section of the post hotlinked above :) We'll pick a favorite layout and give ya some killer scrap stuff, okie doke?

Vee, thanks so much for sharing your wicked layouts with us. I for one had my mojo super-invigorated every time I saw your layouts (and my mojo has been on a bit of a hiatus lately) so YAY to that! Hope you visit us from time to time :)

And so having said that, it's now time for me to introduce you to another wicked-awesome scrapper whom you may or may not know (that is, if you've been living under a rock you may not know who she is!)

Now, if you've been following our modest little blog - which started in 2006 (holy crap, has it really been that long?!) you would know that many moons ago like, sometime in January of last year we sponsored OLW with our killer scrap kits...Amy Tangerine was the winner. Read that post here. I love it when stuff like this happens, when life comes full-circle!

Amy answered a few questions for us so we could get to know her a bit better. She also shared her 3 favorite layouts of all time too! You get to scraplift them and share the link in the comments section of this post. Go on. You know you wanna! We'll choose a favorite at the end of May and tell you who gets the goodies for playin' along.

Here's Amy ::


Q:Tell us a bit about you and your family.

A: I am an only child. My parents were both born in India and lived there until they moved to the States in 1970. I was born in the suburbs of Chicago in 1978. I grew up with my grandparents close by and moved down to Atlanta, GA in 1992 to attend high school and live with my father. After 25 years of marriage, my parents got divorced and I love them both very much.

Q: How long have you been scrapbooking and where did you get your start in this craft?

A: I have been scrapbooking since 2007 and got my start after taking a class from Emily Falconbridge. We became friends and she would come over and sew stuff and I would work with paper. I was immediately addicted, and still am.

Q:What inspires your creativity when you are scrapbooking?

A: The products really inspire me to create something fun, but the memory is really what I try to savor. Because there are so many great products out there, I think it helps fuel creativity when I am in a slump. I also enjoy looking through challenge sites for different prompts. I used to just scrapbook events and things in my life, but I think I am now looking at things in a different way thanks to this hobby.

Q:Describe your creative style

A: Colorful, a bit quirky, with a twist.

Q:What are your three favorite products/techniques right now?

A: I love embellishments of all kinds, Thickers, and sewing on layouts

Q:What project(s) are you currently working on?

A: All kinds of good stuff! Working on several baby albums for a client, some home projects for a class I am currently co-teaching on ScrapinStyletv.com, preparing for a class In am teaching in Tennessee in June, and enjoying life.

Q:Describe your perfect day

A: A beautiful sunny day where I had nothing on my to-do list besides whatever I felt like doing... which would likely include eating some delicious meals, playing with the dogs on the beach, being a little silly, being a little creative and productive, and then cuddling up with a good read and a good man at night.