Introducing Sue Allen!

Introducing Sue!
Greetings
My name is Sue Allen and I live in a small town in Southern Ontario.

For as long as I can remember I have been artistic with dozens of creative outlets. NeedleArts including tatting and lacemaking and all things related have had their turn but paper is my passion/obsession. It began decades ago with charcoal and pencil drawing, then progressed to watercolour. At the moment it is stamping and I am loving it! I have a weakness for techniques and Bling which seems to find a way onto almost every card I make... sometimes not in a very subtle way.

I am so thrilled to be joining Carol and all the fine artists on this Design Team and look forward to seeing everyone's creations.





Sue's Card!






Welcome to the team!!

Introducing Gini

Gini Williams Cagle

I have been crafting all of my life, in one form or another. I was very successful as a bead artist. I had my work published in over a dozen books and magazines, and lectured and taught all over the country. But... my beaded pieces took on an average 500-1000 hours to complete. About 10 years ago, I began scrapbooking when my first nephew was born. I instantly fell in love with the immediacy of the medium (compared to the crazy hours I spent beading!) In the past year, I have gotten hooked cardmaking, stamping and coloring with copics. It's really funny to look at any of my work, from beadwork to paper and to be able to see the same style emerge, regardless of the medium. I have always loved dimension, and color and layers. I would say my papercrafting style is Shabby Chic meets Dolly Parton.

Papercrafting is really a family thing for me. My sister and I love getting together at least once a week to color and craft - and of course, my 4 year old nephew wants in on the action as well! My husband, doesn't ever craft with me, but he is my biggest cheerleader, and is always supportive of what I do. We have been married, for almost two years now. We have a fairytale romance - we knew each other in high school and were friends, but went over 20 years without any contact, and reconnected on Facebook and quickly knew we were meant to be together. I work as a Dental Hygienist - so papercrafting is always a welcomed release!

The card is 6 x 6 and uses papers from Pink Paislee's Queen Bee line. I stamped the Butterfly Background in CTMH Olive ink, and then cut it out using Spellbinders Label 18. The Sentiment was stamped on Bazzill cardstock and cut using Spellbinders Labels 21. The edges were inked using Distress Ink in Peeled Paint. The single butterfly was stamped from the Angle Butterfly set, colored with copics and fussy cut. All layers were attached to the card using dimensional adhesives to give it some height.

Introducing Sheila and Claudine!

Here's round three of our introductions!!

Sheila Bartlett
Hi my name is Sheila Bartlett and I live in Southern Ontario, Canada. I have been married to the love of my life for 40 years. He is supportive of all my crafts which help me keep my sanity. I have tried quite a few in my day. The ones I have stuck with are creating greeting cards with rubber stamps and all that is associated with that, stained glass, knitting, and crocheting. I have been creating greeting cards for 25 years or there about. I find it so relaxing at the end of a busy day since i am a secretary in a fast pace medical office. I hope you enjoy my cards.

Sheila's Card!
She used the England World Doll Set.

Claudine Poch

My name is Claudine Poch. I live in Ohio in the United States with my husband, son, and cats. I have been doing crafts almost my whole life, and paper crafts for about five years. I enjoy making cards, particularly those that contain “critters”, such as cats and dogs. Most of my cards are sold to benefit the no-kill animal shelter where I volunteer. I am currently serving on a few other design teams and am excited to be a part of the new Class Act Design Team.

Claudine's Card!

She also used the Class Act England World Doll Set.

Great job, ladies!!

Introducing Dawn and Donna!

Here is round 2 of our Design Team Introductions!

Dawn Bennett
Hi, my name is Dawn and I live in York, PA with my wonderful husband of 19 years and three wonderful children - my son is 18 and my two daughters 16 and 12 and our furry zoo!

My crafting started when my neighbor dragged me to a scrapbooking weekend about 4 1/2 years ago. After that I was hooked. I still work on my scrapbooks, but stamping and card making seems to be my thing right now. I only use Copics to bring my images to life and I hope my creations will inspire people and I hope to make many new friends along the way. I am thrilled to have been asked to join Class Act's Design Team! Thanks so much for this opportunity.

This is a sample of Dawn's Work!

I used the Japanese doll and embossed her in black on some gold lustre bazzill cardstock and then I took the accessories, mainly the hair pieces and stamped them randomly onto black cardstock and embossed them with gold embossing powder.

Then used my spellbinders label14 to cut out the doll and used spellbinder fancy tags to cut out the sentiment which was also stamped onto the gold bazzill and embossed in black

Then just used some of my ribbon for a bow.

Donna Duquette

Hi, my name is Donna Duquette and I'm thrilled to be a part of the Class Act design team. I live in the U.S. in a quiet little town in northern Connecticut. When my husband, Dave, decided to retire last year, we decided that I would take an early retirement so that we could both retirement together. I'm still pinching myself!

I've been involved with all sorts of art and crafts for as long as I can remember. I started stamping about 12 years ago so it's actually one of my newer hobbies. At first, I found stamping enjoyable because I could create little works of art without knowing how to draw. A couple of years ago, though, I decided to finally learn to draw. Today, I love to draw and paint, but I still enjoy rubber stamping. My own artwork is usually detailed and realistic, but with rubber stamps, I can work with images of any style and experiment with new techniques.

Here is a sample of Donna's Work!

Welcome to the team, gals!!

Introducing Suzanne and Barbara!

Hi everyone!
It's getting that that time where we want to formally introduce our design team members!

Suzanne Czosek

Suzanne Czosek currently lives in Northern Illinois with her husband, three children and two dogs. She works full time as a project manager. Suzanne has been stamping for the last 5 to 6 years and currently designs for several teams and teaches classes at her local stamp store.
You'll find Suzanne's work published in Carts N Things, Just Cards and Stampington Publications.






This is a sample of Suzanne's work!

These are the instructions to make the card:
Stamped two times using StaZon on acetate.

Cut frame from 5 x 7 white cardstock.

Stamp sentiment using StaZon on frame.

Cut out second set of butterflies. Pop Dot and fold. Accent with gems.







Barbara Washington

My name is Barbara Washington, but you often see me signed as Barbara W.

I'm the mother of two wonderful grown daughters and the grandmother of two delightful grandchildren. I've lived in the windy city, ie Chicago all of my life.

I'm a retired College librarian.

Crafting has always been a part of my life, but I discovered stamping about fifteen years ago. Since then this fun activity has turned into a real passion. My style is somewhat eclectic. I love trying new techniques, trying new color combinations and love using texture. Cards are my usual creations, but I also love tags, atc's, 4x4's, dimensional projects, making books, and so on.

The beautiful thing about this art world is that we can share and learn from each other.


This is a sample of Barbara's Work!

These are the instructions to make the card:

The background uses the Butterfly Background stamp.

It was stamped using the Tissued Color technique from the latest issue of Technique Junkies.

Apply the ink to the stamp using tissue paper, the stamped image has a softer, distressed look to it.

I used Adirondack inks in salmon, stonewashed, and eggplant.

The focal image and its background were stamped with stamps from the Angle Butterfly set.

First stamp the butterfly and masked it.

Then stamp the butterfly words at an angle (so they were straight behind the butterfly) over the masked image.

The butterfly was colored with a yellow ochre Copic marker and the words were stamped with cloudy blue.

The center was die cut with Spellbinders label nine.

The sentiment was a stamp from Butterfly Square.

Welcome to the Class Act/Chapel Road Team, Ladies! :)

Winter Contest Winner!

Hi All!
I was meaning to post this yesterday...but I had some very uncool things happen over the weekend. If any of you remember our Remembrance Day contest, I had my chinchilla, Kiki, choose our winner...well, she died very tragically on Saturday after I had her at the vet's office for 2 hours. So, needless to say, I have been a very upset blogger. R.I.P. Sweet Kiki: Mommy misses you!

But, better late than never!
We had three entries this month:




This card was created by Cindy Baker! She used the Class Act tree (I can't find it on the site right now...figures!) and the Class Act Chickadees! I can't get enough of the paper tearing technique :)











Next up is Sue Allen! Since she sent me a little "how-to" I'm going to paste it here for you!
"The technique is called dryer sheet. Stamps by Class Act [Each Snowflake; Splat Snowflake; Small Snowflake], border punch by Martha Stewart. The snowflakes and greeting are stamped first. Then the entire piece is covered with glue stick and a used dryer sheet is placed on the top and pressed well down. While still wet glitter (also Class Act) is sprinkles over the top then left to dry. Once dry put the card together and add embellishments."
Thanks for that, Sue! Makes my job easier hehe! I also LOVE those stamps!








Last but not least is Pat Moore, a first-time contest participant! Wahoooo! Here, Pat used a very pretty photo, and stamped the Class Act Polar Bear on it! hehe...cute! Just adds that finishing touch :)








Now, now, now...for this contest I just put names on a piece of paper and put them in a box! 33.33333333333% chance ladies!!!
Soooo...the picked paper saysssss....Pat Moore!! Congrats, Pat! Please send us your mailing address and we'll be sending some prize rubber your way!

For future reference, anyone on the Chapel Road or Class Act Design Team is more than welcome to submit cards, however they will not be entered to win prizes! I leave prizes to my Bloggers :-)

Has anyone checked out the World Dolls? What do you think? We're considering bringing out more!

Thanks everyone! I will be posting a new contest in the next little while!

Yours Truly,
Raychel