Posted by: Thanh Vo on Monday, May 18, 2015 at 12:20 am
G’day, YNS friends! We’ve wrapped up our latest Design Team series posts with Karen answering some questions a couple weeks ago. These posts were focused on getting to know our Design Team better. In case you missed any of the posts, I’ve listed all our the posts below.
We also thought we’d reach out and ask, what do you want to see from Your Next Stamp next? Do you want to see more basics or techniques from the Team? Do you want us to focus on a particular image? Let us know, we’d love to have your feedback!
Here is the list of DT members that shared their background and their favorite color combos:
Posted by: YourNextStamp on Monday, May 4, 2015 at 12:00 am
Hi, YNS Friends! It’s Karen Dedman, the proud owner of Your Next Stamp! I’m excited to share a little bit about myself with you today. Let’s get started shall we?!
Q: Tell us about your family and where you live.
I live in Ontario, Canada with my super amazing and supportive husband Chris. We have 2 kids, Brandon who is our energetic 6 year old boy and Jessica who is our sweet little 15 month old girl. Let’s not forget about Olive, our furry hamster friend who keeps us up half the night with her squeaking exercise wheel! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, I wouldn’t be able to do everything I do if it wasn’t for all their love and support.
Q: When and why did you start YNS?
I’ll try to keep this short and sweet…I started YNS in 2008, after our son Brandon was born. I really wanted to stay home with him and still have a career so the only way I could do that was to start a business that I could run from our home. I’ve always loved creating art and crafting so when my sister introduced me to stamping I knew I had found my ‘calling’. I instantly fell in love with stamping and card making and just knew I had to do something with this passion! My mission was to bring happiness to craft rooms all over the world :o) I’m so lucky to have a supportive family who has been there with me since day one, my father helped me name YNS and everyone has been there to help whenever needed…sound board for ideas, packing product, shipping orders, bookkeeping, working ScrapFest etc… I look back at these past 6 years and I feel so blessed, I would like to say ‘thanks’ to all of YOU for loving YNS products and for being apart of my journey. I look forward to many more years of SMILES and FUN, from my craft room to yours!
Q: What are your favorite YNS images?
Seriously? Do I really need to answer this one? To be honest, I can’t pick a favorite image as I truly LOVE them all. I personally hand pick each and every image that you find here at YNS. My main focus when working with our designers is that the images must make me HAPPY and I always ask myself “will this stamp make my customers smile and is it FUN to create with?” If you’re having FUN while creating with our YNS products than I know I’ve completed my mission! The cherry on top is when you share your projects with us, I LOVE seeing what you make with YNS products!
Q: What are your favorite color combos?
Bright cheerful colors (especially purple and green with black as an accent) tend to be my go to colors but I do find myself picking out colors that match the person I’m creating for. Our son Brandon is turning 7 this month so for my project today I decided to make him a birthday card! He LOVES ice cream, the Waddles character and YNS Gumdrops soooooo I used the super sweet Waddles – Happy Brrr-thday stamp and die set to create his birthday card. I also used our Stitched Rectangle die set and Fishtail Banner Two die set.
I LOVE adding dimension to my projects so here’s a close-up of my pop up dot and YNS Gumdrop addiction:
I used our current challenge sketch as inspiration for my card, why not join in the FUN! You never know, you could be a lucky winner of some YNS bucks or our next Top Pick!
I hope you’ve enjoyed our Design Team Q & A Series! We’ll be starting a new series really soon but first we have a New Release for you!!! Be sure to stop by for some sneak peeks on May 9th!
Posted by: Wendy McGaffey on Monday, December 15, 2014 at 12:05 am
Good Morning and Welcome! Wendy here and I am taking you into my creative space by sharing some photos and creating a card. First up, a tour through my craft studio. When I first started crafting several years ago, my children all still lived at home and there was no extra space for my new hobby so I would spread out my paper and stamps and stand at our pool table to create…since then I have become an empty nester, moved a couple of times and have several empty bedrooms (which makes me a little sad as I never did look forward to that day).
I left the walls as they were when this room was my daughters – most of the furniture is recycled. The table I craft on is our very first kitchen table, the entertainment unit is from when we had a finished rec room and large projection TV. My hubby made me the Copic organizer from PVC pipe. I like to re-use what I can and make do with what I have. With the kids still in college and university, my crafty budget is small and very modest, but with some creativity it can be stretched.
I store all of my YNS dies in this art bin organizer
To stay organized, I have a write board calendar on the wall above my computer which I fill in every month with my design team commitments. I really feel the need to stay ahead because I cannot create under pressure or if I am feeling behind or overwhelmed, I tend to enjoy early morning crafting and have my day finished up before anyone gets home from work or school. I volunteer 2 days a week at our local hospital which makes my heart happy and the rest of the week I make my creative side happy. For the most part, it is rather quiet in my studio during the day, but I do have 3 companions who hang out with me and keep me company… Aspen, Axle and Asia.
Now onto my project. This time of year is a busy time for making Christmas cards, shopping and of course, baking…I had a friend ask for my sugar cookie recipe so instead of just jotting it down I created a cute card for her with my recipe on the front in a pocket.
I usually start by picking my stamps and then the paper I feel relates most to the theme , unless my card is for a particular sketch, I usually just follow the vision I have in my head but I never glue anything down until I’m sure it is the way I want it to look
I used the YNS set Recipe Card and the coordinating die , wrote out my recipe, made a front pocket from designer paper added my die cut apron. Lastly, I added a few stars cut from shimmery gold paper for a lil sparkle for the season
Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my creative process!
