Heather Bailey

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?”
-Marianne Williamson

Heather Bailey gets chills every time she reads this quote. If she could accomplish one thing, it would be to encourage women to discover their fabulousness and find joy in creative expression.

As a playful and inventive designer of “all things happy,” Heather Bailey is an internationally-celebrated textile artist and paper-crafts designer, as well as the inventor of Trash TiesT hair accessories. From sewing patterns to paper projects, Heather’s designs marry her flair for color and her talent for modern design, with her love for vintage nostalgia.
With a B.A. in Apparel Design and a knack for style, Heather has run successful businesses in children’s and women’s accessories, as well as in product design. Designing for different mediums, Heather has honed a smart and lively aesthetic that infuses every aspect of her art. Her creations have been eagerly snatched up by celebrities and offered by many of the world’s most exclusive stores including Fred Segal, Henri Bendel, and Bloomingdales, as well as high-end boutiques in Japan, Hong Kong, and Paris.

Fresh and imaginative, Heather’s designs have been featured in top fashion magazines, such as InStyle, Glamour, Seventeen, and Mademoiselle, as well as in top home and craft publications, such as Country Living, Creating Keepsakes, and Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion.

Heather is a busy young mother of two. Her children come first, but when they’re content, Heather is busily sketching fabric designs, designing sewing patterns and scrapbook supplies, running operations for her hair accessory business, and recording it all on her well-loved weblog.

“It is my aim to bring more women and families to know the joy and deep fulfillment that comes from creativity and from nurturing our families with the work of our hands,” says Heather, “I’m thrilled to be a part of the growing movement toward creative community.

Discover more about Heather’s fabric designs, scrapbook collections and designer sewing patterns at HeatherBailey.com, or for free project patterns and tutorials visit her blog at HELLOmynameisHeather.com. For more information about Heather’s wildly-popular hair invention, Trash Ties, visit TrashTies.com.

Lynette Carroll

Lynette has lived in Boston, USA for the past 12 years after moving from Sydney, Australia, with her husband of 19 years, Bryan.

Lynette became addicted to this wonderful hobby the day she was introduced to it, about eight years ago, and now cannot imagine her life without it. Not only has it allowed her to personally create, inspire and share with others her passion and knowledge, more importantly it has introduced her to some wonderful people that she now calls her friends. In March of 1990 Lynette opened a scrapbooking store in Boston, a business she ran for 5 years, until she had the opportunity to design and teach for several manufacturers.

For the past five years, Lynette has taught at many trade shows and consumer conventions extensively throughout the United States and internationally in Australia, Holland and Japan. Lynette has been an original Design Team Member for K & Company for four years and has also worked as a Design Team Member for Cosmo Cricket and Delish Designs.

Lynette has had her work published in Paper Crafts Magazine, Paper Works Magazine, Cards, Card Creations, Paper Trends Magazine, Scrapbook Trends Magazine, Scrapbook Creations as well as in several Australian publications. For the past few years her work has been featured in manufacturer catalogs, trade show booths, mini idea books, and on product packaging and printed advertising material. www.lynettecarrolldesigns.typepad.com

Debbie Crouse & Paula Cheney

Debbie Crouse lives in Gilbert, AZ, with her husband Skip. They have four children and four grandchildren. Debbie has been published many times in a variety of books and magazines, including nine of the Designing With… books, Creating Keepsakes, Legacy, Memory Makers, Scrapbook Retailer, Paper Crafts and as a featured artist in Home Companion magazine. She is well known for her beautiful style that is both creative and meticulous. Debbie has been with 7gypsies since their very first show. Along with being an artistic designer who creates products that drive the scrapbooking industry, Debbie also manages a team of fabulous artists who fashion amazing projects to inspire others. When not doing 7gypsies projects, Debbie also loves to travel, go antiquing and is always on the look out for “good stuff” to use in decorating or her next paper arts project.

Paula has been a member of the 7gypsies design team for more than three years. She has designed many of the student kits as well as many projects that are featured in the 7gypsies booth. Her work has been published in Paper Crafts, Memory Makers and Scrapbook Retailer In the gypsy spirit Paula loves to travel far and wide teaching and gathering new friends and fellow gypsies along the way.
Paula has a fun sense of humor and a quick wit. She LOVES to travel to new places to look for old junk and is willing to pack a bag at a moments notice. She lives on the Central Coast of California with her husband Jay. On an ordinary day you can find her organizing her paper supply, rearranging her furniture and dreaming over a Pottery Barn catalog.

Tim Holtz

Tim Holtz is the Education Director for Ranger Industries, one of the leading manufacturers of innovative inks, paints, and embossing products. Tim plays an integral part in the development and design of cutting edge paper crafting products. Tim has also teamed up with Advantus to launch his own signature idea-ology™ line to bring unique products that work hand in hand with Ranger’s extensive lines. He also has products with Tonic Studios, and a collection of rubber stamps with Stampers Anonymous. As a well known designer, Tim travels across the country and internationally to educate and introduce people to his world of ink & paint techniques, clever projects, and so much more. His products and techniques are filled with creative and inspiring ideas for beginner paper crafters and beyond. He truly believes to live the life you’ve imagined…For more information on Tim visit www.timholtz.com.

Debby Schuh

Debby Schuh has been scrapbooking most of her life…she still has her scrapbook from when she was two years old! Her years as a teacher and in the scrapbook industry have made her a sought-after instructor at scrapbook stores and events both in the US and abroad. In addition to her design work for scrapbook companies, Debby is doing the things she enjoys most … designing classes, teaching, traveling, and meeting the students who love scrapbooking and paper arts as much as she does.
Debby’s projects have been published in Creating Keepsakes and Memory Makers publications, as well as many other books and magazines. She is the author of the book Kid’s Scrapbooking…Easy as 1, 2, 3.
As a child, Debby’s favorite books were the interactive ones with hidden flaps and pockets, and she designs her scrapbooks with those elements, too. Her classes feature paper-engineering techniques for “Wow!” moments and often use products in unexpected ways. Debby lives near Buffalo, New York, with her husband and two college-age sons. You can read more about her on her blog at debbyschuh.typepad.com.

Marah Johnson

Marah Johnson grew up all over the United States and Canada never really calling one place home. Her parents were true hippies – living the hippie, bohemian lifestyle. Constantly on the move, Marah went to well over a dozen schools before she started 7th grade. To put food on the table, her mother used to make art dolls, quilts, and jewelry and sell everything at craft fairs. Most of the family friends were artisans as well, so whether by osmosis, or by her never ending curiosity, Marah learned to bead, sew, paint, carve wood, tool leather, caste molds, card and spin wool, weave, throw clay, paint silk, paint with beeswax, block printing, screen printing, and embroidery…all before the age of 10. Needless to say, art was, and still is, Marah’s coping skill – her drug of choice.

Marah has been in the industry for the past seven years, teaching both locally and internationally. She has been licensed with Creative Imaginations for six years and is best known for her edgy, grungy, rock influenced artwork and her love of texture. Her work has been published several times by Creating Keepsakes, Memory Makers, Design Originals, Legacy, Scrapbooking and Beyond, Paper Crafting and a few more that she can’t remember…she has so many ideas floating around in her head that her memory skills are lacking a bit.

Marah is still happiest, barefoot, hair pulled in a ponytail, comfy clothes, fingers full of ink and glue with a bit of paint and glitter thrown in for good measure. She is known for getting lost in her projects and having to remember to set an alarm clock so she doesn’t forget to pick up her kids at school and more often than not, forgets to eat lunch.

Marah currently lives in Vista, California, with her three darling daughters ranging in age from 19 to 8. When she is not working she loves to take photos of her girls and cook with her budding chef (her youngest daughter).

To read more about Marah, visit: http://marah_johnson.typepad.com/

Heidi Swapp

There is never a dull moment in Heidi’s life… wife to Eric Swapp, and mother to 5 ranging in age from 11 down to 1 years old, she is currently residing in Beijing, China just to add to the ‘scrapbook content’! (wink). Heidi has been scrapbooking for years and since 2001, she has been writing books and designing products in the scrapbooking industry. With the increase in tools and technology, Heidi is loving exploring all the different possibilities for capturing memories! But nothing makes her happier than cutting and pasting paper and adding all the fun embellishments that make up something that is tangible and will last a lifetime, to document the parts of life that are the most precious, most memorable! You can find out more about Heidi and her crazy life at http://www.heidiswapp.com

Carol Wingert

From the time she was a child, Carol Wingert has wanted to teach, create and write. In memory and book arts, she has found all three passions. Her international teaching experiences include teaching in Australia and Canada, both in large convention settings as well as retail stores. She has taught at Creating Keepsakes University and at Creative Escape, online with Big Picture Scrapbooking as well as at many retail stores throughout the US. She also teaches at her local scrapbook store, Scrapbooks, Etc. Carol is
co-author of Artful Memories and Lifelines, both by North Light Books. Her work may also be found in six Autumn leaves “Designing With” books, as well as The Book Book, in which she was the lead artist. Carol is a Memory Makers Contributing Editor and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for Somerset Memories. Her latest adventure involves monthly project kits called “creatologie from carol wingert studio”.

Carol lives in Gilbert, Arizona, with her husband, Vern, daughter, Ashley, and their menagerie of animals. Her favorite pastimes include gardening, reading, cooking and traveling.

Carol loves to think outside the box and to challenge others to do the same. Over the years, she has become well known in her classes for taking the
complex and making it simple. She’s a passionate paper collector (from early childhood) and that continues to be her favorite supply to work with. Add to that inks, paints, colored pencils and crayons, plus some rubber stamps (because drawing is not one of her talents!) and she can happily create for hours!

To read more about Carol’s day to day life and see samples of her art, check out her blogs at http://www.carolwingert.typepad.com.