Introducing the Team

Hi everyone, it's my turn, Hilde, the blog owner.

I have been crafting every since I can remember, watching my Mother knit, watch tv, hold a conversation and smoke all at the same time, and often reading a novel besides, lol. She was the ultimate in multi tasking. I learned a lot of my basic skills in the early years, tapestry, embroidery, sewing, knitting, crochet. Back then crafts were not hobbies as we know them today, they were necessities. I have many a memory of helping my Mum unraveling and old jumper or two and watching her re knitting another... When my boys were little, money was scarce so I bought track suits in good condition from the Salvos(thrift store) and re cut and sewed them into tracksuits for them.. I would often get comments, that my children were always so well dressed. Oh, that used to make me laugh and give me a big head sometimes as well, lol.

I tried my hand with folkart, glass mosaics, water colour, silk painting, sewing, smocking, cottage crafts, and now after all that got hooked on paper crafts. I first started making some cards to sell for our church to raise some much needed funds for a certain charity project. You wouldn't want to know what those cards looked like, lol. It basicly just grew from there, a lot of the church members started ordering cards for their business for Christmas and so on. My card making started to become more confident and now I am brave enough to continue selling most of my cards. My favourite thing to do is making cards, interjected with the odd 3d project and scrap pages.

Both my boys are grown up now and out of the house, I only have my 17 year old daughter left to look after, and have the time and peace to play. I also have an ebay business selling my cards and bits of synthetic grass that my husband has left over from his jobs (he lays synthetic grass tennis courts), I sell them as pet mats, which earns me enough money to buy papers and dies to make more cards.

I have been blogging for about 4 years now, and have been umming and arring if I should open my own challenge blog. So here we are, at last. After being on a bunch of different Design Teams, I know enough to be dangerous, so I thought well why not? 

I have had great pleasure in introducing my DT girls to you over the last weeks. I am really looking forward to getting on with our challenges now.

I named the blog after my favourite Insect,
I just love Dragonflies.

I really would appreciate it if you joined us and play along with us, let's have some fun together...

Welcome to my Challenge Blog

Crafting with Dragonflies

You can go and check out my card blog  here

Blessings Hilde

Introducing the Team

Hi there, I am delighted to introduce to you my amazing team. One by one I will present to you my Dragonfly Girls...

today's turn is Tania Scott

You can hop on over and check out her blog out here

Its me (Tania)

My Name Is Tania (although I usually sign my name on challenges as Taniaj ) ; I am 47 and live on the Isle of Man (The home of TT motor bike racing) somewhere in the middle of the Irish Sea, with my husband and 2 sons. Well 1 1/2 because my eldest is at University in England (studying Pharmacy); my youngest is in Year 10 at secondary school studying for his GCSE’s.

 I have been crafting since 2004 when I need something to keep me awake, I suffer from SAD in the winter months and this is what I decided to do. I have dabbled in card making, Scrap booking  ATC’s a bit of altered art and lately the odd bit of knitting. My favorite being card making each card is a piece of art work and a bit of me. My husband says I don’t need a craft room because we live in a craft house!!!! I have recently found digital images which are super with my love for Pro Markers and a lot easier to store I can have thousands of digi images on a memory stick and nobody is any wiser LOL.

When I'm not crafting, the day job is a teaching assistant and tutor at a local secondary school which I love, although it can be challenging and requires a lot of patience and empathy, so my down time is crafting and I find it so rewarding.

We have 3 cats that rule the house, each has its own temperament and individual way of making you do what it wants, If I won the lottery I would be a mad cat woman and surround myself with many, many more.  Txx

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Thanks Tania, I always wanted to know what a mad cat women looks like, lol. Thanks for allowing us to get to know you a little better.

Blessings Hilde

Introducing the Team

Hi there, I am delighted to introduce to you my amazing team. One by one I will present to you my Dragonfly Girls...

today's turn is Susan Hogan

You can hop on over and check out her blog out here

All About Susan

I am a retired teacher who now has enough time (mostly) to play with paper. I  live in lovely Tasmania, beside the Derwent River, and this always gives me inspiration for my crafting and painting and time wasting.  I used to embroider and cross-stitch, but my hands are not as flexible as they used to be so I have moved on to paper craft, starting with scrap booking but moving very quickly into card making, which I love. As a consequence I have not completed the scrapping of our trip overseas to USA and Europe and am currently stuck in the Sistine Chapel! This was 7 years ago, and we have been overseas and on different trips since which have not even made it beyond the storage of digital photos! I have a great sense of guilt over this, but then get distracted by a photo in a magazine or a technique, grab a stamp and a Copic pen and forget about it again. 

I am married to a very patient husband, and we have two children and four grandchildren.  They provide a never-ending source of amusement and reasons to create. I do some volunteer work at a radio station for the print handicapped and go to Pilates and lunch frequently with painting pals and others. I am very excited about being with Dragonfly from the beginning - although I am on some other DT's, this is the first one from the ground up and I am very proud to have been accepted, and am greatly enjoying the process! 

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Thanks Susan, I am glad you are still enjoying the process, lol. Thanks for your support, and so nice to get to know you a little more, please make sure you check out Susans blog and stay tuned for our next gorgeous DT member, blessings Hilde

Introducing the Team

Hi there, I am delighted to introduce to you my amazing team. One by one I will present to you my Dragonfly Girls...

today's turn is Kelli Acopan

You can hop on over and check out her blog here

Aloha no!!

My name is Kelli, but I am often called "cee" (it's a long story) and usually go by "kel". I am a 30-yo happily married mother of 2 boys, lovingly referred to as Big A (9) & Little A (5) on my blog.  I am also mama to 2 puppies and one pretty(-old) little kitty, all adopted from our local shelter. All 5 kids are rotating subjects of my scrap booking pages and inspire the supplies I pick up for my paper crafting. I'm from the USA, living in beautiful Kaneohe, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu... I was born and raised on the island and never wanted to leave!! 

I am back in college after a long break to start a family and am pursuing concurrent degrees in History & Asian Studies. I love to read, work in my garden (which my puppies have literally eaten up!!), meditate, make/listen to music, cook/bake and study. 

wait, did she say study?!? 

haha! One of my life goals is to be multilingual and I am barely conversational in both Japanese and Korean, teaching myself and learning as I go.

I have been paper crafting since 2003 when I got pregnant with Big A. I like to call myself 'a scrap booker who also makes cards,' but might also have to start calling myself a card maker to justify my stamp collection!

Mahalo Nui Loa.  만나서 반갑습니다.　さよなら.

Thanks so much.  Nice to meet you.  Bye! 

lovies, =o) kel

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Love the picture, and thanks for introducing yourself, so many languages...

Please make sure you check out her lovely blog, and make sure you check back as there are just a few more team members left to introduce.

Blessings Hilde

Introducing the Team

Hi there, I am delighted to introduce to you my amazing team. One by one I will present to you my Dragonfly Girls...
todays turn is Judith Smith

You can hop on over and check out her blog here

                            .Introducing myself (posted by Judith)

Hi folks, I've been a crafter all of my life, learning various skills with my Mum, like knitting, crochet, 
cross stitch, etc. I took up card making about thirteen or fourteen years ago, when I first used a rubber stamp, and learned about heat embossing, I loved it! Since then, I have experimented with mixed media and really enjoy making dimensional projects using canvases, and alterables. I like to make handmade flowers and my own embellishments. I make jewellery, so I like to include beads in my projects when possible. I like working with digital images as well, because the opportunity to resize the images gives you limitless possibilities. However, rubber stamping will always be my first love, and I come back to that for pure enjoyment.

I have made so many friends through the crafting community, some of them are halfway across the world. The internet has opened up so many avenues of communication and inspiration, I just need more hours in the day to make everything, and talk to everyone!

I am married with two grown up children, My oldest, a Daughter Megan who is 23, has graduated from University and lives about three hours from home working with autistic children. I miss her very much, but try to see her as often as I can. My Son Ryan, is 21 and works with his Dad. He lives at home with us. We have three cats, one is 17, and two are just seven months old. They really keep me on my toes!

We live in rural Norfolk, in a beautiful house called Poppy Cottage, about half an hour from Cambridge in the UK.

I feel very lucky to have been chosen to be part of this new Design Team, and I am looking forward to making lots of new friends.

Judith x

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Ahhhww , thanks Judith, I am looking forwards to working with you and love the idea of new friends, always up for that. Please make sure you visit Judith;s blog and come back soon to check out the rest of the team, blessings Hilde

Introducing the Team

Hi there, I am delighted to introduce to you my amazing team. One by one I will present to you my Dragonfly Girls...

today's turn is Ina Grehan

You can hop on over and check out her blog here

I was born in Scotland and came out to Australia as a wee lassie. 

Settled in Toowoomba Queensland before getting married 

and moving to the Northern Territory. 

We bred Quarter Horses there and showed them successfully in the Western Scene. 

We raised 2 daughters who gave us 2 grandchildren each. 

After they married and moved to different parts of Australia 

we decided to do the same moving back to Queensland. 

We live in the Wide Bay area just south of Hervey Bay and Maryborough. 

We sold our Quarter Horses and cattle but couldn't leave our stallion behind so he now roams our 40 acres along with a few head of cattle grazing as they please. He is quiet enough to have him in our back yard mowing the grass 

and then I finish it off properly with the lawn mower.

It was while I was working that a friend of mine got me HOOKED on paper crafting. 

I love scrap booking and card making and have recently been trying my hand at other areas of this craft. My love of paper GREW when we moved and now have my craft in a spare bedroom. It is not the tidiest of rooms as I tend to scatter supplies around. I am lucky I can spend my time playing since I retired when we moved. Thanks goodness for the internet as it is here that I have found so much inspiration and friendship joining several sites and entering challenges which has shown me there is so much talent out there. 

I am a member of our local Country Woman's Association 

and enjoy being part of the good work we do for our community.

I am excited to be chosen as part of the 

DESIGN TEAM for the new DRAGONFLY CHALLENGE BLOG 

as a new adventure with new experiences and new friendships to be made.

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Oh wow, thanks Ina, it's so nice to get to know you a little more. Looking forward to new friendships, make sure you check out Ina's blog, 

blessings Hilde

Introducing the Team

Hi there, I am delighted to introduce to you my amazing team. One by one I will present to you my Dragonfly Girls...

starting with Barb Owens

You can hop on over and check out her blog here

Introducing myself without writing a novel...tricky.

Hello all! About myself, my name is Barb Owens, I am 38, married 13 years and have 2 girls, who are pure light, ages 5 and 3. I was a Teacher Assistant before being blessed enough to stay home with my girls. My husband is a Teacher and a true partner so that I have time to craft. He says of my crafting, "whatever keeps you sane-r", lol. We built a house on the north quarter of my parents' land (where I grew up) overlooking the river valley. It is our little patch of God's green acre(s). We live just outside of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. Moose Jaw is home to the Royal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds (not the kind that go to the States for Winter, although we have those 'snowbirds' in Moose Jaw too) but the Air Demonstration Squadron. So we are treated to frequent Air Shows, which is pretty cool.

About my crafting, I knit, scrapbook and make cards. I started out as a scrapbooker around 15 years ago, I used 8 1/2" x 11" papers and albums. I was dragged kicking and screaming into using 12" x 12" papers and albums. I had no idea how I would ever fill all that space, if you can believe that ;) I started cardmaking and blogging around the same time, about 2 years ago. I replaced my Cricut with a Silhouette and I use it for every page, card, and home decor project I do. I LOVE it! Cardmaking fast took over, I think because it feels so good to get something accomplished in one night whereas my scrapbook pages seem to take a lot longer. But I do feel quite guilty about falling (more) behind in my scrapbooking. And digi images are my favorites. I can print off 2 as coloring pages for my girls and resize 1 to the size I need and we can all color together. Too fun.

My favorite part of being on a Design Team is visiting and commenting on other blogs. There is so much inspiration and talent out there! Thank-you for sharing your creations and for letting me be a part of this crafty blogging world!

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Thanks Barb, how wonderful, it's so great to get to know our Design Team. Please check out Barb's blog and keep checking in as I introduce the rest of the Team over the month of April....

Blessings Hilde