Special Guest Designer Cathi O'Neill

We're thrilled to introduce Special Guest Designer Cathi O'Neill!

Hi! My name is Cathi O'Neill. I am an American who married an Irishman and I have been living in Ireland since 1997. I live in a beautiful village on the Shannon River with my DH of 18 years (wow, that makes me feel old!) and my two beautiful daughters, Aine (onya) 11 and Aisling (ashling) 9 who are the subject of many of my projects!

I have always love crafting since I was a little girl. My grandmother taught me to knit and crochet and I remember sewing Barbie doll clothes with her on her front porch! I am a knitter and quilter as well, but have recently in the last two years found cardmaking and scrapbooking, and an obsession was born!! I truly love creating and make vintage cards to sell here in our local village cafe as well as stacks of mixed media and shabby/vintage style layouts of my girls to keep and share with family! I also love to do tags, ATC and altered projects, barely a day goes by when I haven't done something crafty!!

I am currently on the design teams for several manufacturers: Couture Creations, Molossi Chipboard, Paper Wings Productions, Visible Image stamps and Paper Temptress specialty cardstock store. I design for UK distributor Creative Expressions and also design for challenge blogs Frosted Designs, Scrap Africa and Sugar Creek Hollow. I have guest designed for challenge blogs Keeping the Best and Scrap it with a Song, C'est Magnifique Kit Club, Scraps of Elegance Kit Club and Crop Stop online store. I truly enjoy the challenge and inspiration that scrapbooking and cardmaking bring me.

I hope you will come visit me at my blog: http://celticknotted.blogspot.com

I am so excited to be joining Berry71Bleu in January on their full DT, but this month I've had the wonderful opportunity to be a guest designer and work with one of Marivic's gorgeous vintage tags as well!

The tag I received has a beautiful fairy ballerina and a bottlecap that says dance on it, so I just knew I had to do a layout of Aine and her love of ballet. I found a photo of Aine during her first months of ballet in 2007 and funny enough with arms outstretched just like her one from ballet camp this summer, I just had to use it. I fussy cut around her younger photo and placed it into the layout! This month's challenge theme is Change is Beautiful and I think Aine's changes as she grows into a graceful ballerina fit the theme perfectly!!

I chose the colors of my layout from the gorgeous tag. The blues, greens and pinks perfectly suited the 9th Wave papers, die cuts, and stickers I had from 7 Dots Studio as well. I used some gorgeous Molossi chipboard, cutting a heart in half and using it on both sides of the layout cluster. I colored it with pink chalk ink to tone in with the tag colors and then used a Prima stamp and added some gesso. I also added some chicken wire chipboard and colored that in with the teal chalk ink...

I added some Molossi paper flowers and some gorgeous Petaloo flowers I had in my stash, added a bit of stamping and splatters and a tiny bit of modelling paste on my background.

November Challenge

Main Prize:

Liquitex Prize Package

Acrylic mediums

Adult Size Liquitex Apron

Random Prize:

Sponsors:

 

Liquitex 

Liquitex offers the widest spectrum of vibrant intense acrylic paints, acrylic mediums and art supplies that enable you to bring your creative vision to life. The possibilities to expand your creativity are endless with their innovative toolbox. Liquitex was the first water-based acrylic paint created in 1955 and since then has partnered with artists to ensure that they continually evolve and innovate – resulting in a long history of acrylic innovation. Today, Liquitex offers the largest array of vibrant acrylic paints, mediums and tools to enable acrylic artists to continually explore their art and take it to new and unprecedented boundaries. Their innovative drive, creative passion and intense desire to share the joys of artistic expression through unparalleled education and community outreach programs, has ensured that Liquitex will continue to be a strong partner in helping artists explore their art for decades to come.

Frog Dog Studio 

Frog Dog Studio is a monthly Mixed Media kit club. We have a talented team of designers who will share video and photo tutorials on how to make kit projects and use kit supplies, in easy, fun, and creative ways. We pride ourselves on making the world Mixed Media friendly and want to share our excitement and passion for creating art with our subscribers. We believe that Mixed Media is the window to the soul, and embrace individualism, and self expression. Getting our hands messy with paint, ink, and glue is a natural part of our lives.

www.majadesign.nu 

Maja Design Corp is based in Uddevalla, Sweden. We are dedicated to create unique and high quality vintage inspired patterned paper for scrapbooking and crafts. Maja Design was founded in November 2007, and since then, have grown to supply over 70 retailers in Sweden and 90 all over the world. Founder Marie Jansson says: "In the fall of 2004, a dear friend asked me to join her to a scrapbooking course. From that moment, I became totally amazed and thrilled by all the beautiful papers and decorations in the art of scrapbooking. After some time as a captivated scrapper, I got curious to create my own patterns. I have always had a devotion for color and form. I had access to great printing facility, as I worked at a printers office. Since 2007, I have been blessed to be able to work with my great passion - to design and create colored coordinated paper."

Our Design Team sponsor this month is 7 Dots Studio.

We are a team of creative women who cannot image their world without paper, glue and the creative process. Scrapbooking is our passion and we love to share our passion with other scrapbookers. For this reason, 7 Dots Studio exists. The quality of our products is our top priority. Our collections are made from thick (250gsm), acid-free, lignin-free, archival scrapbooking paper. We also offer high quality cardstock stickers.

Please note that if the winner(s) of this challenge are international they will be responsible for shipping costs. Make sure you follow our CHALLENGE RULES.

Thank you and we hope to see your beautiful creations this month!