Introducing the 2021 Design Team

Hello everyone! 

Sindhu here... I'm so excited about Crafty Meraki's #merakihugs release that starts tomorrow. It is seriously awesome and you won't want to miss it! Just like the #merakicraftober release,  products will be released every Monday through out the January.  Are you excited?!

Meanwhile,  we wanted to introduce our fantastic DT to you again. Let us see what they have to share. 

Brenda Noelke

IG - @mypapercutcreations
www.mypapercutcreations.com

Hello everyone!! My name is Brenda & I live in a small town in MO. I've been married to my wonderful husband, Doug, for 23 years! We have two fur babies, Bailey & Sidney, both golden retrievers!! I have always had a creative side, especially a love for coloring. I even won a coloring contest when I was in grade school & won several tickets to Six Flags. During high school & college I airbrushed T-shirts at Six Flags. I became involved in papercrafting through scrapbooking, which I did for several years. The last five years I have become addicted to card making. I LOVE coloring with all different mediums, including inks, Copic markers, watercolor, Zig watercolor markers, colored pencils, etc. It's my therapy...lol!

Candice

Hi! My name is Candice Fisher and I live in Minnesota with my hubby and youngest daughter who will be heading off to college next year. My oldest daughter lives a town over and my son is currently serving a mission in Madrid, Spain. I have always loved crafting but in the past few years I am mainly into cardmaking and love the slimline size for my designs most of the time! I am always drawn to critters, stitched dies and fun sentiments! Looking forward to sharing my designs with you!

Deepti

Hello friends! So excited to be continuing my association with Crafty Meraki. I am from India and moved to USA in 2011. After my stint in the real world of work, I decided to pursue my everlasting, never ending interest in art. I am a self-taught artist who is still learning and experimenting with art.

Something that started out as a hobby has taken me to the next level, where I got the honor to teach an online class on Craftsy – “Watercolor Cards Made Simple” and also an opportunity to illustrate and see my illustrations turn into stamps. I am grateful for Crafty Meraki for bringing me on board to both design and illustrate. I would say not bad! If I can do it everyone can :) Follow your passion!

I have worked with all the mediums from sketching to painting but my happy place is handmade cards, they are like mini pieces of art work that I can share with my loved ones.

Gladys

Hello friends! My name is Gladys and I live in Maryland with my wonderful family. I enjoy reading, eating, binge watching tv shows/movies, enjoying time with my family and of course card making! I first started scrapbooking after I had my son and soon after I fell in love with card making. I began sharing my projects on Instagram and I was instantly awed and inspired by so many talented cardmakers. Thanks to social media I have met so many talented people in the crafty community and I am very thankful for the support and encouragement they have given me. My style of cardmaking involves creating scenes with cute critters and using pretty color palettes. I am so happy and honored to join the Crafty Meraki design team!

Jenny Colacicco

Hi I’m Jenny Colacicco and I live in Westchester, New York with my husband and five year old daughter Ruby. I’m originally from England and moved to New York in 2010 with my work (cyber risk). I discovered the joys of cardmaking just after moving to the USA and it has consumed most of my free time ever since! I particularly love florals, technique based cards, and adding lots of sparkle! When not in my craft room or at work, I love hiking with my family and movie night - I’m a huge Star Wars nerd! I am thrilled to be part of the Crafty Meraki DT and can’t wait to share my crafty projects!
Blog - https://www.jccards.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jenccards
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenccards/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jennycolacicco

Joy Dsouza 

I am originally from India, and I currently live with my husband in Hong Kong. Even though I made cards ever since I was a kid, it was only after moving to Hong Kong in 2014 that I was introduced to the amazing world of stamps and dies. I started getting even more inclined towards card making with each passing day, and now I can’t imagine my life without it. I love creating one layer scenes for my cards and bringing them to life with my Copic markers.
Professionally, I am a Pilates (Mat and Reformer) Instructor, and I love training people and seeing them get stronger each day. I am also a macro and landscape photographer.
I am super thrilled to be a part of this fabulous team, and I can’t wait to start this new chapter of my card making journey.
Have a beautiful day.
Hugs,
Joy

Karen

My name is Karen Aicken, and I live in Alberta Canada with my hubby and two dogs. I have always had a love affair with paper and my first rubber stamp purchase in 1989 started me on this paper crafting adventure! I have meet so many amazing people through this hobby and I continue to make cards to send to friends & family. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis which affects my mobility but making cards is great pain relief and helps keep me sane and happy.

Lien Ricou (Video Content Creator)

Hi, my name is Lien, I am 23 years old and live in Belgium.
I have always been creative, but 3 years ago I discovered cardmaking…
Cardmaking truly became my passion, the perfect way to relax, my way of escaping from this busy world,
Nothing can make my day better than creating cards, using stamps and dies from amazing companies!

Linda

Hi, I'm Linda van Wely, I live in the Netherlands with my husband and two beautiful daughters. I started papercrafting some years ago when I started documenting photo's through scrapbooking. I soon got hooked on stamping and creating cards and never stopped since!
Love the cute critter stamps, creating backgrounds and colouring flowers! A girl can never have too many stamps!

Preeti (Video Content Creator)

Eleven years ago, I was going in full stream to start my practice as a physician in a clinic when our son was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. I was not ready to leave him alone to figure it out.I decide to leave my job and commit full time to taking care of him. As he has gotten older he had learnt to become independent in many ways and left me with very little to do. It was during the time of nothingness, when I stumbled into the art of card making. Growing up I loved art but I was never encouraged to pursue it. I have always loved giving cards wether to family, friends or even to my patients, so finding an art that focuses on making card was the best thing that could happen to me. I have been making cards now for almost 5 years and hit the social media realm with my cards two years ago after much persuasion by my daughters. I love every moment of this journey as it continues to bless me and I am hoping through this it blesses others as well.
Today, I continue to make cards and send them to friends and loved ones. I also give my creations to drive-through baristas & cashiers, my kid's teachers and even strangers, hoping to bring a moment of cheer in their lives. Art is what drew me in, but I have realized, I make cards to touch lives in a small way. I will end this with my motto, the guiding words for my life - "DO THE RIGHT THING, BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO". For me, the right thing is to spread joy, kindness and unconditional love as much as I can. The easiest way, I find, is to give a card created with love.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my little world with you. I pray and hope that it brings a smile😊to your face.

Samantha

Hello everyone! My name is Samantha and I'm so excited to continue creating here at Crafty Meraki! I live near Cleveland, Ohio with my husband and two teenage daughters, one large, sock-eating yellow lab named Finn and Ginger the cat who believes she is in charge of all of us. I've been papercrafting for nearly 20 years and during that time my style has always remained clean and simple. I blame my CPA brain - it requires me to make everything even and straight. Seriously, crooked isn't really an option. If I'm not crafting, I'm reading, walking the dog or cross stitching. You can find me on Instagram @samvandesigns or my blog at samvandesigns.com. Looking forward to spending some time with all of you so let's get crafty!

Yuliya

Hello my crafty friends! My name is Yuliya Yavorskaya @card_soul and I am from Kazakhstan. I live with my husband , son and a dog.
I’ve been into cardmaking for 2 years and I am absolutely in love with coloring and designing cards. I work with different mediums such as Copic markers, watercolor, Zig markers , pencils etc. I am a kind of person who always studies and searches for something new. I never stop improving my skills since there are so much to learn in every field .
I am so exited to be a part of Crafty Meraki team.
Big crafty hugs 🤗

Since you made it this far, how about a sneak peek into what's gonna come tomorrow? :)

 Thank you for visiting today! See you tomorrow.

Hugs..

Sindhu. (Design Team Coordinator)