Designer Saturday: Sharon Callis

We are excited to launch a new weekly look at each of our very talented Design Team members – and they can’t wait to share a bit about themselves and their favourite Crafter’s Companion projects. Along the way they’ll be sharing some hints, tips, and tricks as well to help you with your crafting at home!

Today we are introducing Sharon Callis, and sharing a few of her favourite projects!

“Hi my name is Sharon Callis and I am the Design Team manager for Crafters Companion. I live in Ireland with my husband and three very active children.

I have been very interested in crafting since primary school where the Nuns taught us to knit, sew and crochet. I carried the passion for needlework through my school years and beyond. I have been involved in costume and set design for years and was lucky enough to work in theatre, radio and television. I got into paper crafting when I found it hard to get an appropriate card to accompany my needlework gifts. I started adding fabric to cards to co-ordinate them to my projects and things grew from there, so much so that in 2011 I won ‘Cardmaker of the Year’ with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. I have had my work published in Ireland, UK and America. I am on the Design Team with Crafters Companion Die’sire (UK), Xyron (USA), Gel-a-Tins (USA) and Card Annex/Scrapbook Update (USA).”

I am one more paper stack away from featuring on ‘The Hoarder next Door’. I am lucky enough to have my own craft room that I can escape to, I am a total night hawk and often stay up all night crafting. I guess I have OCD (Obsessive Crafting Disorder). When it comes to my crafting style I would say it’s very structured. I plan projects in advance, sketch out what I want to achieve and go from there. My particular favourites are 3d and dimensional, I like a project to have some ‘life’ in it. On my blog you will find some functional and some wacky projects.

I’m a total craft gadget geek and if it’s available I will buy it. The proof is in my collection of five electronic die cutting machines, four manual die cutting machines and the mountain of cutters in my craft room! I won’t mention all the accessories!!”

“If I had to choose one aspect of crafting that I have failed to get along with it has to be shrink plastic! It drives me crazy, oh and teeny tiny paper punches, always breaking them. My favourite is stamping, especially characters from the Crafter’s Companion ranges like Peter Rabbit, Moreheads and Angelica and friends.

I would love you to stop by my blog www.sharoncalliscrafts.blogspot.com and say hi.”

Sharon also shared a few great tips for every crafter:

– “Invest in a daylight lamp! They are essential for colour matching and easier to work under.”

– “Use a cordless hot glue gun for large dimensional projects – no cables or restrictions!”

– “Use up all your scraps of paper making flowers. Use your Die’sire Quilling dies on all those spare strips and keep in a container until needed.”

Make sure you check back with us next Saturday, when we will be introducing you to another Design Team member!