Designer Spotlight: Tracy Evans

This week we’re sharing a bit about the wonderful Tracy Evans! You’ve seen her work with Sheena Douglass and our Die’sire range; now you get the chance to read all about her!

“I have been crafting for 15 years (my main passion being Rubber Stamping) and I still have the same passion to create as the first day I started, and love nothing more than a challenge and love to think outside the box when producing any creative pieces.”

“My personal motto is – as long as I continue to enjoy the journey I will continue to be passionate in my creative endeavours. When I am not sitting in my craft room beavering away, you will find me hunting around antique stores searching for that unique piece or digging in my garden waiting for inspiration to strike. I take such inspiration from my garden particularly colour combinations, which often influence my colour choices in my creative ventures. I am all about the little details, they complete a piece for me and make a creative piece unique, something I strive to maintain and will continue to do so for as long as I craft. I have written for and been published in many magazines and serve on a number of Design Teams. I love to dabble with many products new and old and work hard to keep my pieces individual and true to my personal style. I love to inspire others and still gain a huge buzz from creating with new or old products, in fact I love breathing new life into old products and showing our readers how to use all products in a new way.”

“My style is eclectic, moving from grungy to vintage to the embellished look and on a rare occasion I will even attempt clean and simple. I also love the collaged look and love nothing more than to use a stamp in many different creative ways and I will often use just part of a stamp in my creations. Stamping is my passion; stamps are so versatile and you can manipulate an image in so many different ways using an array of wonderful techniques. I love the distressed look and my creative pieces often showcase this, distressing with tools, Distress Inks, tearing and ripping, using sprays or even using tea bags to age my pieces, whatever it takes!”

“I love resist techniques using embossing powders, I have a passion for Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel and love the triple embossing technique and stamping into UTEE to add wonderful texture to a project. I love using embossing folders in my creations as I love the texture and dimension they add; texture is also important in my creative pieces and I will incorporate as often as I can. Brushless watercolour is also another of my favourite techniques along with the fabulous Riveted Patchwork technique from Tim Holtz. I have a passion for Distress Inks and their wonderful ability to react with water, they create fantastic backgrounds and are my must have ink, I cannot be without them. At the moment I have an addiction to embossing paste especially when used in conjunction with masks, again adding wonderful texture to a project. I also love my dies, i could not be without them, they add endless possibilities for use in our creative pieces. The list goes on, I think crafting has now become an obsession for me and long may it continue!”

“This is me, A CRAFT ADDICT – Tracy Evans.”

And here are a few hints and tips from Tracy!

~ When using your die cutting machines to die cut a shape, do not bin the aperture that is remaining, this makes a fabulous stencil. Try die cutting from acetate and keeping the die cut and the aperture to use as stencils.

~ When creating backgrounds with your rubber stamps add white highlights with a white gel pen, this really lifts the images and makes them pop.

~ If you are cutting out an image and adding to a background or decorative paper, outline the image with a black charcoal pencil. for definition.