Meet our newest Design Team members!

Happy Monday, I hope it's a great start for your week - it's certainly a great start for our week, because...

We have two wonderfully talented ladies joining our design team!  Please join me in welcoming Marianne Johansson and Kim Arledge to the Scraps of Darkness Design Team!

Hi all! Let me introduce myself a little bit more.

I am a girl (yes, I’m still a girl even though I’ve lived over 50 years LOL) living in Hamar, Norway.

Hamar is located a  little outside Oslo, the Capital in Norway. Here we live, my man and our two darling daughters aged 15 and 11.

I’m working 80% as an office clerk, doing orders, invoices etc.
On my spare time I spend lots of hours in my crafting room. Love taking pictures as well, but hasn’t been so much of that the last year. Suddenly my objects (as in our two daughters) grew up and weren’t so interested in joining me outside or being photographed.

Love the old bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple etc.  And I’m totally in love with Johnny Depp LOL. Seen most of his movies and drag my darling to the movies every time there is a new film with him! (he has accepted my passion for JD and is lurking with me)

I started my creative adventure some time ago, just after our youngest daughter was born. Think it was during 2004. A lot of my internet friends had started with scrapbooking and I was curious about what they were doing. Received a ”start-kit” from one of my friends and started making layouts.

They were really simple and I was really afraid doing something wrong. Very obsessed with ”scrapbooking rules”, very accurate, didn’t dare to tear papers, they had to be cut very precise!! LOL

After a couple of years I felt that layouts were to ”big” for me and started making cards. Sold some of them to friends and at markets. Joined a few competitions and saw that many people liked my cards.

But a few years ago something happened. I joined a new forum for creative ladies (yes, sorry to say, but we are just ladies/girls).I was very inspired by those ladies and one of them challenged me all the time to try new things, new techniques. I just LOVED it!! Loved the challenges and my whole creative world changed. Now I’m not afraid of new things, I make my own rules – well….. I think there are no rules LOL

I got  very interested in mixed medium and started painting. On canvas. Small canvases. Haven’t the room and space to do large one (for the time being) but have done a few the past years. I have also been teaching some classes in both Art Journal, tags and backgrounds.

I don’t think I have a significant style. At least I don’t think so myself. I can make a really clean&simple layout for so doing a really mixed media layout with lots of papers and embellishments.

I have been designing for the Norwegian designer Vibeke Spigseth - Poppydesign for a few years now. She designs pattern papers and stamps. I am also designing for  7Dots Studio – Producer of pattern papers. Many of you have probably heard about Finnabair, one of the two girls who design papers there. An incredible creative girl!! And for Art Anthology, love their mists and different kinds of paint!

 Hi, my name is Kim Arledge, married to Duane and mother to Landon, Caleb, and Abigail. I am a stay at home mom and a transplant to the big state of Texas. We have been here for a little over 8 years now and have made it a place we like to call home.
 In 2006, I was introduced to what would soon become my grandest obsession. I began with Creative Memories and very soon after, craved more and thus opened my eyes to a world I could have never imagined. I have enjoyed serving on sketch sites, kit clubs, manufacturing teams and published in a couple of magazines. This is such an amazing hobby that allows creativity to stretch beyond the imagination but also and most importantly, to tell our stories.
Other hobbies of mine include photography, reading paranormal romance novels and spending every available moment with my adorable family. A few other random facts....I love coffee, sweet tea, rainy days, Pride and Prejudice, t-shirts and pajama bottoms, country music (although I love to throw in some Michael Buble' or Harry Connick Jr.) LSU football, and shopping shamelessly at Archievers.

 Can't wait to see what you ladies do with our kits!

And with exciting new beginnings, sadly we have endings, as well.

I'd like to thank Rachael Funnell and Kristie Taylor for all the beautiful work you've done with our kits.  It's been a pleasure having you on the team!