Taheerah Atchia

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! And welcome to the next in the series of  #FollowFriday!

Those of you who are avid Twitter users may be familiar with the term ‘Follow Friday’ or #FF. In a nutshell, people take to Twitter with the hashtag #FF to promote other users they suggest you follow. It’s a great little way to give people a shout-out and for a while now I’ve wanted to introduce a similar idea in blog form! It’s going to be an awesome way for me to give a shout-out to other designers I think *you* should be following if you don’t already do so!

I’ll be bringing you this feature every Friday and highlighting around 5 designers worthy of a special mention! It’s going to be so awesome!

So without further ado, may I present this week’s #FF designers:

Donna Mikasa – Three Umbrellas

There are great CAS designers, then there are some – very few – that transcend ‘greatness’ and move onto something else entirely. Donna is one such individual. She does CAS like nobody’s business. But this is no ordinary CAS. Oh no. I have very rarely come across anyone who can pack their cards so full of technique and trend and colour and individuality – yet still look magically uncluttered, and beguilingly simple. Her designs always pack a punch and a touch of genius that no-one else would come up with, her composition is mm perfect – and she knows just when to stop. Oh, and she just so happens to rock gold as if she had spent a lifetime crafting with bullion. For that alone she gets +20 cool points from me. Many call her the Queen of CAS – I’m going to call her the Empress as it seems more fitting of her majesty.

Elena Roussakis – Just ME Prints

My fellow Gallery Idol alumna, all-round sweetheart with sass and talent to boot, Elena does cute like no-one else can. It’s not even easy to pinpoint a specific reason for why her cards, tags and generally everything she creates are hugs made from cardstock – it’s just pure natural talent. Her specialist subject may be cute, but this girl can also rock more graphic, vintage and CAS styles too – all with her signature style of course. That’s ‘grown-up cute’, I guess. And her talents don’t stop at paper crafts. This hostess with the mostest puts on spreads and décor that rival the most successful party planner. Every detail, and I mean *every* detail is considered, planned and executed to perfection. And I’m not even doing her enough justice with that statement. I wish I lived close by so I could be one of those lucky guests – but I would settle for even a fraction of her ‘cute’ talents instead. And a piece of cake.

Heather Pulvirenti – Witty Title Here

One word: colour. Okay, you probably want more than that. More words then: bold, outstanding, and brilliant. Heather has a gift in the hues department. Her designs can incorporate many different supplies and even cross the boundaries between styles, but one commonality in them all is her intuition and perfect choice of colours. Her combinations would probably seem like they would never ever work – but herein lies her talent: she makes them work thanks to her combination of a perfect eye, proper balancing of elements and dead-on composition. Her work is the perfect tonic if you need cheering up, and even if you don’t your visit is highly recommended as it’ll fill your day with sunshine and brilliance.

Suzanne Dahlberg – Freshly Noted

Each one of my highlights this week has their own unique special skill. Suzanne’s is patterns. I don’t know how she does it, but she has the ability to combine patterns of all types, colours and styles and out of it emerges something cohesive where everything looks like it belongs. Her stamping and composition and colours are of course perfect, but it’s her special skill that keeps wowing me over and over again. Last year we both participated in the Online Card Classes Pattern Play class. Obviously they don’t know who she is, because if they did she would have been teaching it. I’d be doing her a disservice though if I said that was all that she excels in. Her style is varied and always contains something of interest, but above all, everything is pretty. Insanely, sugar-coated, giggle-inducing pretty. And clever too. Patterns plus style plus pretty plus clever? You’ve gotta check her out to see how that works.

Savannah O’Gwynn – Savannah Land 2

My final selection this week is someone who in Wimbledon terms would probably be dubbed a ‘wildcard’. Savannah is somewhat of a crafting enigma. I can’t say exactly what her style is, except to call it eclectic. Savannah can go from cute to collage to stylish to bold all within one breath, it seems. Her designs always feature something unexpected and special and different. Her colours can be anything from soft to masculine to edgy – and everything in between. You can tell that this is a girl who can do it all, and with style all her own. She frequently leaves me giddy with what she does, and her output is phenomenal. Probably one of the most interesting designers I have known, and one I frequent most often when I am in need of an ‘x-factor’ injection.

So there we are folks – your Follow Fridays for this week!! Give them a cheer!! Please do stop by their blogs and follow them, give them some love, stare in awe, then come away inspired to try a million new things! I’ve also set up a special Pinterest Board to keep track of all my #FollowFriday featured designers!

I hope you love this new feature of mine – I would love some feedback on it! Thanks so much for stopping by – I would love it if you left some love for these ladies as you head on your way!