Hi Rachel
Congratulations you have won a place on our Crafter's Companion Design Team 2014.
We were so impressed with your creativity and cannot wait to have you join the team.
I was completely stunned, I really expected to receive a rejection - I’d already had one the previous year (but I’m persistent if nothing else!). I can tell you, I bawled my eyes out, and kept doing it every time I thought of the enormity of what had just happened.
Then, once that finally subsided, I started to feel sick to the pit of my stomach, they were bound to realise very quickly that they’d made a mistake, I was not good enough to be on the design team and then I would face the humiliation of leaving the team. What if I was given a DT assignment that I did not like? I was not sure how I would cope, what if I couldn’t make enough samples and let them down?
Thankfully, I did not let the little voice of doubt in my head stop me from accepting the position on the team. I was so lucky with my first assignment which was working on the gorgeous Barkley collection - this was one of my makes
I cannot tell you how much I held my breath waiting to be told that I was indeed as rubbish as I thought and that they would find someone to replace me, but it didn’t happen!!!!
Don't get me wrong, there have been collections that when I first saw them I thought, this is not me, this is not my style, how on earth am I going to make something with this. I did not let this stop me, and you know, one of the collections that I felt like this about was Downton Abbey. I know many of you watched Downton Abbey religiously, but I never did, so thought that it would not appeal, but as soon as I started looking through the papers and toppers on the CD, I realised that if I just ignored the name, it was a most INCREDIBLE collection - it became, and still is, one of my favourite collections.
Then, after a couple of years, I was even luckier that Jo McKelvey, who was head of the team at the time (still miss you Jo), asked me to join the Die'sire design team - so then I got to play, not only with the gorgeous CD's and stamps from Crafters Companion, but those stunning dies too!!! this was the first collection I got to play with.
Don't get me wrong, there have been collections that when I first saw them I thought, this is not me, this is not my style, how on earth am I going to make something with this. I did not let this stop me, and you know, one of the collections that I felt like this about was Downton Abbey. I know many of you watched Downton Abbey religiously, but I never did, so thought that it would not appeal, but as soon as I started looking through the papers and toppers on the CD, I realised that if I just ignored the name, it was a most INCREDIBLE collection - it became, and still is, one of my favourite collections.
Then, after a couple of years, I was even luckier that Jo McKelvey, who was head of the team at the time (still miss you Jo), asked me to join the Die'sire design team - so then I got to play, not only with the gorgeous CD's and stamps from Crafters Companion, but those stunning dies too!!! this was the first collection I got to play with.
I have had the most amazing 4 years on the team, learned so much, and still think that eventually they will find someone to replace me, but so far, so good. Don't get me wrong, I have made the occasional bad design, and sometimes, makes that I think are awful turn out to be everyone else's favourites - keeps you on your toes!
I love working for Crafters, my next ambition would be to get paid to craft in some way. I did tell my current employer that if I could get a job in crafting I would be gone in a heartbeat - he wasn't very happy with this, funnily enough he thought I do my day job for love and not the income! Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my day job, but it is a means to an end and not an end in itself, and that's where I'd like to head.
I've even been given the opportunity to work with one of Sara's Signature ranges (I usually buy them all anyway!), this is one of my favourite makes from the awesome Flutterby collection.
Anyway, in the meantime, I will continue to throw my heart and soul into making my designs for Crafters Companion and hope they don't notice how bad I am!
Sorry I've been AWOL for so long, I will try and update my blog more often.
TTFN
Rach
x
I love working for Crafters, my next ambition would be to get paid to craft in some way. I did tell my current employer that if I could get a job in crafting I would be gone in a heartbeat - he wasn't very happy with this, funnily enough he thought I do my day job for love and not the income! Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my day job, but it is a means to an end and not an end in itself, and that's where I'd like to head.
I've even been given the opportunity to work with one of Sara's Signature ranges (I usually buy them all anyway!), this is one of my favourite makes from the awesome Flutterby collection.
Anyway, in the meantime, I will continue to throw my heart and soul into making my designs for Crafters Companion and hope they don't notice how bad I am!
Sorry I've been AWOL for so long, I will try and update my blog more often.
TTFN
Rach
x
