Grab your winter weather gear and head up to Minnesota to visit with Heidi Blankenship today. Heidi has been a member of the 2008-2009 Design Team, and will be continuing on with our creative journey as a member of the 2009-2010 Spellbinders’ Design Team. Congratulations Heidi! I can’t wait to see what else you create.

How did you start crafting?
I have been doing some type of crafting ever since I was a little girl. My grandma was very crafty and I can remember she was always trying out new crafts and she would let me try them along with her. I received my first rubber stamps as a Christmas gift when I was seventeen and I have been stamping ever since.

What inspires you?
I can be inspired by everything around me, from my family to my supplies. But I would say most of my inspiration comes when I am listening to my favorite music.

What do you like to make?
I really enjoy making cards, but over the last year I have also found a love for altered projects. I love the challenge of being able to take something and completely change it up.

Tell us about your family.
I am married and my husband, Eric is wonderful and very supportive of my crafting. We have two boys, Dusty who is 15 and Evan who is 6. We live in Albert Lea, a small town in south central Minnesota.

How much time do you spend crafting?
That would depend on what kind of projects I am working on and any deadlines I have to meet and if I am teaching any classes. On the average I would say a minimum of 30 hours a week and sometimes more.

When do you usually craft?
I craft whenever I can! Once the kids are off to school and I have had a couple of cups of coffee I start in on my work for the day. I will work on my projects throughout the day in between all of the other not so fun stuff (cleaning, cooking and laundry—LOL!) until the kids come home. I also work on my crafting projects after the kids are in bed for the night.

Do you shop for supplies locally or online?
Both, I do try to shop locally whenever I can to support the local stamping/scraping shop but I also purchase several supplies online.

Please describe your style?
I think I have a very broad range of style, I can do the simple quick 5 minute cards to very detailed. I appreciate many different styles but I would have to say the style I am most drawn to would be vintage or artsy.

What has been the hardest thing to learn?
I think the most difficult thing is trying to keep everything organized. With paper crafting there are so many supplies from the very tiny to the larger items and all of the tools. I think this is something that most paper crafters are always looking for, new and different ways to store and organize our supplies. Please tell me I’m not alone in this! *wink* Being on several design teams, including JustRite Stampers has been a wonderful and challenging opportunity to stretch my creativity.

Do you teach classes?
Yes, I have been teaching classes for several years. I teach classes in my home twice a month and I have also taught classes at several stores and for community education. Currently I am also teaching classes at our local stamping/scrapbooking store, Scrapping on the Go.

What kind of craft space do you have?
I have a craft room down in our basement. Well, if truth be told I have taken over most of the basement except for the laundry area. The only problem with being in the basement in MN is that it gets really cold in the winter so I tend to move upstairs into the kitchen which is OK, but not ideal. So I am currently in the process of creating an additional space on the main level of our home that will be out of the way and not in the kitchen.

What else do you like to do?
I enjoy spending time with family and friends. I have enjoyed trying several different crafts over the years and painting is another favorite of mine. My mom and I took some painting classes together when I was younger I have been painting ever since. I also enjoy doing floral design, jewelry making, photography, listening to music and being outside gardening in the summer time. Since I like doing several types of crafts I also like to combine them with each other whenever I can.

Heidi wants to highlight these projects:

Heaven’s Flowers

I made three dimensional flowers using a paintbrush to curl the petals and foam tape. I also added some glitter and a little bit of bling to the Fancy Pants large flourish, as well as rub-ons from Fancy Pants.  I used S4-109 Flower Creations Three,  S4-121Doodle Parts,  S4-110 Classic Ovals Large,  S4-111 Classic Scalloped Ovals Large, and the Mystic font on this layout.

Rose Blossom Bird Feeder

I altered the bird feeder using a crafting foil and filled in the back to keep the rose shape from the die and then painted a base coat and colored with Copic markers. I  used S4-044 Rose Blossoms Edgeabilities,  S4-121Doodle Parts and S4-123 Flying Beauties die templates on this bird feeder.

Sweet Cupcake
Using the polka-dot die template from the S4-174 Deckle Scalloped Edge Petite Borderabilities I made a polka-dot background for the card. For the S3-156 Cupcake I used a mirror cardstock on the foil part and a combination of liquid applique’, brown ink refill and clear dimensional glaze for the frosting and added some beads for sprinkles. The mat for the cupcake is the S4-161 Labels One die template.

Thank you Heidi, we look forward to seeing more of your designs! To keep up with Heidi, you can see her bio and read her personal blog, Embellished Dreams.

Tags: Heidi Blankenship

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 6:50 am and is filed under Design Team 08, Designer spotlight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.