New Faces For January

Wow!  I can't believe it's January already.  Hopefully you had a blessed, relaxing, enjoyable holiday season with your friends and family.

With the new year comes the addition of a few new faces to our line-up.  We're super excited to introduce them to you!  Before I do, however, I wanted to take a minute to say good-bye to two of our long-time team members, Sandy Domelle and Janette Olen.  Both ladies have taken a step back from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps to concentrate on the families for awhile.  We wish them the best of luck and send our prayers for success and happiness.  Don't worry, though - you'll still be seeing them around!

Now, on to our new faces for January.  I'm so pleased to announce that TWO new ladies are joining our Design Diva lineup!  First, we are welcoming back a familiar face, Amber Hillman.

I'm a SAHM mom to 4 kids, 2 puppies and babysit 3 yr old twins once a week. I started stamping when my (now 9 yr old) son was 2 weeks old! I learned real quick how to stamp with one hand and hold a baby in the other. From there my love grew to all things related to paper crafts. Besides stamping, I dabble in cake/cupcake decorating. I'm excited to be back home on the SNSS team.

We're also thrilled to welcome the enormously talented Giovana Smith!

Hi!! my name is Giovana E. Smith, born in Lima and raised in Callao, a main Port in Peru, a small South American country. Now, I live in Washington State with my American husband and beautiful daughter. We live in a very country area surrounded by farms and animals, I love it here very much, very peaceful place where you pretty much know all your neighbors :) I am a born-again Christian, the Lord has blessed me with so many things. He leads our house.

I think I've been crafty my whole life. When I was 5 or so I used to make clothes for my dolls, then I learned how to knit and cross stitch. I used to cross stitch big pictures and sell them for decorations, sometimes 1 picture took me about 4 months to finish. I started paper crafting about 6 years ago. My daughter was about 1 year and a half and she didn't let me cross stitch anymore, LOL, since then I have learned some many things, like being patient when something doesn't turn out the wait you want. I have been blessed enough to be part of several Design Teams and being published in different magazines. I teach once in awhile and I love it. English is my second language and I have an accent, but my daughter doesn't believe that, she thinks I speak without it :) I am so happy to join the Sweet & Sassy Design Team, hope you enjoy my creations and looking forward to knowing you more.

And, just because the new year should start with a bang, we have an amazing guest designer to introduce, too!  Please say hello to Lydia Fiedler!

My name is Lydia Fiedler and I have been papercrafting for more than 30 years - I try to produce some sort of art every day. Never using an iron or a duster really helps with this effort. I work in papercrafting for my real job also - as the Community Manager of Splitcoaststampers.com for Internet Brands, and I teach courses in Social Media for artists at local universities and conservatories and for art guilds. I blog at www.understandblue.blogspot.com and at www.projectreanimate.blogspot.com . I enjoy creating art for non-profits, and frequently donate art to fundraisers for animal rescue and educational organizations in my community. I live with my two furry rescued beasts - Maddie and Splotchy - and my husband Paul in the glorious God's country that is central Texas. In addition to to my stamping addiction, I'm also addicted to Pinterest, Google Reader and Angry Birds.

Hopefully, you've been keeping up with our great Sweet Peeks - we've got a fabulous release lined up for January! Stay tuned for the New Release blog hop this Thursday at 8:00 AM EST, and make plans to join us in our Member Company forums over on Splitcoaststampers Thursday night at 8:00 PM EST for our release party.  We'll have challenges, full reveals of the stamp sets, lots of fun chit chat, and maybe a surprise or two!