Made the Graphic 45 Design Team - 2013!!

I made Graphic 45's 2013 Design Team!! Pinch me, I am still dreaming!!

The competition from the beginning was fierce. If you browse the Ning site on any given day, you'll see pages upon pages of beautiful work from designers all over the world. Making the top 30 completely floored me - and to have made it to the end, well, there are no words! 

Exactly two years ago, I began my journey papercrafting. If you told me back then that I would be designing for the paper company that immediately caught my heart, I would've laughed! Well, all I can continue saying is THANK YOU to Graphic 45 and to all my beautiful blog friends who have supported and encouraged me. And of course, thank you GOD for leading me to the most amazing passion I could ever pursue!

If you haven't already, you should visit the top 16's blogs and final submission videos. I am STILL going through them all myself - I'm trying to watch them completely uninterrupted, so I can really enjoy and immerse myself in the new team!! These people are ridiculously talented; it's kind of scary, actually. So it's an honor to design alongside such greats. 

I wish all 30, heck, everyone who tried out could also be on the team ... I know what it's like to pour your heart into something and not get where you want to. That was me last year when I tried out. But you know, I didn't let disappointment stop me - and I encourage those of you who auditioned to keep on keeping on; to look for improvements in how you do things (I learned to take better photos, I pushed myself creatively and sought out teaching opportunities); and to simply not give up. If it's your dream, work at it with all your heart and one day it could come true! 

Enough of my Saturday morning diatribe - without further ado, here are the links to the final design team, taken from the Graphic 45 blog: 

1. Alberto Juárez– Spain

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVeTZqwDqZM&feature=youtu.be

2. Anne Elisabeth Rostad - Norway

FInal Round Submissions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NFx9h1_zo &

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNeXtR-96Gs

3. Annette Green– USA

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsOQKu61VKY&feature=player_embedded

4. Arlene Cuevas - USA

Final Round Submissions:

Tutorial Part 1 of 2 (Mixed Media tutorial): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUX6d7panGY&feature=youtu.be

Tutorial Part 2 of 2 (Scrapbook Page tutorial): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddbUIUAOWjQ&feature=youtu.be

5. Clare Charvill - United Kingdom

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McRozKrZuJI

6. Denise Hahn - USA

Final Round Submission: http://vimeo.com/63864642

7. Denise Johnson – USA

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rYzibe18Zs&feature=youtu.be

8. Karen Shady – Australia

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn7wZJFTNLU

9. Maiko Miwa – Japan

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd9TqvQL8A4

10. Maria Cole – USA (that's me!! holy smokes!!)

Final Round Submission: http://vimeo.com/64284925

11. Miranda Edney – USA

Final Round Submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SgGCKvmbls

12. Nichola Battilana – Canada

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTMEkFyCeY&feature=youtu.be

13. Olga Struk – Ukraine

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSHlFziFCmg

Bonus video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr1dEnStxS8

14. Rhea Freitag – USA

Final Round Submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsdhMhGgl14&feature=youtube_gdata_player

15. Romy Veul – Netherlands

Final Round Submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84LemloHz-c&feature=youtu.be

16. Susan Lui – Singapore

Final Round Submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-_so5_sYZU