Saturday, January 3, 2015

January Leading Lady Taheerah Atchia | Take One

Today are overjoyed to introduce our January Leading Lady, Taheerah Atchia.   Taheerah has been a shining star in the crafting community with her energeticgregarious and friendly nature along with her awesome talent and ability to organize the community for worthwhile events like the blog hop to thank Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking magazine last month.  When thinking of who to invite for our birthday month naturally Taheerah came to mind as the perfect person and it also happens that January is her birthday month too.  It was meant to be!  

Over the next few Saturdays in January Taheerah will be leading us on a journey of her own design and imagining.  Make sure to visit her blog, Fill Your Paper with the Breathings of Your Heart, to see more from her and for a chance to win a giveaway!    

Give Taheerah a big round of applause to welcome her as she steps onto the stage for her first performance as our January Leading Lady!   


Hey everyone! Happy Saturday!!

I have been waiting for today for what feels like *forever*! I am beyond excited, thrilled and honoured that I was asked to be Winnie & Walter's Leading Lady for this month!!!



This time last year I immediately fell head over heels for their fantastic designs and wonderful theming of their products and releases and the whole shebang!! I got myself some of their stamps as quickly as I could and if you visited my blog last year you'll know how much I love their fun designs, especially the large sentiments with the handwritten style!!

Before we continue, some intros. :-)



I'm Taheerah Atchia and I'm a 30-plus-a-few Londoner now living in the North West of England with my beautiful cats. I work in IT by day and craft by night! I love all things geeky - having a background in science and working in my profession I guess that can't be avoided! I've always been creative but stamping and cardmaking have truly captured my heart and my imagination. I love experimenting with most styles and am definitely a huge lover of trends. You can find my work on my blog where I also host my own challenge - Cure For The Monday Blues! I really thrive on pushing my skills and creative eye to the limit, so my work is frequently packed with techniques, outside-the-box uses of product, and clever details! That's why Winnie & Walter and I are a match made in Heaven! Their fabulous products fit perfectly with my love for fresh, trendy and edgy design!!

So when I had that magical e-mail from Shay & Julie asking if I would be their Leading Lady, you can bet I screamed the house down and replied with a 'Yes! Yes! A hundred times, yes!!'

And then I found out that I would be the Leading Lady during their birthday month. And I just about fainted.



NOT ONLY do I get to bring you some new and fun projects every Saturday for the entire month of January on the Winnie & Walter blog, but I also get a front row seat to all the birthday celebration fun they'll be having too! AND January is my birthday month too, so I felt even more like a pampered star, with my birthday being celebrated in a very special way! I feel utterly spoiled and can't thank Julie & Shay enough for their hospitality and generosity!!

AND THERE'S MORE!!!

Julie and Shay very generously offered to sponsor my Cure For The Monday Blues Challenge for this entire month too!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!



So not only do I get to bring you some inspiration every Saturday (& a giveaway for those posts too!!) but you also get the chance to win prizes for my challenge also!!!

January is going to be an *amazing* month.

So, let's get straight to it, shall we?!

Seeing as this news and w&w's birthday *and* my birthday have made me all super happy, I decided that my first appearance would be a 'Trio of Happy'. Have you ever noticed that in fancy restaurants one of the dessert options quite often is a 'trio of something', with three different desserts around the same theme? Well, that's the philosophy I'm embracing here!

So, I bring you a Trio of Happy, featuring the Winnie & Walter The Big, the Bold and the Happy Cutaways dies!

My first card embraces the positive (& negative!) and combines a collage-like style with plenty of white space:



I love how this turned out!!



I die cut the 'happy' and also the 'joy' (from The Big, the Bold and the Merry Cutaways) from Pure White cardstock and then backed the negative panel onto some patterned paper with some Pinflair Glue Gel for dimension. On my base I used the Scenery: Big Bang Sci-Fi Star Creative Screenings screen and spritzed with gold mist before adding some stamped sci-fi stars from Scenery: Big Bang Confetti. I added two of the positive die cuts on top of the panel for a finishing touch. I love the light and airy feel this card still has despite having a lot going on!

Next up, I blended Distress Inks and created a very different result:



Isn't that so bright and cheerful?!?! The colours are based on the w&w logo!!



I blended Distress Inks onto a panel of cardstock then overstamped with the sequins from Scenery: Big Bang Bling in the corresponding colour. I then die cut the happys, before swapping them round and adhering back in place with an inlaid die cutting technique. I added the supporting sentiment from The Big, the Bold and the Happy, heat embossing it onto a strip of black cardstock for contrast!

So, collage, bright ink blending, what next?! How about clean and pure and light:



I love the bright, light feel of this! Perfect card for a guy or a gal!



I die cut two of the happys from vellum, folding and unfolding the vellum first before die cutting along the fold so that the words would pop up. :-) I adhered them, with dimensional glue gel, to a panel splattered with a little gold mist, along with one of the spare cardstock happys from the first card, and kept the rest clean and white to let it do the talking. :-)


So, that's my Leading Lady debut! What do you all think? I've had *such* fun putting these cards together, so I can hardly wait for next week! I hope you feel the same way! :D I want to once again extend my sincerest thanks to Julie & Shay for giving me this opportunity! I cannot tell you how much it means to me, and I hope I'll do you girls, and your amazing products, justice!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you left some love before you went on your way!!


w&w supplies used:

49 comments:

  1. I'm a fan of Taheera's creations! She's going to rock this month as Leading Lady!

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  2. A big shout out for Taheerah!!!!! I'm such a fan of her work...way to rock the W&W goodness!

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  3. Loving Taheera's gorgeous creations! Jo x

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  4. That is a whole lot of happy! Love it.

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  5. Gorgeous cards! My fave is the last one in Black & White.

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  6. nice to meet you Taheerah and TFS :D

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  7. So excited to see Taheerah here! These are fabulous cards!

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  8. Taheerah's cards are, indeed, happy making! Soooo beautiful!
    ~c

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  9. Love your work Taheerah! And these cards are amazing ... Can't wait to see more from you :)

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  10. A wonderful post for the first Saturday of your Leading Lady spot! The last card is my favorite, but I love the others, too.

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  11. Brilliant cards, Taheerah ... what a fantastic way to showcase W&W's amazing stamps and cutaways! Anita :)

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  12. SO love ALL of these cards, Miss T!!! Congrats, Miss Lady!!!

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  13. I absolutely LOVE all your work! These are spectacular! You are the perfect Leading Lady for this super eventful month! Congrats!!

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  14. she's awesome and her cards are even more awesome ;D

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  15. Love! Happy birthday month! Mine is in January too!

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  16. Your cards are incredibly artistic and stunningly beautiful. Thanks so much.

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  17. Happy happy happy birthday to both Taheerah and W&W! Lovely cards as usual lovely T :)

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  18. HUGE CONGRATS Taheerah, three FABULOUS W&W cards - LOVE!!!

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  19. Congratulations!! Your cards are FABULOUS!!!

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  20. Fabulous--I like your Trio of Happy!

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  21. awesome creativity!! beautiful cards..
    -Berina
    Moxie Craftie

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  22. Welcome and your cards
    are so pretty! I really
    like the bright colored
    one!
    Carla from Utah

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  23. Yeahh to Taheera and Happy Birthday to W&W!

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  24. Wow! Another fantastic Leading Lady. Great inspiration with these amazing cards! Thanks!

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  25. SO MUCH HAPPY!!!

    HAPPY Birthday Taheerah :)
    HAPPY Birthday Winnie & Walter :)
    HAPPY ME - I LOVE HAPPY cards :)

    THANK YOU for sharing your FABULOUS cards and CREATIVE INSPIRATION, I looking forward to being more adventurous with my stamps, inks & dies and making HAPPY cards!!!

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  26. Great cards look forward to more and joining your blog thank you for being here:)

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  27. The cards are so pretty. The white one suffers in comparison because it is so plain but is a good way to use the cuts from the first card.
    Happy Birthday. What fun to be able to celebrate all month long.

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  28. All of your cards are beautiful and unique. I absolutely love the distress ink one with the inlaid words. So pretty! Congratulations. Quite an accomplishment.

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  29. So gorgeous and so many different, inspiring ideas. Can't wait for her next post!!

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  30. So in love with this trio of cards!!! So very excited about Taheerah being the Leading Lady!!!

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  31. Great cards i love love love the bold colours , so vibrant :) Looking forward to seeing more from Taheerah.
    Kate xx

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  32. Love your cards!!!! Just fabulous and so fun! Thank you for sharing and can't wait to see what else you have in store for us!

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  33. AWESOME cards!!! Can't wait for her next post!!!

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  34. Like every different take on this!

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  35. What great cards! I love them all! The colours of the one made with distress inks are simply amazing! Thank you for sharing!

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  36. Wow, I love all 3 cards so much!! Amazing how you've found the balance of an explosion of colour and subleness (is that a word?) at the same time - can't say which one is nicer, I love them all!!
    www.CraftedBySteph.blogspot.com

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  37. Such an adorable beautiful cards, love them. TFS.

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  38. What a debut! The blended distress ink card is absolutely gorgeous!

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  39. fun and bright cards by taheerah.. always loved your work :)

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  40. Such fun cards..love the repeated sentiments.

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  41. Amazing how different each card looks though you maintained a similar layout. Fabulous cards Taheerah!

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