Pictured above: Julie McGuffee (left) Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Julie McGuffee
Originally from England, Julie now lives in the United States where she turned her hobby into a professional career as an arts and crafts designer. With a background in decorative painting, Julie has designed projects and written instructions for over 30 books. She writes two columns on a monthly basis for a nationally distributed crafts magazine and has appeared on numerous TV shows. Julie is also a regular guest on the popular Public Television show, "Hands On Crafts for Kids".  She has also appeared as a guest and co-host of "More Than Memories".

In 1996 Julie and fellow designer Jean Kievlan formed their own design services company. They work with leading manufacturers in the arts and crafts industry to help promote and develop quality product lines.

Visit Julie's website at: http://www.juliemcguffee.com/

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is a self-taught mixed media artist and avid scrapbooker. She has been making art for as long as she can remember and loves the process of creating. “I believe that mistakes are creative opportunities and hold fast to the notion that enjoyment of the process is just as important as the finished product! I like to think outside of the box — experimenting with paper, paint, and fabric — always trying to find a way to push my supplies further and see all the possibilities.”

Julie has been published in many magazines including Cloth Paper Scissors, Quilting Arts, Creating Keepsakes, Better Homes & Gardens’ Scrapbooks Etc., Memory Makers, Scrapbook Trends, Somerset Memories, Somerset Digital, scrapbooking m.m. (Sweden), Scrapbooking & Beyond, Simple Scrapbooks, Histories de Pages (France), books by Leisure Arts, F&W Publications, and Quarry (upcoming), as well as multiple e-zines. She has appeared several times on Quilting Arts TV (PBS) and hosted the “Artist to Artist” segment on Scrapbook Memories TV (PBS).  Julie’s hour long instructional DVD “Collage Fast & Furious” was released in July 2010 by Interweave.  

Julie and her husband live in a tiny apartment with a big art studio in the middle of New York City. 

Julie blogs her art adventures at www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com.  Follow her Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/BalzerDesigns.

Beth Madland started scrapbooking as a child when she made end-of-year albums during junior high and high school. In fact, Beth remembers trading Mrs. Grossman's "stickers by the yard" when she was in 6th grade. But Beth really got involved about five years ago when she walked into her first scrapbook store and discovered the wonderful world of acid free paper and stickers.

Beth spent eight years in television news as a reporter, videographer, producer and eventually hosted the number one morning news show in Lexington, Kentucky. On one of her shows, "Let's do Lunch," Beth started producing "Scrapbooking Tips of the Week" in conjunction with a local scrapbook store. Having more fun demonstrating crafts and scrapbooking on TV than covering the latest hard news story, Beth searched for work on a scrapbook TV show and left news behind.

When she's not cropping and pasting photos and stickers, Beth enjoys spending time with her new husband, Will and their two big dogs. Beth lives in North Dakota.