Introducing our special June guest designer, Nanci Holtsford! I had the privilege of seeing Nanci's beautiful work up close while teaching in Texas last year and fell in love with her style and attention to detail! We are very excited to have her join our team this month!
Howdy! My
name is Nanci Holtsford! I live in
Lipan, Texas and I am a first grade teacher!
The best way to understand me and my art is to know these three words…I see shapes! It’s my story and I am sticking to it! I have been a horseman, a corgi lover, an
amateur photographer and an avid scrapbooker for about “forever”! Mind you, scrapbooking not in the sense the
world of scrapbooking has evolved today, but, I have always saved stuff,
collected stuff, and hoarded stuff that I thought I could use for something or
some creation. My grandmother’s love of
photos and my mother’s love of journaling ‘all things special’ filled my spaces
of creativity over the years. Thus, my
love of the camera and photography just naturally progressed to preserving the
pictures that I so dearly loved. And,
as an added bonus, I could take all the ‘stuff’ that I had collected and
hoarded over the years and use it to enhance my albums.
It wasn’t until my dearest friend, Patrice, talked
me into visiting the scrapbook store that I realized all those papers had a
world of potential! If I saw shapes, the
endless supplies of beautiful papers were screaming “PICK ME, PICK ME!” And,
now, I am a maniac when it comes to creating.
I say this because I don’t know the name of products or companies (I am
getting way better at this part); I just take the product and create. I get so engrossed in a task like creating a
tag, an album or pages that I cannot stop until it is complete. When Cat Beaty asked me to teach some classes at
her store in Mineral Wells, I realized that I didn’t know the name of
anything. I began stuttering and
stammering while in front of those talented adult students! How embarrassed I felt!!! But, there I had
nothing to fear as my
dearest compadre was right by my side telling everyone
the words that I couldn’t find in that jumbled up brain of mine! Is
that friendship love or what? So now, when I teach a class, I just
preface
it with “I don’t know the names of the items we are going to use but
you won’t
hurt my feelings if you just shout it out for me!”
Creating a finished product with attention to
details is my trademark! It’s those
details that tell the story! And, for
those of you that know me….a little bit of cowhide on everything is another story…and,
I am sticking to it too!!!
Fiddle layout - hand drawn and cut by Nanci as a gift to her son
Product
