Crafting Jewish Style New Design Team Members

After much deliberation and time we have finally put our new design team together. Thanks to all of you have submitted layouts and portfolios for consideration. (We look forward to seeing some of the submitted work on Guest Designer basis.)Please continue playing along with us!

Drumroll please.....DaDa Dummm..... our new team members (in alphabetical order) are:

Shir Benovich-Modiin,Israel
Aliza Deutsch- NY, New York
Julie Gelfand- Woodland Hills, California
Cassie S.-Denver, Colorado
Irit Shalom-Rehovot,Israel

We are so glad they are joining the Crafting Jewish Style design team and we want to share with you a little bit about them.

Shir Benovich




Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started scrapbooking:

I'm a QA engineer, working in a software company. Next week I'm starting a new role: QA Team Leader :-)
I started scrapbooking while I was pregnant with my first baby, Yaara (she is now 6 & half years). I knew I wanted to create a special album for my baby and I searched the internet and discovered this crazy-fantastic world!

How would you describe your style?

I think that I can define my style as Clean & Simple. I don't like messy work, but I like to try new techniques every once in a while.

How and when do you make time for scrapbooking?

I try to scrapbook everyday - my girls love to "create" with me and it's part of our everyday lives. After they go to sleep I usually scrapbook more, trying to create layouts, cards, participating in challenges, etc.


What are your 3 favorite products/tools and why?

My 3 favorite products / tools (these days, it changes from time to time :-)): Ink (pigment ink, for 'edge"-ing the papers), Sew Easy by We R Memory Keepers (it adds texture and although it takes time - I love the result!) and the third can be ribbons (I think they upgrade every layout and card). I love many other products & tools and if I think about it more I may change my selection, so I stop now :-)

Aliza Deutsch



Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started scrapbooking:


I am a preschool teacher, though (interesting tidbit) I stopped teaching for a few years and worked as a construction worker. I am now back at teaching, and I am loving it.
I started scrapbooking in about 2005. I always admired pretty papers, and art tools, but I felt like I wasn't artistic. Then a friend of mine, shared some of her patterned paper with me. I took out some books, bought a few paper punches, and I struggled with them till I started to make things that I liked.
At first, I only made cards, because a whole page was too intimidating. Then I got a small 6x6 album as a gift, and I began to work with photos. Little by little my confidence (and my collection of supplies) grew. I now refer to scrapbooking as my art work. Very recently, I have been using longer and longer journaling on my pages, and I am starting to think, "do I like writing too?" Could be.

How would you describe your style?

My style is definitely simple, with nice clean lines.

Do you have a favorite layout; describe?


I don't have one particular favorite layout. I like looking back at all the pictures and stories. Although, here's a recent one.



How and when do you make time for scrapbooking?

Making time for scrapbooking--well that is always a challenge. It helps that I am working part time this year, and that my kids are not so little anymore. Otherwise, it's just about making choices about how to spend my time. My home could be cleaner, I'd love to bake a bit more than I do, but I really want to capture our family memories, and create art more than those other things right now. I also used to go to sleep earlier, but realized I prefer those extra hours for scrapbooking.

What are your 3 favorite products/tools and why?

Hmm... favorite tools. I love tools (I refer you back to the construction worker tidbit). I think I love my paper trimmer most, my nice sharp scissors, and paper punches. Those punches were out of style for a while, and it seems they are having a comeback with so many new designs every day. I also recently bought "sew easy" that pierces your paper with patterns for different kinds of stitching. That is 4 tools, but I love it too, because I don't have a sewing machine, and I don't think there will be one in my near future.


Julie Gelfand




Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started scrapbooking:

I'm Julie Gelfand. I live in Woodland Hills, CA with my husband
Gregg, and 3 beautiful daughters. Carly will be 8 in April. Maya and
Hayden are 2 years, 2 months. And let's not forget two wacky dogs who
have been known to be escape artists.
I started scrapbooking in the summer of 2003 when Carly was about 3 months old. I caught "Scrapbooking" with Sandy Genovese somewhere on cable and thought
"wow, that's really cool. I want to do that." I found an "Intro to Scrapbooking" class at my local LSS, took the first class and stayed for the second "Beyond Basics" class right after. I was hooked.

When I'm not scrapbooking, I work part time as a freelance TV Associate Director. I work on mostly live variety and reality shows. Most recently, I worked on the Oscars Red Carpet show and I'll be working on about half of the upcoming season on "America's Best Dance Crew". My "regular" gigs are "Big Brother" and the Jerry Lewis Telethon. I bop around from show to show.
I also play the flute (flute, piccolo, alto and bass flute) and I play with a flute choir every Thursday. I'm a huge fan of the Los Angeles Kings. I'm also
busy with Carly's school (I do the school yearbook) and I'm on the
National Board of the Directors Guild of America (my union).


How do you make time for scrapping?


I am a busy mom but I do make time to do things for myself, which is
scrapbooking. Luckily, there's a regular crop that happens twice a month in my area which I really motivate to make at least one of the nights, and there's always other crops or weekend get aways that allow me to scrap and relax my brain.

How would you describe your style?

I'm not sure how I would describe my scrapping style. I think I'm a little bit of everything. Sometimes I do really simple scrapbooking and it's great. Other times, I put lots of elements, embellies, pictures on a page and that's great too. I do like to scrap more than one photo. There are times where one picture can say it all but I love to take pictures and there are times when it takes lots of shots
to tell the story.

Any favorite layouts you'd like to share?

I have lots of favorite LOs. Of the ones that I submitted, they're all a "favorite" for different reasons. I'll highlight two and explain why they're special to me.




My husband and I, when we first started dating, we made a joke about "making out at the Lincoln Memorial". We were in DC for a job and we had a friend take this picture of us. There were a bunch of people standing in front of Mr. Lincoln which I photoshopped out, LOL. It was a special moment for us and this photo captured the moment.




This LO was done pretty recently. This was taken right after I had
given birth to our twin girls. We didn't know if we were going to
have boys or girls so when Gregg came out to tell Carly that she had
sisters, she was thrilled. Lisa Spiegel (yes, DT Lisa) was also at
the hospital and was able to capture Carly's excitement. I treasure
this picture because it was it was just so pure.

What are your 3 favorite products/tools and why?

What are my three favorite products/tools? Just three, hmm. I love
Thickers. I have practically every font, color, style. It's the
perfect (IMO) product to label and create any title. I love my ATG
adhesive guns. I've been using Pop Dots a lot lately to add
dimension. I'm also a huge fan of anything Basic Grey (as you can
tell by my LO samples). I love that you can pretty much cut a couple
of patterned papers into a few different sizes, slap a photo on and it
works. Okay, not quite that simple but not that complicated either.
Sorry, 4 products are my current faves.



Cassie S.



Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started scrapbooking:

I'm a library technician at a law school library.
I started scrapbooking in 1998 when I was 17. My sister just had my first nephew and she wanted to make a scrapbook for him. I went with her to a scrapbooking store. I thought it looked fun so I bought some stuff. Twelve years later I now scrapbook for her.
How would you describe your style?

I think I have a very eclectic style. My pages really depends on my mood. Sometimes I go with very distressed and grungy look and sometime I go with more bright and airy layouts.

Do you have a favorite layout; describe?



I think my favorite layout is a layout I did about one of my husband and my date nights. It came together really quickly and was just inspired. I think it is very whimsical and has some great colors.

How and when do you make time for scrapbooking?

After my husband leaves for work in the morning I have about 30 minutes home alone before I have to go to work and I tend to get a lot done in that time. It is one of my most inspired times.

What are your 3 favorite products/tools and why?

I love Distress Inks because they are so versatile, Glimmer Mist because I love the dimension and flare it adds to projects, and I love my Fiskars craft knife because I do a lot of hand cutting and it is so handy.

Irit Shalom

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started scrapbooking:




I am a working dentist, mom of 4 grown ups. I'm married to a retired police officer and I'm a very new grandma to an adorable baby boy named Omer.
I've been crafting for ages, and scrapbooking for about 4-5 years. Two years ago I took a big jump into designing and blogging.
I was a polymer clay and jewelry making artist long before I knew scrapbooking and papercrafting existed at all. My only sister lives in NY. After visiting her there, and seeing all the shows, museums, etc, she gave me a scrapbooking class as a present, to chronicle the trip. This was a love from a first try! Now here I am,scrapping a layout a day, sometimes 2...


How would you describe your style?


My style is a shabby/vintage. I can scrap in any style, but not clean and simple.. When I try it simple- it goes to shabby.. One way, or the other...

How do you make time for scrapping?

As all my kids are grown ups(one married, one working in Spain and 2 girls are college students) and my DH loves to cook and buy groceries- I actually have a lot of time for crafting. I work part time, approximately 30 hours a week in a dental clinic , and all other time is mine. OK- not all, as we, my DH and I , dance our Israeli folk dances 2-3 evenings a week. we've been doing it for 15 years and it is a hobby that ties us together.

What are your 3 favorite products/tools and why?

My favorite products? Paper is a first and the most needed. You need paper to papercraft, don't you?
Then there are flowers, all kinds of- my own hand made, bought, any kind.
Most of all, I need my distressing tools and a lot of distressing inks!




Thank you ladies for sharing with us. We are amazed by your creativity, and are looking forward to see what will inspire you as Crafting Jewish Style design team members!

Tell us what you think about our new team members? Aren't they great?