My name is Åshild Halvorsen, I am 50 years old and I live in Fyresdal in Telemark. I am starting to have a long experience in papercrafting, and have also been lucky to have it as a job for a 15 years. What started with the world's simplest Christmas card, with a stamp and small stamp pads in gold and silver, has somehow grown to fill an entire room with plenty of equipment and a daily life of almost daily creative fun. I like that!

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I spend my time being creative primarily because I just love it. It makes me feel good to be in my studio, whether it's on good days or less good days. Just disappearing into the wonderful creative flow is top-notch medicine. But I've also had papercrafting as a job for 15 years, as the owner and editor of the Norwegian scrapbooking & cardmaking magazine "Ett trykk". It has given me so much – and perhaps best of all: friendships for life.

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I have held papercraft & mixed media classes since 2005, in most any styles and techniques. Today I feel confident in calling myself a "Mixed media artist" - and that gives me great freedom in both technique choices, material use and styles. I love to experiment, sometimes successfully – other times not... But in the experimentation lies the play, and that is my driving force. That's what I primarily want to focus on when I hold classes as well. I rarely come up with ready-made recipes and "just like that" projects. I cheer the will of putting distracting things like the neeed for control and thoughts of perfectionism away. Let's just let it go and embrace intuitive play – that's when it becomes fun!