About Me
Hello! My name is John Bloodworth, and I am a lover of all things creative, and have been so for over 35 years!
People often ask me “what is your favourite craft”. If I am honest, I don’t have one. The thing that I love the most is the creative process, the discovery and learning of techniques and always trying something new (to me at least).
I have previously worked as a TV producer for Create and Craft TV creating over 10,000 hours of content about all sorts of arts and crafts in my time there.
During that time, I also went on-air myself and demonstrated a range of products from some great brands like EK Success, CoLiDo, Spellbinders and, of course, Brother.
In 2015 I made the decision to leave that job behind and embark on a year-long tour of the UK to raise awareness for mental health through creativity, through an event called the All Counties Craft Challenge. This challenge was a HUGE undertaking and saw many challenges along the way, personal, technical, and professional. I am glad therefore that it also ended up raising over £24,000 for the charity, Mind.
Since then, I have been nominated for several awards for my work, been featured in multiple magazines and had the opportunity to create a range of products like a unique set of hot foiling dies for Couture Creations, a collection of original cutting files for Dalton Manor and to road test and design for Hatch, a world leading embroidery digitizing software creator.
I am currently working as a freelance designer/maker, mostly focusing on designing SVG cutting files for my Patreon page and teaching the Brother Scan N Cut via my new YouTube channel, @scanncuttutorials.
About My Time with the Scan N Cut
When I first heard about the Scan N Cut, in 2013, I was immediately hooked – the creative potential was unrivalled and the fact that I am still am avid enthusiast 10 years later, is testament to that.
As you can imagine, with this level of enthusiasm at the very outset, when I was asked to demonstrate it to a press-launch and then on TV during it’s launch, I was over the moon!
The one thing that I felt at the very beginning however was that there was a serious lack of information and instruction – nothing like the number of bloggers and vloggers – in fact, I remember there was just one that could be found! This led me to create a whole range of learning opportunities including in-person workshops, online courses, a Facebook group and, more recently, a whole dedicated YouTube channel called, Scan N Cut Tutorials.
The fact there is such a community of creators is really what keeps me going I think – it’s like a wee family.
About My Cutting Files
I first got into designing cutting files before I got into the Scan N Cut (because it hadn’t been released then) – it’s hard to believe that cutting machine technology has been around for more than ten years but there it is!
At that time, there were limited outlets, so I started offering them via my blog, gentlemancrafter.com
Since then, I have continued to develop and grow with the technology and now have a range of cutting files – from creative card bases to 3D projects – all available via my Patreon page.
Awards and Accomplishments
- Just Giving Awards 2017 – Most Creative Fundraiser of the Year
- The British Craft Awards 2017 – Papercraft Blog of the Year
- The British Craft Awards 2018 – Papercraft Blog of the Year
- Best of Craft Awards 2019 – Crafting Man of the Year
- Best of Craft Awards 2021 – Most Inspiring Blog of the Year
- Best of Craft Awards 2022 – Most Inspiring Blog
Links
You can find me at the following places:
- My Blog – www.gentlemancrafter.com
- Patreon (SVG Cutting Files compatible with Brother Scan N Cut, Silhouette, Cricut and Siser cutting machines) – https://www.patreon.com/GentlemanCrafterUK
- YouTube (Gentleman Crafter) – https://www.youtube.com/@GentlemanCrafterUK
- YouTube (Scan N Cut Tutorials) - https://www.youtube.com/@scanncuttutorials