Welcome!! I am super excited to be a part of the Creative Blog Hop. A big THANK YOU to Cindee Wilkinson for asking me to participate!! Cindee is a great stamping friend of mine, she has a wonderful blog that you can check out
HERE.
I wasn't sure what to share with you, that is until the December My Paper Pumpkin showed up in my mailbox. I have been obsessed with sequins, confetti and shaker cards for months now so when I saw the kit for this month I literally squealed with delight!
A whole kit of SHAKER CARDS!! How did they know???!!! I have to tell you that they did a bang up job with this kit, the cards are so FUN and EASY to make..it's foolproof!
Is this awesome or what?! I made all three card styles in the same sitting. This first card used the birthday greeting and I made it fairly true to the sample they showed. I added a couple little extras to the outside for a little extra happiness.
I also went along with the sample for this second card. I love the colors from this kit, the Basic Gray card base really makes the colors pop!
Now, the last card was a bit different. I added in a stamp set and changed things up just a little.
I used Something to Say for the background on this one, it worked really well! I simply collage stamped the whole card front with the star and the "Thank You" in Basic Gray. Here's what it looked like before I added the shaker portion.
I thought this was a great way to add a little twist to the regular version. You could even add flowers or birthday cakes and candles to the backgrounds to go with the other sentiments.
Before I get into the Creative Blog Hop questions, I wanted to share a few tips for the kit this month.
Tip 1: Cut apart the confetti star sheets and use each color strip as a border on a card or scrapbook page.
Tip 2: Punch shapes from the extra open areas on the pages of sentiments. I punched out stars and added them to the card easily since they already had adhesive!
Tip 3: Save any extra bits of the dimensional strips. I found that I had a small amount of overhang from the larger strips so I saved all the extra little bits for making more shaker cards!
Tip 4: Add in other stamp sets and make the card unique!
Tip 5: Store your kit in a wood stamp case. The sentiment pages were too long, so I tucked them into the lining that goes around the case to hold the cover...fit perfectly!
OK...now for the four questions about creativity.
1. What are you working on?
Right now I am in between projects. I have finished up Christmas cards and waiting on new products from the upcoming catalog. So, in the mean time, I am going to clean up my craft room to get ready to dive into the new catalog.
2. How does your work differ from others in your genre?
I'm not sure how different I am from other stampers, but I do have a few things that I tend to do. I like crisp and clean cards for the most part. I will do a little shabby chic here and there, but I like things neat and tidy. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I want each card to be just so! I also tend to get obsessed with different products and use them A LOT. Right now it's sequins, stars and confetti. I have to have one of those three things on my card before I call it finished!
3. Why do you create what you do?
Because I love it! Stamping is therapy for me. So creating for me is stress relief and a sense of accomplishment all rolled into one. I have always been crafty and Stampin' Up! has given me the perfect outlet for my need to make beautiful things. I am on several Design Teams that help push my creativity in different directions. I love to have the sketches and challenges to inspire my work.
4. How does your creative process work?
I am totally OBSESSED with Pinterest, so I have a constant stream of inspiration. I save ideas that spur new ideas for me when I need them. When I have a sketch to do a card for or just want to make something on my own, I sit down and look through my stamps to see what jumps out at me. A lot of the time I have a certain set that I'm really into so in that case I look to Designer Series paper to get my creativity jump started. When I'm making a card, I get it done in one session. If I find that I am having a creative block, I leave it sit for a little then come backed when I am refreshed and look at the card with a new perspective. Some of my best cards have started out with one idea then ended in a completely different way!
To keep the hop going, I have nominated
Mary Brown and
Connie Babbert as the next two artists. Both of these ladies have been a HUGE inspiration to me and are very talented. I am very grateful to be on the Design Team for their
Create with Connie and Mary blog and I know you will enjoy learning more about how they create.
Thanks so much for hanging out with me today and learning a little bit about how I create. I hope you will stop back to see more of my work!
Happy Stamping!
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