A couple weeks ago I was honored to receive an e-mail from the New Jersey Stamping Queen, Marie Flayer, nominating little ol' me for the Creative Blogger Award. Marie is a talented paper crafter and Close to My Heart consultant who made me feel welcomed when I first began blogging and has always encouraged me on my blogging journey. If you don't know her work, hop on over to her creative corner of the kingdom, NJ Stamping Queen, take a look at her fabulous and adorable work, and leave her some love. What is the Creative Blogger Award? Basically it is an invitation to join a blog hop where you answer four questions about your creative process. As you take the tour you might meet some new bloggers and be inspired. Thank you, Marie, for inviting me to join this group of creative women. Here are some links to the blogs of some of the other talented women who are a part of this tour. I encourage you to check them out if you don't know them already.
Now for the Questions:
What am I currently working on?
Except for putting together the care packages for the college students in my life and trying to resist the temptation to perform quality control checks on the chocolate, I have finished Halloween (even if the posts are not up yet). That means it is time to think Christmas! In addition to the usual cards and tags, I make gift bags by stamping and embellishing non-coated white bags. I have never posted them, but maybe I will this year. Stay tuned. The most pressing thing, though, is making the ornaments for my church's Advent trees. Our Advent trees are similar to the Angel Trees where you take a tag labeled with a need and fill it. We collect toys and clothing for a number of children's programs and schools. Here are a few leftover from previous years:
It is a little hard to tell in the photo, but all have sparkles or glitter glitz and most are inked with metallic ink. Let's just say that my Cricut comes in handy.
How does my work differ from others in its genre?
I can't say my work is unique, but I can tell you a little about it. I like to try different techniques, but my favorite is resist embossing. I love to play with color and often layer different colors of ink when I am sponging edges or resist embossing and I don't hesitate to bring in colors that are not part of the paper pack. I enjoy the challenge of coming up with ways to use stamps, papers, and embellishments that not how they are marketed to be used. I have made boy cards out of girly paper, Valentines in non traditional colors, birthday cards with Christmas stamps, and birthday, thinking of you and romantic cards using Halloween and Christmas paper. One of my favorites is this anniversary card that I made using Close to My Heart's Yuletide Carol paper and assortment pack:
Why do I create what I do?
For me, cardmaking is a combination of therapy and ministry. My life is complicated. While I am creating, my mind is occupied, and I don't think about those complications. When I am finished I have something that I can send to someone to brighten their day. In addition to the usual birthdays and special occasions, there are always people who need encouragement.
How does my creative process work?
All over the place, lol! I find a lot of inspiration in challenge blogs. As a matter of fact, I started this blog long before I was a Close to My Heart consultant because I had been following some challenge blogs and decided that I wanted to take the next step and enter my work. I will often start with an idea but find that as I work I am switching out papers and trying different embellishments and sometimes end up with something completely different. That is okay because I find that if I let go of my original plan and let the Holy Spirit take a hand in it I end up with something far more satisfying then what I had originally planned. For this card I had planned on using a new stamp to make cut outs of embossed leaves. It just wasn't working, so as you can see, I let go ended up with something else:
Sometimes, particularly when I am trying a new technique, I will make more than one version. I also try to lay my card out and walk away for a few hours. It is not unusual for me to come back later and see something I want to change. If I glue it down right away, I often regret it later. Although I am usually a go with the flow INFP, I am a very detail oriented perfectionist when it comes to my art. After all, a card is something you are going to give to someone.
Now that I have shared my creative journey with you, I get to send y'all to the next stop on this tour. It is my pleasure to nominate Becca Whitham, a crafter and a writer. She is constantly experimenting with new techniques and stepping out of her comfort zone and inspires me to do the same. She also totally rocks the clean and simple style! Check out her blog, Expressions, and go back next Monday, November 3rd, to get some insight into her creative process.
Thank you for stopping by! Until next time, Hansi
Great blog post! I'm so glad you accepted the nomination and I'm also glad that you are passing it off to Becca! Thanks for all the inspiration you've given me.
ReplyDelete:) Marie