CREATIVE CREW BLOG HOP!

Hi friends! Instead of my Clean & Simple Card series today, I have a treat for you. I am so excited that Pam Staples nominated me to participate in this elite blog hop! I'm very honored to be nominated! I made you a set of cards so this is photo heavy and the full instructions are under the cards. I also have the measurements for you that I cut the panels too, in case you want to make a card yourself using this sketch. It is very popular right now! 

There are only 3 rules that I have to do. 

1.  Create a project exclusive to the Creative Crew Blog Hop.

2.  Answer a few questions, and then…

3.  Nominate two other people who inspire me. 

I also had to answer 4 fun questions so you can get inside my head. It's a scary place!

1.  What are you working on? I'm working with the January Paper Pumpkin KIt (so very cool and awesome!) with the refill to make 24 beautiful Valentine's Day treats for my cousin's Valentine's Day party that she has every year, which is tomorrow and honestly, I haven't even started yet since I ordered the kit late and am feeling the pressure! I'm also finishing up one of my Boutique customer's special order and then have to Priority Mail it to her since they are Valentine's Day presents.

2.  How does your work differ from others in your genre? My signature style is distinctly and uniquely clean and simple. I use non-traditional colors for any type of holiday card and I can surprise myself every now and then creating a vintage chic card that actually ends up in a magazine since that is so not my style, but I somehow managed to pull it off. As a Paper Craft Crew Design Team Member, Pam uses a lot of layers and it's really a challenge for me to get out of my clean and simple box to pile on the layers. Pam had a sketch last week where one of her layers was the tail of a balloon and I was interpreting the sketches literally to where a layer meant a piece of paper, ribbon, something, but never imagined a stamp. A layer can be anything and I just learned that!

3.  Why do you create what you do? Paper crafting started out as an exciting new hobby for me, specifically card making, then it became an escape. I started stamping a little over 7 years ago and before that, I was an avid scrapbooker back in the Creative Memories day. I still scrapbook, but it's rare as I have so much catching up to to. Project Life has been a lifesaver! When my kids were little, I loved making them cards, gifts, their birthday party invitations, Thank You notes and banners for special occasions for them. I still make cards for my kids and now my grandson. I just never send them to them because they don't like receiving them. I loved making my husband cards. He would be sitting a few feet away from me watching TV (The HIstory Channel and I couldn't stand the same narrator on every. single. program.) and I would surprise him with a card. Making cards for Pete was always my favorite. He doesn't like buttons on his cards. If I got stuck, I would run a few ideas by him and he seriously influenced my work. My family just got tired of getting cards from me, even though I highly personalized them for a congrats on something, homemade sneakers on a card when my son ran track, my daughter cheerleading, the list goes on. 

Then the industry started to notice my work. I've been pretty prolific over the years from a challenge hostess at Splitcoast Stampers, to various design teams, magazine assignments to illustrating stamps. I feel I've come full circle, even though I still have some lofty personal goals I would like to achieve. Every time one of my cards gets selected to be published, I still get excited and surprised too as I would submit what I thought were definitely magazine caliber only to be sent an email that they wanted another card that I absolutely hated. It sort of became a rule of thumb for me to make something that I couldn't stand and submit it and it would get published. Weird. I know. But it works! For a long time, I still stamped but it wasn't fun because it was always assigned work with boundaries and it zapped my creativity. When you don't get the opportunity to just create, your mojo drops dead and I didn't like stamping anymore so I took a long break. I'm trying to stamp more for fun now, like making tags for presents for my grandson and cards for him and even my kids. I just put them away in a special box. For this nomination, there were no boundaries or rules and I had fun. My best work is done when there are no restrictions and that's where I truly get out of my box and experiment. It definitely shows in the cards that I made for this blog hop, which were heavily influenced by Laura Bassen. I had seen the sketch I used around a lot lately and have been meaning to make a card using it, but when I remembered Laura's card, I took it and ran with it.

4.  How does your creativity process work? That's the scary question. I don't have one and that's why my videos are so long. I do teaching in my videos rather than throw a card together. I teach tips and techniques and everything else that I'm doing as I'm working on my project and I just talk to you like you're in my living room because you sort of are. A good sketch is key. A lot of the time, I will just grab stuff and figure it out. Other times, since I'm perpetually disorganized (which is changing as I write this blog post since I'm turning the spare bedroom into my new craft studio), I will be rummaging for something and a group of colors will fall together. It could be ink or ribbon, anything. I will write it down and then use those colors on something. Inspiration is everywhere and all around us from the pattern in a rug that we see in a magazine to your scrap ribbon jar. I rarely start out with a plan. I have an idea of what I want to see on paper. Getting it there always turns out to be something else. Coloring absolutely relaxes me and is my favorite part of crafting. My dad even made a comment about that a few years ago about how I always liked to color as a child. Now they have Crayola's in 151 packs!

I believe that God has given me this gift to bless others. I'm also an excellent interior designer and have done several homes. My next door neighbor is a realtor and he's asked me to stage some of his homes. I'm in the process of really moving into my house and getting done what I want done to it so that it's my place; little things like having glass shelves in my vanity area to put my perfume, utilizing my vertical space, and just wait until you see my new craft studio! I went industrial chic with metal, glass and an awful lot of vintage. I'm painting my own art onto premade canvases for pictures. I am surrounded with joy and love now in my life and it's brought an entirely new element of creativity out in me. As previously stated, I created to escape various types of abuse. Now that I'm no longer in that situation, you have read above how my work has changed. My cards are almost always sent out to friends, I make a lot of cards for my church to fill up their racks for specific occasions. I am not paid for this, nor wish to be. It's a blessing to the body of Christ and a way to serve in my church, which is something I've really missed over the years, since leaving New York in 2006. I send boxes of cards to the Wounded Warrior Project. I'm proud to be a member of that organization. I support our troops and if they like something that I made that they can send home to their loved ones or receive a card from me, that makes me happy. My main reason for crafting is to always encourage, lift up, and bless others.

Here are my cards that I would like to share with you. It's going to take me a while to put together the supply list, but I wanted to get the cards up for you today first. All projects were made with Stampin' Up! products.

I hope you enjoy my cards. Thank you so much for stopping by to visit me today. And don't forget, since this is a photo heavy post, there are descriptions under each card. These cards will also be added to my Boutique! All cards are complete – this includes the inside being stamped and lined coordinating envelopes. For my instructions, we will be using my "Do More of What Makes You Happy" card as an example.

My life verse – Psalm 95:3.

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InstructionsGraphic

 

 

1All cards at A2 top folding tent size of 4-1/4 x 5-1/2.

2 Choose 2 patterns of designer series paper of a busy pattern and then a more mellow pattern the same color as the base of your card.

3 Cut the busy pattern to 3-3/5 x 5.

4

 Cut the mellow pattern to 3-5/8 x 4-3/4.

5 Arrange the designer series paper on the base of your card at angles so that both stay within the boundaries of your card base. Put down the busy pattern first and arrange without adhering to the card stock base. You will want to tip the top left at an angle as close as you can to the base of your card. 

6 Add a little adhesive to the back of the more mellow pattern using a tape runner about 3 times in the middle and arrange on top of the busy pattern tilting that piece the opposite angle using the top right corner as close to the right edge of the card stock base. Once everything looks good and you can see the more busy pattern peek out on the corners, press down so the adhesive will stick to the busy pattern.

7 Cut a piece of watercolor paper to 3-1/8 x 4-1/2 and start your water coloring! You will want to water color this panel using colors that are on the busy pattern. For instance, on my "Do More of What Makes You Happy" card, I used Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry. I knew these colors wer going to overlap thereby creating a green color in the middle which I knew would look very cool. 

8 To get the water color effect that I did, I smooshed a stamping blog directly onto the Bermuda Bay ink pad about halfway over the block. I grabbed a Mini Mister filled with water and sprayed the block holding it inside of my garbage pail. I pressed it twice to the left side of the water color paper. I repeated the process using Crushed Curry. Let the water run and help it out by tilting the panel. You can also use a paintbrush to move the color around and blot the color off if you feel you have too much of a concentration somewhere. Let it dry a little bit on it's own then flick some water on with a paintbrush to get your splotches. There is no right or wrong. The messier, the better. 

9 When the water color panel is dry – you can also use your heat tool to speed up the process – stamp your sentiment in a permanent black ink, sprinkle clear embossing powder over the sentiment and heat emboss. Let dry.

10 Add a little adhesive to the back of the water color panel starting at about 2/3 down and you just need a little because you do want your panels to lift up a little bit. Adhere water color panel to the top of the other 2 designer series paper at another angle to what you think looks good. Machine stitch the water color panel onto the designer series paper panels and leave a lot of thread on the sides. Adhere this to the base of the card stock with strong adhesive, such as Scor-Tape. I used a few pieces in the middle. Add a fun paper clip to the left side of the water color panel. Then add 3 clear sequins in a size of your choice (I used 4-6 mm) and arrange them in a visual triangle on your panel. Then you're done with the front of your awesome looking card!

11 For the inside of your card, cut a piece of card stock that is on your busy designer series paper but is not used on the outside on the water color panel. I chose Tangelo Twist and cut that to 4-1/8 x 5-3/8. Then I cut a piece of Whisper White card stock to 4 x 5-1/5 and adhered it to my Tangelo Twist card stock, then adhere my Tangelo Twist card stock to the base of my Mossy Meadow card stock. For your adhesive, make sure to use something strong, such as Scor-Tape because you will be heat embossing the inside and it helps the warp factor.

12 Inside the card, you will have an image and a sentiment. Choose a fun image using a light color, such as Crushed Curry for our card example and a dark color, such as Night of Navy that can be stamped directly over the image. I used the heart from Peace, Love & Cupcakes and stamped the heart in Crushed Curry then I stamped my sentiment from Hello Life directly over the top of the heart with Night of Navy ink. I sprinkled clear embossing powder over both images and heat embossed for shine, texture and a little dimension. 

13 For your envelope, stamp the same image that you used on the inside of the card in the lower left corner of your envelope. Sprinkle with clear embossing powder then heat emboss. 

14 To line your envelope, die-cut a liner from the Envelope Liners Framelits using the same busy pattern that is on the front of your card and adhere to the inside of the envelope. 

15 You have made a beautiful, artsy card complete with the inside finished and a coordinating envelope! Give yourself a pat on the back. 

These cards were super fun for me to make and it was just plain, good ole' fashioned paper crafting with no rules or restrictions. Let your creativity flow!

Coming soon!

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