Good morning everyone and Happy Monday! Monday's do seem to get here way too quickly! This is going to be a bit of post.. not my short and sweet get to the point and post a card LOL So, sit back for a minute and take a read.
I was tagged for this blog hop by an incredible woman,
Desire Fourie. I'm sure most of you have heard of her! She is incredibly talented and a huge inspiration of mine. I visit her site often to use her folding techniques and to get inspiration from her. Her first love is photography and she takes incredible photos! I always love seeing her work, no matter what it is! I first met Desire when I joined my first Design Team at Tammy's Scrapin Corner. Tammy's is not around anymore, but I learned so much from that team and I'm so glad that I applied to join and made it! Be sure you hop over to
Desire's blog... she has so much to offer! You won't be disappointed!
Desire tagged me in this post
here. Please go over and take a look... You can learn a lot about Desire in this post. It was so fun to read and learn more things about her :) I can't even tell you what an honor it was to be tagged by Desire!
So, Scrap A Thousand Words...When I first started crafting I had just had my oldest daughter. She is now 20 LOL Wow! That really makes you feel old! There was this cute little store in Downtown Kennesaw. I went in and I was immediately hooked. I couldn't believe all of the fun papers and stickers and then looking through the owners albums. Wow! How amazing was this! So, that is how it all started. In the beginning I was a Scrapbooker. When I had my youngest in 2001, I had stopped scrapbooking. I was in a bad marriage and all of my fun, crafting things just sort of fell off. I got out of that bad marriage and it is amazing how once I pulled all those crafty things back out how that inspiration just came right back! I had my best friend in Australia that kept me company. I would craft or play World of Warcraft and we would Skype and talk and play for hours. Now I'm married to that best friend from Australia LOL! And he is the most supportive, wonderful man!! I started scrapbooking again and then I found the blogs. I was enthralled with this amazing new thing I found! LOL I couldn't get enough of it. Then I found challenges and then I made my blog. It came from the saying .. A Photo is Worth A Thousand Words.. just added my little spin on it and that is how Scrap A Thousand Words was born. My first blog post was on May 31st, 2012.
After that I found cards and I found that cards gave me that creative outlet and didn't take me so long to finish. Although it still takes me FOREVER to finish just one card. And then I found Copic and well... it just doesn't end! It is so much fun to create and to learn and to get inspiration from all of you out there in blog land!
What Am I Working On Right Now?
Like I said above, It takes me FOREVER to finish one card LOL So I am forever working on Design Team projects to try to get ahead. I may get ahead for a bit, but it catches up to me. So, you will always find me working on my next DT Projects and getting posts ready for Open-Minded Crafting Fun Challenges. Open-Minded Crafting Fun Challenges was born after Tammy's Scrapin Corner ended. I reached out to
Vicky aka Crafting Vicky and asked her if she would join me in opening a new Challenge Blog. I knew pretty much what I wanted and our ideas were right on track with each other. Not to mention that Vicky tolerates me so well LOL I am seriously OCD with certain things... Like the blog posts, the facebook posts in the DT group! I do everything in HTML on the blog because I can't stand when the spacing for the post goes all wonky. I update certain things in the DT Group so that everything is the same LOL The same colons here and the same spacing there. Really ridiculous! But I can't seem to help myself LOL!
This is where I sell my cards and the digital images that are created by my whole family. Kevin, Bailey, Taylor and myself.. we all have digis up there. I sponsor challenges and you know.. its just another creative outlet and fun! :) I'm waiting for Michael to get something finished so we can put up his as well!
This is what I do for most of the images that I use... I print out multiple copies and I color them all. What I don't cut up I save for later and use those for something different.
What Do I Create?
I started out just as a Scrapbooker. I love taking my photos and making fun pages with them, but I just don't seem to have the time for that any more.
Then I swiftly moved on to Card Making. It is a bit more satisfying to complete things. Since it takes me so long and I work full time, I found this was the perfect outlet for me. I love making other things too, like Scrapbook sets, bookmarks, tags, ATC's. It is a lot of fun to try new things! I also create the graphics that we use on Open-Minded Crafting Fun - all of the titles and bars, etc. I also create digital images.. well.. first they are drawn and then digitized. Takes me a while to finish those and I'm always working on cards LOL
I upload all of my items to Photobucket and you can find just about everything
here.The only problem is that all of the kits that I make and the bookmarks.. They just sit in a box!
How My Creative Process Works
That is a very good question... sometimes I wonder myself! I think first and foremost it is the theme's of the challenges. Since the majority of my work comes from being on a Design Team, I focus on those themes and create from there. I am a challenge Addict! They are what keeps me going and I always love to visit the challenges and see what the different Design Teams are creating. That is usually where I learn about a new technique to try or find a new image that I love and must have! LOL I am so addicted to challenges and a bit of my OCD coming out again, that I have a spreadsheet that I have set up. It lists the challenges that I like to enter. I have left off challenges that have a limited number of other challenges that you can enter and I also don't have some of the challenges that you have to use a certain image or stamp to enter. Not to say all of them, because there are some images, like Sassy Cheryl, that I always check on the new challenges. Not that I ever have time to pull out those images LOL But one day I will! I update that spreadsheet each day and it makes it much quicker for me to go down and look at the themes to enter my cards. I know.. I'm a bit crazy!
My Style? How Does It Differ?
I don't know if I really have a style. I love all styles and I love to try new things. The one thing that I do seem to get stuck on a lot is Decoupage. I love the dimension that it can give to an image and in turn a whole project. It can add so much depth. I love when I'm looking at other crafters cards and I see decoupage. I see it a lot more than I use to! It is really time consuming. That is the reason that I print out each image several times and color them. I like for my layers to be colored underneath as well. That is the one thing that I do all the time that I think differs from most people. I love to color with both my Copic Markers and my Prismacolor Pencils. I am self taught with all of my coloring. I would love to take a few Copic classes to learn and improve. Just seem to save some money up for that! The one thing that I think I really stink at and can't seem to grasp is CAS. I can't seem to go simple.. they never look nice when I do them! Other crafters can create such amazing CAS designs!
How Do I Get And Stay Inspired?
That has to go back to all of the amazing challenges out there. There is nothing more inspiring than a challenge! And then, when you go to all of the challenges and even running the challenge that Vicky and I do, you see all of the amazing creations! How can you not be inspired by all of the amazing crafters out there! I love seeing what everyone is doing and creating. Then you have all of the amazing artists out there that are creating amazing images!! Wow!! For Open-Minded I am always looking for a new artist to sponsor us. There is so much talent out there and I love giving everyone else the opportunity to see them as well! I get so excited to bring a new artist into the crafting world and see them take off!!
Mi Ran is a good example,
The East Wind and
Drawn With Character! All of these creators are amazing! And I knew when I saw their images that they would TAKE OFF in the crafting world! I love seeing them all around now! It is so fun! So excited for them becoming more known and selling their digital images! It really brings me so much joy! Wait until 2015.. we have a bunch of new artists that will sponsoring
Open-Minded Crafting Fun!!
I have tagged 3 creative friends, who will be sharing their creative journey's with you next week Monday, 21 July 2014. They are:
Vicky aka Crafting Vicky
{Crafting Vicky}
{Darker Side of Me - Crafting Vicky}
I don't even know where to start with Vicky. I've known Vicky since I joined Tammy's Scrapin Corner. She was the person that I wanted to work with on a new Challenge Blog. Open-Minded would never have been if it was not for her saying yes to my crazy idea LOL She is always there to lend an ear, to help me when I get stuck on a project.. just anything! She is an amazing person, an amazing friend and an amazing crafter! I can't keep up with her.. she puts me to shame with her posts! Her cards are always so fantastic! I love her coloring... I always love her designs! Stop by Vicky's ... You will love it too!!
Mikha Adriana
{Mikha's Craft Corner}
I met Mikha when she joined the first Open-Minded Crafting Fun Design Team. I think Mikha is so extremely talented! Everything she does is absolutely beautiful. Every new creation I see is an inspiration for me to try a bit harder! She puts papers and embellishments together so perfectly! She is amazing! Down to the smallest detail I love everything that she creates! You will not be disappointed. I'm really sad that she has left the Open-Minded Design Team, but I will be sure to continue to see her amazing creation. You won't be disappointed at all, so make sure you stop by!
Sharla
{This Thing Called Life!}
I met Sharla also when she joined the first Design Team at Open-Minded Crafting Fun! They really helped to make our start and first six months amazing. Sharla is another team member that has left and I'm really sad! But I do know that life just gets in the way sometimes! I love Sharla's creations! Her coloring is amazing! I always enjoy seeing what she does with the Sponsor Images! She has been a great team mate, a great inspiration! And I will continue to follow her in blog land :) Please jump over and take a look at Sharla's blog!
Well, I have to say this was fun. I really appreciate Desire thinking of me to join this blog hop. Thanks for sticking in there with me and this long post. And thank you all for all of your kind words all the time. I'm not a very social person, so this is a great outlet for me. It is great to have all of you around to visit and I appreciate you all so very much! I wish that I had more time to post comments on all of everyone's creative genuineness!
