As part of this Creative blog hop I have been asked the following 4 questions.
1. What am I working on now?
I don't get much time to make cards and scrapbook pages as I have three young kids and work part-time, so usually I make a card for birthdays or other special occasions just before the big day. So right now I don't have any major projects on the go, but there are a few family birthdays coming up so I've started to think about what cards I will make for them.
As well as doing cards, I love baking and today I'm making a cake for morning tea at work tomorrow to celebrate a colleague's wedding later this week. It will be a white version of the chocolate overload cake I made last year.
2. How does my work differ from others in my genre?
I take a lot of inspiration from cards that I find using Google image searches or via Pinterest. I prefer my cards and layouts to be fairly clean and modern with a few embellishments, without being too tizzy or over-the-top.
3. Why do I create what I do?
I love making something special for family and friends to celebrate a special day. For me, the card is as much a part of the gift as the actual present, especially if I'm giving a gift card or voucher. I love that the recipients appreciate the effort I've put in to the card.
4. How does my creative process work?
Most of the time, I have a general idea of the type of card I want to make for someone, and then I do a Google search to find a few inspiration pieces. I often mix a couple of different card ideas into one card. I also save images of cards I like onto my computer so that I can look through my own gallery for ideas.
Once I have an idea, I then go through my craft stash to find stamps and embellishments that fit the card and then start to put the card together.
Other times, I have a specific stamp that I want to use, so I Google that stamp's name and look for cards that would suit the person I'm making the card for.
When I'm making a card, I will often make a few extra cards the same, or with different colours, so that I've got some spares on hand if I haven't had a chance to make a new card for someone.
I would now like to introduce you to a very creative lady, Tanya Bell from StampingT! who will join in the blog hop next week.
I
live in Australia in the small regional town of Bundaberg that is mostly known
for producing the infamous ‘Bundaberg Rum’.
After many years of working as a university academic I finally gave into
my crafting passion and became a full time Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator in 2010
and have not looked back ever since. I
love to create new things and thoroughly enjoy my new ‘teaching’ topic of
rubber stamping! (A lot more fun to teach
than statistics!). I am a member of a
few design teams, have a wonderful dedicated bunch of weekly Stamp Club ladies
and all this whilst holding done a full time job (and being mum and wife as
often as I can LOL!). Stamping is my
'sanity' and I love to share and learn from others and so glad to be invited by
Nicole to be a part of this blog hop.
Now for my card for today. I made this card for a friend of mine whose baby girl was baptised recently. I saw a few similar cards online but this one by Gillian at Crafty Times was the main inspiration.
I wanted to use my Stampin Up scallop circle punch for the frill on the neckline, so I cut that out first and then scaled the rest of the card from that. The frills on the sleeves were made using the Stampin Up scallop border punch and the rest of the dress was just cut by hand using the original card as a guide. I used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder on some vellum for the skirt of the dress.
I used some ribbon, flowers and a crystal brad from my stash to decorate the dress, and added two tags that I printed in light grey ink (to look a bit like silver ink) to add the sentiment and the baby's name.
Don't forget to check out Tanya's blog and continue on this Creative blog hop each Monday.
