The Creative Blog Hop & Freshly Made Sketches

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Good Monday morning lovely blog friends ~

Today I'm taking part in 'The Creative Blog Hop', a hop that happens every Monday where crafters from all over the world share a little about themselves and their creative processes.  A fabulous way to get to know each other, and make new friends!

I was tagged by my lovely friend Nikki over at My Sandbox.  Nikki and I are on the Just Add Ink design team together and while we don't live in the same State we do get to catch up online a lot, and in person each year at Inspire, Create, Share (Convention).  Love her!  She is such a positive, kind person and is always smiling!  Beautiful inside and out for absolute sure.  She is also a fabulously talented paper crafter.

As part of the 'blog hop' there are four questions for me to answer...I'll keep them short and sweet!

1.  What am I working on now?  With twin toddlers in the house my crafting time is fairly limited (I tell myself it won't be forever) so I tend to only manage my design team commitments these days. Right now I'm trying to get ahead on a few projects, so you'll just have to come back and visit each Friday to check them out *wink*.  If you read my last Friday post you'll know I had a special skype crafting day with my BFF.  We chose to use the Freshly Made Sketch - FMS154. Here's what I came up with.

All is Calm designer paper, Pear Pizzazz & Whisper White cardstocks

2.  How does my work differ from others in my genre?  This is a hard one to answer...when thinking of my response I considered some of my favourite paper crafters...and realised their work is so consistent and definitive that I can pick it anywhere!  That is definitely not me.  I truly don't think I have any particular style.  I would say that my 'usual' style is Clean and Simple, with lots of white space.  However, every now and then I come up with random 'busier' creations.

3.  Why do I create what I do?  I get such pleasure in being able to take cardstock, inks and a few stamps and create something 'wow'.  I absolutely love to give handmade and it makes me feel so great to make others happy.  A lot of what I create doesn't make it to my blog, usually because I'm time poor and not too flash in the photography department lol.  Here are a few 'magnetic fridge pegs' I altered and packaged for a friend to use as gifts recently.

Covered in Sweet Sadie Washi Tape & smothered in Crystal Effects - pic not so great, sorry

Packaged in Glassine Bags 

4.  How does my creative process work?  I find inspiration in many ways.  Using SU products is a huge step in the right direction because everything coordinates and it takes the hard work out of it. I'm a matchy matchy girl too so that's even better!  Most often I am working to the specific requirements of design team projects, however, I love browsing other blogs and Pinterest for great ideas and of course when there is new product to play with it's even more fun!  I always start with a clean desk and clear away before beginning my next project.  Everything in my craft room is tidy and organised - control freak much?  Yep definitely.  Probably the most disappointing thing I find is when I have an idea in my head and I just can't make it work on paper - fortunately that doesn't happen often.  What works best for me is to mull my 'card' or 'idea' around in my head overnight. When it comes time to sit and play it usually comes together nicely.  I find colour combos the most difficult.  Odd really isn't it? I'm still trying to work out why that is!

Here is a card I made a little while ago.  I coloured the Secret Garden flowers with Cherry Cobbler blendabilities and added a little Wink of Stella to the petals.  The sentiment is from Verve.

So there you go...I hope that's given you a little insight to me.  As part of participating in 'The Creative Blog Hop' I get to tag some of my favourite paper crafters.  Unfortunately due to being super busy and lacking precious time the lovely ladies I tagged couldn't make the deadline of next Monday 29 September to participate and share their own Creative Journeys.  I want to share their names here anyway because they are each very talented and fabulous friends, all of whom I have met since starting my paper crafting journey 8 years ago.  Please do go check them out!

Trish - Spring Blossom Journey (also known as BFF)
Melissa - Bee Divine Designs
Delys - Little Scraps of Paper
Deb Fearns 
Mae Collins