Creative Blog Hop

I am honored to have been nominated to participate in the Creative Blog Hop by Michele Ferguson of I Card Everyone. Thank you for the nomination, Michele, I'm thrilled to be here sharing a bit more about me and my passion for papercrafting.

Let me tell you a bit about the Creative Blog Hop: it is an ongoing blog hop designed that works on a nominating system, where I nominate three other designers who I admire and inspire me. The idea is to learn a bit about other creative bloggers by answering four questions.

Question 1: What am I working on right now?
Right now I am beginning work on the September release at My Favorite Things (MFT), and you're going to love what's coming your way. I'm also working on sketch and creative challenges at MFT and keeping up with work and family.  As a school based speech therapist, I have time off during the summer months which just came to a close, so I'll be juggling work on top of design work for MFT and a busy family.

Lately, I've been drawn to the trendy watercolor medium with its many technic variations and even put together a video tutorial that you can see here.

Question 2: How does my work differ from others in my genre?
My work differs from others in that I try and make my designs somewhat unique, adding my own little bit of fun. I admire the work of many and often times use their designs as inspiration, or simply try out new technics that I've seen used. 

Early on I was more of a copy and share papercrafter. As I've gained experience, confidence and found my own style, so to speak, I look to the work of others to inspire me rather than a design to copy. I think the more you do, the more you're able to move away from the 'blueprint' and that's really liberating, and FUN!

Question 3: Why do I create what I do?
I create what I do because I LOVE creating things that require my mind and hands to work together. Seeing a project come to completion as you'd imagined, or sometimes even better than you'd imagined, is a thrill. And then there's this awesome papercrafting community of generous, fun, loving people that continually provide inspiration and encouragement that make it a win-win for me.

Ok, so the challenge (I'm a realist) -  keeping a balance in life that allows your craft to continue to be a source of happiness and inspiration in your life without taking away from other integral parts of your life. But that's life!

Question 4: How does my creative process work?
I've finally realized that I do actually have a creative process, and it does often involve a measure of procrastination (I know, the shock!). For me, it's a matter of putting things down on paper, a schedule of commitments for monthly releases for MFT, for example. From there, I start collecting inspiration - Pinterest, Google images and Instagram, to name a few. I also love catalogs as a source of inspiration. Once my creative cup is overflowing, I start putting my ideas into motion through paper and ink.

While creating, I often just go with the flow and allow myself to stray from the game plan. This sometimes means pulling apart a layer, stamping an image over and over until it's just right and even walking away from the table for a bit when things just aren't going well. Finally, I like to start with a clean area to work, so putting things away, wiping things off and taking out the garbage is also part of my creative process.


And now for the nominations! I am thrilled to have had the following three papercrafting superstars accept my nomination:

Lisa Henke - My Little Creative Escape
I first knew Lisa when we worked together for My Favorite Things and have continued my admiration for this lady every since. She's not only sweet, happy and sporting the cutest Jamberry nails around, but she's got a great ability to combine patterns, colors and just the right amount of embellishments. When I look at her work, I often think to myself - now, if I put those things together, it would never look as good as Lisa's!

Tammy Hershberger - Stamp Happy
Tammy has got to be one of the most prolific and generous stampers I know, continually stopping in to see what I've been up to and leaving me love. You'd swear she took hours and hours to complete her neat, tidy and packed full of wow designs! I admire her passion for papercrafting and am inspired by her to get into my craft room and pick up more challenges!

Laurie Willison - Soapbox Creations
Laurie is the epitome of clean and simple WOW, and I am continually inspired by her gorgeous designs. As we well know, CAS is NOT easy to pull off, and Laurie makes it looks effortless. She reminds me that often times less is more, and when I'm feeling frustrated, I often think of Laurie's designs because they're like a breath of fresh air.

I hereby pass the baton to these three inspirational ladies who I admire and adore! I can't wait to see what they have to tell us next Monday, September 8th. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope you've enjoyed getting to know more about me.

-Amy