I love to see great ideas move in new directions, and today I’m delighted to participate in a very different sort of blog hop. I was nominated by the very talented Lisa Young to succeed her in the Creative Blog Hop, and I’ll do my best to live up to the honor.
My project today is another Berry Basket, again using the Best Year Ever DSP. This was our club project this month, and we had a lot of fun with the basket and the Spiral Flower. What is it about the hot glue gun that gets everyone laughing? Are there fumes I’ve been missing???
There was no shortage of creativity with all of that beautiful paper, and I love that every flower comes out a little differently with the spiral die.
Covering a spiral notepad is much easier than you think – just punch a line of 1/8″ circles and snip down from the top of the paper. When you adhere the paper to the front of the notepad (I use Tombo, the Wonder Adhesive) the little lines disappear. It’s magical!
It’s January, so I kept the treats of the paper sort, not the chocolate sort 🙂
We wrapped 3″ by 3″ sticky note pads with DSP and tied them with Bakers Twine. Sometimes a simple treatment really is the best solution!
Different patterns create a totally different look. The Best Year Ever DSP is easy to work with, from single color tone-on-tone patterns to more complex designs that are still uniform.
Part of the hop is to answer a few questions about my creative process. I hope you’re not expecting any deep, earth-shattering revelations here!
1. What are you working on?
Is it fair to say I’m working on the mess in my stamp room? We spent the holidays in Australia with ALL OF OUR FAMILY (yes, I am still smiling about it!) and there are heaps, boxes, baskets and bits of paper wherever you look. It’s a happy mess, though, and in the midst of it all I am working diligently on all sorts of projects featuring new Sale-a-bration and Occasions products.
2. How does your work differ from others in your genre?
This is a tough one for me to answer, and if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. I like relatively clean design, but I’m not a true Clean and Simple style stamper. I think my approach to color is one of my more distinguishing characteristics: I like tone-on-tone, or neutrals with a pop of color, but I also like fresh combinations. And I really like blues and greens together 🙂
3. Why do you create what you do?
Love this question! There was a time when I tried to create what I thought I ought to be creating, or what I thought others expected me to create. In 2014, one of my written goals was to craft more often for my own pleasure. I’ve been exploring new sources of inspiration and have learned to trust my instincts more, and that’s really changed the way I craft and the end product, as well as my satisfaction in the process.
4. How does your creative process work?
Hmmm….haphazardly??? (If you know me in real life you are laughing hysterically.) Sometimes I have a vision in my head, and once in a while the end result actually resembles that vision. More often, I have an inspiration in either color or image that I want to explore. I keep paper and embellishment scraps nearby when I’m creating, and pull things in and out until I find a combination that inspires me. When I’m finished, there’s generally a lot of “debris” on my countertop – bits and pieces that were considered and rejected. I really, really enjoy crafting with others, sharing opinions (and a few juicy stories). It’s a challenge making our schedules fit together, but when it happens it often results in great projects. And if it doesn’t, they’re REALLY ugly and we have a great laugh.
The final piece of this Creative Blog hop is to nominate two more bloggers whose work I admire, and I’ve chosen my two favorite in-person stamping companions. Next Monday (January 26), stop by HannieJoy and Co to see what Crystal Kondo is doing, and then hop over to Create with Cheryl to see what Cheryl Hamilton has for you.
Mahalo, Lisa, for inviting me to the Creative Blog Hop!
If you’d like to see a few of the past entries to the hop, visit these bloggers:
Robin’s Craft Room
My Stamp Vault
Stress Free Stamping
Stamper Camper’s Corner
Be Creative With Nicole
InkSpired Treasures
The color theme is Hello Honey with a little Pear Pizazz and some Basic Black. I love a basic black and white theme with a pop of color, don’t you? Stamps are Gorgeous Grunge and Bordering Blooms, with the Itty Bitty Accents punch pack shaping the flower. I used Glue Dots to add a little bit of dimension to the flower without really popping it up. My Chalk Marker added just a little highlight – white but not too bright!
These little calendars go together quickly, and they’re really satisfying to complete. It’s such a pleasure to have one sitting on my kitchen counter!
The Maui Stamper 