Getting to Know You blog hop

Hi there everyone. 

Have you seen this little blog hop going around at the moment? It is a great idea for us to share a little bit about ourselves that we may not know about each other. 

I was tagged for this blog hop by the amazingly talented Cornelia. Cornelia is a member of my DT at Addicted to Stamps and More and also a team mate at STAMPlorations. I was very honoured that Cornelia chose to tag me, so thank you!!!

I also need to tag two people. The name of the game is to tag two other crafters who you admire. 

My first tag is Shana from Stress Free Stamping with Shana who has been with me over at Addicted to Stamps and More and Addicted to CAS for a long while now. Shana has been a Stampin' Up demonstrator since 2006 and lives in the U S of A. This woman loves to craft! She has a wonderful family as well - but we will let her tell you all about that.

My next tag is Marina from My Perfect Life. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Marina in person when I was in Europe back in April. A group of us got together and met up in London for lunch. Marina is so lovely and has a great sense of humour. It was a privledge to have met her! Marina is a teacher and has two wonderful children... I will let her tell you more about this, though.

Here we go - I hope you have a cup of something or other as it is a long post......

1.What creative projects are you currently working on?

I am always working on a daily basis on something relating to craft and blogging one way or another. I own two challenge blogs - Addicted to Stamps and More (with 20 design team members) and Addicted to CAS (with 12 design team members). Well three, actually. I started a brand new craft forum called Happy Little Stampers. This is designed for members to be able to connect with each other on a whole new level. There are many topics up for discussion (craft and non craft related), there is always a giveaway going on and there is even live chat. There are links to tutorials (we have over 80 now and counting).  I run a monthly sketch challenge that is now also posted on the Happy Little Stampers blog. 

I would love to see more of you join up over at Happy Little Stampers. Come and join in the fun!

This keeps me all very busy! I love having creative outlets for people to find, be inspired and meet new people. 

Then, of course, I have my Design Team commitments with Addicted to Stamps and More, Addicted to CAS, Happy Little Stampers, Inspired by Stamping and STAMPlorations.

It is a privledge to be on the IBS and STAMPlorations teams. The owners are just amazing and the teams are brilliant. 

2.What inspires your designs?

I would have to say that even though I am looking at many, many projects from other crafters each week through my challenge blogs and looking on pinterest etc. I really try and come up with my own designs.

I do see layouts/designs that I try and keep in the memory bank or pin to my boards on pinterest. It is always good to have a reference to something if I am stuck. A lot of the time I get inspiration from cards that are sent to me from other crafters for my birthday or christmas etc. I find having something that I can feel and see how it was put together is really cool. 

At the end of the day, most of the cards I make are my own original design.

3.What method / process (if applicable) do you apply to each of your creative projects, and how long does each project take to complete?

Usually if I have a DT card to make, I will create something that is relevant to something I may need. I may have a birthday or wedding coming up and need something for that. So, in essence I would start with a theme for my card. Next I would choose my stamps. I may get a few sets out and see if they work together. Sometimes I just sit there for ages and scratch my head. If nothing comes to me straight away, I get up and walk out of my craft room and come back later. 

I don't usually use a sketch or colour challenge to help me out but if I am really stuck I will have a look around. 

I have to admit that even though I have so much going on with the blogs and website etc., I am not one of those crafters who go to bed and then wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that has to be dealt with there and then. I love my sleep too much to worry about doing that, lol.  I don't dream about ideas or anything like that. I know, boring huh? I do tend to spend some time in my craft room each day, though.

Depending on what I am making, depends on the time it takes to make something. One card could take me as little as 5 minutes to make. Others may have an image that needs to be coloured with markers or perhaps I am using texture paste or something that needs overnight to dry. It can be a very broad timeframe but usually I would say that it would take me no more than an hour for most of my cards.

4.If you had to describe your 'signature' style, what would it be?

It would have to say Clean and Simple. It does come more natural to me than trying to pile on heaps of layers and flowers etc. I love what people can do with layers - I have seen some beautiful cards out there with piles and piles of bits and bobs on them. But, at the end of the day a heap of white space makes me very happy, lol. Even when I am colouring an image with my markers, I try to keep things CAS. 

I have also ventured more into the Mixed Media side of things. I've bought gesso, texture paste, paints, True Snow, Gloss Gel, Glass Bead Gel, the list goes on. I do find that I even tend to create my mixed media on the CAS side. I would love to keep them a little more separate and just go all out on the mixed media - I'm working on that, lol.

5. What are 3 crafting products/tools you can't live without?

Wow, only 3? This is hard....

I could NOT live without my Big Shot and dies. (Yep that's two but I am keeping them in the one sentence so it's going to count as 1)

I could NOT live without my paper trimmer. I don't buy precut cards. I cut all my cardstock to the size that I want.

I could NOT live without stamps and inks. Yep that's two again but without one you don't have the other, right?

There is a whole craft room of stuff that I couldn't do without and I'm sure there are things in there that I COULD do without (you know those things that don't see the light of day but you had to have them?). 

So, there you go. There may be stuff there you already knew about me and some stuff you didn't know. I'm so glad you stopped by. Don't forget to check out Shana and Marinas posts next week.

xx