Creative Blog Hop Tour

Have you see any of the wonderful Creative Blog Hop tour posts yet? I don’t know who started it but I think it’s a great idea! Basically, it’s a giant game of online ‘Tag” for creative types! You get tagged by an online friend on his/her blog and a week later you get to tag some of your own online crafty friends. Fun, right?

I was tagged last week by Kelli Panique of Use It Scrapbooking! in the post I’ve linked to there.

Kelli is a lady after my own heart. She’s all about using your stash! She shares how to use your stash, how to stretch your supplies to get more out of them and also easy ways to make those accents and embellishments you covet at the store right out of your own craft room. She’s got some great video tutorials too. You can find them here – the Map Flowers one is particularly good!

I am truly honoured to have been tagged by her for this Blog Tour.

At the end of this post I’ll introduce you to two of my scrappy friends, but first a little about me. Since this blog tour was set up to allow readers to get to know a little more about the bloggers, we were given a list of four questions to answer. So here we go:

1. What am I working on?

Hmm, surviving the summer holidays? Having all 3 of my girls at home all day makes it challenging to get anything resembling ‘work’ done. Gone are the days where your kids went out to play with their neighbourhood friends all day only returning to you for sustenance! While I try to encourage non-screen time, free play and out door play, the incessant whining, bickering and requests for snacks that inevitably follow is exhausting. And it’s only the beginning of July!! Heaven help me! I hope more days look like this one – playdates in the back yard to keep them all happy and occupied!

In all seriousness though, I am continuing to work on my preserving our family story. I love using my monthly Gossamer Blue kit as well as my (rather extensive) stash. There are a few UFOs that need to be tackled this summer. UnFinished Objects like this GIANT stack of layouts on my paper rack that need to find their way into albums.

Can you RI-DIC-U-LOUS?! The slightly shorter stack on the left are layouts waiting to be photographed. Then they get added to the top of the pile. It’s entirely possible I may one day be buried under this pile. If I disappear altogether from social media, send help okay? 🙂 This stack represents probably the last 18 – 24 months of creative work. Most of them were posted to my blog as I made them but some of the older ones were from my time on the staff of the online magazine Scrapbook News and Review. It’s been many months since I left them though so I may be able to share my layouts and cards now. Put that on my to do list then! Many of these layouts are from February and May LOAD challenges which you can find in my Flickr gallery .

Also on my to do list are a Disneyland album that needs finishing, three baby albums that are in various states of ‘undoneness’ (yes, I’m declaring that is a word), a  kids art journal idea sheet to be put up for sale and an Etsy shop to set up. As you can see, my list is long.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

This is a tough one for me to answer. I think my focus on the photographs helps set me apart.

I create scrapbooks to get the photos I take OFF my computer and (ahem) INTO albums (all evidence to the contrary aside) so I don’t really see the point in printing one tiny photo for a giant 12″ x 12″ canvas. That’s just me though! I do love and appreciate those artists whose style is more art and less photographs. Part of me longs to be like that but somehow, even when I sit down with the intention to create a layout that’s more about the techniques, I end up covering a lot of it up with my photos, papers and journaling.

sigh.

I also love colour and pattern and am happiest when I’m able to mix both on a layout.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

I’ve touched on this already but my raison de scrapbook is to preserve my family’s history. My Dad was an avid photographer. A-VID! And I have the large box of slides to prove it. What I don’t have is an explanation of those slides. They are missing context and I can no longer ask him for it. I hope that by the time I pass on, my children will be positively drowning in context!! LOL! I have also discovered my inner artist through this hobby. It was something that was lying pretty dormant until about 12 years ago when I was shown by an outside party that I had a passion for Interior Design. I have studied design since then and am pursuing a career in it but for now, at home, playing with paper, photos and inks keeps my colour sense tuned and my eye for imbalance sharp.

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

My creative process varies somewhat layout to layout. There are times when I have a stack of photos printed and I just start there. I pull papers to coordinate (and if they are all from the same event I’ll try to have some common thread so the layouts are more cohesive.) Other times I look to my papers – especially when I open up a new kit from Gossamer Blue – and see where they take me as far as photo/story choice. One thing that stays consistent though is that once my papers and photos are chosen, I look to my embellishments to see how I can add some interest and texture to my page in a way that will accentuate the design as well as the story. I usually pull out some options and have them on my desk so that as I am building my base design I can also be thinking about how to incorporate them. I try to be fearless when it comes to cutting into my papers. I am a bit of a paper whore hoarder so it can be tough to do, and there are sheets in my stash that I just can’t seem to use or give away no matter how hard I try. They are just too beautiful!

I also try to work on a layout from start to finish – usually less than an hour for me – all in one sitting. Well, standing actually. I like to stand to scrap. 🙂 As you can see in the photo above, I scrap at my old drafting table which doesn’t look anywhere near this neat and tidy anymore! Now my laptop is in the dining room and the top of my drafting table is covered in … not sure really. Leftovers from previous pages that somehow never get put away!! Better put cleaning up my scrap room on my to do list too!

If I am having trouble making things “work” then I will leave it and come back to it later but for the most part I work straight through until it’s done. I can go for days in between creating a layout and then create several all at once or I’ll get in a groove and create a layout or two every day for awhile. Having a dedicated room like this is a Godsend and allows me the freedom to leave unfinished pages out. And a messy desk too!

Well, that’s me in a nutshell. Thank you so much for visiting and taking the time to learn more about me. I’d like to thank Kelli Panique again for inviting me to be a part of this Creative Tour. Now I’d like to introduce you to two of my closest bloggy friends.

First up is Roxanne (Roxy) McCleary.

Hey, I’m Roxy!  It used to be about scrapbooking and the occasional birthday card, but now it’s evolved into a blog, design teams, SMASH books, and mixed media! I have so much fun playing with paper!!!  You can find me all over the blogosphere, but mostly here at my blog: http://roxyrolla.blogspot.ca/

Roxy and I started commenting on each other’s blogs and quickly realized that our lives were running on parallel tracks. Still are apparently as, like me, Roxy has been a bit absent from her blog lately. Too funny! I hope this little tour helps her remember what a fantastic artist she is. I was super lucky to get to meet Roxy in real life and in true scrapbooker fashion, I created a layout about it!

Next up is Sandra Farrell.

I am a mother of two and have been happily married for almost 10 years now to a man who not only puts up with but supports my obsession with all things paper.   I have been teaching school for over 20 years and love winter sports like ice hockey and snowboarding.

Sandra and I were destined to meet – doubly so in fact! Her brother married a sorority sister of mine who ironically had the exact same name as me! Yup. Weird things happen at University! But even before that, she was room mates with my husband! It was several years before he and I met but she can commiserate with me about his not so desirable habits like no one else! She gave me encouragement to start my own blog and start sharing my work with the world. I pretty much wouldn’t be where I am today without her!

Sandra has combined her love of creating and love of teaching into another venture – Sandra’s Savvy Teaching Tips. If you are a teacher looking for free and inexpensive graphics and art project ideas, you need to check out her site! Her original site, Stamper On The Shore, is full of wonderful card and layout projects. She makes both digital and traditional layouts that are amazing but truly, her cards are outstanding!!

Thanks for coming over to visit today. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about me and my friends. I can’t wait to see who they introduce us to.

Have a great week everyone!

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