Getting to know you blog hop

Well, its finally time for me to join in with the blog hop that has swept 'craft blogland' over the past few months. I am honoured to have been tagged a few times to join in with this hop in the past (you know who you are, you lovely ladies!!) but life, as usual, was always overwhelming me and I couldn't jump in with both feet.

So, now that things aren't quite so chaotic, I was lucky enough to be tagged by my wonderful friend Anita (also known as Anita in France) who has her blog My Papercraft World. She's a rather popular young lady (as many of you will know) and if you don't know, please pop on over to meet her and take in the wonder of her cards. They really are amazing! 

Anita was one of the very first people to comment on my blog and has stuck with me ever since. We are now on the Design Team together for TIME OUT CHALLENGES which is extra awesome. So thank you Anita, here I go:

What creative projects are you currently working on?

Card challenges, I LOVE card challenges. Looking at my trusty calendar, I have at least 5 challenges (at this stage) that I need to make cards for by Sunday. Its very rare for me to have a card that takes me days or weeks and I have to finish a card before I start another. And each fortnight its a new TIME OUT challenge, so always have ideas for that swirling around in my mind. Here are a few of my more complicated cards:

What inspires your designs? 

Everything! Flowers, clothing, business logos, house magazines, food packaging, other cards, Pinterest...its everywhere! House magazines are really good for colours and I'm always ripping out pages of geometric patterns on plates, pillows etc. All the blogs I follow of other card designers are extremely inspirational and give me so many ideas and techniques to try.




Also the challenges themselves have fantastic photos, colour combo's and words that spin my mind with all sorts of thoughts. One of my favourites is the CASology Challenge. They have a different word each week and I push myself to come out with the weirdest interpretation. For example, their latest cue word is 'Splatter'. I immediately thought of 'blood splatter' (being a horror movie buff) and this is the card I came up with. 

What method/process do you apply to each of your creative projects and how long does each one take?

If its clear in my head, I feel the need to make it as soon as I can and I usually finish a card in an evening. I'm a real night-owl and often don't go to bed till 3am.

If I'm not sure what to do, I'll google the word for ideas or if a colour I will go thru my papers. Or will sort thru my stamps for inspiration. These are a few of my 'I know exactly what to do' cards:

 

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

Clean and Simple. Its funny because when I started making cards a year ago I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had twine, lace and all sorts of stuff. Now  the more white I have showing on a card, the better. These are some of my favourites:

What are three crafting product/tools you can't live without?

My We R Memory Keepers paper trimmer/scoring board....its the best! My scissors and my foam tape. I LOVE foam tape and would hate to think about how many rolls of it I have gone thru this year.....

And for a laugh I thought I would show you the first card that ever appeared on my blog. Oh how far I have come:

Now this is where I'm going to do things a little differently. Normally I would tag two people to carry this on but everyone I know has already taken part and I just don't feel right about approaching someone who doesn't know me.

So, I decided to mention some of the people who's work I admire and set up links to their blogs. I wish I could mention all the blogs I follow but we would be here for days.....

Laura Bassen of Doublestick Heaven 
Jennifer McGuire of Jennifer McGuire Ink 
Ardyth Percy Robb of MASKerade 
Nichol Magouirk of Nichol Magouirk
Therese Calvird of Lost in Paper 
Julie Ebersole of Paper Trufflez 

When I started my blog just over a year ago and then started joining challenges in January this year, I found following the blogs of these incredible designers so helpful with ideas, techniques and support. Even though they are super busy and extremely popular, they have always replied to my email questions. They are all talented and super sweet too!   

Well, I think that's enough about me. You've probably had enough of me to last you six months!! I hope you've found it interesting, as I've certainly enjoyed reading about yourselves. Starting this blog and discovering card making has really changed my life for the better and meeting all of you is really the icing on the cake!!

The new series of The Walking Dead starts in five minutes, so I'm off to grab my Peanut M&M's and settle into the couch to watch. 

Take care
Shona