Petal Potpourri and Scraps, A Creative Blog Hop

Today's Post is a special one...I was honored to be asked to share in a 'Creative Blog Hop',  The rules are to post and then link to 2 people I choose who will post a week later! Crystal Kondo, a group friend, nominated me to share with you. You can see her blog here.  
We use Stampin' Up! products and share with you our creative process along with our designs.
I'm going to start by answering a question........no I'm not.....  I'm gonna show you my card!

I'm sort of bummed....I thought I had a the final pics of my card before I took them all off to swap at Leadership but I only had my original and of course I kept the one that was the prototype and not perfect...After I stamped this coral flower, I added the Stamp-a-ma-jig to my tools for the day and the other flowers came out as perfect as the pool party one. 

Now, let me begin with Question number 4...

4.How does your creative process work?
So, I didn't think I had a creative process til I had to think about this blog hop. I went to make my swaps for Leadership and needed to design.  I'm naturally and proudly, a copier!  I can take what others design and make it my own in a flourish and my customers don't seem to care when I say, "I didn't design that, it was a swap", or "I found it on Pinterest". So when I'm forced to design from scratch, I find that I pick a stamp I like or haven't played with in awhile and maybe a designer paper or cardstock that I want to use then go to my scrap boxes:

Box where I toss all my little extras...leftovers from class, events.  My daughter tries to toss these!

and these are the 2 things that I found that would go well with the designer paper that I had in mind from Sale A Bration

Then I went to my scrap box....here it is again...my mom made it back when she used to hate waiting for my dad to do carpentry work for her

It's 5"X13" by 'very long' and we took file folders and cut off the bottom, taped them and it holds my sorted scraps. Each color has a folder. It's the first place I look when I need a small piece for a card

The next step was to choose my remaining color combo...I had found strips of scored and edged Pear Pizazz Cardstock (done with finishing touches edgelet, and snippets of Pool Party Cotton Ribbon.  I chose a side of Designer paper that wasn't real busy because I wanted my flowers to be the focal point, Then I chose Calypso Coral to be the 3rd color in my combo.  You'll see that each color gets used at least twice or it doesn't go on my card (except fot the black that outlines the flowers)

For accents, I used the Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder on the piece of Calypso Coral, Then for  the Crisp Cantaloupe piece, I sponged Calypso onto the embossing folder, then ran it through my Texture Machine (it doesn't show up much but peaks out under my flowers. 

Once again, Here's the final card.  A few more details..the leaves are just the flower petals inked in Pear Pizazz and cut apart.  The 4 pieces of paper are each 1 1/4" X 3 1/4". I popped up the flowers with several dimensionals and the stamp at the bottom is from our monthly photopolymer called Banner Blessings.


3.  Why do you create what you do?
Unfortunately, or not, I create mostly out of need....need to send a sympathy card?  Can't send a card that I made last month, it has to be fresh and made for that particular person..Down side?  My cards are usually late but send with lots of heart! I also design for a Technique class for young girls in my homeschool Co-op...it's fun to see young talent blossoming.
Most of my time, however is stamping for my card or scrapbook classes (see this month's layout below) and my wonderful customers.  I hold several classes each month and it keeps me hoppin' to get it designed in time to order any supplies I am low on.  

2.  How does your work differ from other’s in your genre?
I like a card to say "WOW" but in less time.  I started as a Stampin' Up! Demo when I had 4 little ones under the age of 7 and it had better be quick or I didn't get it done.  During my career, we added a 5th child....at least then I had 4 little helpers but a very busy household.  Now, they are all young men and women and we've added a grandson to the happy gang.  I have and still do homeschool...only Malachi, the tall one in the back, left to finish...he is in 8th grade.  So just a few more years.  I love chabby chic but don't do well designing that...those I have to copy...I'm more of a clean look, I like lots of dimensional not just created by layering lots of paper on top of each other.

My Scrapbook Layout for January using the Sheltering Tree on page 22 of Occasions
 Check out the fringe on left below....it's from our white jute ribbon on page 43 of the Occasions catalog.   I just cut up through the strings of jute and then fringed by pulling out several of the strings...very easy!

1.  What are you working on?  I just got back from Stampin' Up! Leadership so I have so many things running through my head that I want to try.  But, first I must design Valentine Cards for Friday night...having lots of friends over to make their Valentine card...they get to choose the design they want to make.  Oh, you want to see what they have to choose from?  I only have 2 done so far but hope to have 4 or 5 to choose from. 

Thank you for joining me today!  Click on Home above to see more Sale a Bration and Leadership ideas.

Be sure to check out my 2 nominees next Monday: Jody Brechbill at jodybrechbillstampinqueen and Debi Paisie at scraptabulous-stamper.blogspot.com/.  These 2 gals are on my team and they each have a unique style that you'll want to see.

For now, go visit Anne Matasci at mauistamper.com  and Crystal Kondo at  hanniejoyandco.com