Hi, everyone! Are you having a great day? I hope so!
Today's Project
Details
My Favorite Things, Stitched Circle dies
Sweet Sunday Sketch #57 (archived)
KaiserCraft, Tiny Woods, paper pad
Submitted:
Crafting Style Changes Through The Years
(aka chit chat - you can skip all of this....)
I think it's good for us, every now and then, to switch it up and try new things.
When I first started crafting, it was all about traditional scrapbooking. I enjoyed it immensely, but I was forever behind due to the lengthy process of desiging layouts, cutting it all out, and then making my photos fit around my cute designs I didn't want to cover up.
Soon after I started my blog in 2009, I began card crafting. That was a ton of fun. When my Cricut arrived I was in hog heaven and the crafting world had really opened up to me for unlimited possibilities.
After a while, I couldn't create new ways to make my cards. I was brain-dead. LOL And I was a little tired of buying Cricut cartridges which cost a fortune and not loving all the cut files on the carts. It was very hard for me to buy a new cartridge. I just didn't have money to do that except maybe a couple times a year.
Next up - my Silhouette Cameo! Which I still use to this day. I still have a Cricut (a newer version), but I find my Cameo is my love. My Cricut now lives with one of our daughters so she can use it for her classroom. WOW at the doors that were opened with SVG files. I was amazed. I thought Cricut was amazing, but the Cameo files blew me away! Once again, new life was breathed into my crafting style.
I discovered 3D crafting as well as tag making and PRINT AND CUT! I didn't use print and cut a lot because I didn't have the best printer in the world, but I was just thankful to have a printer at all!
Then there is this Project Life thing I kept hearing snippets about and never really understanding what in the world it was. I didn't even try to find out..... until 2014. In December of 2014, I decided to go for it. My scrapbooking was non-existant and this looked like a great way to get back into my first love of crafting. Tom even bought me an HP Photo Printer so I could print my own photos. Which I did! Several times a week or whenever I wanted to. No more ordering prints and not being happy with how they came out. No more having a stack of 4x6 prints that were too big for pages. Instead, I could print multiple photos onto one 4x6 photo paper and cut them and use them how I wanted. Project Life is amazing. I stayed caught up with my scrapbooking the entire 2015 year. Wow. Just wow. Love it.
And then we get to digis. I tried coloring them. You ladies make it look so easy on your projects and videos, but it was not happening for me, it was time consuming, and I felt like I was wasting a lot of time and paper when I wasn't happy with the results. The Cameo has print and cut files which I was using now and then and loving (I just don't have the patience for paper piecing tiny little bits anymore.) And then it dawned on me.... I wonder if there were digi companies out there who offered pre-colored digis so all I had to do was print them off and craft with them. So I asked a couple of friends who I know love digi crafting, and they pointed me in the right direction. Oh my gosh! I'm hooked!! I still enjoy the print and cuts in the Silhouette store, but now I can also enjoy various other companies who offer their images in pre-colored format.
Sketch Files........... I would use a sketch file now and then for my card crafting, but lately, that's all I want to do. It makes me think outside the box, and expand my crafting style. I'm also hooked on sketches. I started playing with the idea, wouldn't it be neat to open my own Sketch Challenge blog? But how in the world could I come up with all those sketches I would need? And how in the world would I get what's in my head onto the computer? It's not as hard as you may think. I started out creating a couple of cards with a sketch idea in my head, and then once the card was finished, I transferred that idea onto the computer. I'm actually pretty surprised at how easily it's all coming together. I don't expect it will always flow so nicely, but right now, I don't have enough hours in the day to get all the ideas created into cards and on the computer fast enough. LOL
What does this mean for you?
Mark your calendars for February 1st.
That's the day I make my now private sketch blog, PUBLIC with an opening blog post announcing my new sketch blog, the Design Team, and when you can expect the first sketch challenge to go live. I'm so stinkin' excited! Our first challenge will begin on Feb 10th. Put a big red circle on your calendar / planner / frig magnet.... I can't wait to open up the doors, so to speak, for a brand new sketch challenge blog, and see how you guys make the sketches come to life.
When the mood hits me, I can do some chatting, can't I?
LOL
Thanks for visiting with me today.
See you tomorrow!
