Linda Callahan over at Stampin' Seasons, has nominated me for a Creative Blog Hop. Linda is one of the most talented stampers I know and is always so kind and thoughtful. I met Linda last year and clearly remember her laugh and sense of humor. Being nominated means that I was asked to share my creative process with you by answering four simple questions, so here goes…

1. What are you working on?  In the midst of "Sneak Peeks", I'm still working on Christmas decorating. I needed a few more "Merry Stars" for my Dining Room so I'm finishing up on a few with lots of glittery gold and there's glitter everywhere! 

2. How does your work differ from others in your genre? I like a clean, uncluttered look to my projects, but I enjoy creating "collage cards", so I suppose I'm a Clean Collage Creator.

I almost always add some sort of a frame to fill in,

…and I love mixing patterns and colors,

3. Why do you create what you do?  I've always loved paper, especially patterned paper. I love to wrap gifts with pretty embellishments, and…as a child, I designed rooms inside shoe boxes and mixed patterns on my "walls". I really don't keep many of the cards I create. I send them out to special people and always write a personal note. Each card has a little bit of me attached to it, and I enjoy sharing that with others.

4. How does your creative process work? It surprises me. Most of the time, I don't know what I'm going to create until I sit down. I keep a basket on my table that I use for scraps, and sometimes just a scrap of patterned paper catches my eye, so I'll use that color scheme. I'll see a great sketch that I want to use and I'll hunt around for a stamp set that "suits" it, or my eye will catch a specific stamp, then I'll look through past sketches to match them. 

Today's card was inspired by the "Best Day Ever" stamp. It's a "Sneak Peek" Sale-A-Bration stamp set that I just wanted to use. The patterned paper is also from the up-coming Sale-A-Bration brochure and it's called "Best Year Ever". 

I started with the stamp… then matched it to an oval framelit. I pulled out all of the patterned paper from the pack and matched up two of the patterns. I sort of multi-tasked this design because as I was picking out the patterned paper I was thinking that I would create a raised oval frame over the sentiment. Calypso Coral had to be the ink color since that's what I saw "popping" out of the large layer of patterned paper. The rest of the design just evolved… Sort of a Clean Collage look with a frame and a mix of patterns and colors.

So grab a favorite stamp, match it with a framelit and create something fabulous!

Now, I am passing my baton over to Amy Whelan at Amy's Inklings who is also a CAS Designer. Amy creates beautiful cards and imaginative 3-D Projects and she will share her "Creative Process" and another beautiful project with you on Monday, December 29th. 

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