The Creative Blog Hop

The lovely Nikki tagged me last week in The Creative Blog Hop. I've know Nikki through the Incy Wincy design team I love Nikki's often quirky cards she loves to bring humour into her crafty makes and there's also often a darker side to her creations which I love. 
Ok onto the four questions

1.     What am I working on now?

Here's my little crafting area it's tucked into the corner of our bedroom as you can see I'm not a very tidy crafter ( this is tidy for me lol). The photo above shows the desk to my right where my cuttlebug lives along with all my ribbons and embellishments. The grey drawers hold odds and ends of patterned paper, mirror card and all my card blanks.

Here's my main bit of desk with all my coloured card and my promarkers right there in front of me.

So what am I working on at the moment? The answer is not a lot I have lots of trouble with my right hand and this weekend it has played up big time so I didn't do any crafting all though if you look carefully you can see the starts of my DT card for next week as well as a scrapbook I've been sent to try out and review.

2.     How does my work differ from others in my genre?

I'm not sure that it does, do I fit into a particular genre? I like to try different styles out but mainly I guess I stick to cute character cards and your usually find some fussy cutting on my cards. I do love to colour so your usually find that I have coloured the images on my cards with my promarkers.

3.     Why do I create what I do?

I create because I can quite simply it makes me me. It's my way to relax after a stressful day at work it's the best way I know to relax and wind down. I also like giving my crafts to other people and seeing the joy that it brings to them.

4.     How does my creative process work?

I usually pick an image for my card first and then pick the papers so I can colour the image to match them. I like to use sketches as a base for my cards although often in the end my card doesn't look anything like the sketch. 

Now to carry on the blog hop I'm tagging two of my favourite crafters, I love to look at their blogs and am often left in awe at the fantastic creations. I meet both of these ladies when I first started card making on a fantastic forum where we all quickly became good friends.

First up is the lovely Claire from What Shall I Make Today - Claire produces some of the most stunning intricate pieces I have ever seen you won't be sorry if you visit her blog.

Hi. I’m Claire Boelema and I’ve been playing with inks, paints and pieces of paper for approximately four and a half years now and as a result I’m enjoying a second childhood! I don’t have a set “style” – I simply get up in the mornings and go wherever my mood takes me or whatever inspires me, so my work can vary hugely from day to day or even hour by hour! The only common theme that runs through my projects is that I love to use assorted techniques and add lots of detail, so be warned there’s normally a fair bit of “faffing” and fancy cutting.

At the moment I’m really into “junk” art where I take an item that would normally end up in the trash and re-purpose it into something beautiful that people would want to keep - well that’s the plan whether it works out that way or not only you can decide! I currently design for Graph’It Markers, Polka Doodles and Studio 12 and do the odd sample for Tattered Lace’s Tatty Twinkle. I’m also very lucky to have had my work published in magazines and shown on TV. In addition I teach the odd class and run an after school kids craft club.

My blog http://whatshallimaketoday.blogspot.co.uk/ is somewhere for me to show case all of my creations, even the dodgy toe curlers that go wrong! I’m a firm believer that if you make a mistake you should show others to avoid them making the same one!

Jenny was one of the first people I met through papercrafting and I have always admired her work. I recently had a year out of crafting due to a huge building project on my home that went disastrously wrong and one of the first people to welcome me back to “blogland” was Jenny. So I’d like to take this post as an opportunity to thank her for her help and encouragement over the past few years, for sticking with me when I didn’t craft and finally for thinking of me to join the hop. I’m both amazed and flattered that you thought of me!

And secondly I would like to tag the lovely Jennie from The Crafty Wife - Jennie produces beautiful elegant cards often using lots of lovely die cuts.

My first memory of crafting is cutting out paper dolls from a magazine and from there I've loved everything I've tried. I left school as a milliner and made clothes for my children when they were small. I met a scrapbooker who showed me the ropes and from I was hooked on paper crafting. I love card making now and I'm a real collector of stamps and dies.

Thanks reading my post and letting me join in with this blog hop.