Hi there, creative people! Over the course of the last two months I was approached by some fabulous friends to take up the ‘Getting To Know You’ blog hop, and I needed to refuse them all, sadly, because of lack of time. I’m by no means having more of it now but I’m learning to manage it more efficiently, plus I think some of my creativity is coming back and so is the willingness to spend an evening writing a post like this one, instead of just crashing into bed *wink*.

Thank-you to Tasnim, Dawn, Elizabeta, Kathy, Kathryn, May, Asty for the nominations and the kind words that came with them. I owe you, girls. That’s why I decided that I make the time… this time. Let’s go! 🙂

1.What creative projects are you currently working on?

I’m preparing for a guest gig on Friday, here’s a sneak peek:

Can you guess the company? 🙂
Otherwise, there’s not much happening craft-wise in my week any more - I might spend an odd evening stamping a card or two and then another one sharing it (I’m rather slow and meticulous with both) but you surely noticed that I stepped back from blogging quite significantly. When I do stamp, I take wild pleasure in biting into the latest WPlus9 releases. Mmmm.

2.What inspires your designs?

Fellow bloggers, to the largest extent. I confess that 100% of my style (if any) and knowledge of stamping is a direct result of hours upon hours spent gushing over my favourite bloggers’ artwork - and quite frankly, such was the story of starting CASE Study.
As I would have admitted many times before, I don’t watch crafting videos. Tutorials bore me, but I do look at the work of the others a lot, analyze it, and usually I’m able to pinpoint the techniques or design principles that made them stand out.
I have favourite artists on both sides of the spectrum, from heavily layered & vintage to super clean & CAS. Depending on my mood or idea in my head, whenever I’m stuck I hit a blog or two, do a Google/Pinterest search, and I’m able to find some sort of a starting point for my design which I’m ready to put my own spin on.
I used to participate in a plethora of challenges and they were excellent at giving me inspiration as well.

3.What method / process (if applicable) do you apply to each of your creative projects, and how long does each project take to complete?

Would you believe that I never actually checked how much time it takes me to make a card? I think it would be safe to assume that I never really go below an hour, but I often go way over it. Because I don’t plan my cards in advance, the process is fluid and full of experimenting, endless mixing and matching, perfecting the details or adding ‘just one more’.
I usually start with a choice of product and a general idea in my head, but often I decide on altering the look as my stamping progresses or when I discover a different, more appealing way of conducting a design at hand. It happens A LOT. Hence the copious amount of time required for me to go from a blank card to a blogged artwork, but it never occurred to me that I could have it any other way. It keeps me entertained, and my designs fresh 🙂

4. If you had to describe your ‘signature’ style, what would it be?

This is the question I should ask you instead, because I don’t see anything bonding, except from eclecticism, in my artwork. It’s moody, versatile, and it’s constantly evolving.

5. What are 3 crafting products/tools you can’t live without?

Can I name more? I’m old style and I need a self-healing mat, a ruler and a bone folder to fold the card base. I’m using a ruler and a craft knife to cut everything - with the exception of cutting a page in half for the base, where I use paper trimmer.
As for the favourites, I should mention Versafine Onyx Black ink, natural twine, ribbon banner dies, sequins (my love for them can be tracked way back before they were cool) and lightly coloured, neutral cardstock (like SSS Fog or PTI Fine Linen). Oh, and let’s not forget floral designs 🙂

6. My crafty idols

This is where I’m supposed to tag two-three folks but I’ll skip this part, if you don’t mind - I don’t want to pressure anybody and seems like almost everyone has been taken anyway, lol.
You can always hit my Pinterest card inspiration board, or my blogroll to see who I admire, and for today I’m leaving you with my newest crafty crush: Cris! I can’t recommend enough clicking over to see the outpouring of her genius.

Muchos gracias for bearing with me, I hope you enjoyed the part above - it’s not the end of the post just yet! Thanks to the mid-day surprise crafting session, these two are now lying on my desk:

I used the images and sentiments from the WPlus9 Merriest Wishes stamp set. The images were coloured with Copics:
skin:E00/02/04/93
clothing: R32/35/37/59, G99/94/82, W1/W3
star: Y18
hair: E51/53
tree: G02/09/29
sock: G02/09/29, Y18/26, R32/35/37/59, W1/W3/W8

I dabbed Colourless Blender all over the sock for the texture. For the tag I fussy cut the image and mounted using foam tape, for the card the image was enclosed in a frame cut with Holiday Apertures Designer Dies and made to minic a picture frame. I cut the outer edge myself, just above the dashed line. I secured some twine at the top with a brad. Both the card and matching tag were decorated with Snowflake Trio Designer Dies. Aren’t they divine?!
The background was watercoloured using Peerless Watercolors (disclaimer: Neenah is NOT the best cardstock for this job…), I sprinkled some of the paint around it.

That’s all, folks! (yes, that’s my shameless, melancholic Looney Tunes insertion). Meet you here again on Friday, shall we?