Celebrate Winter Cards

Hello Friends!

Over my Winter Break from work, I've been working on a set of cards using Echo Park's Celebrate Winter collection. This post is very photo heavy, so grab a cup of your favorite beverage and hopefully enjoy what I have to share. 

I follow Kristie Marcotte's blog and You Tube channel. She is known for creating many cards using up a 6x6 paper pad. She is a big fan of adding layers to her cards, too. Back in the day, when I was a Close To My Heart Consultant, I loved to create multiple cards from one sheet of stamped cardstock and I loved to add layers. When I found Kristie's work, I was an instant fan. She is also very kind and generous in addition to being able to whittle away a 6x6 paper pad beautifully. I know I've shared about her a time or two already, but I thought I'd remind you where I am getting my inspiration. In November she shared her cards from the Celebrate Winter paper pad. She created 32 cards! I didn't create near that many, but over 20. Most are shown here. :)

*****

I'm going to be super honest here for a minute. Feel free to continue reading, or jump to the pictures if you prefer. I have long struggled with feeling like all I do is copy other crafters' ideas. And that doing so somehow makes me less than as a crafter. It's that feeling of being less than creative in coming up with my own ideas or designs that has partially kept me from sharing as much on my blog over the past few years. I mean, really, why would people want to see a recreation of someone else's work? Maybe they don't. Maybe I don't need to be sharing my creations. And not too long ago, a very well known cardmaker posted a video that said if you are not a beginner crafter, you shouldn't be copying other people's work. You should be coming up with your own designs. That seemed to validate the struggles I was having and I pretty much quit sharing so much. I let that comment take the joy away from my crafting and sharing. I was still creating, just not sharing all that much. 

I kept thinking maybe that cardmaker is right and maybe I should be coming up with my own designs, but so far, my attempts at doing so lead me to feelings of frustration and lots of stuff in the trash bin. I'm coming to the realization that with the crafting that I enjoy, I follow patterns. When I crochet, knit or do cross stitch, I follow patterns. When I used to tole paint and scrapbook, I followed patterns. I made lots of stuff, I maybe tweaked something here or there that I liked better, but I've long been a pattern follower. And so, why should that really be all that different in my cardmaking? I follow patterns. It's how I create. 

So, I'm going to try to share more once again. If you like it, great, thanks for sticking with me and if it's not your cup of tea, feel free to skip along to the next blog.:) One thing I am going to try to do, is add more of my own tweaks if I can come up with something different. You should know that I  always, always credit the person whose work I am inspired by. 

And so, without further ado, here are the cards I came up with following Kristie's tutorial. Some of the colors seem off in the photos, but that is operator error. They coordinate much better in real life, I promise. This post is long enough, so if you have any questions about products I used, please feel free to ask in the comments. You might notice thin strips of glittery tape. Those are Peel Offs and were a generous gift to me from Kristie. She's on Design Team for Love From Lizi, an artist from the UK. These Peel Offs are exclusive to her line. Oh golly, they are fun to use. 

This snowman makes me smile. It's a Darcie's stamp. 

This card and the next one are my own takes on the sketch Kristie used. 

I really like how they turned out. 

And that's it from me! Thank you so much if you got this far. What a marathon post. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have an awesome day!

Crafty hugs!