The Creative Blog Hop

Today I'm sharing something a bit different, but I hope you find it interesting. I was invited to join the Creative Blog Hop by my lovely friend, Kim Badelt, of Kim's Stamping Spot awesomeness. Kim's work is always inspiring & includes lots of beautiful details so I feel very honoured she asked me to hop.

What is the Creative Blog Hop? 
It's a continuous blog hop every Monday where crafters answer questions about their crafting & creative process, then tag others to continue on the blog hop the following Monday. I have no idea who thought of this, but such a fun idea. So onto the questions...

1. What am I working on now?
I've finished a tutorial for a Christmas gift card project (sneak peek below), which I'll share in a separate post later this week, & am thinking about my next Christmas class projects. I'm also learning how my e-cutter can help me design 3d projects & doing a bit of reorganising in my craft space, thanks to a new shelf.

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

One of the reasons I love papercrafting is that there are such a broad range of styles, techniques & products to try. My style tends toward colourful, layered projects with mostly clean lines & cards with different shapes & folds. I also love creating boxes & 3d projects - it still gives me a thrill to transform a flat piece of card with just a few cuts & scores. Lately I've been designing & sharing more project templates & instructions. These are always popular with my class lovelies & now with pinners & blog visitors too. You can see my most popular posts on my left sidebar.

3.  Why do I create what I do?
At it's simplest, messing around with paper & ink to create something just makes me feel creative & happy. Even better, I can share what I've made with someone else & hopefully brighten their day too. Looking back, I never thought I'd enjoy sharing my love of papercraft & Stampin' Up! with others, in person & online through my blog etc, but I really do. Papercrafting has brought me so many blessings, the greatest being some of my dearest friendships. What's not to love :-)

4. How does my creative process work?
Class projects generally start with a theme, product or technique. For friends & family, I try to think about what they like (themes, colours etc) & make something special. Most of my favourite projects seem to come together pretty quickly, but in general I'm a pretty slow & messy creator. Like many crafters, I have a lot of crafty goodies, so it's probably a bit ironic that I think I'm most creative when I set limits on what I'm going to use or when I'm using the scraps on my desk.
Of course I'm also inspired to try new ideas shared by papercrafting friends & the papercrafting community in general. How awesome that we have amazing online sites & communtities like Pinterest & Splitcoast Stampers to connect & see creations from all over the world.

Well, that's enough about me. Now I have the pleasure of introducing & nominating a very talented papercrafter to continue the hop next Monday. Please welcome the lovely Emily Campbell of Tiny Kiwi Cards.
I met Emily on one of our online Demonstrator groups & am always wowed by her creations & style. I'm sure you will be too.

I'm Emily Campbell, from Auckland, New Zealand.
I am mum to three lovely daughters, aged 3, 5 and 7, and I started scrapbooking when my oldest daughter was born, although I have always kept diaries, journals, albums and mementos. I've had a love of paper and stationery for as long as I can remember. I have been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator for 2 1/2 years and have recently enthusiatically embraced the Project Life memory-keeping system, in addition to my other paper-crafting. I also work part-time at the girls' school. I look forward to joining the Creative Blog Hop next week.

I can't wait to see & hear more from Emily next Monday (6 October) when it's her turn to do the Creative Blog Hop. If you're looking for even more papery inspiration in the meantime,  please do check out the blog faves on my sidebar too.
Until next time...
Inky wishes, Di