Endless {Christmas} Wishes - A Creative Blog Hop

A little over a week ago I received a PM (private message) on Splitcoaststampers from the uber talented stamper, a fellow Texan, and after Convention 2014, now my friend ... Beverly {Bev} Gerard. The purpose of her PM was to nominate me to participate in the Creative Blog Hop that she had received from the cat loving, funny story blogging, entertaining, stamping diva who isn't afraid to try new techniques and get dirty inky, Lydia Fiedler, who also happens to be a fellow Texan. The hop features Stampin' Up! projects by an ongoing list of demos and friends from around the world, except when three Texans in a row participate! LOL!! Thanks Bev for the nomination ... it means A LOT to be thought of by you as a worthy participant!  ... and oh, the description of me in your blog post made me *blush*. You are too sweet!!

Now Bev used the hop as a means for a break from her seasonal projects; however, this girl right here took the opportunity to START her Christmas cards. That's right folks, it's December 15th and I'm just starting on 50 {gasp! - F-I-F-T-Y} handmade cards. YIKES!! Obviously I have L-O-T-S of work to do so rather than continuing to hopefully entertain you with this blog post I will post my project, answer my questions, and pass the hop on to the next two talented demo stampers.

If you will recall in my last post, I have a really.hard.time making flat (aka: non-dimensional) cards. I would rather clean house and do laundry instead of giving up my dimension on a card. I love me some layers and embellishments (ribbons, buttons, and clips - Oh My!) ... but I digress ... so my goal this year is to make my cards {as} flat {as possible} so that they don't cost a fortune to mail or jam the mail machines in Waco, Texas which happens to be up by Bev, but I digress again. So here is one of my {as} flat {as I could possibly make it} Christmas cards which happens to be a big fat 5-layer non-mail-able FAIL!! *sigh* Thus I shall continue to work on f-l-a-t instead of fluffy!!

(click photo to enlarge)

 ...and now for my questions:

1.) What are you working on?  
I think this one answers itself ... Fifty.Christmas.Cards amongst a few other "Thank You" cards that I need to make for my church greeters (I am the Hospitality & Greeting Ministry Leader at our church in case you missed that post). For the record, my goal for 2015 is to make 5 Christmas cards per month so by the time December arrives I can mail them on December 1st instead of starting them on December 15th. I will let you know in a year from now how that worked out or how about I just set a more realistic goal now?!? That's probably a better idea!

2.) How does your work differ from others in your genre?
I'd say that my style has developed after being influenced by, in my opinion, the ultimate of ultimate stampers in the stamping community. For many, many, MANY years I followed (okay, I stalked) the work of the super duper talented Beate (those of you from back in the day {circa 2003-2009} will remember when she was a SU! demo and graced us with her talent). Day in and day out I admired her work, watched her video tutorials - I loved her German accent! - and soaked in as much as I could and then I finally started digging out all of the product that I had been hoarding and not using to begin stamping rather than stalking her and collecting supplies! As a result of her influence, I would claim that my style is simple and clean while complex and somewhat intimidating because of  my layering, dimension, and embellishing. I am a Type "A" personality and suffer with major OCD (self proclaimed, not by diagnosis) so I like things clean, lined up, matching, neat, organized, perfect, straight, symmetrical, and tidy which, by the way, means that I am the complete opposite of Lydia ... who is an artist and NOT a Type "A"!!! I very much stick to what I am comfortable with and don't venture too far out of my box/comfort zone. *NOTE: did you notice my OCD list is in alphabetical order?!?  I rest my case!

3.) Why do you create what you do?
When time permits, stamping is my escape, my getaway, my creative outlet; therefore, I create for fun and for the satisfaction of accomplishing something unique, one of a kind, and handmade by me. I enjoy sending my creations to my family and friends because I know that what I send will make them smile and they will cherish it for-e-ver! To sum it up, I love making cards because I know that my creations have an impact on and make a difference in others' lives.

4.) How does your creativity process work?
I am very methodical when it comes to creating so the MOJO Monday Blog is ALWAYS my first stop. I normally have an idea of the stamp that I want to use as the focal point on my card so I browse the MOJO sketches, pick one that I like and that will work with my image, and then print it. From there, I pick the cardstock and DSP that I will use on the card. Once I have my cardstock and DSP picked out, I layer them on my desk to make sure they work with the sketch and are pleasing to the eye. After that I stamp my main image, color it if necessary, and then begin building my card based on the sketch.

Now for the passing of the baton hop:
My first nomination is a super talented stamper who is a Canadian Demonstrator ... if I had been able to recruit internationally, she would be in my downline!  Although I have never met Marsha Lavoie (Stamping With Marsha), I feel as if I know her. There is no doubt that I am drawn to her work because of her clean and neat style. I certainly hope you love her creations as much as I do!

My second nomination goes out to another super talented stamper, Jeannine Tarrio, with whom I had the privilege of being on the SCS Stampin' Up! Creative Crew Design Team. It is Jean's clean, crisp, and elegant style that draws me into her work and I'm sure you'll love what you see on her blog, Jean Stamps.

If you are in the mood to hop over to one more blog, check out the talented Nancy Smith at iguanastamp. Nancy was also nominated by Bev to post today and I had to giggle when I received a PM from Nancy nominating me to participate in this hop with a post due next Monday. Sorry for having to decline Nancy, it is an honor to have been nominated a second time.

Both Marsha and Jean have until next Monday, December 22nd to post their work so make sure and check their blogs next week to see what they have created for you.

One final note, make sure and check back tomorrow because I have 7 or so more Christmas cards ready to show you.

Crafty Blessings,

~Hallie
"But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.'”