Inspired By All The Little Things featuring Marisa Ritzen!

Hello and welcome to Inspired By All The Little Things! This is a weekly inspiration challenge blog and each week we feature a wonderful designer who inspires us as an artist!

This week I have invited... the very talented Marisa Ritzen as my guest!  I have been following Marisa's work since her pre-Verve days!  She uses lots of colour, likes clean lines and has a real eye for putting together gorgeous cards.

I asked Marisa to share a bit about herself...

1. What is the name of your blog? When and why did you start it?

My blog is called Rosemary Reflections (after the street we live on), though in hindsight I should have gone with Cards and Curls (my hair is very curly) as I always liked that name better  but it didn’t seem “professional” enough, especially since I was selling cards in stores.    I started blogging on August 19, 2009 as Verve Stamps had blog hops and I loved their stamps but couldn’t participate as I did not have a blog.   In addition, it was a way to be able to connect with “cyber friends” while I was a SAHM and craving adult interaction.  

2. What is your style of card making?

 I am a Clean and Layered kind of gal who loves using flowers, butterflies, hearts, leaves, and snowflakes on cards.

3. Who inspires you as a designer?

When I first started stamping I was addicted to Splitcoast Stampers and favorited many cards  by “notimetostamp” (Sharon Johnson), “Toy” (Holly Reinders McMillan), mytime (Lauren), Shadowstamper (Julee Tilman – Verve Stamps creator), va.sunshine (Terersa Klein), Kharmagirl (Jodi Collins), and Silke Ledlow to name a few, as I greatly admired and learned from their work.  Seven years later, I continue to gain inspiration from a wide variety of wonderfully talented designers.

4. What sort of things inspire you as a card maker? Photos? Sketches? Other designers?

Sketches all the way!!  I am “layout challenged” when it comes to creating my own sketch, so my Pinterest Sketch Board is worth gold to me LOL!  I start with a certain type of card in mind (eg. birthday card for my daughter who is a girly girl) or  inspiration photo, then look through my Sketch Board to find a few that could work with the concept I have.  I then play around with papers and stamp sets until I get a good match and create my card from there. 
     

5. Share something about yourself that we may not know?

 I am a very competitive person and love to learn new things.  When I first started making cards, it was a huge challenge as I do not have a lot of “natural” creative genes (I have athletic genes by the boat load but got a bit short changed in the creative gene department).   Creating a card in those early years was often a lot of blood,  sweat and tears, not to mention the sheer determination of not wanting to lose to an inanimate object - aka paper!   Yes, I even complete against paper, and designer paper did quite a number on me as I learned how to master using it LOL!!   My goal was to be able to create cards I would be proud to give  to others, with the added bonus of being able to personalize them to fit the recipient.   Thankfully my persistence paid off J  

Here is Marisa's card using this week's inspiration!

The challenge designers have also created a card for this week's inspiration!  I hope you will play along with us this week! We would love to have you join us!

Kimberly Lackenbach-http://kimcreate.blogspot.ca/

LauraJane- http://ahiaf.blogspot.com/

Leigh Penner - www.leighpenner.blogspot.com  

Marcie Sharp- http://cardmakinchaos.blogspot.ca/

Wanda Cullen-http://cullen-arycreations.blogspot.ca/

And here's something from me:

We hope you will play along with us!

The linky will close on Thursday, October 20th at 11:55pm. (PST)

Some simple rules to keep things organized and enjoyable:

• Please use the graphic for your post and link back to this post.
• Any posts that are offensive will be removed.
• Please comment on the submissions of others...we all love the support!
• Yes you can combine with other challenges but NOT other inspiration challenges please.
• Have fun and challenge yourself!