Inspired by All the Little Things: Inspired by~Karren

LauraJane

Leigh Penner

To The Full

Marcie Sharp
Sharp Designs

Sheri Gilson

Silke Ledlow

Wanda Cullen

And a card by me, Karren Johnson

We hope you will play along with us!

The linky will close on Friday,16 June at 11:55am. (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!

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Inspired By #56 featuring Michele Henderson

Hello, it's Karren here! 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...

Michele Henderson of Crimson Owl Creations

I asked Michele 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 Crimson Owl Creations, after the colors of my alma mater, the University of Alabama, and my love for owls, long before they were so trendy. I started it in February 2012 after receiving the good news that I had been accepted to my very first design team! The very next day I said, “Okay, let’s figure out how to make a blog.” It’s been an amazing journey of discovery in every way!

2. What is your style of card making?

I love to say that I am a paper artist, because I love creating with paper, and I love everything about it. I try to create cards that feature a lot of color and dimension. I love clean, layered looks, even in complicated scenes and multiple layers of die cuts. I will often use a number of dies to create dimensional flowers, trees, birds, and so on, then place them in really crisp, clean backgrounds to show off the detail and make the image pop. I also like watercolor and copic cards too, and have recently been adding beautiful floral stamps to my collection.

3. Who inspires you as a designer?

There are so many amazing designers that I absolutely love for different reasons: watercolor, copic work, mixed media, and all my friends from design teams who work with the same items that I do. I am most inspired by the designers who influence my work, who make me want to pick up the same tools they’re using and try that technique, and that changes all the time. Right now, designers like Michele Ferguson, Jeanne Jachna, and Susan Liles, who all create beautiful cards with die cuts are influential to me. Designer Tae Eun Yoo’s beautiful watercolor cards are inspiring me to add watercolor in a new way. Of course, the biggest artistic influence in my work has always been American artist Charley Harper.

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

As a card maker, I am most inspired by nature; it’s all around me. I also get great inspiration from photos with strong, colorful focal points, like a bicycle with a basket of flowers, or a jar of colored pencils or something. I am least inspired by photos of living rooms and bedrooms.

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

I don't think people know how much I have traveled in my lifetime. I now live just outside Tuscaloosa, AL, out in horse ranch country, so a lot of people think I’m one of those home loving country gals. They are always surprised to find out I have lived in places like Shanghai, China, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, where I worked organizing people around environmental issues and campaigns my entire life. My hubby and I are also child free, so now we both travel the world together as a couple, with our own definition of family.

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

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

Kimberly Lackenbach

LauraJane

Laurel Seabrook (Guest Designer)

Seabrook Designs

Leigh Penner

To The Full

Marcie Sharp
Sharp Designs

Sheri Gilson

Silke Ledlow

Taking a Break

Wanda Cullen

And a card from me, Karren Johnson

We hope you will play along with us!

The linky will close on Friday, 19 May at 11:55am. (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!

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Inspired by all the Little Things #51 featuring Lisa Lara

Hello, it's Karren here. 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...

Lisa Lara from Lisa's Life Lines

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

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

My blog's name is Lisa's Life Lines. Building friendships and enjoying card making are my life lines that help me deal with my chronic illnesses. I started it back in 2009 at the encouragement of my sweet friend Dawn Burnworth. I was starting to apply for Design Teams and wanted to have a blog.

2. What is your style of card making?

My style of cardmaking has evolved to what it is today and that is CAS aka Clean And Simple. I have a phobia to many layers and complex sketches. LOL

3. Who inspires you as a designer?

I am inspired by all my blogger, facebook and Splitcoaststampers friends. However there is one, my friend Therese Calvird that inspires me again and again.

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

First, I stare at the products I wish to use and inspiration usually comes. Also when I am blog hopping I am always inspired by other designers and the ideas get stashed away in my memory to be retrieved later when I am creating.

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

I met my husband when I was living in Maryland and worked as a receptionist for a Congressman in the Nation's Capitol. I so enjoyed living there for a time with all the history, monuments and museums.

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

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

Kimberly Lackenbach

LauraJane

Leigh Penner

To The Full

Marcie Sharp
Sharp Designs

Sheri Gilson

Silke Ledlow

Wanda Cullen

And a card by Karren

We hope you will play along with us!

The linky will close on Friday, 14 April at 11:55am. (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!

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Inspired By All The Little Things #47 featuring Michelle Lupton

This week I have invited...

Michelle Lupton

I asked Michelle 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 "Handmade by Michelle" - I know, pretty boring, but when I started it, I was not really aware of very many cardmaking blogs. I only discovered the whole world of card challenges in July, 2011 after I started my blog in February 2011. I started my blog as a way of keeping track of my own cards, and recording where I got inspiration from.

2. What is your style of card making?

I like to try different styles, but I always return to CAS cardmaking. At the end of each year, I post a bunch of my favourite cards from that year to my blog, and from those cards, you can tell that I love white space, I'm not into a lot of layers, I love a rainbow and blues and greens, and I like using stencils and watercolours and Distress Inks. My latest love is Zig clean colour real brush markers.

3. Who inspires you as a designer?

Oh, there are so many! For techniques, I love Jennifer McGuire. For Copic colouring, I adore Kelly Latevola. For her use of colour and her inventiveness, Laura Bassen. For her mastery of soft and pretty, Debby Hughes. And for their versatility, Jessica Frost Ballas and Therese Calvird. I am also inspired by all my teammates at A Blog Named Hero, and at the Fusion Card Challenge.

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

Quite often, I am inspired by stamps and inks - I will often just grab a stamp and some inks and start from there. I do love looking through Instagram and Pinterest, and will often take an idea from another cardmaker - a way of using a product, or a technique, or a colour scheme - and try to use it without directly copying it. I used to always follow sketches to the letter, but now I am more likely to let the stamp guide what the card ends up looking like, rather than making the stamp fit a sketch.

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

Um, my Instagram profile says I'm a "card-making, choir-singing, cupcake-baking science nerd". I have also been described as having a serious case of introversion ;)

Here is Michelle's stunning card using this week's inspiration!

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

Kimberly Lackenbach

LauraJane

Leigh Penner

To The Full

Marcie Sharp
Sharp Designs

Sheri Gilson

Silke Ledlow

Wanda Cullen