Creative Blog Hop

Hi everyone!!!  Hope you are having a great day. I know I am cuz today I am participating in a “funtastic”  Blog Hop called “Creative Blog Hop”. My dear friend Heather asked me to participate, and I jumped at the chance. What a great way to meet new creative people, by visiting their blogs, being inspired by all their fabulous posts, and leaning some new tips, tricks and  techniques. Check out Heather's Blog and see what inspires her by clicking this link… http://kraaftshaak.com/the-creative-blog-hop/

Now, I gotta tell ya a little bit about this gal that inspires me daily and how we met:

Heather has been a crafter for many years and we met in an online class Tim Holtz conducted called Creative Chemistry 101 several years ago. We became steadfast friends, and we have actually had several opportunities to “meet in person” which just sealed the deal. We have been staunch supporters of each others “craftiness”, as Heather likes to call it !!!  

She has a great presence on Google+ with a community, page, and YouTube channel.  She has been instrumental in establishing Business HangOuts On Air as the premiere way to share her “crafty bone”, as she calls it, with great LIVE Events on a weekly basis that are recorded on her YouTube Channel for later viewing for those who can’t attend the live event. Please visit her web site www.kraaftshaak.com to see all her “kraafty” genius, where she has links to all her social media sites.

As part of this Hop, we have been asked to answer the same questions:

How do I create/Where do I get my inspiration… wow, that’s a loaded question. Sometimes a idea will just pop into my head, or I will hear a song that speaks to me in a way it never had before and I see a vision in my mind’s eye of how I want to express that. Or, I see a sunset or sunrise that touches my Soul and I gotta just “do” something. Then there are the people in my life that I need to “do” for and I just love making little books/booklets for them to do with as they please.

I have commitments to my wingsiifreedom FaceBook page and Google+ community to get stories done and create digital art that goes along with those stories. I also love recycling items , and I have a YouTube channel -- taboriginal -- where I post simple crafting idea called KISS -- Keep It Simple Sylvia.

So I guess in a nutshell, the answer to this question is  “Life” --  that’s what inspires me to create. All I see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, stimulate my senses and I just gotta make something with my hands. But with all this said, it is truly God who puts all this into my head, my mind’s eye, my hands, my thought processes and that inspiration sometimes just makes me sit back and say/ask, “ I did this??!! “ It might have been my hands but it was His guidance...

What am I working on...  Boy that's a full one as I have several projects going. 

I belong to a Bunco group that meets monthly and this month is my time to host the event. I have been busy making individual score sheets with pencils attacked. Pencils ---aurgh --- they are the one item that get’s lost on every table. Some players take them with them as they move to each table, some leave them behind, then a table will have 9 pencils, another has 3 and one will have none. So I decided to make each score sheet with its own pencil attacked to it so it will follow the player from table to table.

 Plus I made treat boxes to place at each players spot,

and I made table score sheets for each set of games

I also made cute utensil/napkin holders for each player out of a paper bag. They can just toss away when meal is done

I am in the process of making name rings to put on the glasses so each player can keep track of their drinks

I also belong to Heather’s Kraafters Kommunity on Google+ and we have a Kaards By Kraafters Project where we make cards for various causes

I also have an event in October that I am making cards and other items for

Also, I am working over in Google+ on a community called -- wingsiifreedom -- which honors all our Veterans. I have one on -- FaceBook also. But the neat thing about Google+ is, it allows me the opportunity to record live video. I have lined up a few people to interview via BusinessHangouts On Air where they can tell their stories “in their own words”. First up will be a writer friend who is a Military Wife, Military Mom, and Military writer. I have two great Vets from WWII that will be speaking later and hopefully another writer who just journeyed to France to walk in her Father’s and Uncle’s footsteps as paratroopers in WWII.

Finally, I am a Close To My Heart Consultant. You can visit my -- website -- or my -- Google+ Page -- for more information.

How does my work differ/describe my style...

I tend to be more “grunge”, with a slight Victorian look, vintage style. I love earthy colors -- those seen in the trees, flowers, and grasses. My name means “forest” and I am so drawn to them for sure. I love their smells, their colors, their denseness, the sound of the wind as it kisses the branches, the leaves -- oh the rustling of those leaves on the ground, is true music to my ears!!! 

The colors of Fall are by far my favorite. Nature puts forth her glory in Fall and paints a picture that words can never capture, for it is felt in our Souls only.  And then there is Spring, I love her colors also, they are awakening colors, with beautiful new hues. They are rebirth, we get to begin again and nothing is more Glorious.

Victorian lace, vintage items, and antique tones, with their timeless beauty, softens the grunge and adds just the right amount of historical tie-back to a gentler time, a peaceful era of Gentleman and Ladies. I try to achieve that with rounder edges, and softer lines and borders, with inky edges, and scratchy pictures, and recycled items that speak to simpler times. 

To continue this Creative Blog Hop, I have asked a couple of friends to join us. Please visit their blogs and see the crafty, creative, heARTistry they do...

Peg is a creative Soul whom I met via a Tim Holtz OnLine class a few years ago. She has her hands in so many different media from inks, to paints, to copics to jewelry and is an avid gardner -- oh her flowers, you can almost smell them via her pictures.Then there are the veggie from her garden… yum is the best word.  If you are ever fortunate to see her “studio” you would drool, just drool and then understand her love of everything artsy. Hop on over to her blog and be dazzled. She will be sharing her Creative Blog on Monday Sept 1^st. Until then, hop over to her blog and she what she is up to today -- Bits n Pieces

Next up is Patty. I met her in a Google+ community I belong to. She makes cards every Monday Night with a group of ladies from her church as part of their Card Ministry. They give their cards to local hospitals and charities. She also writes an amazing blog, full of wit, humor, treasures she creates, and life’s happenings -- snakes invoked quite the chatter among some of her blog followers!!! Check it out at -- Rose Tresures.  She always closes with a Scriptural affirmation that warms the Soul. She, too, will be sharing her Creative Blog on Monday Sept 1^st, so be sure to check it out.