Creative Blog Hop Tour!!!

Have you heard of this yet?  The "Creative Blog Hop Tour"?  Well, if you haven't, let me tell you a bit about it.  I've been tagged by my bloggy friend Alison.  I am going to answer four questions about myself, and then introduce you to one of my crafty buddies.  Next week, it will be her turn to do the same.  Like a big ol' game of tag, but without the running!

So first off, let me tell you a bit about Alison.  You can find her at her blog, Alison Day Designs.  I "met" Alison a few years ago, somehow, I don't even really know how it happened!  But after commenting back and forth on each others' crafty creations for a while, it soon became obvious that we were kindred spirits.  We are always joking about living parallel lives, because I cannot tell you how many times I visited her blog and realized that our kids were puking on the same day, or we'd used the same sketch for a scrapbook layout, or we had made a page for the same online challenge.  Pretty trippy when that happens to two gals living several hundred kilometers apart!  I was lucky enough to meet Alison in real life when I traveled to Vancouver a while back:

So fun!  Make sure to visit Alison's blog and say hi!

Seeing this hop is all about getting to know our fellow crafty bloggers, there is a series of questions I need to answer about myself:

1. What am I currently working on?  

Honestly, I haven't worked on anything in quite a while.  I seem to have lost my mojo!  I think part of it had to do with my space, or lack thereof.

This was my nook under the stairs of the house we've been in for just over a year (wow, doesn't seem like that long!)  And while it may look like a cozy little retreat, in reality, it just wasn't working for me.  Dark (even with an Ott lite), crowded, messy, with dust from the stairs falling all over my projects - ugh!  And I hated having that whole disaster area visible as soon as anyone walked in the front door.  So a couple of weeks ago, I packed up all of my stuff and moved it out of there.  Don't worry, it's still accessible - I just have to rethink my process a bit.

For the summer, though, I plan to focus on my Smashbooks.  It's so easy to just pull out some bits and pieces from my storage drawer, "smash" together a page or two, and then stick it back in the drawer.  Here's a look at some of my more recent Smashbook pages that I posted to Instagram but I don't think I've posted here:

2.  How does my work differ from others of its genre?

This is a really tough question!  I'm not sure you could look at any of my pages and say, "That's a 'Roxy' page!"  But I love taking part in online challenges, and that seems to stretch me in different directions I would never have thought possible before starting a blog.  You never really know what you're going to see from me, and so I'll say that my unpredictability is what makes me unique.

3.  Why do I write/create what I do?

My first scrapbook I made after my first trip to the Netherlands.  My relatives over there all had these albums where the photos were stuck onto pages and decorated with captions and stickers - I'd never seen anything like it!  So I bought myself an album and adhesive squares, some deckle edged scissors and markers, and set to work.  That was in 1998.  Wow, have things changed!!!  So while it started out as a desire to tell the story of my trip, eventually it turned into a hobby and a passion.  I still love that I am documenting our lives in my scrapbooks, but the act of creating something that can be considered art is so satisfying to me, and that's what has kept me doing it for so long.

4.  How does your creating process work?

This has changed over the years, too.  When I became a Creative Memories consultant in 2003, we always taught to start with the photos and matching papers, then journal, and finally embellish with stickers.  While I still often stick with this basic process, lately I've been having fun by starting with the products.  I love the challenge site "Counterfeit Kit Challenge" - they choose a kit from an online kit company, and challenge participants are to create a kit inspired from it using supplies from their own stash.  For the whole month, you can link up the projects you make with your kit, and the chicks at Counterfeit Kits will post additional challenges that you can take part in, too.  Anyhoo, by making my own kit, I force myself to start with the products first!

Here's a page I made with my last counterfeit kit:

Whew, that was tough!  Those four questions really got my mind going!  So now it's time for me to introduce one of my best scrapping and blogging buddies, Tara Cox:

Tara was the owner of my most favourite scrapbooking store in.  The.  World!!!  That's how we met, but then we got to know each other better through crops and classes, blog comments and Facebook.  Now she's closed her store, gotten married, and moved to South Carolina!  Thank goodness for all those ways we have to keep in touch!

Tara is a truly gifted artist, and even Tim Holtz has taken note!  Be sure to visit her blog to check out her amazing creations and to say hi!  

So thanks for stopping by!  This hop is a lot of fun- heads up, you may be one of the next people tagged!