This question comes from peggy, she asked:

I’ll address these in sections, and try not to be too boring! *wink*

1. Do you have an art training background?

No, I don’t have an art training background in the sense that I never went to school for it. I did take one drawing class at Community College which, if anything, taught me A LOT on perspective. We basically did charcol drawings, and the perspective ones were my favorite to do. No wonder I love the Escher drawings so much!

I have a great love for art, but I am in no way an intellect in the area. You could drop me off at a good art museum for a day and I’d be quite happy. Two Leap Year Birthdays ago my parents took the day off from work, as well as Don, and we went to the Getty for the day. That was such a treat! It would be nice to go again next year, but I think the boys would be bored outta their gourds! I’ll have to start them off smaller, maybe with the Huntington Library. That place is awesome, too!

2. How do you work on being a better artist/crafter?

Recently I’ve started taking myself more seriously as a stamper/paper crafter. I set some goals for myself this year, and it has changed how I’m stamping. I think that setting goals for yourself, big or small, are a great way to work on being a better crafter.

Here are some simple goals to get you started:

Learn a new technique. You can find tons of them in the Resources section at Splitcoast.

Challenge yourself to complete so many cards in a week.

Partipate in online challenges. The ones posted on a daily basis at Splitcoast are a fabulous way to get your creative juices flowing!

Participate in swaps. You can learn a lot from the cards you receive from other stampers.

3. Do you just create and play?

Yes, there are times when I’m so excited about a new stamp/stamp set that I sit down and see what I can do with it. However, I mostly stamp with a reason behind it. Such as making a birthday card, completing assignments, etc.

4. How do you improve?

I think this one really goes along with how to work on being a better crafter. All of the suggestions I listed there will help improve your stamping skills.

There is one thing that I’ve taken up lately, and I have to admit that I always thought it was kinda silly. When we were in Hawaii, I picked up a sketch book with the thought that I’d work on some sketches for justjohanna cards. I never got around to opening it once since I had forgotten some stuff at home and got caught up reading Eragon.

Since I’ve been home, I’ve been using my sketch book to keep notes on card layouts, color combinations, embellishments, etc. I have taken it with me to the park and sketched while Owen was playing. I keep it next to me when I look thru the many catalogs we get (Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Smith and Noble, etc.). And guess what, it’s a pretty useful tool for me now!

I’ll see a stamp and the lightbulb will go off that I already have design for it. I can’t decide on a color combo, so I browse thru the ones I have listed. I keep adding to the ideas that hit me at different moments, and it’s pretty fun to go thru it to see which sketch I can use for the project I’m working on. This is helping me improve a lot since it is teaching me how to look for inspiration from what it around me.

Thanks for the question, Peggy! Be sure to email me your address so I can get some goodies sent to you!

This is the last of the goodies I’ll be sending out, but I’ll continue to answer the questions over the next few weeks. I hope you are all enjoying the Q&A sessions! It’s fun for me to read your questions and answer them!