Blog Hop

Today im taking part in the creative blog hop.

"Monday again! Okay I'm a day early but whilst I have the time I thought I'd get this done! The day where all kinds of  artists from many different genres, join in The Creative Blog Hop (TCBH) after being tagged by someone the previous Monday. The Creative Blog Hop is the brain child of a blogger, whose identity has been lost along the way. The intention is for us all, as bloggers, to get to know each other better and share ideas and inspiration. It is most commonly explained as similar to the playground game 'Tag' (you're it) but over a huge expanse of space (conceivably the whole world - or at least the parts of the world that have access to the internet). Each Blogger introduces their tagger and themselves, answers four questions about themselves and then they 'tag' three more Bloggers and it goes on and on (or at least that is the aim of the game)."

 

So this is where you need to know about me I guess...so well here goes.

 

Hi my name is Sall and I’m the crafty baker.  I have crafted since I was a child and became more serious about it when I was 15.  I didn’t really know what it meant then but I did enjoy putting different things together and seeing the pleasure when that card was given to someone…especially someone who appreciated the effort as well as the fact it contained part of my heart and soul.  

I have tried and enjoyed card making, scrapbooking, Cut and Craft 3d templates , bag making, sewing, box making, altering/decorating things, decoupatch and am loving becoming more familiar with the darker side of crafting.  I have dabbled in jewellery too.

I don’t feel I am just a crafter though because creativity takes over every part of my life.  I love moving the furniture around in my home and giving it an entirely new look for very little cost.  I’m a kitchen girl and spend a lot of time baking.  Baking is just another part of my creativity, whether it’s sweet or savoury I love combing flavours and textures to create something that looks and hopefully tastes as good.  I’ve been designing and baking birthday and Christmas cakes for several years now and hope one day to make it in the big bad world of proper cake making…just as soon as I’ve grown up enough to find the courage and confidence in my abilities.  Because of this baking addiction the kitchen is the heart and soul of my home and it is full to the brim with colourful crockery and hand crafted décor.  Okay I admit some are bought too!  

Another part of my creative streak would be writing.  Since I was a child I’ve written stories and even the odd pantomime. I’ve created the whole thing from my imagination, used a tv show for characters and created my own scenario or in the case of pantomime used a well-known story…snow white and the seven dwarfs to give my own spin to pantomime.  As the years progressed I wrote adult erotic stories as well as those suitable for children.

Even my clothes are influenced by my creative streak, I rarely like what is currently in fashion.  I’m a vintage chick at heart well no more age old than vintage if I am honest and adore the clothes from the early 1900’s and late 1800’s up until the 1950’s.  I’ve recently got a sewing machine and I’m practising hard so I can eventually make my own clothes.  I combine everything with a scarf in winter or some sort of shrug in summer and it goes without saying I’ll be wearing a pair of leggings under the dress. 

I find inspiration for craft from everywhere, looking out the window, the tv, a book, blogs, the supermarket, yes you read that correctly I did say the supermarket haha, the seasons.  I love the bright colours of early autumn, the umber, gold’s, and reds it’s all about that last splash of colour before the icey hues hit in late autumn and run through to winter solstice.  The icey whites, greys and blues with the odd splash of pale icey cold pink in the sky take over the world lowering the temperatures encouraging lots of layers, a roaring fire and those glassy colours on wintery cards before Thanksgiving and Christmas is upon us with the deep decadent reds and greens of the holly and ivy.  The crushed velvet textures and wooly comforting’s of thick warm clothes and the rich Gold’s decorating the ever green tree that’s been brought in from the cold to smell of pine and the forest casting a low glow from tree lights and handmade beaded decorations as well as the modern baubles and beads.  

 As the tree gets replanted to continue it’s life in the earth for another year so the weather remains bleak if we are lucky we have some crisp white snow to play in but generally in the Westcountry it’s wet, muddy and miserable.  This makes me want to use muddy green colours in my crafting but it doesn’t last long by early February I’m longing for the first flowers of spring.  My camera is loaded with batteries and my memory cards are empty after the Christmas festivities ready for the first snaps of the last nod to winter with the snow drops and to welcome the very first hint of spring when the grass turns greener and the daffs poke their sun like heads out of the earth they have spent the winter hiding in.  As Spring progresses the vivid hues of the tulips send out a warming glow and the sun begins to climb high in the sky…mornings are light and bright a golden yellow glow casts it’s spell across the world and trees start to sprout leaves.  With time the Spring equinox progresses into Summer Solstice and the bright blue skies break out and the sea calms into a gentle fluid motion my crafting is influenced by tropical colours, the crystal clear waters with an aquamarine tint and the almost white sand {think Bora Bora or the Caribbean}.  I adore the beach and this theme finds itself on a lot of my summer cards.  I also love the solar glow of a sunset in reds, oranges and yellows, as the sky lights up for those last few minutes before the inky blackness descends lit up with millions of stars. 

I suppose this brings me full circle to paper crafting.  Well cards have never been my thing.  I’ve never been good at the traditional layers and conventional images.  However this didn’t put me off I took up scrapbooking instead.  Over the years my love of this grew and I began to follow a set pattern and my pages all began to look the same until I ran out of photos.  I returned to the cards and struggled so I bought myself a cheap digital camera {until this point I couldn’t get one photo out a single film} and found I was getting better.  Several years past and with the encouragement of a friend I bought a digital bridge camera and have never looked back, photography is now a huge part of my creative side too.  This has only got worse with the aid of camera phones!  Now instead of a lack of photos I had a lack of space to store the albums so went back to the cards.  By this time I had the aid of facebook and craft groups.  I made lots of friends who helped me to realise card making needn’t be restrictive.  I started using anything and everything and putting it on my cards…I now love making cards but you rarely find a traditional one coming from me!  My style is somewhat detailed, it's not so much what but the fine tuning that I enjoy.  I will sit for hours gluing on individual beads or gems and colouring things in very small sizes just because everything to me is in the detail.

Over the years I’ve dabbled in altered art and once in to the ‘darker’ area of craft.  I was surprised to learn about this darker side of craft and although I’m not a ‘zombie’ type person there are gothic and other elements that I can and do really appreciate.  Ever since I was a child of oh 8 or 9 years old I wanted to be an undertaker…the older I got the more I REALLY wanted to do this.  When it came to high school work experience I had had mine lined up for years I wanted to go to an undertakers and had found one who would take me…the school said NO…I wasn’t clever enough so it was off to the local primary school for me!  I’ve kept the love of all things dead and over the years watched many shows that involve dead bodies and so forth, I love Bones, CSI, grave trade and many others and I cannot wait for this to start showing in my craft too.  I hope over the coming years to lose my fear of producing something ‘different’ aka ‘dark’ crafting wise and just embrace all of my passions.  Animals and animal conservation is a big part of my personality and I hope to continue working towards incorporating this into my craft too.  I have some animal stamps but as with the ‘dark’ side of crafting this needs a little work and I hope in the coming years I find a way of expressing my love of all things animal throughout all areas of my craft not just scrapbooking.

My other passion is reading and as you may have guessed I like a good old gruesome murder in my books too but I also like a romance just not too often.  I’ve read ever since I was a child, Enid Blyton mysteries and then as a teen books that were more hard hitting such as the “A child called It” series.  Now I try and read a variety of books from all genre's.  I appreciate and love history too so a good historic novel can be found when you peruse my many many bookcases as well as unusual books such as complimentary therapy and spiritual healing, the meaning of dreams etc. 

All that sums up my personality and my creative side I think but is there anything I’ve left out?  Ah yes I’m a skilled lip reader so I can read peoples conversations from a distance…okay so that’s not a polite thing to do but it’s a nifty skill especially when your hearing impaired as I am.  I’m also clumsy I injure myself very easily due to a lack of balance {damaged balance bones in my ears}.  

So that should have been enough to send you to sleep reading about me, which means I should get on with the important bit and start nominating someone else.  This time I think I shall nominate Samara of Penumbrahallows blog.

 

Samara is a very talented crafter and always produces something unique. We met recently when with some encouragement I found the nerve to participate in some blog challenges.  I think I shall always be in awe of her work.  Please hop over and see her magical creatioins.