New Year at Our Creative Corner

      Laura here! - with a very special post to tell you all how Our Creative Corner will work in 2014.......
    
   I am so very lucky to have the most amazing team working on Our Creative Corner.  Behind the scenes we have all been working together on making plans for this year - all of us coming up with ideas to make Our Creative Corner bigger and better than ever.

      Some things remain the same.  There is still the same wonderful Design Team who will be here to inspire you each month. Our challenges will still be monthly and we have all been planning some inspiring challenges for you for the year ahead!

     You will have noticed that we had a Guest Designer last month - wasn't Lynne absolutely amazing?  We will be having a Surprise Designer visit us each month to add further inspiration for our challenges, and we are so looking forward to each visit!  Come and visit us on the 11th January to see who this month's amazing Guest Designer is - you won't be disappointed!!!

And now onto the biggest news.... We are all so pleased to announce that this year we will be sponsored by some wonderful craft businesses who are donating some very generous prizes for lucky crafters to win! 

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors we now can offer a prize each month.  The prize will be allocated by selecting an entry via Random.org.

     We will still be judging and selecting a 'Top Talent' winner from the entries, and that person will be invited to appear at Our Creative Corner.  All winners will be announced on the 8th of each month - the randomly selected prizewinner, and the chosen 'Top Talent' Winner and Top 3.

      You should also watch out for our brand new 'Sponsor Spotlights'.  Each month there will be three posts where our design team will show items they have made using products from that month's sponsor.  These 'Sponsor Spotlights' will be a great way for you to see what is available to buy from the companies, as well as some inspiring ideas from the Our Creative Corner design team.  Our design team won't be following the OCC challenge theme for the 'Sponsor Spotlights'. The creations for the Spotlights will be 'Anything goes' - so there will be plenty of surprises along the way!

      So get ready, because in 2014 Our Creative Corner will be featuring more creativity than ever before!

      And one final change.... there are no longer two teams at Our Creative Corner.  We will now all be sharing our creations with you on the 1st of each month!

      So that is all the details of how the OCC will work over the next year......We really hope you will enjoy all our challenges and why not have a go?  You could be featured as our Top Talent, you could be named as one of our Top 3, and now you have the added bonus of being in the draw to win a fantastic prize!

We are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead at the OCC - thanks so much for being here!!!

Laura x

'Tag you're it' Top Talent

Welcome back to Our Creative Corner's December Top Talent!

        I hope all of you are having as stress-free a lead up to Christmas as possible....as I am writing this my Christmas Day Gravy is bubbling away on the stove  (I am queen of preparing early!) and the kids presents are wrapped up and hidden in the hall cupboard - shhh....don't tell them! ;o)

        Anyway, take a short break from all the Christmas preparations that threaten to engulf us and sit down with a cup of tea as we welcome Maisie Moonshine to the OCC spotlight!

      As you might remember Julia was running the October 'Tag it on' challenge and she had the very difficult job of selecting a winner and Top 3.  She chose Maisie's very spooky skeleton tag and Maisie has made something very special for us today. As usual, before we see her wonderful festive creation,  let's find out about the artist first!

1) Where do you live?

I live in a village on the outskirts of Stafford in the UK

2)  Describe yourself in five words?

I asked No.1 Son to help me with this one - he came up with "caring, considerate, mildly entertaining and ... short" -  I was pleasantly surprised!

3)  Are you a day-time or night-time crafter?

Both. 

I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to crafting - I run my own business making hand sewn decorations, so I craft for my "day job", and in the run up to, and between, craft fairs I tend to work all hours to maintain my stock levels. My paper crafting has to fit in around my work schedule as I do both in the same room. I tend to find that I'm at my most productive when I get back from doing the afternoon school run.

I have suffered from insomnia for most of my adult life, so I will often retreat to my craft room in the wee small hours and occupy myself until I'm tired enough to sleep (which is partly how the name Maisie Moonshine came about) - that and the fact Sally Sunshine (my original choice of blogger avatar) turned out to be a rather saucy oriental lady!

4)  What supply wouldn't you do without when it comes to crafting?

 I wouldn't do without my Distress and Dylusions Inks but I COULDN'T do without my stamps - thankfully, even though I can't draw, there are plenty of very talented artists out there who can, and they have very kindly made their images available for me to borrow!

5)  What is the most useless item that you have purchased for your crafts?

My  ShapeBoss - I've had it since 2009 and have used it once, perhaps it is time to find it a new home.

6)  If you have lost your Mojo, how do you go about getting it back?

I have found that joining in with challenges such as those at OCC can really kick start your creativity. There is usually a set of rules and design parameters you have to abide by, so it narrows down the field a bit and you can concentrate on meeting the challenge criteria rather than having blank canvas terror.

I subscribe to Craft Stamper and am usually inspired by at least one project in each issue, I don't always have all the right supplies, but I really enjoy the challenge of finding work-arounds to get a similar effect. I can't always find the time to play but having the back issues to refer to in dry times really does help. I love Art Journaling magazine too - but mainly I just get art journal envy when I read it!

The Internet obviously provides loads of inspiration, from blogs to Pinterest to YouTube videos of new techniques, even a flip through Google images can throw up an eye catching colour combination or design. 

Sometimes a new craft supply might be all it takes for inspiration to strike - I knew how my Creepy Castle Tag was going to look as soon as I saw the Gothic arch window in my local craft store.

7)  Do you pre-sketch a design or do you just wing it? How long does it usually take you to make a project?

Pre-sketch? Moi? I would if I could - but I CAN'T draw. If the design in my head is very complicated or it is evolving over a few days (well nights really) I will probably jot down some notes, but mostly I tend to wing it. 

It can take me days to design and make a project - I am almost completely self taught and my lack of art skills and self confidence tends to trip me up and I will spend hours mentally rejecting design after design before I finally decide on "the one".  I am a lot of a perfectionist, so I won't start something unless I am sure it will come out like I imagine it. I have to have an idea of what the finished project will look like, I can't just throw stuff at the page and see what happens - I'm too much of a control freak!

Other times, of course, I know in a second what I want to do and how it will look, some fine details might change during the making process but the overall design is just there - a light bulb moment, if you like.


       Maisie has made us the most wonderful festive garland to decorate 'Our Creative Corner' this Christmas!

         
Thank you so much Maisie Moonshine for being here today in the Top Talent Spotlight and creating such a gorgeous Christmas Garland for us.  It has been a pleasure to feature your work.

If you want to see more photos and details of how it was made, then please go along to Maisie's blog Maisie's Moonshine and say "Hello" - I am sure she would love to see you there! 

Would you like everyone to see your work here under the 'Our Creative Corner' Spotlight? You could be here as our 'Top Talent' with the spotlight shining on something you have created! All you have to do is enter Laura's Very Vintage Christmas challenge.  There is one more week of her challenge left, so why not have fun creating! 

         

      We all hope you will come back to see us on the 1st January when there will be some very  exciting news for you! We have BIG plans for 2014!!!!

From the team at Our Creative Corner - we all hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!!!

See you all in 2014!!!!