Guest Feature on Creating Your Way to Success

This week I am being featured on Creating Success a really exciting blog created by a friend of mine who lives life everyday with the same zest and energy most of us reserve for special events (or marathons).  Anyway the talented Jill has asked me to answer some questions:

What do you create?
I have always done some form of art and craft, I paint in a modern bold colour style, love folk art (especially when someone actually needs a piece), watercolour landscapes but the thing that I keep coming back to time and time again is paper crafting, especially stamping and off the page projects. I make cards for all occasions and invitations and other paper projects that are practical.

Why do you create?

I create because I feel like a part of me is missing if I don't.  I find that when I am creating, I truly relax which is not something that I do even when I am sleeping. . .I actually feel more rested after making a set of cards or a journal like the one above than I do after four hours sleep a night.  I suppose I should take this to the next level and answer why I create with rubber, ink and card stock. . .  As a kid I loved shopping for stationery at the beginning of the school year.  I still have a stash of writing paper and pens that I can't live without (asides from my crafting stash).  I simply love the texture, smell, colour and impact of papers and colour.

Do you sell your creations?

I don't sell my creations per se, I generally give them away to friends and family but I hold classes and sell card and project kits.  I also sell all of the products that I use for the creations through my Stampin' Up! demonstratorship. It's hard to say if I make any money from selling - how do you cost out time, creativity and imagination? The value to me is seeing other people learn skills they didn't think they could master and seeing them reproduce the designs and layouts that I come up with time and time again.

What mistakes have I made or what lessons have I learned?

I have learned to trust my instincts more when it comes to creative trends, colours and projects.  The only mistake I think that I made was not signing up for my own Stampin' Up! account soon enough.  Being able to buy direct from the company at a substantial discount is a great saving and would have kept my accountant husband happier earlier lol. But the true beauty of working with stamps, ink and cardstock is that you can always turn the card over and start again - it's not a major crisis!

What to you is success?

Success means many things to me.  Success is looking at a completed project knowing that it is the best I can do at that point in time.  Success is watching people emboss an image, tie a perfect bow, make a stunning flower, stamp confidently or progress to their own designs with determination.  Success is having team members get promoted, repeat something that I have said to them and truly understand and believe what I meant.  Success is having time with my kids, watching them grow and achieve everyday.  Success is that piece of string that we all hear about and my being confident that I know how long it is and where it ends. . .

So whats next?

South Pacific Convention in Canberra in May. . . Another ten people joining my team of passionate stampers and scrappers (contact me today if you are interested).  Making myself use more fabric in projects - Stampin' Up! have some beautiful materials which match their designer series papers and stamp sets perfectly. But in reality, what's next is the next project, the next card, the next inspiring image or colour combination that just won't leave my creative muse alone.

Thanks for hosting me

Shanni