Thursday, June 12, 2008

It's all about making that FIRST move

I'm amazed at how we are all born with a certain degree of creativity inbuilt in our minds and only to have it discovered when we unleash it through some form of creative art work with our hands. Some people call it a hobby in craft making. I call it my passion.

I started off with an interest in scrapbooking (displaying photographs in unconventional ways in pages of photo albums with decorations and journalizing of events)- a great way of savoring past memories in a wide array of colorful descriptions and expressions. My children love to flip through their photo albums and spend hours mesmerizing the good old days. So do I:)

Then I moved on to making personalized cards. The first try was the hardest. I remembered sitting there for hours pondering what layout or color or cut-outs I should start with. Only with some determination and conviction - the nagging guilt I had had for spending a fortune on craft machines, die shapes, papers, stamps, punches, embellishments, magazines, etc. etc. and letting them sitting pretty on the shelves to collect dust :( These craft tools and materials are definitely not meant for hobby collection, they are a great help in creating lovely cards with personalized message attached. I started my first card with the help of a layout in a cardmaking magazine. Once I got the ball rolling, it got easier and easier and I just delight in the outcome of every finished card, something personal and from the heart, ready for giving out to the ones most deserving of my time and attention. Erm....need help here, they are too pretty to give away...yet.

So you are like me, not as creative to come out with something original but good at modifying some designs, I have some handmade cards in here for you to duplicate, modify and do whatever you want with yours.

"God cared for us with a true heart and lead us with skillful hands."Psalms 78:72 (italics, pronoun changed). So you see, God made us creative so we can express ourselves in a million different ways.

So be playful or melancholy if I may add, with whatever you have in hand, papers of different colors, beads, buttons, leftover ribbons and start cutting away with help of machine or whatever tool you've got or a pair of scissors if you've the patient and create your own piece of art. If you have to wait for someone to teach you how cut, stick, paste, you'll gonna have to make that trip to a craft store to pay for lessons which there's absolutely no need to, really. Art is art, it is individual, uniquely "you"-your creative imagination. All it takes is initiative and after you've made a card, give it away with a thought or message to that someone you want to give a piece of yourself to. Then make another one and another one and by the time you realize it, you've become a cardmaking addict! Enjoy.

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