It's all New!

At least it is over at the Paper Artsy blog and when I read their post about the new challenge and some of the changes they decided to make to the blog for 2015 I thought that the Paper Artsy team have just had the same impression as I have been having for quite some time now....

They have decided to reduce quantity of posts and also leave more space (and time) for discovery and exploration. And actually I think this is a really, REALLY good thing to do!

I too found myself (alongside a lot of challenge blogs and other bloggers) a little while back being on that "faster - higher - further" trip - especially when it came to projects (not only for DTs but also for myself): somehow I felt that I had to at least keep (if not overdo) a certain level of "coverage" my projects should provide alongside rather elaborate techniques and specialty materials being used on them. Which mainly led to a serious crafter's block and/or sometimes the fear of even starting a project because I knew it would have to be time consuming in its making (as well as in being prepared for presentation in the form of a tutorial on a blog).

Short projects that one simply creates for the fun of creating and playing with what one has at hand at the right moment somehow vanished from my plate completely without me noticing...and so did most of of the joy.

So my one and only really serious New Years resolution for 2015 is to remember and get back to the good and simple things. And to be honest: when browsing other crafters' blogs I most of the time especially adore the simple and rather small makes that spread that lot of joy that was put in their making or are eye-catching especially due to their lack of overload.

Of course there will always be those mind-blowing projects out there that let your jaws drop and have you think must have taken days to weeks in their makings (which most of the times they have *lol) - and there's a place and time for these too.
But you get taken away by that maelstrom of all the "faster-higher-further" in crafty blogland so easily and I have been there, felt horrible and have promised myself never to get there again.

So when I read the post over at Paper Artsy today I got even more confident in having made the right decision - so here it is: my first "small and really unpretentious" tag for this year - and I had a ball creating it from papers and scrap that were lying on my desk next to some new stamps I had bought at a sale recently....(LOVE that raven stamp!!!)

Materials used for this tag: heavy cardboard with some glued on dictionary pages, DecoArt matte Decou-Page, Sizzix "Tag and Tie" die, DecoArt white Gesso, hard bristle brush, Deep Red-, Echo Park- and 3rdEye stamps, Dina Wakley stencil (oak leaf), blending foam, DI pumice stone, Ranger jet black archival ink, Tim Holtz Remnant Rub-Ons, white gauze.

I enter this tag into Paper Artsy's "Fragile Papers" challenge . I haven't played in challenges for ages and being realistic I don't expect my tag to win or make it to the top ...but I loved the inspiration their challenge theme gave me and this is a way of paying back, isn't it?

Sometimes I think we take a lot of things in crafty blogland (who are done mainly by people like you and me, who put a lot of their spare time and effort into providing all of us with inspiration, challenges to play along with, techniques to explore and much more...) for granted without thinking any further.I don't think designers and challenge blogs out there should work harder to still impress us as players and readers...I think we should get back to taking more time to look more closely and see the persons behind the makes!

Sorry for all the thoughtful words, but they needed to be said. ;)

Hugs and happy (and I mean it!) crafting,

Claudia x