Welcome Back to the Creativity Playground!

It has been two years since I posted on this blog.  So much has happened, I don’t know where to begin.  Here are my major updates in a quick bulleted list:

• I’m no longer a CTMH consultant (I resigned in Dec. of 2020, but really stopped promoting months prior to that).
• Teaching during the pandemic has been tough and has made me rethink my future in public education.
• I renamed my social media accounts to The Creativity Playground because I’m most interested in helping you all improve your overall mental well-being by engaging in creative play through paper crafting.

Get Creative with Craft Roulette

My friend Mary Gunn has a crafty game show on YouTube called Craft Roulette. Each week, she spins the wheel for four parameters.  I started participating in episode 28 and invite you to visit my Instagram account @thecreativityplayground to see the cards I’ve submitted. This show has helped me remain creative during the pandemic!

Being limited to four parameters helps you tap into your creativity. Over the past year, I have made cards that I would have never created had it not been for those parameters. I will admit that I haven’t always shared the cards I’ve created and tossed some of those early entries into the bin, but overall, I’m impressed with how the limitations have helped me grow as a card maker.  I hope you will follow Craft Roulette on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/CraftRoulette) and join in on the fun every Friday at 6:30pm Central.

Craft Roulette Episode #85

The parameters for episode #85 were 5×7 landscape card, Green + 2 (I picked yellow and blue, neutrals are always included), Shopping, and Paper Strips. 

There are always a few vetoes prior to the spin of the wheel.  During the month of October, robots have been vetoed 4 out of the 5 shows.  What the heck?!  I love robots and have a ton of robot stamps.  I don’t get the robot hate.  LOL! So, I was determined both this week and last week to add in some robots.

For this card, I created a scene for my little space dude to go on a droid shopping spree. I crack myself up! The four stamps on the right side of the card come from the Kindred Stamps retired Galactic Adventures sets.  The patterned paper used for the sky and sand dunes comes from the Galactic Paper Pack which is still available.

Because I was limited on colors due to the wheel, I decided to use metallic markers for the tall robot. For those of you who may recognize this guy, notice the right leg! One of these years, I will invest in Copics and up my coloring game.

One of the biggest changes I would make is on the sand dunes. The wheel required the use of paper strips.  I cut strips of cardstock and then die cut the rolling hills. I didn’t really have a plan going in and cut far more strips than I needed…for some reason, I used them all. LOL! Next time, I would use fewer sand dunes as the background is a tad too busy.

I didn’t have stamp sets for these two characters, so I hopped onto YouTube and found Cool Kids Art (https://www.youtube.com/c/CoolKidsArt) who had videos for drawing both characters!  I only watched these two videos, but they were great! I highly recommend his channel if you want to learn how to draw.

I would like to say that I took the time to draw these characters, but I did not. I let the Cricut draw them for me, and I just colored them in.  I added Bisque Liquid Pearls to make the eyes pop from behind the hood.

If you found my blog and made it this far in my post…thank you so much! I hope you will leave a comment and let me know your thoughts about robot stamps. Am I the only middle-aged geek out there that can’t get enough of these cuties?!

Amy