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I tried to do the color challenge for the first time, and spent most of the night on it, and the more I worked on it, the uglier it got! So I threw the mess out...maybe next week.
Does anyone else struggle like that? Everyone seems to get their cards done in lickety split time and they all look great and I spend hours and hours and end up with a mess. Any encouragement for this poor soul?
__________________ Linda's Blog: My Little Yellow Cottage "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5
Yep, I go thru phases like that! Sometimes, I just can't 'see' certain colors together; do you have a lot of patterned paper? Sometimes you might find some that has the right color combo in it; this makes for a great starting point! Keep trying;
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I tried to do the color challenge for the first time, and spent most of the night on it, and the more I worked on it, the uglier it got! So I threw the mess out...maybe next week.
Does anyone else struggle like that? Everyone seems to get their cards done in lickety split time and they all look great and I spend hours and hours and end up with a mess. Any encouragement for this poor soul?
Yep, I have the same problem especially with the color challenges. I'm better at the sketch challenges. Sometimes I work on a card for hours until I'm happy with it. I also looked at your gallery and your cards are beautiful.
Yep, me too.
I think we all go through phases like Kathyc says.
For instance, tonight, I went so far as to take a photo and watermark my card, but then decided I wasn't going to upload it because I think it was too ugly to showcase. I EVEN used SU stamps for a change.
I also did one for Beate's inspiration challenge and decided that was ugly too!
It might be encouraging for you to know that for me, it's that I see so many wonderful, talented people here uploading totally awesome creations, that I feel I have to be up to their standards, or I'll consider it ugly. I think I need to get out of that rut, and rather focus on what it IS about their creations that makes it so wonderful (and then making a note on paper what it is!), instead of just drooling over it in a splunder (is that a word?) and then try to comment on it and I can't even think of words wonderful enough to describe it.
In the end, I think it's best if we always come back and try again, maybe in time, we'll all feel like every one of our creations is a master work of art. There's plenty of information here to learn, I know it just takes time.
I think what boosts someone's sense of ability, is when those "famous" SCS-ers comment on our creations. That gives a warm fuzzy all over!
Doesn't happen much on my stuff lately.
Hmmm, I hope I was somewhat encouraging. I didn't mean to keep draggin on so.
I chucked it in the trash...tore it up. Trust me, it was UGLY.
__________________ Linda's Blog: My Little Yellow Cottage "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5
I often wonder about the ladies who whip up lovely cards in what seems to be MINUTES! But, then I remember they probably have been at the craft for awhile and have lots of colors, tools, and embellishments at their disposal.
By the way, it takes me ALL day to do a card. I upload at the end of the day, which on the west coast is really the end of the day for most SCSers. But, with the challenges it's not really about getting the card completed on the day of the challenge, they are open to anytime. Very often people combine the color challenge with the sketch challenge which is the next day.
My vote - start fresh tomorrow and no worries about how long it takes! There are so many of us stampers out here in SCSland that no doubt someone somewhere takes longer than you -LOL!
You know the way I look at it is ....its a challenge if it wasn't a little bit difficult it wouldn't be a challenge;) also its not a competition, we are all at different levels, we all have different styles, we have access to different papers stamps etc, and we all have different amounts of time available to us that is what is so wonderful about it....we all are different but share a common interest....
It happens to me at least once a week. I'll be all inspired to stamp, spend hours on a card, and then there will be something about it that I just don't like. I'll even sometimes undo parts of it to change it and I still won't like it so then it ends up in the trash. But what's worse is if I tweak it and think it is good and then I upload it to the gallery all excited that others will love it and it gets hardly any comments. Then I start doubting my work and think, why do I even bother to make cards? I have to remind myself that the reason I do is for my own creative outlet and it helps me relax so it is worth it in the end - ugly card and all.
I'm constantly throwing away cards or parts of cards - I have a black Hefty bag in my craft corner!
One of my biggest problems is to "just give it up" already. Something is obviously not working and I keep fussing with it and fussing with it sometimes for hours! I need to just give it up and move on already! :rolleyes:
I'm constantly throwing away cards or parts of cards - I have a black Hefty bag in my craft corner!
One of my biggest problems is to "just give it up" already. Something is obviously not working and I keep fussing with it and fussing with it sometimes for hours! I need to just give it up and move on already! :rolleyes:
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yup! sometimes they turn out like CRAP! at least for me they do
keep your chin up... it happens!
you don't have to wait till next week... if you don't care for the colors this week you can do a challenge from last week or last month or EVEN last year.
all the challenges just get the juices flowing!
go for it! have fun with it! if you get mad... walk away for a bit, come back and try again!
I'm constantly throwing away cards or parts of cards - I have a black Hefty bag in my craft corner!
One of my biggest problems is to "just give it up" already. Something is obviously not working and I keep fussing with it and fussing with it sometimes for hours! I need to just give it up and move on already! :rolleyes:
I tried to do the color challenge for the first time, and spent most of the night on it, and the more I worked on it, the uglier it got! So I threw the mess out...maybe next week.
Does anyone else struggle like that? Everyone seems to get their cards done in lickety split time and they all look great and I spend hours and hours and end up with a mess. Any encouragement for this poor soul?
It seems like the longer I spend on a card, the worse it turns out. So I walk away from any card that gets frustrating. Usually, when I come back (a few hours later or a few days), some obvious solution presents itself and I can salvage something from the mess. These are still never my favorite cards and rarely do I upload them here. I've never done the color challenge, but lots of times, color is my Achilles' heel.
Linda, you should know that I have your gallery bookmarked, so I love your work.
Thanks for all the encouraging words especially the kind people that said my cards were nice...I appreciate the vote of confidence. I guess making cards is a creative juice thing...maybe my creativity was off-whack last night. I don't know. It's a mystery to me how some of these card artists whip them up so fast (maybe they're pulling them out of a file and made half of them weeks ago ; )
I'll hang in there and try again...but that color challenge was for the birds! I was so stressed. I liked the inspiration challenge better...maybe, I'll check out the sketch challenge.
__________________ Linda's Blog: My Little Yellow Cottage "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5
I've never done what you're calling a Card Challenge (not really sure what it is either), but if you're frustrated, then the whole point of doing it is wasted. Your crafting should be fun, not a chore. If it's ugly colors, patterns or subject, then don't do it. There is no point. It's not the point to see if you can take something strange or that you don't like and make it nice. That's not creating, that's like having a job. You HAVE to do that. Crafting should be something you WANT to do and enjoy. We all have different tastes in our work. Some of the cards that people are getting high praises for I think are horrible and some that people are posting they think are ugly I really like. (Why would someone post a card they do think is ugly anyway?? I can't figure that one out.)
Crafting is not a challenge, it's creating!
These are just my opinions and may not be shared by everyone.
I've never done what you're calling a Card Challenge (not really sure what it is either), but if you're frustrated, then the whole point of doing it is wasted. Your crafting should be fun, not a chore. If it's ugly colors, patterns or subject, then don't do it. There is no point. It's not the point to see if you can take something strange or that you don't like and make it nice. That's not creating, that's like having a job. You HAVE to do that. Crafting should be something you WANT to do and enjoy. We all have different tastes in our work. Some of the cards that people are getting high praises for I think are horrible and some that people are posting they think are ugly I really like. (Why would someone post a card they do think is ugly anyway?? I can't figure that one out.)
Crafting is not a challenge, it's creating!
These are just my opinions and may not be shared by everyone.
Patti
Patti,
These are daily challenges posted on the SplitcoastStampers home page, and I thought that I would just try one or two, as they are challenges. I realize that cardmaking should be enjoyable and the challenge was something that I wanted to do and thought that I would enjoy. However, I guess, it turned out to be more of a challenge than a joy...that's all. I didn't mean to sound like this was an overwhelming catastrophe.
And, I don't think people are uploading what they think are ugly cards. Most people upload their cards because they like what they've done. And, I don't think anyone's creation that they've uploaded is "ugly" ... I think that's kind of harsh to say. I think every creation is a piece of handmade art and can be valued by everyone as such.
__________________ Linda's Blog: My Little Yellow Cottage "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;
for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5
I've been thinking about this topic all day. I really want to encourage you to keep trying the challenges. I think the Color Challenge is one of the more difficult challenges. I thought this weeks was really hard. Wasabi, Pomegranate & Saffron?! Probably won't mix those three again! The Inspiration Challenge is great, beacuse there are no restrictions. Just be inspired. We all have "those days", where nothing seems to go right, but don't give up. Keep "challenging" yourself. Another tip is to not look at the gallery and what others have created until you have posted your own card. That way you won't be overwhelmed. Stamp for yourself and your own enjoyment, not for the praise of others. And as for those stampers that seem to get the challenges done quickly, they just need to go to bed on time! :-)
And, I don't think people are uploading what they think are ugly cards. Most people upload their cards because they like what they've done. And, I don't think anyone's creation that they've uploaded is "ugly" ... I think that's kind of harsh to say. I think every creation is a piece of handmade art and can be valued by everyone as such.
Well, this is getting way off topic, but, there have been a few threads started on UGLY cards...some even make it a contest to see who's got the ugliest card...
This thread was the most memorable for me. And believe me, some of the cards posted in that thread are UGLY. *grin* But it is all in good fun, and no one is calling them ugly to hurt anyone's feelings. Check out this card that a lot of people (good-natured-ly) agreed was ugly: tin foil rose by Bluebear at Splitcoaststampers
The comments themselves are worth reading for an extended giggle.
Back on topic...I have limited cardstock colours, so I never even look at the colour challenges. But there have been times when I just dis-assemble a card I've spent hours making and put the individual card pieces back in their colour folders so I can re-use them for something else.
beautiful work in your gallery!!!!! my mojo goes right out the window sometimes....other times i surprise myself. i am to stubborn to give up and just keep on making crap until i can create something nice again. KEEP ON CREATING,YOUR STUFF IS GORGEOUS!!!
I'm so bummed out...
