Craft Your Life With Altenew
Craft Your Life With Altenew
Why You’re Not Improving—and How to Change That Today
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by crafty trends or stuck in a rut with your creativity, this episode is your fresh start. We're joined by the incredibly talented Erum Tasneem, Altenew Design Team member and AECP coordinator, to explore the importance of building foundational crafting skills and staying true to what inspires you. Whether you're a beginner or seasoned crafter, this conversation is packed with insight on choosing joy over trends, overcoming burnout, and building your own “crafty toolbox.” You’ll walk away with inspiration, practical advice, and a clearer path for your creative growth.
You Will Learn:
- What are the two foundational skills every crafter must develop before tackling advanced techniques?
- How can you avoid burnout while still staying inspired and evolving creatively?
- What role does personal joy play in skill selection—and how can ignoring trends actually help you grow faster?
- How can color combinations and composition dramatically change the look of your cardmaking?
If today’s episode sparked your curiosity or gave you a new perspective, we’d love to hear from you! Share your favorite takeaway on social and tag us @altenewllc. And if you're ready to level up your skills, check out the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) and explore our ever-growing library of creative classes at Altenew Academy.
00:00 – Welcome back to the Fabulous Altenew Podcast!
01:45 – Meet Erum Tasneem: Designer, AECP Coordinator, and creative powerhouse
04:10 – Why skill-building matters more than chasing trends
06:30 – How joy and personal interest lead to better crafting outcomes
10:20 – Avoiding crafty burnout in a world full of trends
20:00 – The transformational power of the AECP journey
26:00 – Top two skills every crafter should master first: color theory + composition
29:10 – Erum’s current go-to color combo and why she swaps certain shades
31:10 – The freedom of evolving creatively and why it’s okay to explore
34:30 – Tips on color use and working in monotones
37:35 – What to do when your project feels incomplete
38:50 – Using stencils and experimenting with layering
40:15 – The role of mood in crafting: why emotions affect your output
41:40 – Organization tips that improve creativity and reduce stress
43:05 – How photo editing contributes to your crafting presentation
44:30 – Overcoming the fear of trying new products or techniques
46:00 – Advice for crafters who feel they haven't found their “style” yet
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When you are in a crafty world or you are low on mojo, use that color combination that always works for you. It'll not fail you if a color family is not working for you. Try replacing one of the in colors if it's base color or the midtone, try replacing it or bring in a darker color from another family. Just to add a bit of drama, the basic skills would be color, theory and composition. Once you figure that out, projects will start looking balanced. And once they look balanced, they look beautiful. If you set small goals, goals are achievable.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome back to another month of the Fabulous Altenew podcast from Altenew. We're so excited to share another fun topic that relates to all of our fabulous crafters out there. This month we're talking skill building with the fabulous Erum Tasneem. Welcome Erum. Hi Bridget. How are you doing? I'm doing well. So for folks that maybe have been, I don't know, like on a self poll someplace where they have no internet, can you introduce yourself and let folks know what you do at Altenew
Speaker:Absolutely. Hi everyone. I am aware of this name. I am on the alternate design team, and I'm also the AECP
Speaker 2:coordinator. So perfect person to talk about skill building and as we've talked about over the past few months at Altenew, we have these internal goals and internal themes for the month to get us focused. So the first podcast that we did for this is Innovation with Merriam and his name. We had the lovely Lydia last month who came to talk about the fabulous acts of kindness'cause that's also very important to us. At Altenew and this month we have skill building, so something very important to crafters. So we are going to get started and I know Aram is gonna have some fabulous insight to skill building for all of us, which is great. So a skill building is really important for not only personal but professional growth. What do you think about skill building in our industry? Skill
Speaker:building in crafting. It's not just about mastering techniques, it's also about developing an eye for design, like understanding composition, and also building your confidence in the choices that you make. The creative choices, like choosing colors in colors, card stock, your placement of elements. So this is a continuous journey that every new skill or lesson that you learn, it's, it adds to your arsenal, your crafty arsenal.
Speaker 2:Yes. I always call it the crafty toolbox. You may not use something for a while, like a skill or a technique you may not do forever, and then all of a sudden you need it and you're like, I know how to do that, which is great. How do you think people can pick. What skill they should really look at next because there's so many in our industry.
Speaker:They should focus on what makes them happy and not just go towards what's trending. But that's what I do. Like I'm the least trendiest person and I would focus, always focus on what I'm enjoying most. I. And stay in that moment. Like what, what makes, brings joy to me?
Speaker 2:And I think that's great advice because trends come and go, right? So if you're following trends and it may not be something you're into, and that could lead to like crafty roadblocks and. Not enjoying what you're doing. And the goal of this is to really be passionate about what we're doing and be in love with our projects and our skills and learning new things. So that's great advice because I think that could create a lot of problems for folks. I. Yeah,
Speaker:absolutely. You can get way overwhelmed if you start learning or following too many trends. Yeah, you, and you do hit the burnout that we often face as well. That there's this, that we have to do that. It a new technique that we have to follow, a new product that we might try. And as you know that I still haven't tried foiling as we were talking about earlier, only because I know that I will fail if I get the foiling system because there's just so much to learn. But I have a lot of other things that I can try. And Excel too.
Speaker 2:And that's the great thing because in this industry we have people that love to, foil are passionate about foiling, love to teach foiling. I, I love foiling, so it's beautiful. It's gorgeous. I'm not saying
Speaker:not to try. Yes, yes. I would love to try it, but I have other things exactly that I can Perfect. Or excel and. I'm going to first try that go, yes, I have that and I can learn it more from experienced instructors can take classes and first maybe learn more about it and then maybe try
Speaker 2:a new scope. And that's awesome because there was a card created for, I think it was at the April release with, or maybe it was March, the Creative Door, the Doors Erum did this Freehand Hand Watercolor G Wash that was. We're really happy as folks looking at your work. We're very happy you're working on the Gache 'cause. It was just stunning. It was a beautiful piece. So keep working on the Gache. Thank you. And maybe foil someday. So maybe someday. Yes.
Speaker:Yes. In the future. Yes, absolutely. We should keep trying new things and learning new skills, but if it overwhelms you and if you have other things to do, you don't have to, you don't have to keep on trying new things. Right at the, at this moment,
Speaker 2:and I think we'll do a, I don't know if you wanna call it a shameless plug here, but as they, as the tone is, if you're looking for a place till you brush up on old techniques, learn new techniques. A ECP is a great place to do that. When I went through, I'm trying to think, it's bed. Five years now. So I had been a crafter for 25 years, but I still learned so many different things, so many different ideas. I was so inspired going through the program. Definitely if you're at a place where you wanna learn, but you don't know what to learn next, A ECP is a great place to head on over and check that out. We're always. Loving to have some new educators to share their talent and passion with us and inspire us with beautiful things. So there's our you. I think our listeners knew that was coming with both of us.'cause I'm a very proud educator and you are the coordinator. So I think they knew this was coming, that we were gonna get a ECP in here.
Speaker:Absolutely. And even if any A ECP participant or educator will. When they were to ask them the question you would see from when they started and now where they're at. That's such a big difference from north to south and they have learned so much. It's not just a program. When you are in the program, you meet other people and then you collaborate. You want to learn more. People who didn't used to make videos are now creating videos. They make such amazing reels. I don't want to take names, but we have seen people, they, they shine. They're shining now, and so many who are now hosting work workshops, we couldn't even imagine them hosting a workshop or even talking in public. In public. When I'm say in public, it's like virtually.
Speaker 2:And spotlight. It's just amazing to watch the journey. I look back at my stuff and I'm like, oh my gosh. I put, I was proud of this. I put this out for the public to see, but it's because I've grown and that's what's supposed to happen. Yes. It's like that ugly clothes your parents put on you when you were a kid and when you start choosing your own clothes, you think you look nice. It's that theory to me, but it is so much fun to watch somebody. Grow through that journey. It's amazing and it's such an honor. I've been so blessed and Aram has as well, to be part of so many educators journeys and see them grow and it just, you're like a proud mama. You're just like so proud. Yeah. As they go through. That's, it's just so fun. Awesome. So yeah, so that's our A ECP focus for the day. No, we're
Speaker:talking about, we are focusing on skills. Yes. We are focusing on skill building and. So many skills. People learn so many skills
Speaker 2:during this program, and there may or may not be some new classes coming out that are relevant to A ECP. We wanted to get some fresh things going out there for fabulous folks. We had the Smooth Transitions class come out. We have magic of color and we have some more. Fabulous classes coming up. So lots of new learning opportunities out there for our listeners, through Al New Academy, which we're very excited about, education is very important to us at Altenew. So if you have ideas, please let us know. We wanna know what you wanna learn so we can help you build those skills. So how do you think not being somebody, 'cause I'm like you, I'm not a trend follower. I'm more, what skill do I wanna work on? What do I wanna be better at? As an artist and a creator, how do you stay inspired and relevant with not following the trends?
Speaker:So creative fields thrive on growth and evolution. Trends change, products evolve, and our own interest shift too. When you keep learning, you stay inspired, and your work always stays fresh. Not just for your audience, but for yourself too. It also helps you prevent to get into the creative rut. Trying something new, even something small can reignite that creative spark. And when I fall into that creative rut, the one thing that I do is revisit my older videos. And I know you'll think that I'm full, so full of myself, but that's the one thing that I do because I think my older videos were so much better. I've always said that, and I'm very much inspired by watching those tutorials and how I used to explain the my creative process back then. Also though, another thing that I do is go to malls. Take pictures of clothes. The fabric is absolutely amazing here. It incorporates floral and geometric designs together, and it's fascinating to watch how patterns come together. And I take pictures, come back home, go through those pictures, even if I'm not incorporating the designs in my card, reignite the creative spark, and then I. Take out my projects. Even if I don't want to make a final project, I'll start in blending, stamping, just covering something and you will create something if, even if it's not looking good. Also, this one thing that I always say to recreate or copy something from your past that you really liked and go on recreating a couple of things. Change it a little bit, change the color and you will get into that rhythm.
Speaker 2:And I remember too, I was stuck for like colors when I was going through my program and you recommended Googling like clothes in Pakistan. Like a simple, just a simple phrase or India. And the colors are so inspiring and I think it's great because it's something. That I don't see here in the us, right? So it puts me out of my comfort zone, pulling these bright, beautiful colors and puts it into my work and gives me a new skill because I'll remember that color combo and say, Hey, I did that one because of this. What if I pulled this color and substitute this? So you're really learning a lot just by looking at the pictures as well.
Speaker:Absolutely every, a lot of people go to Pinterest, look at color palettes, inspiration photos. I also do the, I used to do this, I've not done this in a very long while. I look at fantasy architecture, I. But now it's more ai, so it just bothers me because it's so fake. But fantasy ai, it, it used to be mostly hand drawn or computer, not computer generated. It was made by a person. It wasn't ai. People would choose their colors on their own, and it gave me more inspiration, but not anymore. But it's the same thing all over. If you search for it. So I don't do that anymore, but
Speaker 2:clothes. But that's good though. Yeah, because it's like you're giving, I'm sure crafters have run up against that where they had a place they always went and it was reliable. Yeah. And then all of a sudden it wasn't. So Definitely. I'm sure some of our crafters can relate to that as well. Do you now, were the trends changing? Do you think there's a lot of pressure on crafters to always be learning, especially with YouTube, social media, Instagram, Facebook. We are bombarded every day with new products, new techniques. Do you think that really is a good thing, or do you think it really puts pressure on crafters?
Speaker:That depends on what someone's trying to learn. If it's a skill, then yes, they can be. Pressure. But if it's a technique, we crafters are like sponges. Bring on all the techniques and we'll absorb them, try them out and happily share with others as you host workshops every Saturday, and we have repeated those techniques and sometimes people have stepped it up. We'll be surpri. We are surprised every Saturday what we can do that. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think people, if it's technique related. Yeah, every new week, every week we can give out 10 techniques and we'll still not get taught to be tired about, of learning.
Speaker 2:And I think as a whole, as a general overall percentage, I think most crafters are lifelong learners. They want to learn the new techniques. They wanna learn the new, the glimmer machines. The better press. They wanna learn the new techniques and the new toys that we have in our industry. So I think we are most of us lifelong learners. So I think skill building is something naturally that comes to crafters. It's just that there's so many skills to learn. It's choosing, I think, which one to go with. So when it comes to that, like what starting out, so somebody starting out that's listening to the podcast, what are some basic skills you think every crafter should work on before moving on to advanced techniques?
Speaker:I think the basic, the most basic skills, which people often neglect, the people often start with stamping, and that's fine too, but the basic skills would be color, theory and composition. Once you figure that out, your cards start looking, your projects not just cut. They start looking balanced, and once they look balanced, they look beautiful colors. If you create, if you match two colors that don't look good together, the project is not going to look good, right? So knowing how to choose the colors that work well together can instantly make your projects more cohesive and pleasing to the eye and composition. How you arrange the elements on your card can take a simple design and make it feel polished and intentional. These two skills create the foundation for everything else. Whether you are stamping, ink blending or even more complex techniques and talking about composition, it's, there's a very famous class and a very, while I'm talking about composition, I highly recommend JC Caspar Floral Composition class. And if you've not taken that well, I think everybody has taken that already, but if you haven't, I think that's, that class is a must. Also for a AECP participants. Don't forget that we have shared an additional resource or in the AECP group. If you haven't checked that out, you definitely should. It focuses on composition
Speaker 2:and that's critical. There are so many rules. Our eyes are so picky when it comes to color, when it comes to placement. Everything our eyes are so picky about. And yeah, definitely I, we highly recommend that class. That's. We have so many wonderful classes. JC Hass contributed many wonderful classes as well. And the other one is, that is really great. There was another one, I can't think of the name of it. Botanical illustrations. Yes. Yes. That was another great, another
Speaker:great one. The thing about Ian composition is that once you have these two things, the skills, these are major skills in card making. If you have these down, then what you do next. That's slightly more irrelevant because once you look at the card, a lot of people don't realize when, once they're working on a project that they're putting, I wouldn't say wrong things in a wrong manner, but you eyes away clever. The intelligent. Yeah. And oftentimes you look at a project and you'll be like. Doesn't look correct. Doesn't look right. Why does it, yeah, why doesn't it look right to you? Your, it's your eyes, your brain. It's because it's, it doesn't form a triangle, doesn't form the correct balance, doesn't have the correct white space. So that's why some cards look nice, other card looks unbalanced. So it's just that some card look beautiful because they have the just the right colors. You've gotta learn color theory, gotta learn how to compose your cards. It's not easy, but you've gotta start
Speaker 2:Definitely good skills to start with. I know I didn't, and so it's definitely been a struggle and learning as I go, which is harder because you don't have that base to just come out of the gate with your, okay, let me learn a little bit here, a little bit there. So.
Speaker:Then again, this is something that comes naturally to some people. And then some people have to learn, as I said this, these are skills.
Speaker 2:So speaking of colors, what is your go-to color combo? Now, I have one
Speaker:that I follow all the time, which I've mentioned several times before too. It's coral pink. And purple with the hint of Navy to add drama. And then right now, nowadays I'm using the dried petals in family minus the, what's the lightest color? Pale Mar? No, it is dried petals. I add, well, I add strawberry to it from the blush berry family and the remove the. Thank Crystal. Thankfully, Crystal's just right behind me. Yeah, so I use the S and swap it with strawberry, as I told you before, because Strawberry has a bit of a peach hue. Not too much, but just the right amount. To add a bit of warmth to this eng dried petals family, and I think it looks beautiful. I used it in my recent class with the flourishing bou here, and I also use it in several of my upcoming projects. Most of my cars look the same.
Speaker 2:I have to laugh 'cause I use the blush Berry Bliss and the. The sun gives delight. So Erum, if I see a Corly orange card, I know it's yours.'cause I'm obsessed with that color combination. So I think we do get in fabulous, I don't wanna call it a color rut, because it's, while you live there, it's fabulous.'cause you, yeah. Are passionate about this combo and we need a better word for it. Rut is not a good word. It's, I don't know, it's, we gotta come up with a good word for that. No, it's a go to
Speaker:cutter combination. It works for you. Yeah. You'll always use it. It never fails you. And especially when you are in a craft era or you are low on mojo, use that color combination that always works for you. It'll not fail. You stencil. Use a stencil, pick up a layering stencil and use those colors that work for you and you are good. You will see that the cards that you will churn out, they are going to be great. That is what I did for the upcoming release. I wasn't, I just wasn't in the mood. I wasn't feeling it. And I picked up those four in pads and started creating cards.
Speaker 2:And that's, and then you get more adventurous and you start pulling from other families and you mix and match. Absolutely. That's how you build your little suitcase of colors and things to go to. And that's a great tip for when you're in a rut you don't know, or sometimes you work with a set. That you look at. I had one that I looked at and I'm like, it's really nice, but I don't know if it's like in my wheelhouse, if it's my thing. Yeah. And then when I started Ink Blending that I was like, this is one of my favorite sets. I, so sometimes the color makes all the difference in how you like the set.'cause you just, the example shown. May not appeal to you, but you see it in your colors and you're like, oh yeah, this is it. This is my set. Also,
Speaker:if a color family is not working for you, try replacing one of the in colors. If it's base color or the midtone, try replacing it or bring in a darker color from another family just to add a bit of drama. Do something like that. Experiment and don't make a high jump. Just use the color next to it so that it doesn't scare you. Because I know a lot of people don't like to experiment, but that's why I'm saying that I would make a high jump and use the color family. That's just, oh my God, what are you doing? But for those people who don't like to experiment and don't like to waste their paper. You can just use a color family, like for example, the dried pets and the blush berry list they like next to each other and almost similar.
Speaker 2:And speaking of that, so skill building often is associated with practice, but what do you think the roles of failure and experimentation play in growth? How can we embrace those mistakes and really roll it into our skill building?
Speaker:A huge role. Some of my favorite cards came from mistakes. A wronging color, a stamp that shifted. The result is unexpected, but we as crafters will make something beautiful out of it. Failure is a great teacher and experimentation keeps you from getting stuck. In one of my recent classes, I picked up the wrong in color and it completely changed the color harmony, but I ended up with a stunning new color palette and it's way recent. Do we get to know what it is? Is it an upcoming project? No, it was a recent flourishing bouquet class. Oh, those colors were stunning, experimental triad. It came from that, wrong in color, but the experimental triad color. Who would've thought the aqua peach and purple would look? Look
Speaker 2:so good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's stunning. Yeah, it's absolutely stunning. If you guys haven't seen that class, make sure you check that out. It's with our anniversary stamp release, we release a big stamp set. It's eight by 10, I think it's absolutely gorgeous. And Erum creates four, actually eight cards. She stamps it twice. She does one with lots of beautiful color and one monochromatic, which is stunning as
Speaker:well. And I also share so many ink color combinations in that clause.
Speaker 2:So it's a good class. It looks like just an anniversary class, but there's so much information and I've heard so many good things that people are loving all the color combos they're getting from that. So if you're looking for a great class with color combos, that is a great one to check out. Now if you. Have a project that you're like, this is a huge fail, what do you do with it? Do you toss it in the bin or do you keep at it?
Speaker:I do keep at it. I try to salvage it and I spend a lot of time trying to salvage it. There are videos to prove that and on all the new channel, but if it's cannot save it, I would put it in a bin. To reuse later. And then if after a couple of months, if I've not used any of the things and if I'm in a, on a cleaning spree, I would throw everything out. I just do that. Plus I will give it to my nephew if he wants to use something he will on under the. Other than that, I throw everything away. Usually this doesn't happen. Normally, I would use everything. Yeah,
Speaker 2:and it is, it's a lot of times too, if you walk away, like I find if I'm working on a project at night. Uh, my eyes are just tired of looking at it or something, and I'll come back the next day and I'm like, okay, this isn't that bad. I can do X, Y, Z to this and I'm gonna love this card. So my
Speaker:mistakes are literal mistakes. Like I, it would drop an ink pad, I would, my watercolor brush mark, I would overthrow, which happened in my last video. It was dripping literally drip everywhere. And I said, okay, so we are going this way now. This is what we are doing. We'll color this way because I wanted to teach something different, but the brush marker had its own ideas, so we just did what was happening.
Speaker 2:And in crafting, sometimes the products win. You gotta go with what the product wants to to do. Happy. Happy accident. Yes. Now, what would you give, because this can all be. Overwhelming. So what advice would you give to someone overwhelmed by the idea of starting new skills?
Speaker:Well, I will say that start small and focus on one thing at a time. Maybe try acrylic markers, wax, seal layer, die cutting or whatever feels good to them or appeals to them, and set a simple goal. I set such weird goals for myself that I can know I can never achieve, but I. Those are mostly organizational goals or that are related to deadlines. They're not skill building, but if you set small goals, those are achievable. If you set goals that you cannot like learning entire new skill in a week or say two weeks, that's not possible for you. So pick up a, for example, pick up a color wheel. Look at one part of that color view Color. Color wheel. Color theory is extensive, so just pick up analogous colors for, let's say pick up analogous colors. Then go into learn what analogous colors are. Then go, maybe go into a bit of detail, picking out combinations of midtones, lighter shades, darker shades. Softer hues or the muted tones, go into detail. Take a month, take six months, learn that, and by the end of the year you'll be well versed in either analogous colors or the entire color wheel, something like that, that realistic goals. You, we will, we want to push ourselves. I know it looks easy to write on paper that I'll do this, I'll do this. I do that every week, so I know that's unachievable. Don't do that.
Speaker 2:And that's an important key. I am going back to school for social work, my master's, and so I've been in school for it and Great. So there were. Yeah, I don't know. I dunno. So it's, it's going to, they had talked about smart goals, so right. Measurable, achievable, and then like you have to set a timeframe for them. So those smart goals, I don't remember the whole acronym, but you guys can Google, but maybe we can post it in the description box below what the SMART acronym is. But those are the ones that I remember, which I think are some of the most important about this SMART acronym is Measurable, achievable. You have a timeframe that you're gonna work on it. Mm-hmm. Because if you leave it open-ended, right. Yeah. It's easy to be like tomorrow. Tomorrow. Break it. SubT task, break it down. Yeah. Into
Speaker:Subtask also. Yes. Slow and steady. Less is more. I've, yes. I've written it down on a Post-it note. It has, it's not as sticky as I thought it would be, but I wrote it down. Slow and steady. Less is more. I need to remind myself, not for my projects. Projects I do what makes me happy, but. In life, an organization, not really in skill building. I need to follow that. If you are planning to learn something, like for me, it's focusing on deadlines or following pla planning. Just small things like working out, walking, planning, my focusing on card making. Not sticking to my PC all day. So these are, to some people, they might not be huge things, but we spend ours in front of a pc. So for us, creating one project or even half a project. In blending using one stencil. It's a big thing for us to do in one day because I have not touched my products in one in several weeks and that it's a goal for me. So these are small goals and my goal was to, in Blend. At least one thing big. So you can see it was a very small goal, but it is not as easy as other people might think.
Speaker 2:That's the thing I think a lot of folks think we craft all day. That's our, yeah, that's like our job and I. Not so much. We, we work a lot on computers and making sure that everything runs smoothly for the classes and A ECP for us. And AAM also does their treats of course. So we spend a lot of time with our computers and we have to really work to make time for crafting and we love doing. That's a myth. Yes, we love doing that.
Speaker:That's why it is hard for us to be away from that. And I, and my space is just next. My, my workspace and my crafting space is just next to each other. That's why I have to just rotate my chair and work. So it's that, that's why it's difficult to craft and work. And when you love your job, both your jobs, it's very difficult to separate them.
Speaker 2:And it's really, a lot of it is one job for us, but it is, it's hard.'cause I love all the components of my job. Yes,
Speaker:absolutely. And it's so hard to explain to somebody. Yeah, yeah. Even to our family. Likewise. Spending so much time if you work too hard. I love it. Yes. That's why I'm working hard because I love it. Other people complain about their jobs, but I love it.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's we at alternate. We're so fortunate. We have such Absolutely. An amazing close team. It's a very. Unique environment. I have to say, from all my other work experiences in that we just, we're all there to help each other. If somebody needs help, there's five people that raise their hand at once to be like, how can I help you? So it's an amazing environment. We're so blessed to be in this environment. But yes, that is one of the myths that we do not craft all day. We do. So we have to work on our skill building. I think
Speaker:if we craft all day, you'll be tired of crafting all day. Yeah, it's a good balance. That we get to craft sometimes and we can work. Yeah. As well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Especially with all these beautiful products. Each month I think, okay. Yeah. This is the month. This is it. This is my favorite. And then another release comes out. Good. No, sorry I was wrong. This is the month.
Speaker:This
Speaker 2:is my favorite.
Speaker:I am loving the mini blending brush storage. Ugh.
Speaker 2:I don't have it yet. I saw it. I touched it at Creative Vision, but I don't have it yet. I have Box. I'll give a shout out. Oh, it's beautiful. I give a shout out. Pam got hers, so I got to kinda look at the box, look at the, so I'm very excited to get my Blend brushes a new home.
Speaker:It, it'll hold sporty brushes, but it's not that huge. So you, you can. Put in on the side of your desk and then stack it up if, for people who have a lot of brushes, some people, but I don't know who that would be. I don't know. But some people, but for me, I think one would be enough. I don't know. It's so good. I might get
Speaker 2:more, and this is key because we are gonna have a podcast coming up soon, talking about organization, because you can't build your skills if you are not organized. You need to have, mm-hmm. You're stuff organized so you can work beautifully on your projects. So I think that's part of skill building too, is you've gotta remove obstacles, right? And that's an obstacle, not being able to find your stamp set. Your blending brushes are, they have cat hair and dirt all over 'em, right? So there's all these obstacles that we have and I think to. Build our skills, we have to be able to focus on those skills, right? So we have to eliminate all the outside kind of noise and be able to really focus and build our skills and develop ourselves as someone that is in, 'cause We've talked about our jobs have two kind of sides here. What are some of the most valuable skills you've learned over the years and how has it impacted your work? Okay, so I will
Speaker:again mention composition and the one thing that I learned that's a shout out to Kelly Taylor, one Leo cards and four dimension. That is because I didn't use to have alcohol markers, it was her videos way back like it's nine years old. Eight, nine years way back. I used to watch her videos and she used to create one dear cards a lot back then. And that's, and I watched those videos just to learn how people use markers, that I could also purchase markers. And then also you came out with their markers. So I was learning how to use markers because I don't know, what is this? It, look, it's such a smooth feeling when you color, because for those who have never used alcohol markers, everybody talks about embossing, heat embossing. I'll talk about how alcohol markers feel. They're so smooth for somebody who has never used them and used it for the first time. Wow. That's so smooth. It's because I used to color with pencils and I always have that texture. That's the first time I'm like, I'm showing it to my father. But look at that. I color this entire thing and you cannot feel a thing and make excited. That's what it, when somebody gets a lot of products and stuff readily available, you forget that kind of feeling. When you don't get, when these things are new to you. So I used to watch how it is and this is something, the composition and the one layer cards, four dimension, that's, that is what really changed everything for me. I. Composition. I didn't work very hard on it. It just came naturally to me. But that the one thing I worked on was four dimension, adding shad shading to just outside the lines so that my flowers would pop up. And that's something I learned from Kelly. But she used to use markers and obvi. Obviously I didn't have markers, so I replaced it with graphite pencils, the pencil you'd write with. And after that, I also. Started creating scenes and that was watercolor scenes learned from Lindsay Wyrick, another one of our alternate academy teachers, and that's also. Something that kind of elevated my car design and made it look different from other people's work because when you are using products, you want your work to stand out or you want your work to look different or the products to be, to show people that this can be used differently and also to to show that other people. Can use them who are fine artists or are into watercoloring, not necessarily just card makers. So like my recent door panel that you were talking about, there's also this photography of photo editing. There's another big one. Good photos can completely change or transform how your work is perceived. And share. I don't take that great photographs. I just use my phone now. But editing that, yes, that changes everything. There are so many free apps and you can add such brightness to a photo and that also changes how your project looks. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's amazing that we have those resources now as well. Yeah, absolutely. So you're talking about new techniques and putting your mark on the product. So how do you recommend crafters balance? Learning new techniques with developing their style?
Speaker:So it's attempting to chase every new trend, and I always say experiment, then ask yourself what you truly enjoy. Learn the techniques that speak to you and build your own version of them. Like even in AECP, we encourage participants not to copy the class assignment exactly, but to apply what they have learned in a way that reflects their own style. Then take it a step further, only if they can. And it is when they're stepping up their work and then they think outside the box and come up with something new and exciting, something that will excite them, uh, excites other people too.
Speaker 2:And you can feel the passion there as well. Yes. When somebody's invested in it and it's a part of them. Now, how, I'm sure lots of people are wondering this, how did you find your style? Because it is so beautiful. I.
Speaker:Do I have a style? I don't. I'm not sure that if I have a defined style, I just do what makes me happy. I've always learned, leaned into what feels right in the moment rather than sticking to a specific formula. But I, I use, if I'm in a rut, I would use specific color combination and that would be it. But. I am just lucky to have a good sense of color and balance, and I think it has helped my work to feel cohesive even when I'm experimenting. And for me, it's less about finding a style and more about finding joy in the creative process. I.
Speaker 2:I, I would say your style is just, I always think of color, like when I hear your name, I'm like, color, beautiful color. And it's always, you can feel the dimension in it. It's just so developed and it's just, it, there's so much depth in everything. It's very stunning. So what do you say to someone? Who hasn't found their style and they're like, I don't know. I know recently someone in our Saturday group, she kept asking because I told her, I said, I, I have a guess where you'll end at the end of A ECP and what your style's going to be. And the whole time she wanted to know, she wanted to know, and I finally told her at the end. So a lot of people wanna figure out what their style is. So what advice do you have for them if they haven't found it
Speaker:yet? I don't think one needs to stress about finding a style like me. At first, I used to think I have a messy style. Then I used to think I have mixed media style, but then I used to lean towards clean and simple just to perfect that skill. And now I have, I know how to make CRE clean and simple cards too. But if you are enjoying what you are creating, that is really what matters the most. And, but if you are trying to figure out a style, just keep creating, keep crafting, and then you will figure out eventually. What your style is, because you can see, and the pattern is right there in the kind of cards you make. Like we follow so many people online and even our AECP participants, if they don't know what the style is, we certainly know what kind of cards they're making. As a viewer, the audience, as a third person, you would see that. Okay. The kind of cards they're making, they can't tell, but I know it's a clean and simple style. They're liking blending. That's what they're doing everywhere. This person likes dye cutting. They're popping dye cuts everywhere. Yeah. So you can tell right away, but they, yes, they need to keep creating and they will eventually figure it out. And it's really not necessary to have a style. But if you really want to. That's what you do.
Speaker 2:And I think that's really important what you just said because I think picking a style almost defines. You, I always make clean and simple cards. Yes, exactly. I really do. It just, it's where I, my heart is happy Mixed media. I get very nervous, although I do mix media. Mm-hmm. Just clean and simple mixed media.'cause mixing media is just mixing two medias, folks. It's really simple, but it's not what I think of. I think of paste and stencils and stamps and I think of those. Beautiful. I'm gonna throw out a name, a DEI Majhan has. Beautiful mixed media and yeah, I just, I'm more of a clean and simple, but I think if you really. Focus on what your style is. I think you can lose some opportunities to build your skills. Exactly. Exactly. But
Speaker:because, because you're talking about the now, if we ask her to create a clean and simple cut, she will do that. Because I've seen her creating clean and simple guts. Absolutely you might struggle. People like other t and e might struggle adding splatters. Let's add a bit of splatters here, but that's our version of clean and simple. That's, and sometimes we can also hold ourselves back, but you are right when you're in that, you put yourself in into a category, then everybody will be like, that's, she makes mixed media. She makes clean and simple. And if you are open, she makes all kinds of cards. You can expect anything from her.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:And that's what you want. You wanna grow. Yes. Yeah. You don't want to be stagnant and also stick to one area of crafting. Keep growing. Why do you want to be just a mixed media artist or a clean and simple artist? And it's fine if you want to be that, but it's good to be universal, like all rounder. That's
Speaker 2:a yes. Absolutely. And we all do like era mentioned. We all do have those card types or a product that we get, and the struggle bus shows up man, and it doesn't wanna leave. But I think that's important with our skill building because we accomplish it. At some days in my office, I'm like, ha, I beat you. Like to a color or to a stamp set like I won. This card is gorgeous. I'm so proud of myself. It's outta my wheelhouse. And I think it's okay to say it's outta your wheelhouse because you know your wheelhouse is where you're familiar, where you kinda like to be happy. Like for me it's ink blending. I love my, it's where you are home. It's where you home, where I'm home. It's, yeah, your heart's
Speaker:smiling, you're happy. Absolutely. And that is what we need at the end of the day. You need to be happy, your heart needs to be happy.
Speaker 2:Yes. And so we hope that through this podcast we have made your heart happy learning about skill building and some wonderful advice from an extremely talented, fabulous artist that we have. And so think about a ECP if you're looking to build some skills as well. Lots of opportunities, lots of all to new academy classes that you can check out to build your skills. And once you guys get the class, it's yours. It's there forever. So if you're on a time crunch, you can watch it in sections, no worries. But I highly recommend jcs class that Aram spoke about, and I highly also recommend Aras class, the flourishing bouquet for colors. If you're looking to get into colors and understanding more of how they work together and creating beautiful, vibrant florals, that's an excellent class to check out. And as well, we have a lot of new classes coming up. For you to check out as well. Thank you, Aaron, for making the time to come chat with us and share your thoughts on skill building. Thank you so much for having me, and make sure to tune in because you never know who the next guest is gonna be. We will always be here helping you craft. Your life. We will see you all next month. Thank you so much for joining us. We look forward to seeing you. Happy crafting everyone. Goodbye.
Speaker 3:Follow us on Spotify, apple podcast and everywhere you can find podcasts. To keep up with every new episode, email us at support@altanew.com with your feedback. And don't forget to craft your life.