How did that become a card?

How did that become a card? 

Have you ever wondered how a card comes to be?  Well, here’s how it happens at Zinnia Sky Studio!

So one day I woke up and decided to be a card artist.

As you may be aware, I make cards. Lots of cards. I love to make cards and consider myself a card artist. I’ve been making cards for so long that I’m not sure when I started, but I think when I was in grade school – the smell of crayons comes to mind when I try to remember. My card making has evolved over the years – from the days of pencils and crayons on lined notebook paper folded in half to watercolor creations printed on fine paper with a lot more in between. But evolution is good. Without it, we’d become stale and if I were still making cards with crayons on notebook paper, we probably wouldn’t be here.

But where do all those ideas for all those cards come from?

I create 40-70 cards per year so that’s a lot of creating. And creating starts with an idea. So where do those ideas come from? Literally everywhere! Obviously I’m inspired by our incredible and amazing desert. I live in a rural area so I’m surrounded by our native plants in desert surroundings, I get to drive through the Saguaro National Park anytime I leave home and I’m fascinated by all our wildlife. This time of year is especially beautiful in the desert when everything is blooming and growing. There are wildflowers wherever they can put down a root, the prickly pears are loaded with blooms and new pads, the saguaros are starting to pop their blooms out the tops of their arms and the chollas are blazing with bright flowers with glowing centers, just to mention a few.

But one of the most important places I get my ideas is YOU. Sometimes it’s from a conversation and you don’t even know you gave me an idea – unless of course you see the lightbulb go on. Sometimes you bring me an idea of something you’ve seen or thought of. And sometimes it’s from a simple question that’s not meant as an idea, but becomes one anyway. So, I love talking to you when you stop by my booth at the market and the shows – you’re doing my work for me!

How come the ideas don’t get lost in the everyday?

With all those ideas just falling all over me all the time, you may wonder how I keep them all straight, right? The wonder is valid because I’m of the age where sometimes I can’t remember what I’m doing and have to start over again to see if the reason reappears. So I write every idea down – on and in everything. I have a pile of post-it notes, notes in my phone, on my iPad, on pieces of paper, on sacks, napkins, envelopes, well, you get it – they’re everywhere. But I don’t want to miss a single one, so they all get written somewhere.

Then they go into the LIST. You may not know this about me, but I’m a right brain and a left brain person. Gift or curse I haven’t decided, but I am. So I create until my brain cries stop and then I have to go organize things. And that’s when the ideas move from all those little pieces of paper or reminders onto the LIST. And it’s quite a biggy! But they’re organized nicely which makes them very easy for me to browse through.

And then what?

Now you know how the card gets started but there’s a few more things to come before you get to see it. And I’ll tell you all about it….. another time. I’m just beginning to create the next season’s cards.  While you’re waiting, if you want to drop some ideas in the comments, you might just become a co-creator. Wouldn’t that be exciting? There might be even be a surprise in it for you!

CLICK HERE to read Part 2