Weakness into Strengths

As most of you are aware, layering is a big trend now in scrapping. Before a week ago, I had a weakness in this area mainly due to inexperience. In The Creative Habit by Twila Tharp, she advises to take a weakness that you have in your art and work on it until it becomes a strength. I took her suggestion and decided to work on my layering skills. I just got a small 6x6 pack of Daisy D's new autumn papers in the mail. (It was quite the lovely surpise!) So I thought that I'd create a bit with them. My whole point in doing this series of cards was to practice my layering so after I made the Finally Fall one below right, I had to use the scraps to make the others. If the scrap was too large, I allowed myself to cut it down, but I tried to use all the little pieces in some way.Of course, I added some more papers to the mix and because I have a special love for circles lately, I did this one with a circle wave.

I didn't do any machine sewing or special techniques on these, I just created quickly. I think that I did about 6 cards in about 45 minutes. However, I did do a bit extra on the card below. I took a piece of felt left over from another project and transformed it into a button card. The metal "thread" is from a tag taken from a pair of shoes that I purchased. Some doodling around the edges finished it up.

I highly suggest this exercise. Making cards is a quick and small way to practice your skills and your card recipients will be thrilled to receive them! And then when you have more confidence, you can move on to bigger projects. Here is a photo of a layout that I did for Scrapbook Circle using my newly acquired layering skills.

It turned out a lot better because of my mini practice cards. So, this week, access your art, choose a weakness and work on it. Let me know what happens. I'd love to hear.