Featured Friday!!! - Georgie Connelly

Hello my friendly friends! Firstly, I'd like to say a big thank you to those who left comments on my last card. Reading through YOUR stories about country life and the great outdoors had me feeling nostalgic and (I'll admit) a little bit misty-eyed! That's why I love the bloggyland - there are so many of you who just make me so happy with your comments and your inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, if you're new here I'll let you know about a little thing I do called Featured Friday. Once a month I feature a crafter I've met in the blogosphere and share a little bit about them with YOU! 

This month's featuree is:

Georgie Connelly of Little Blue Craft Box! 

Georgie is a hop, skip, and a jump over the pond from me and hails from England! When it comes to mixed media projects, Georgie takes the cake. Her work is textural, romantic, and ethereal and I'm always inspired after a visit to her blog. She knows how to work embossing paste and Prima flowers like no other! 

But why tell you about Georgie when she can give you much better insights herself? I asked Georgie 7 questions about her crafty life. 

How did you get your crafty start?

Ive been 'arty' in some form or another all my life, but this recent addiction started quite quietly about two and a half years a go, about six months after my son was born. Then about a year and bit later I started my blog, I was in deep at that stage and I knew then it was a point of no return! :) Heaven forbid anyone makes me go cold turkey now - I'm sure I wouldn't survive, art is my life!!

If you could be any craft supply, what would you be and why? 

This is tough... there are so many yummy goodies to choose from! But picking one…. I'd be gesso, then I could be covered, from corner to corner, in all my favourite supplies!! ;)

How do you handle mistakes in your work?

Hmm, really depends on what I'm working with, most mistakes I embrace and can bodge/fix with a happy outcome. If I'm working with water based paints and I mess up with colour from the off then they get canned. I've really not worked out a way to rescue them without it resulting in mess. Generally gesso is my life saver.

What are your favorite card making/scrapbooking challenges?

Lindy's Stamp Gang Colour Challenge 

Dusty Attic Mood Board Challenge 

Prima BAP and Colour Board

Country View Challenges

Mixed Media Monthly Challenges

Craft Stamper TIMI

Generally I find the mood boards very motivating as they're open to interpretation and if your mojo is a little low they can give you a great boost!

What's your best organizational tip for crafters?

I'm not really sure I'm qualified to give out this sort of advice, have you seen my crafty space??! :)  The best I have is reels of double sided tape hooped around my lamp. However, it is all about to change, so I -cough cough- plan to be far more organised in the future!! 

Where do you find inspiration for your designs?

Everywhere really! I love Pinterest, Google, books... Even the simplest photo of household paint swatches for colour gets my brain whizzing! My son is my biggest source of motivation for scrapbooking, as I love layouts! But ultimately my arty crafty friends are hugely inspirational and so very talented! There’s always something new to learn or products to try, so this keeps me buzzing!

What's the best piece of advice you could give to new bloggers?

I'd say try to get yourself 'out there' as much as possible. It took me ages to realise this and feel brave enough to enter challenges, comment on blogs (I was a watcher for ages) but once you do you won't look back. The online crafting community has to be the best out there for support, be it art or otherwise. If you're unsure about something, contact another crafter - they are so happy to help and so lovely (this is what I did, and I wouldn't be here now if I didn't). Ultimately, as with anything in life, you get back what you put in so don't be afraid to make the first move! :)

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When reading through Georgie's answers, I had to giggle about the organizational question. My craft room could use some work, too (and by some work, I mean a professional organizer and a dump truck) (ok... it's really not THAT bad) :) 

In my Featured Friday posts, my featuree and I always pick a past piece of their artwork to CASE. Georgie works on altered art, scrapbooking pages, and cards so I had a bevy of inspiration to choose from. 

After pouring through Georgie's blog, I finally settled on a gorgeous, saturated scrapbooking layout.

The Original

I fell in love with the seashells, the texture and the ethereal beachy feel. It truly is a masterpiece, and it helped Georgie win one of her very first Prima Marketing competitions!

Georgie's CASE

Did anybody else's jaw just drop to the floor, or was it just me! WOW! I didn't think very much could improve on the original, but the monochromatic feel and gorgeous textures definitely matched the spirit of the original to a T!

My CASE

As you can see, I had inspiration overload from Georgie's gorgeous original!! I didn't have any drywall tape or cheescloth, so I made do with some products found around my home. I gessoed a mesh potato bag to create the "drywall tape" and I used a leftover dried up baby wipe to create the cheesecloth effect. I sprayed the baby wipe with Distress Sprays to give it a foamy feel and added some frantage chips. The background was made with white acrylic paint. 

I'm sending my card over to the following challenges:

Frilly and Funky - Monochrome

Craft Stamper Take it Make it - Use Texture

Anything But Cute - Masculine

Inspired By Stamping - Customer Gallery
Fusion - Inspiration Image 

Thank you all for popping by! PLEASE please pretty please won't you go pop over to Georgie's blog and say hello to her? Let's make her day extra special!