Essential Tips for Beginners: What to Buy, What to Skip and What to Know Before You Begin.
I'm sure cardmaking came into many of our lives quite unexpectedly. Perhaps you attended a Crop & Create event, a cardmaking workshop or, like me, someone gifted you a quilling set (cardmaking set) that opened up an entirely new world of creativity.
For me, quilling was the beginning. It introduced me to paper crafting and gradually led me to explore more cardmaking ideas and techniques. Here I am, 12 years later, still making cards and loving every bit of it! I've been exploring stamping, die cutting and all the wonderful possibilities of cardmaking for the last nine years.
But if there's one thing I wish I had when I started, it was that one friend who could answer all my questions, help me make sense of the overwhelming choices and perhaps save me from a few purchases I didn't really need.
I'd love to be that friend for you!
Over the years, I've learnt so much through experimenting, making mistakes, discovering new techniques and learning from fellow cardmakers. In this series, I want to share some of those lessons with you, the things I wish somebody had told me when I started and a few mistakes I'd love for you to avoid repeating.
And this is a conversation, not a one-way lesson! If you have questions or there are things you'd like me to discuss, please leave a comment below. You can also join me at one of my online cardmaking workshops, where we can chat, create and learn together.
So, let's begin with the first thing I wish somebody had told me when I started cardmaking!
Three Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started Cardmaking
Looking back at my cardmaking journey, there are three things I wish somebody had told me right at the beginning. They might sound simple, but I think keeping these in mind can make your journey a lot more enjoyable!
1. You Don't Need to Buy Everything to Get Started!
When you first discover cardmaking, it's very easy to get carried away by all the beautiful products available. There are stamps, dies, stencils, embossing folders, inks, papers and so many wonderful tools. Every new release seems to bring something you simply must have!
But here's what I have learnt over the years: you don't need a huge collection of supplies to create beautiful cards. Start with a few basic things, explore different techniques and gradually build your collection as you discover what you enjoy. There is no need to buy everything at once.
2. Don't Get Carried Away by What Everyone Else Is Buying or Making
It's wonderful to be part of a creative community, to see what other cardmakers are making and to draw inspiration from their work. But it's also easy to feel that you need the same supplies, the latest releases or all the products that everyone seems to be talking about.
Remember, your cardmaking journey is your own. You may enjoy techniques that someone else doesn't, or have a completely different style. Take inspiration from others, but don't feel pressured to follow every trend or purchase every popular product. Buy what genuinely interests you and what you can see yourself using.
3. Learn to Look at Your Supplies Creatively
This is something I continue to discover even after all these years! Try not to look at a product only for what it was originally designed to do. A die can be used in ways you may not have imagined, a stencil can create textures and patterns beyond its intended design and elements from completely different sets can work beautifully together.
Experiment, mix and match and don't be afraid to try something different. Sometimes the most interesting cards come from looking at familiar supplies in a completely new way. And before buying something new, take a look at what you already have. You might be surprised by the possibilities!
These are just three little lessons that I wish I had known when I started. I hope they help you approach cardmaking with a little less pressure and a lot more joy.
How Cardmaking Challenges Made Me a Better Crafter
I have always been someone who didn't want to spend too much on a hobby. When I started cardmaking, I looked at it as something I did purely for the joy of creating. I had no idea that this hobby would eventually open up so many opportunities for me!
In fact, most of my stamps and crafting supplies, especially in the early years, came through gift certificates I won by participating in cardmaking challenges. I also won gift certificates through YouTube hops, Instagram hops and other creative events, and over time, these helped me build my stash.
But there's something else I want to share. If I look back at my journey and think about what really helped me become a better cardmaker, I would give a lot of credit to the cardmaking challenges I participated in. Check Paper Playful Blog - to see all challenges at a glance. These ladies put in a lot of work for us!
I wasn't entering these challenges with the hope of being picked in a random draw. I wanted to be chosen as a winner for my card! And that meant I had to put in the effort. I had to understand the challenge theme, plan my design carefully, think about the composition, use my supplies creatively and come up with something that would catch the judges' attention.
Every time I entered a challenge, I wanted my next card to be better than the previous one. I would spend time thinking about how I could interpret a theme differently, how I could make my design more interesting and how I could use the products I already owned in unexpected ways. And these were the years, I had a very limited stash!!
Of course, winning was never guaranteed, but that very desire to create something worthy of being chosen pushed me to experiment, learn and improve. Looking back, I think those challenges taught me a lot more than just how to make a beautiful card. They taught me to think like a designer. Here are the Recognitions, I kept adding to my Blog.
So, if I had to give credit to one thing that helped me grow as a cardmaker, cardmaking challenges would be right up there. And the gift certificates I won along the way were a wonderful bonus!
I'd love to share more about how I found and participated in these challenges, and how you can make the most of them too. Perhaps I'll dedicate one of the later posts in this series to this topic?? Let me know in the comments if you'd be interested!
Coming up in Day 2: Now that we've talked about the mindset, let's get practical! I'll be sharing my thoughts on the actual cardmaking tools and supplies worth investing in when you're starting out, what you can save on and what I think is worth spending a little more on.
And we can continue our chat in my live workshops -
Check out my Upcoming workshops, HERE
And check out my latest YouTube Tutorial HERE
If you like my work and feel inspired by how I’ve showcased these products, I would truly appreciate it if you choose to shop through my affiliate link to Altenew.
Thank you for all of your inspiration and I enjoy watching and learning from your workshops and videos!
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