How to Find the Joy of Crafting | Beautiful Tulip Card Tutorial

Hello crafty friends! Svitlana is here. Today's post is a little bit different because, along with showcasing a handmade card with you today, I want to touch on a sensitive topic – mental health and crafting.

Crafting and Mental Health

Many of us struggle with mental health in one way or another. I'm not an exception, of course.

As any other hobby or activity, crafting can be really helpful. But I experience something different from time to time. While I wouldn't say I'm the most insecure person in the world, I definitely rank pretty high on the list. It doesn't help that I tend to be a perfectionist and am often my own harshest critic.

It goes without saying that the crafting community has been VERY POSITIVE and SUPPORTIVE every time I share my handmade cards. And I love this community for always lifting me up when I'm down. 

But when I'm in this state of mind, I find that nothing I make is pretty, and even the creative process can feel challenging. When I start making a card, these feelings often go away somewhere in the middle of a crafting session, making room for the joy of crafting.

But how to get there? How to start and get it going?

I definitely won't be spending hours crafting a one layer card with tons of masking and stamping. Most likely, I won't be doing excessive coloring, as for sure I will lose my rag somewhere down the road. I found that turning to a simpler, and less time and effort consuming design often helps.

The card, I'm sharing today, is an example of a design I'm referring to.

How to Find the Joy of Crafting By Simplifying the Creative Process

Crafting Quick and Beautiful Designs with the Pink Star Tulip Layering Die Set

The Pink Star Tulip Layering Die Set was released the last month and I cannot get enough of it. A beautiful large open flower can be easily created using this set! And just one flower is totally enough to make up for the whole card.

Needless to say, that assembling it is extremely easy, thanks to the Key-Hole System. You simply die-cut all elements, stack them aligning the hole and you have an awesome flower on hand!

I die-cut the Pink Star Tulip petals out of Frosty Pink Cardstock from the Gradient Cardstock Set – Red Cosmos and performed a simple alcohol markers coloring using the Red Cosmos Artist Markers to add shadows. For the leaves, I used Forest Glades Cardstock, which I also colored to introduce shadows (using the Green Fields Artist Markers).

Adding an Embossed Background

As I mentioned, this flower is good enough to be the only element on a card. I took just a slight step forward by embossing the background panel with the Motif Tile 3D Embossing Folder. Opting for non-white cardstock for the panel elevated the design and cost me nothing effort-wise.

I used the same cardstock for the panel as I did for leaves, so they all are matchy-matchy.

Using Leftover Die-cuts

To break down the colored elements, I placed a white ornate panel between the flower and embossed background. It was made the other day using a die from the Ornate Nesting Die Set. I use this set quite often to create ornate frames, so I often have the internal die-cuts left over, which of course I'm saving for such occasions.

Tip: Saving elements like this for later comes really handy not only when you need to save time, but also if you find yourself in a mood when doing extra movement is almost physically impossible.

Both the embossed panel and the ornate panel were foam-mounted using the Instant Dimension Foam Tape. Popping up elements on a card is an effortless way to instantly add interest.

After adhering the Pink Star Tulip onto the card, I added a white-embossed on black sentiment label which was made using the One-Go: Words & Banners Bundle. I really like this banner's wavy design.

Tip: Using elements like this (versus just a simple straight strip) is another way to make a card a bit more interesting with no effort.

To finish the card off, I added several Forest Trail Enamel Dots.

This handmade card was really effortless to make. As I mentioned above, sometimes depression makes it hard to make even the smallest movements. These tricks keep me going and the sense of accomplishment from completing something is incredibly rewarding.

Do you have any tips on how to deal with crafter's block and mental health challenges when it comes to crafting? I will be happy to read your comments about this.

Find more cardmaking ideas here. Thanks for stopping by!

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