In the Spotlight + Mini Challenge... Diana Fernandez

Hello crafting friends. It's my turn for a spotlight challenge. This is where you all get to hear a little bit about me, and maybe a little bit about my crafting journey as well! 

I will start with me...

Yep, that's me when I was just a little tyke!

I loved cats back then, and I have a cat now that looks a lot like this one, only my baby boy is wearing a tuxedo!

I live in (almost always) sunny Arizona. I am married to this fun loving guy, (there were 10 corn dogs)! And we have a houseful of furry "kids." Six to be exact, 3 dogs, and 3 cats. Our oldest is an 18 year old calico who has never really liked me, but loves my husband! 

I work a full time job as a 911 operator/ police dispatcher. Its a fast paced and fun job, I literally love going to work! It's always interesting, and it's always a fun environment. There is a lot of stress in my job, and I use my crafting to help alleviate some of that stress. 

For my crafting journey, I began as a child, I did cross stitch with my mom, and have always been enthralled with colors and patterns. 

So for Valentines day in 2008 my husband got me a sewing machine. Yes it's sort of like buying a mixer for a housewife in the 1950's right? But I really wanted to work with fabric. I made a couple of quilts, and bought A LOT of fabric, and I soon moved on to paper, but I brought my sewing machine to paper, and I've never looked back!

Now who wants to see some of my work?

Yeah, me too!

I have a slew of art journal pages to share with you. Art Journaling has been my passion for a while now. It seems to permeate much of my crafting now. 

I love to get paint and ink all over, and to work

with adding color and texture to my pages.

A small wall hanging with a mixed media butterfly.

I do hope that some of my work and my story has inspired you.

Please feel free to check out my blog HERE.

I do just love love love all the mixed media goodness that is out there. And I hope you will take some of my work and create your own art journal piece. Whats that you say... you don't have an art journal. Well you don't need a specific art journal to do an art journal page! You can use any sort of heavy weight paper you have to get some inky and painted goodness down! 

This is my challenge to you...

create an art journal page, try something you've never tried,

you just never know what you might find! ~ Diana

An InLinkz Link-up

In the Spotlight + Mini Challenge... with Diana Fernandez

 Happy Sunday!

It's time again for another mini-challenge/designer spotlight.

I am so glad that I get to host the challenge this week!

Hi by the way, I'm Diana Fernandez, (check out my blog here).

I've been here with Anything But a Card Challenges since the beginning! I have loved every challenge, and so enjoy all of the amazing entries we get!

I guess this is the part where

I'm supposed to tell y'all about me.

I live in the fabulously HOT state of Arizona, where it's sunny almost all the time, and hot hot hot in the summer.  The winters however make it all worth while.

I work as a 911 operator and police dispatcher.  I get asked all the time how I do such a stressful job, and all I can say is for some of us it's a perfect fit.  The stress is there of course, but the rewards outweigh that stress, and knowing that I did something every day to help another person is amazing!

 

"How about your crafting? "Well, I am sorta new to the papercrafting world, I really only started a year and a half ago, but I just love creating something from a bunch of paper and some embellishments. At first I was mostly just making cards, and then I did some Smash booking, and after meeting a group of crafters from Meetup.com I decided it was time for me to be a blogger. Yes, my husband looked at me sideways when I said "I'm going to blog that, but I have stuck with it, and I love hearing all the fabulous comments from my "followers," and I just adore playing along with Challenges. My blog * Creations For a Star * can be found here.

I wish I could tell you that I'm super innovative, and have invented the newest trend, but honestly I feel that I'm always learning – mostly through YouTube video's, and by reading lots and lots of blogs (I love tutorials!)... And then I just try it!

 

Most often my Big Kitty Koa is in the craft room with me. He's a big baby, and loves to jump in my chair when I get up to get something. It's hard to say say no to such a sweet boy though!

That's how I got into art journaling. It's a perfect vehicle to try something that you might be hesitant to try initially! And there are lots of video's and tutorials to give you idea's on how to get started!

So can you see where this is headed?? That's right, My challenge to all of you out there is to do an art journal page.... "But Diana, I don't have an art journal". Thats ok, you don't have to have a whole journal to try this out! Yep, you can do it on any sort of blank page you want. Then if you find it's something that you really like you could always bind all your pages together!

Soo, I have this fab page to share with you!

Lots of paint, and a fabulous daisy stamp from Stampendous in the middle. Plus I got to try out some of my "fancy" writing!
Ahh... I love my white gel pen!

And my challenge to you is to do an art page. 

 Go ahead and try something new! I look forward to seeing your creations.

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Please join us next Sunday for a brand new Challenge - No. 32. Have a great week!