Courtney Smith
Hello fellow paper crafters! I’m super excited to be the new intern here at Paper Crafts! Thank you for all of your lovely comments in Jennifer’s post this week. I already feel right at home and am anxious to learn all that I can!
Forgive me, but I grew up with only brothers, so sports analogies are rampant in my family. And to you baseball fans out there, here’s one: I’ve been called up. As a rookie in the field of card making, accepting the Paper Crafts internship catapulted me into the major leagues. Let me preface…I am the patron saint of unfinished projects.
A peek into my hallway closet reveals half-finished cards, reading “Merry Chri…” before tapering off to scraps and raw corners. Paper from seasons ago and dried glue sticks litter the closet. The interest is there. I spend hours meandering craft stores, leafing through piles of paper and vowing that this time is different. This time I will complete my project. I get home, set up shop in front of the TV watching The Food Network, and get to work. Eventually, I can’t decide where to put the sentiment, or how to arrange the embellishment, and life interrupts my creative juices. “I’ll work on this later,” I tell myself. “Later” turns into putting it in the hall closet for “safe keeping” until I can devote more attention to it. Like I said, the interest is there, the execution is lacking.
Thank goodness for my planner! Without it and my little to-do lists, I would be lost!
This, however, is my year of doing things I say I’m going to, tackling those “laters” head-on. I went bungee jumping, I backpacked through Europe, I’m running a marathon, and now, I am vowing (This time for real. I promise.) to complete my crafting projects. You, beloved readers, have my word. And while I am way out of my league, surrounded by unmatched talent and creativity, I couldn’t be more excited about this internship or this opportunity.
So feel free to share your card-making tips and tricks and any encouragement you may have. I need all the help I can get!
Your Paper Crafts Intern,
Courtney
P.S. I’ve already made a card for my roommate, and an adorable homemade card and envelope set. I may have unleashed a monster.
Courtney, you are so gorgeous and I thought you should know!! Yesterdays’ card posted by Wendy Johnson was really inspiring!! I rushed home from work and got to work right away on it. AND know what?? It was super easy – and was a great way to use up my dusty circle punch.
Took me only a few minutes. I’ll bet you could make one before you had time to finish off a plate of cherry cheese cake. 
Courtney, I know just what you mean – I buy tons of supplies, embelishments, paper (I LOVE PAPER), tools etc with all intentions to make things … and I even start the projects but life gets in the way [mostly] and the semi-finished project goes into a big plastic bin in the closet … to be continued. So this year, I haven’t started any “new” projects – when I have time I go back to “the bin” and pull out an unfinished project and work on it until done – and it’s working! I still buy tons of supplies!!! Some things never change! Good luck to ya!
Courtney, you are adorable! So, you left off mid-sentiment? That’s interesting! I would have to say that unless it’s a scrapbook page (sometimes those require more thought before putting it all down), just don’t allow yourself to leave the card until it’s done. Just finish it. It may not be “perfect”, but it will be done! Good luck with your internship! You have been called up, and I’m sure you’ll hit a home run!
Lots of luck getting those finished!! I find that I have to set a date on when to get things done by. And have something to do it for. I can’t just go make a card for fun…it’s always for a thank you, a birthday, a get well or to go in a set.
You can do it! A little at a time, look at idea books, it’s okay to make the same card more than once!
Hi Courtney! Don’t despair, we’ve all been there! I’ve been married 6 years and still determined to start my wedding scrapbook… and currently I have a wedding on Saturday and have not STARTED the card yet….! In a couple weeks when life calms down I plan on picking 1 day a week to work on my projects. I hope this will help me!
Intern at PaperCrafts Magazine….great item for your resume. Best wishes.
Start by scraplifting a design you love! Then you kind of already know where the finish line will be! Do this a few times and as you go inject a few of your own touches…before you know it you’ll be gathering inspiration, but the end result will be all you!
Good luck and have FUN!
You have so much creativity around you it can’t help but rub off. I wish I could just walk through the building at look at all the creataivity.
My inspiration comes from blogs. You can “case” other peoples stuff and make it your own with your personal touch. You have plenty of things to “case” around you at work everyday but if you need more inspiration, go blog hopping. I made a few cards here and there until I started blogging. Now, I can’t seem to stop. The reason I like cards is because you can make one in just an hour or two!
Blessings,
Christine
I am fairly new at cardmaking also! I made a few for last Christmas, then a few others this month. They are fun to do if you know what you are wanting to, but I tend to take awhile since I want it “just right”. Congrats on your intern position!
Courtney, You are a better woman than I if you are going to finish your unfinished projects this year! Lucky for me, all my unfinished crafts are everything I USED to do before I discovered cardmaking! I love how creative I can be, and to complete a card in one sitting is just the cherry on top!
My cure for lack of ideas is to look through an issue of PaperCrafts magazine, or to look up websites like “The Daily Dare” or “SplitCoastStampers”. They are FULL of ideas, sketches, and challenges–many of which there are multiple samples by multiple crafters. {Oh, wait–if you start MY habit, you’ll spend more time looking at older issues or the computer screen and NEVER get to those projects!} OK, follow that advice at your own risk!
Congratulations on your internship–you’ve got our ‘dream job’!
Hey Courtney,
Have no worries everything will be great and u will finish all the cards you start from this day forward. U have to post a picture of the card you made for roommate (please).
You are defintly working is an awesume enviorment where you will countiue to learn and grow as a crafter.
Congrats on your job (I can more then agree that your got our dream job)
Have a blast and enjoy every moment.
Why are there no men posting on this site?
I love this stuff………Courtney you inspired me to write my first comment. Just remember that the game of crafting isn’t a sprint it is a marathon! Good luck.
Alright! You made a great step towards getting things done… writing it down makes it more likely to get complete. (hey… and I won’t tell if you add something to your list JUST to check it off- it’s called motivation!) Keep up the good work!
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