Creative Conversations no. 006 | chatting with Cindy Backstrom

I didn’t know much about Cindy when I first started following her on Instagram. But it’s always exciting discovering similarities that you have with friends you make on Instagram. I’ve since learned that Cindy and I share the same faith and profession! (I’m also majoring in education.) I always enjoy being inspired by Cindy’s creative pursuits and I hope you will be too. Welcome to the blog, Cindy!

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Tell me about yourself.  My name is Cindy (cinback on social media). I have two beautiful daughters (18 & 19 yrs old) and my husband and I recently celebrated 20 years of marriage. I am an educator, having taught in the classroom for 15 years and now providing professional development to the staff at my school (and taking the first steps to sharing our learning model around the world). I love the outdoors and being only an hour away from the mountains, we zip out there as often as possible to hike and bike and breathe fresh air. I love all kinds of crafting, as I love the challenge of learning something new, but scrapbooking is my ultimate pleasure. A few years ago, I started my blog Serious Play to share my creations with others.

What is one weird or interesting fact about you?  I have been skydiving and scuba diving and hot air balloon riding.

What do you do to express your creativity?  I am a crafter at heart. Creativity is my outlet after sitting in front of a computer for most of my day at work. I scrapbook, make cards, make mini albums, paint, knit, make paper garlands and have recently taken up modern calligraphy. I used to do a lot of scrapbook layouts, but now I have embraced Project Life as my main source of documenting life. To appease my love of embellishments, I make mini albums featuring a specific event or time. I also love photography and continually to try to grow that skill too.

How did you get started?  I started scrapbooking after the birth of my first daughter, way back in 1994. I was invited to a Creative Memories party where I was first introduced to the concept of personalizing a photo album. Purchasing an album, some pens, stickers and a tape roller, I set off to document my new baby’s first year of life. However, there was not the wide range of beautiful products available today. In fact, this may have been the only scrapbooking company around at the time. Loving the concept of this type of documenting life, but not loving the choice of products out there, I lost interest. The next few years of my life I juggled two babies, plunging into my career, buying a house and car and life was just too busy for much crafting. Then scrapbooking magazines started popping up and I discovered Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske. I bought all the magazines and spent hours examining the different styles and techniques and I followed so many blogs but my life was still too full for me to jump in, so I just admired from afar. As my girls grew older and needed me less, and my job required less hours of evening work, I began to dabble in scrapbooking again. And now, I spend almost every evening in my craft room after work making something!

What do you love most about what you do to be creative?  I love being challenged. So, if I see something that I like, I always try to find a way to re-create it for myself, especially if that means learning and developing a new skill. I don’t think I have ever said to myself, “You can’t do that!” In fact, I tell my girls all the time, “You can do anything. You just have to decide to!”

Who or what inspires you?  Everything! Being a very visual person I am attracted to magazines, Pinterest, and blogs. But I also draw inspiration from the patterns in nature.

How do you stay inspired? What do you do when you feel stuck or uninspired?  I can’t honestly remember a time when I was stuck or uninspired. My issue is more that I have too many ideas than I have time to execute! I always keep a notebook handy and jot down things that I see that I want to try. And then I always have a few ideas of variations or improvements or substitutions that I could make to expand on that idea. Then, when I am working on something, I consult my notebook and all of those ideas come flooding back and I’m ready to go! I also keep a monthly Inspiration Board above my workspace, which is a catalogue of images and words that inspire me.

Why do you do what you do? What motivates you to be creative?  I believe in Christ as the Creator and I believe that He has made me (and all of us) in his image, which means that we are innately creative. The question is whether or not we choose to exercise that creativity. I love the quote that says, “You cannot use up creativity. The more use, the more you have.” I believe that of Christ as well. The more I have of Him in my life, the more I am like Him and therefore, the more I am able to be creative.

Describe your creative style.  This is tricky to answer, since I would say my ‘style’ is always changing. I don’t tend to follow the current trends and I don’t buy a ton of product. Instead, I try to make my own DIY version of something that I have seen and liked. I really just create things that I think are pretty.

I tend to stick to neutrals. I like colour, but in very small doses. Perhaps it comes from my love of nature and the calm that I feel from browns and greys and creams. I also try to avoid clutter. I like a lot of white space and breathing room and tend to cluster my embellishments while using them sparingly.

Name your top five favorite tools or products:

1. Silhouette cameo
2. Vintage typewriter
3. Vellum
4. Gold sequins
5. Anything woodgrain

Are you an early bird or night owl? When are you most productive?  I am definitely a night owl. Waking up in the morning is the hardest thing I have to do in my day. Perhaps if I didn’t have to leave for work at the crack of dawn every day I would enjoy mornings more. For me, it is the evenings that I look forward to. As my workday is ending, I am already anticipating the projects waiting for me at home. Often, I don’t get into my craft room until after supper but then time just disappears and I get lost in my own little world of productivity. I literally could stay up all night crafting, but I have to tear myself away at a reasonable hour because I know that it will be hard to wake up again the next morning!

What projects are you currently working on?

• Project Life
• Modern Calligraphy, through which I have gained some new penpals
• Maggie Holmes Mini Book workshop at Studio Calico

If you had to be a colour in a crayon box, which colour would you be?  Probably, I would be a deep indigo colour, since it can fall into the neutral category, but can also be called on to be the star of the show. It has an element of uniqueness and mystery (not black, but not blue) as well as a quiet elegance (which I strive for, but have not yet reached).

If you could possess a super power, which one would you choose?  Ha! I have never even thought about this before and actually had to look up a list of possible super powers. After reading them over, I guess I would choose telepathy, like in the movie What Women Want when Mel Gibson is able to hear women’s voices and gets a lot of insight! There are far too many people who suffer from negative self-talk. They think they are not worthy, not smart, not pretty, not capable, not creative…and I want to get in their heads and kibosh all those thoughts, replacing them with positivity, encouragement and love.

What is your favourite quote? I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

Follow Cindy on her blog, Instagram and Pinterest to keep being inspired by her! Thank you for joining us today, Cindy (:

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Creative Conversations is a blog series getting to know fellow creatives and friends that I’ve made through the internet. Read more about Creative Conversations here.