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I have SOOO many fibers from a couple of years back when fibers were the latest "in-thing", but I hardly ever see them used anymore (except for knitting!). Any new ideas or techniques using fibers? Please share your card pics or links if you have any tips.
Thanks in anticipation ...
Tilly
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Proud to have been on the Spring 2012 CAS Design Team
Happy Fan Club member.
Do you really think that fibers are out of style in card-making? I say use whatever you like or already own and make your own style! Why not use fibers in place of ribbon, I think that works just fine. Here's a link to a card I made using eyelash yarn; it's used in a fairly small quantity and just to highlight the stamped/colored image. Fibers don't have to dominate a card but can be used as a quirky and fun accent.
If you have it and like it... USE IT!!
__________________ Hi, my name is Molly, and I am a Designer Paper addict. My avatar is my virtual representation in Second Life.
I didn't know they were out of style. I say just use what you like. Sometimes I use fibers, sometimes ribbon, and sometimes nothing, just whatever suits me.
__________________ Carla
The more we thank, the more we discover we have to be thankful for.
I just used some fibers on a scrapbook page this weekend (sorry, not uploaded yet). I love the way it looks! It really adds a lot of nice texture to the page (12x12). I used several red/pink fibers twisted together on a red page.
I think that there are trends. Fibers and torn cardstock were everywhere 3 years ago and now are rarely featured. However, I also agree with the other posters who say to make what you love and use what you love.
While papercrafters may know the trends, the folks we send our cards to don't know scallops from wide ribbon from fibers!!!
Use what you love or save it as you can bet it will be trendy again.
__________________ Dear Paperlicious is my blog...with a series on how I'm learning to improve my cardmaking by studying others.
Who cares what's in style! Most people who you make or send a card to won't know or care what they style is... just that you spent time making something for them~
__________________ Fight for your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth or the only truth. -Charles Anderson Dana
Definitely use what you like!
This is why I'm not a trend-loving gal . . . I know what I like and dislike and so much of what's "in" right now is not my taste at all. I do what I like, what I enjoy and makes ME happy. That's what makes being creative fun! Use those fibers and enjoy yourself.
I don't think they're "out of style" either. I think any time a new product is introduced, we're flooded with examples of how to use it. Then when the next product is out....our eyes are turned to it. Most people receiving our work, aren't as baraged (is that spelled right? how 'bout inindated?) as we are. If the card calls for fibers...use fibers! Just go for it!
I think the reality is that "texture" is the new "fiber". I think the Cuttlebug and it's line of embossing folders opened up a whole new dimension for cardmakers - we no longer have to spend hours to get real texture on a card. And with this new element to cards, the trend moved away from fluttery fibers.
When you consider that our design-canvas is typically 4 1/4" X 5 1/2", you can only get so much "stuff" on it before it is overwhelming. So it really doesn't matter whether you choose fiber or texture or some other way to make your cards distinctive - do whatever satisfies your creative spirit. But recognize that trends will come and go like the tides of the sea - you may choose to dip your toe in the water, or not, but the tide still flows! Just my opinion....
I think that there are trends. Fibers and torn cardstock were everywhere 3 years ago and now are rarely featured. However, I also agree with the other posters who say to make what you love and use what you love.
While papercrafters may know the trends, the folks we send our cards to don't know scallops from wide ribbon from fibers!!!
Use what you love or save it as you can bet it will be trendy again.
:confused: :confused: Joan, there's a difference???
I have SOOO many fibers from a couple of years back when fibers were the latest "in-thing", but I hardly ever see them used anymore (except for knitting!). Any new ideas or techniques using fibers? Please share your card pics or links if you have any tips.
Thanks in anticipation ...
Tilly
I'm with you--it's not that I'm a slave to trends (look at my work and you'll see that)--but to me, they just don't look right on my cards or pages--not like they used to! So it is difficult for me to use them.
Maybe I'm just bored with them, right now.
I do occasionally still use some on a card. And I like to sneak it into big bunches of ribbon when I use that, to fill it out a little. But I have soooo much, from swaps and e-bay buys. After all, how cheap was it to buy a skein of fiber and chop it into 12" lengths and mail it to all your swapping buddies? Argh! LOL
Definitely use what you like!
This is why I'm not a trend-loving gal . . . I know what I like and dislike and so much of what's "in" right now is not my taste at all. I do what I like, what I enjoy and makes ME happy. That's what makes being creative fun! Use those fibers and enjoy yourself.
After reading all your comments I think I found the answer to my own question ...! My fiber box is on a high shelf, out of sight (yes, most of them are all just thrown into a box in one big mess, but I like it that way - every time I dig I find something I'd forgotten about, and the cats like it that way too - when I open the lid they love to dive in and snuggle, like a nest!). However, my ribbon drawers are right by my desk, so I prolly just reach for the closest thing. I MUST take my fiber box down and leave it right under my nose so that I'll be inspired to use all those luscious colors and textures again. I think the ribbon 'thing' overtook me about a year ago - maybe it's time to put my ribbon on the top shelf for awhile! LOL
Thanks for the feedback everyone, and for the links to such lovely fiberlicious cards. I WILL I WILL I WILL use my fibers today!
Tilly
__________________ My BLOG My Splitcoast Gallery
Proud to have been on the Spring 2012 CAS Design Team
Happy Fan Club member.
OK.. Maybe I'm just slow...but I was so excited to realize the other day that I can buy fibers in a skein (?) in the yarn section, rather than buying it in smaller rolls, like ribbon. It was less than $2.50, too! (If you already knew this, just play along and let me feel smart for a minute, please!! ;) )
OK.. Maybe I'm just slow...but I was so excited to realize the other day that I can buy fibers in a skein (?) in the yarn section, rather than buying it in smaller rolls, like ribbon. It was less than $2.50, too! (If you already knew this, just play along and let me feel smart for a minute, please!! ;) )
I found big balls of fiber in the $1.00 dollar bins at JoAnn! WooHoo! I love them!
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Creating isn't a hobby, but a way of life!
I don't think fibers are out of style. I love to see cards made with them- I have never used them however because I don't really know how. I mean, I guess I "know how" but I never have (I've only been stamping 2 years) so it isn't "natural" to me. But I LOVE to see when other people use it!
I agree with all of you. Just use what you love best. But I am with Tilly.... out of site out of mind. I can't have everything by my table and my fibers are in the closet. Probably time to rotate items.
When it comes to scrapbooking and cardmaking [and any ART in general]...we shouldn't allow trends to dictate us. The reason I love to do crafting is because it is a way to express myself. :p Unless you are in retailing your product why worry about trends? Sometimes I think people become slaves to trends and then they forget to have "FUN." :( Everyone is at a different stage in their crafting - that's why we are all unique. ;)
I truly enjoy looking at everyone's gallery - so much inspiration with so many different products.
I love fibers of all types!
In fact, I'm a fiber nut!!! LOL
Yes, there are some new useful products out there - and they can be fun or easier to use. Don't we all love a new "toy" now and then? Maybe what we need to do is to find a way to incorporate the "old" with the "new."
ENJOY,RELAX, ... But most of all have FUN!
Who decides what's "hot" and what's not? Why do some trends return, while others disappear forever? How does the media influence what's popular and desirable? Do you want any of the things that were featured on the show? Why or why not? Do you think advertisers have any influence over what products and services are featured on the show? Who decides trends - manufactures [compelling marketing, advertising & public relations...Marketing 101 concept: the "4 P's of Marketing" ]. And it's the consumers who follow their ideology. :rolleyes: SORRY - It's one of my soapboxes.
__________________ You will never regret being kind.
I use fibers all the time and have tons, always get rave reviews on cards I give with the fibers................I like to put fiber on top of ribbon too doing the two together......a great look..............variety is the spice of life.
I'm still quite new to stamping & card making. It's a good thing I fell in love with fibers before I read this thread and read it was "out of style". lol
I don't use a lot of fibers on my cards itself but it use it a lot on altered items and ESPECIALLY on bookmarks.
Anyone who's got too many fibers or doesn't want them anymore, I would be the peachy pleased recipient of them! :-)
I agree with many other replies, use what you like, buy what you think you might want to try, and don't worry about trends. I LOVE FIBERS!!! AND RIBBONS TOO! I use them as much as I can!! Most of the people who receive our cards have no conception of this whole paper craft industry, unless we are sending stuff to our stamping friends!! Most of the people I send to just LOVE getting a homemade card, I am sure they could care less if the card was trendy or not.
I have been stamping for about fourteen years now, and certainly my style has evolved over time, but many of the products I used a while back are still fondly around. I have been buying buttons as an embellishment since I started, when they were notions in the sewing aisle at Joann's. I loved pairing up cardstock (scrapbook papers) with my stamping when I started. Still do!! I discovered the cracked glass technique fourteen years ago when I was playing around with my embossing tool and multiple layers of embossing powder to see what would happen. While it was setting, I bent the cardstock straight and the darn thing cracked like glass. Who knew???? It did not even have a name back then that I was aware of, I just thought I had f-ed the whole thing up and needed to start over.
As far as trends go, there are some great products out there right now, and the stamp and paper craft artists do a phenomenal job of showcasing and highlighting these products so that we WANT WANT WANT! It is always exciting to see new things and wonder how those products could be incorporated in the hobby I love! I know many people, myself included, have bought something that was desperately needed at that moment because it was there and beautiful and a great desire...that was later a regrettable purchase. Please, this is not a knock to all those awesome stamp entrepreneurs and stamp visionaries and their talented design teams or to knock all of us as consumers, and please know that as I am typing this I am giggling inside, but sometimes I wonder if one of these talented people "invented" something so gosh-awful terrible or utilized some bizarre wierd natural product but somehow managed to present it in an amazing way, would the demand for that product be there too because it is considered new and trendy and all the rage?
Probably a bit off topic, oops!! I digress. But it is something I think about every now and then. So, to sum up, use those fibers! And yes, I have been buying skeins of yarn at sale prices for years because I could have MORE MORE MORE fibers than what was sold on a little card in the stamping aisle of the craft store!!
I think that there are trends. Fibers and torn cardstock were everywhere 3 years ago and now are rarely featured. However, I also agree with the other posters who say to make what you love and use what you love.
While papercrafters may know the trends, the folks we send our cards to don't know scallops from wide ribbon from fibers!!!
Use what you love or save it as you can bet it will be trendy again.
Too true! LOL! (and a good thing too, since I wouldn't know a trend if it ran me over, backed up and ran me over again!)
__________________ If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't. ~ Jimmy Carter
Will fibers on cards ever come back in style?
