I had a crazy idea at dinner with the family on Friday and worked on it most of the weekend. Think March Madness meets Paws & Whiskers. I'm so excited and quite proud of myself for figuring out a lot of tech to bring it to life, so I'm sharing the Whimsykel Paws & Whiskers Showdown with you! 16 designs. Cats vs Dogs. Only one will be crowned. Today’s matchups: Tuxedo vs Gray Tabby Tortoise Shell vs Sour Puss Black Lab vs Border Collie English Bulldog vs Golden Retriever Comment your winners below ⬇️ Want in on the giveaway + unlock the 20% showdown discount? Join here: https://www.whimsykel.com/pages/paws-whiskers-showdown Every vote increases your chances of winning: • your favorite dog design • your favorite cat design • $100 Whimsykel gift card Bonus entry: Reply to any showdown email with your favorite design Let’s see who moves on.

Moodboards are one of my favorite creative tools. (Golly Gee, I bet you didn't know that. LOL) When I’m exploring an idea, I’ll often gather colors, textures, and imagery that capture the feeling I’m drawn to. It helps me see the mood of a design before I actually start creating it. Here are two examples of moodboards I built while exploring textures like weathered wood, ocean blues, and aged patina tones. From those moodboards came two Whimsykel decoupage tissue paper designs: Baroque Patina and Winter Patina. Same creative process.Two completely different outcomes. Can you see or feel the same feeling in both the moodboard and the final design? That’s the magic of inspiration. Curious… Would you be interested in learning more about using moodboards to spark your own creative ideas (or even how to make them)? 👀 If so, I might put together a little Creative AF lesson on it.

Fun fact about me… I don’t just create designs… sometimes I accidentally create or share entire stories with them too 😏 Not all of them. Just the ones that tap me on the shoulder like, “hey… we’re not finished yet.” “Velvet Ruin” did exactly that. Is my writing perfect? Nope. Does it hit something real? Yep. Did I resist the urge to rewrite it 47 times and just let it be what it is? Miraculously… yes, and that MATTERS! Here's her story: Velvet Ruin They called her broken long before she ever believed it. Not in loud ways. Not in words thrown like stones. But in glances that lingered too long… in silence that arrived too quickly after she spoke… in the way people stepped carefully around her, as if she might shatter simply by being seen. So she learned the art of becoming smaller. She softened her voice. Folded her wings inward. Wrapped herself in something dark and beautiful so no one would notice the cracks beneath. Velvet. It was easier that way… to be seen from a distance than understood up close. But ruin has a way of speaking. Not all at once. Not in chaos. But in quiet, persistent echoes that say: This is not who you are meant to be. And one day… she listened. Not to them. Not to the world that mistook her depth for damage. But to the low, steady rhythm inside her chest that had never once agreed with the story she'd been given. She stood. Not dramatically. Not loudly. But fully. And when she unfolded her wings, they were not delicate like they remembered. They were vast. Dark. Unapologetically her own. There was no moment of becoming whole again. No clean return to what she once was. Because she wasn't meant to be restored. She was meant to be rewritten. And in that rewriting, in every fracture, every shadow, every scar she refused to hide… She became something far more dangerous than perfect. She became real. Not velvet to be touched. But velvet that remembers what it survived. And ruin? Ruin was never her ending. It was the place she learned

Like… how did we go from a cozy giraffe in a beanie… to a bunny born from a cracked fairytale… to a farmhouse chicken living her soft life… to a lighthouse that feels like it’s holding secrets… to a bird that looks like it flew straight out of a watercolor daydream… Because creativity doesn’t follow rules. It follows curiosity… chaos… and those little sparks that say “This doesn’t make sense… but I LOVE it, and down the rabbit hole we go.” 🎨 This week’s downloads are your permission slip to: • mix styles that “shouldn’t” go together • create something just because it feels good • stop overthinking and start making So tell me… 👉 Which one are you grabbing first? 👉 And what are you turning it into? Because around here… We’re not here to make sense. We’re here to create magic. ✨ You can download them all HERE!

I hear it all the time... “You can’t pour from an empty cup.” Take time to rest. Refill your cup. Replenish your energy. And YES… that matters. But I’m curious about something. Because if you’re anything like me, the problem isn’t always an empty cup. Sometimes the problem is the exact opposite. Your cup is overflowing. Ideas. Projects. Dreams. Designs. Courses. Things you want to make. Things you started but didn’t finish. Things you KNOW would be amazing if you could just focus long enough to bring them to life. At some point, all those ideas stop feeling inspiring and start feeling like… Creative chaos soup. Instead of creating, you freeze. Not because you don’t have ideas. Because you have too many. You live "down the rabbit hole" and have code words with your friends to come find you if you don't respond by a certain time. LOL So I’m curious… What does this look like for you? What helps you refill your creative cup when you feel drained? What do you do when your cup is actually too full of ideas, and it starts creating overwhelm instead of action? Do you write everything down? Start multiple projects or focus on completing one? Ignore them until they haunt you again later? No wrong answers here. I’m genuinely curious how other Creative AF brains handle this.