Archive for the ‘News and Chatter’ Category
It’s that time of year when the sunshine is giving way to cooler, wetter, greyer days. I find this time of year something of a battle to get the mojo front and center, although I do LOVE the autumn it doesn’t do much for my creative health. If you are similar, maybe these tips can help get the sap rising again despite the inclement weather outside.
- Do something creative. Cook, sew, draw, write, take photographs, look through a gardening catalogue, plan a redecoration (just for the fun of it). The more you look at colours and shapes and get your creative side up to speed the quicker your mojo will be back.
- Don’t sweat it. Speed scrap to get rid of the backlog. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the results, just clear the pile – you can always rescrap photos! You’ll feel better that you don’t have a backlog any more, you’ll make some beautiful mistakes along the way that you can use (on purpose) another time, and the sheer practice will get you back on track.
- If you don’t have photos but you want to scrap, make yourself some QPs for another time. Scrap the whole layout but leave a ‘hole’ for photos. You may find you can knock up four or five pages from one kit, and that’s halfway to an album! You’ll also get lots of practice which will speed up your scrapping and spark off some new ideas.
- Sort your stash. Remind yourself why you just love your baubles and bits. Use the time to back up all your digital goodies! Burn things you won’t be using onto CD and file them away so you can delete the originals from your drive and create some space, sort the rest by colour, store, theme, designer, or whatever suits you best. You’ll find that just taking a good look at what you actually have will start the ideas coming.
- Play with your alphas and make some word art! Just pick a title, word or phrase that seems appropriate for the alpha and create with it. Save the art for a layout down the line, or maybe just making it will spark a layout idea right there!
- Go shop at Amazon or visit the library. There are loads of really fantastic altered art and creative books on the market that can really give you some ideas. I particularly recommend ‘Kaleidoscope’ by Suzanne Simanaitis – it’s wonderful for inspiration. And there many others you will love browsing through for inspiration.
- Trawl your scrap mags and make sketches of layout ideas. You can do this is front of the TV, great for subliminal reinforcement of your creative urges without interrupting Coronation Street
- Watch TV, read a book, get your ironing done. Forbid yourself from going anywhere near your scrapping for a week. You’ll quickly find that what you can’t have you really want, and get more ideas than ever. This is a frustrating but very effective tactic. Keep a notebook handy though, to jot down the inspiration you get whilst you’re on Cold Turkey – there will be plenty of it!
- Learn to do something new, whether scrap related or not. The sense of achievement will help get your confidence back and your mojo will love you for it.
- Break all your tasks down into smaller chunks. If you stress yourself out about having to get that album done for Aunt Maud’s birthday, or the three gazillion holiday photos that need scrapping, you won’t feel motivated to start. Like the saying goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Set yourself a very low target. eg One page or One photo or One line of journalling. The smaller the better. As you complete each tiny task, set the next one. Keep tackling the elephant in small bites and you’ll find yourself with a ‘clean plate’ much quicker than you thought.
OK, so he mis-spells the title (he can’t help it, he’s American), but this book by Danny Gregory is great. I am really enjoying it. Those of us that continually question whether what we are doing is actual creative or only the pathetic stumblings of a talentless egotist need to read this book. It was this paragraph from page 4 that got me thinking, he’s right you know, we ARE all creative, whether we like it or not.
What is we treated driving like we treat the arts? We’d assume that people were either born to drive or not. We’d wait and see if, as children, they started driving on their own, if they had talent and a calling. If they did, we would be careful not to interfere with their talent and possibly supress it. We would make sure to encourage only those who seemed they’d be able to drive professionally. We’d pay some of the millions of dollars to drive and lavish them with fame: others we would refuse to support, encouraging them to do something more useful for society. Everyone else would assume that they would never be able to drive, and would just stand on the sidewalk and watch the traffic.
Most of us learn to drive (eventually). So why don’t most of us learn to be creative? And why don’t most of us accept that what we DO create is worthy, even if it’s not what we had envisioned before we began? It’s the artist’s dilemma perhaps.
The Creative License, by Danny Gregory is available at Amazon.
Spring is sprung, the grass is riz. I wonder where da birdies is? Some say da bird is on da wing, but that’s absurd. I always thought da wing was on da bird.
New season, new blog! I’ve added a little blog store so you can pick my products at a 20% discount, some links to my CT’s galleries and blogs, and an application form if you fancy joining my CT. Enjoy