Inspiration

The next class is focusing on inspiration... this is timely for me, because lately i've been in a FUNK!!! I've been in a Big old capital F FUNK! I've been busy, sick, sick kids, BROKE, discouraged, ovwerwhelmed and all that goes with it. and to make matters worse, my stress relief, art, has been out of reach to me due to the funk issue!

Now, not all is bad, i've been doing a lot of soul searching, i've been learning and growing, i've been making better choices... ie. not blowing off an entire weekend with my family in order to win a crop. I would have chosen otherwise before. But when it all comes down to it, what is really important?? I've been working through those kind of issues. Anyway, this is neither here nor there, because the issue at hand is INSPIRATION!

Where do you find it? how can you work your way out of a funk? Below i've listed a few possibilities and later i'll focus on one in particular. So keep reading! And if i didn't list something that YOU find inspirational, please comment!

1. clean out stash! making your stash more manageable not only makes it easier for you to find stuff to use, it also helps you REMEMBER stuff you bought and forgot about!!
2. cruise online galleries for technique ideas.
3. look through a stack of pictures.
4. find challenges and online crops in which to participate.
5. see how many layouts/cards/projects you can get out of one kit.
6. print out some online sketches to follow.
7. take an online class
8. chat with other scrappers at messageboards like www.willowtraders.com
9. check out some of the AMAZING newsletters out there from kit clubs!
10. look at ads in non scrappy mags and just keep an eye out all around you for things in everyday life that inspire you!
11. SCRAPLIFT.

Today i'm focusing on the fine art of scraplifting, and all it can do for your mojo!
I'm going to list my favorite sources of scraplifting inspiration but everyone's style is unique, so if mine doesn't match yours, check out kit club galleries, blogs, etc!!

My new favorite site https://twelvefridays.com/demo.aspx They were featured on Willow Traders anniversary celebration and i actually had to sub! I, with the maxed out CC's who should NOT be buying ANYTHING, had to sub! ug! anyway, they have the BEST designers... i find so much great stuff to copy there! here's a couple of examples
These come from the twelve fridays blogs http://twelvefridays.typepad.com/ and http://blog.twelvefridays.com/

This first one was found on the second blog listed above. I'm not sure who deserves credit for creating this one.


From that, i lifted and created this.


And i did this one too, Heather Preckel is the designer of this layout, its from the first blog i listed.
http://blog.twelvefridays.com/


And from that amazing layout, i created this.



These i made yesterday. Some more recent ones i created a while ago. My second favorite source of inspiration is Tessa Ann Watte's blog. http://tessaann.blogspot.com/ She's my hero! our styles are so similar, except hers is way nicer, LOL! anyway, there's a lot of great new layouts on her blog, here's one from last summer (Tessa Ann's)




and here's my lift



There are SO MANY awesome places i get inspiration, but for time and space limitations i'm going to limit mine to 3. The final favorite of mine i'm listing here is the scrapdango kit club http://scrapdango.net/index.html check out their forum and gallery!! their designers are AWESOME and Carrie offers such great customer service and is right there on the board, hangin with the girls! in particular i enjoy one designer's work, Debbie Gaydos. Her blog is here- http://scrappydeb.blogspot.com/ AMAZING work... here's one of hers that i scraplifted from the Scrapdango gallery. This also utilized a scrapdango KIT! which by the way, ROCK!


here's Debbie's


and here's mine




Looking at these, did you notice how the first ones i did above were very exactly lifted, and Tessa's was fairly exact but flipped and some embellies were changed, and Debbie's i cahnged a lot more keeping only the title and the basic form? you can lift to different degrees. Usually, i like to lift only loosely, but when i'm in a funk or find a special technique or layout i like especially much, i'll copy it closely, as a means of learning the technique.

So, i hope you enjoyed and benefitted from this class! please take some time this week to find something to lift! post links to both examples in the comments and be eligible to win a rak!!

Blessings,
Rebecca