Read this portion of an Email from this Sweet Follower Jackie, she says:
……“Here is my dilemma…personally I am in a rut..a serious non imaginative rut I cannot seem to shake. I have the supplies, knowledge etc…but lately I just sit and stare aimlessly. The groups that I teach are all the very basics so it’s not like I am really being challenged to excel. Things were going along great, and actually was really active in some groups and even some people had mentioned about becoming a design team member. until I had to back away for about 6 months due to being a guardian of a little boy. Right now I can’t even choose a piece of paper and if I do I have a block. I have been watching you for long time…I think I found you right when you were getting started and have referred so many people to you. I need your help…I am not asking for anything or expect anything I just need to get my mojo going. And you think outside the box which I really like. I realize you are busy, and this is asking a lot. yes I know I could get back into groups and pull inspiration and so forth..but it’s not working. I need a dramatic and hardcore kick in the old rear! All I was thinking of was maybe once a week or more if you see something that makes you think ahh here is a challenge. Send it to me, it can be photo, sketch, colors, combination ..whatever. There is no limit on what I can do, I thrive on making my own embellishments and I have I think every tool and gadget out there LOL So there is no reason I cannot create something. I am not sure what I can offer you in return….I am use to always being the one helping out so this is kinda strange and I have been putting off emailing you for a month now. But as I keep looking around everyday…getting more and more annoyed with myself I thought it’s time.
Take care…have fun
BTW I cannot wait to get my hands on your pink dies!!!! They are soooo cha cha!!
Jackie”
Here is my reply to this part of Jackie’s Message. Maybe it can help you too!
For your own personal growth, Inspiration blocks us all.
Here’s what you can do –
Start with a color in your head. Think of a Color. Any Color.
Use that as your FIRST start.
What comes to mind when you think of that color.
ie. if its blue do you think of the sky?
If its purple is it the color of your favorite Shirt?
After that color hits and FEELS good, move to that ITEM – take a picture of it – USE it as your Inspiration to CREATE something new.
So if you think of Purple, and purple is the color of your favorite shirt, you can do a few things with it. Take pics of you doing things YOU love in that shirt and create a Layout ABOUT Yourself and things you love. If you don’t want to scrapbook it, you could use the lines of the shirt or maybe another feature of the shirt for accents, and embellishments of a card.
Another place I find GREAT inspiration from and challenge MYSELF is by typing a word into google and clicking the IMAGE tab and looking and pictures of what Google returns.
Maybe you have a picture of being at the Park, and there’s a bench in the background. Type BENCH into google and then go to images, see how you can use maybe the curves of the wrought iron or the grain of painted wood as textures and embellishments.
This is a good starting place. The other thing I do alot is visit websites, ANY website about food, about webdesign, deviantart.com or wordpresstemplates.com all those sites can be used as challenges to RECREATE what is digital into a physical beautiful project.
Maybe that will help you?
Let me know what you think!
There is something I am working on as a Download and Challenge that I think will be REALLY fun – and I’ll be sure to share with you.