Inspiration: Magazines

Some time ago I asked in my blog's Facebook what you'd like me to post about. Of course I shall continue sharing the crafts and DT work I do, but I wondered if there's something more that you'd like to know. Like something about the mediums I use, my favorite gesso brand or similar. What was suggested was a post about inspiration. So I decided to start a series of post concentrating on something that inspires me. I shall do them on a monthly basis and let's see how it goes.

On my first post I talked about music and on the second I tackled paintings. On today's post I'm concentrating on magazines. Like I've said previously, I'm a firm believer that anything can inspire. So if you're looking for inspiration don't limit yourself to those crafty magazines because you might find a nice color combination or composition on a fashion or design magazine, just to name a few.

So how I'm inspired by magazines and more over craft magazines? It's mostly the techniques that inspire me. I mean the craft magazines are filled with beautiful, unique, interesting projects, but what mostly draws my eye are the different techniques in the pages, cards or other crafts. How the creator has combined two different paint mediums or used something really ordinary in another way.  I guess that's due to the fact that I love to play with different mediums and techniques!

What can also inspire me are the colors in a project. As I've told before, I tend to use analogous color scheme and sometimes using the same colors over and over again might get boring. So seeing something out of my comfort zone can really set the wheels turning in my head and get me exploring that I might mix blue and red or orange and green. 

Then I might be stating the obvious, but also the adds in the magazines inspire me! They might show a product that gets my imagination, something I must have. Or that may happen on a project as well - the creator has used a die or a stamp or a paint medium in such a way that I just need to have that same tool for myself as well!

What catches my eye when going past the magazine self are of course the covers. I tend not to read magazines in the store as I think that's rude but I do leaf them quickly through. If the cover has gotten my attention and the magazine looks good when I skim it through, I buy it. Afterwards I might even analyze or ponder what was the thing that really inspired me to get the magazine. Because that reason is also a point of inspiration to think about!

But there's more magazines out there than just the craft ones. The cover scenario stated above applies to all sorts of magazines. You can also find inspiration from the articles in a science publication or recipes in the cook magazine or the beautiful pictures of a fashion or decor magazine. They can provide you with topics to your pages, ideas to record in form of an art journal or something to ponder through your own art. They can give you color schemes or composition or just jumping off points.

If you're totally stuck magazines might just be the way out. In my opinion there's nothing wrong in scraplifting IF and only IF you name your source. If you see a nice project in magazine and happen to like the composition and the colors, it's ok to make your version of the page but what I call out for is naming the source of inspiration. Just write in your blog post that you saw xx's project in magazine yy and it inspired you. 

I sometimes get asked if it's ok to scraplift my creations. Of course it is! I would't be presenting them if it wasn't. I'm sure that there's different opinions and points of view but to me if you don't want your project to be lifted, if you don't want it to inspire, don't share it, keep it to yourself. Of course scarplifting doesn't mean straight copying. Have your own story, your own products, add your touch to the page. 

Here's just a few ideas if you want to use magazines as an inspiration. Please feel free to add other ideas!

- choose an add from the magazine and copy the placement of elements in your layout or art journal page. Concentrate where's the vocal point, where the title and where the text.

- document your favorite magazines and way to read them

- be inspired by the the colors in the magazine photo - mimic them in your own project

- read the magazine and use the theme of the articles as your jumping of point

- study the cover of your favorite magazine and see how the elements are placed. see how the season is brought into the design. 

- be a reporter and white an article about your subject instead of your regular journaling

- turn a recipe from a food magazine into a recipe for the page, milk = white paint, flour = embossing powder and so forth

I hope you found this post interesting or perhaps even inspiring! I'll post another source and a few ideas how to use it next month. And also remember the "Inspired by" posts as I usually try to open up my process in them! Thank you for stopping by today!