Inspiration: You

A couple of months back 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.

Here's links to previous posts: on music, on paintings and on magazines. 

This time I thought to tackle maybe an obvious source of inspiration - yourself. Or rather, your own crafts. Scraplifting, but not anyone else but you. I think there's nothing wrong with that. If you have a color combination that works or a composition that pleases your eye, I think it's perfectly alright to use it again. It's unlikely that you even won't to copy the previous piece one on one because what would be the charm on that. But rather why try to invent the wheel all over again. As a creative person you are likely to push the boundaries and try new things as well, but sometimes scraplifting and being inspired by your own creations is just the thing. 

If you struggle with starting, the easy and great way to start is to pick up your favorite craft and start making it again, using different materials and colors. Or if you are thinking the placement of the photo, try out the placement you usually put the photo an go from there. To me that place seems to be on the right side of the paper, almost using the rule of the thirds. When ever I first place the photo to the page, I always first put it there. 

I've also noticed a survival trick I often use in workshops while learning something new. As every person attending a workshop knows, trying something new might be quite overwhelming. You probably don't make your favorite piece in the first go of the new technique so in order to make it easy to myself I tend to go with my favorite color scheme in such occasions. So I'm scraplifting myself, choosing a color scheme I know I like.

Then there's the question of style, one's own hand print, your signature look. What you need to do before you get to that point, in my opinion, is go experimenting all sorts of styles and things. But when you notice returning to same elements, scraplifting a certain piece over and over again, I think you have found your style. In that point, too, your work starts to use similar elements or the pieces have something in common - so in a way, you are inspired by your own creations. You remember how cool that flick looked on the last page or how great mixing different alpha suited a page you did a week back. So why wouldn't you use these little things as your inspiration for the future pages?

The photos in this post are chosen because in pairs they use the same composition and elements but still are quite different. I've used my own creations as an inspiration to the next piece. So what about you, have you scraplifted yourself?

If you are interested in inspiration, there's lovely answers on Finnabair's blog, too about it. There's a question and answer post and the whole team answered to them! So here's a link for you to explore!

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

- choose your favorite layout / craft and analyze what you like about it. Make another piece using the points you have noticed.

- challenge yourself with doing several projects using your favorite color scheme and make them as different as you can - remember to play with proportions of the colors!

- go through your projects and see if there's a common composition - then do a project where you have mirrored the composition.

- use your favorite way to make a title or other detail

- copy a technique you did but use different colors

- use the same supply in several projects, try to be innovative the way you use it

- if you do more cards than layouts, use a card and make a page or vice versa - use a project you've done to inspire a different kind of project

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. Do you have a suggestion perhaps? I have a few in my mind, but maybe you have a source you'd like me to tackle?

And also remember the "Inspired by" posts as I usually try to open up my process in them! Thank you for stopping by today!