Lack of creative motivation - it happens to most of us dare I say? That feeling you get when you walk into your craft room or pull out all your craft supplies, you sit, summons the creative gods, shuffle stuff around BUT you stop, you just sit there after what feels like hours, you look at it and feel nothing! Zilch, blank, zero, nada, nothing!!
Since I resigned from my job as the Technical Editor of 'Cardmaking, Stamping & Papercraft' magazine I've felt a bit lost, creative wise that is. I've always had a Classroom, Copic Corner, Stampers Challenge or some other feature that I've had to create cards for, before that I was teaching cardmaking, all this has always kept me focused and motivated, ideas would always come to me, too many sometimes LOL. So now it's back to just playing and creating for me, I think I've forgotten how to do that! So, now I have to take my own advice on what I tell others who lose their creativeness or don't know where to start - KISS 'Keep it super simple' that's my version!! I don't like 'silly' or stupid'! That's just me :-)
Anyway, a friend's son recently got engaged, okay, so that gives me a reason to create, I need an engagement card, I can do this!! I grab a stamp set that has a small heart image and begin to stamp a simple background, one colour, red of course! This set is great because it has sentiments too, so I didn't have to hunt around again and get frustrated. So I stamp the 'Congratulations' in black, simple! Crap.... It still needs more, so I hunt through my stamps, not knowing what I'm even looking for, viola! What's cuter than a pair of love birds. Ugh..... I don't feel like colouring today, so I stamp it with black ink, cut it out and add it to the card, great! I'm happy! I'm done, so I think.... I turn it over and apply my tape then turn it back to discover ink on the front from my dirty work area, my world crashes (I know, third world problems right) after all my hard work, trying to get motivated, actually doing something that I was happy with! ARRRRR!! First thoughts: walk away, make a coffee and come back in an hour, day, month, year, oh they'll be married by then! Nope, you can do this Jane! Solution, cover it, with what?? More spots, no, that's just too much effort, an embellishment? No, it's smack bang in the middle of the card, vellum? That will hide it and would be a nice subtle touch on the card, a vellum HEART!! YES thank you Lord!! I'm back!!!
Have you had days like this or weeks, months perhaps? It feels bad doesn't it? Knowing we have all this stuff and not wanting to play with it is devastating. Well, hopefully my little story and my 'KISS' card may help you one day. I will be sharing many more tips to overcome loss of Mojo, so stay tuned!
Yes, there are those little red spots! Small I know, why bother, you say? To me they were huge, I just don't cope with mistakes on my cards very well, the dots were all I could SEE!!
My 'KISS' card, simple stamped background, the sentiment was cut in a banner shape and image only slightly coloured to match the stamped background, all on white card. Yes, I could see those spots and they were bugging me, I suffer from OCD! Just in cardmaking LOL
Vellum is a subtle and easy way to cover the spots and fix my card and that made me happy!
Happy!! Yes, there were a few small ones scatter on the front, I'm over it now LOL. I'm sure they'll love it!
Thanks for reading, I hope I may have helped in some way if you ever come across creative blocks or any little problems like mine.
Happy Stamping!
Jane
