Where to get ideas? Sometimes I sit and stare at the pictures sitting on top of the paper and wait for the layout to jump up and slap me. Rarely happens. The truth is I love to look at other people's great layouts and scraplift them. Sketches are one of my favorites things. I get really jazzed by the concepts and work to make it my own. For a while I felt like I was doing something wrong. The group that I scrapped with always seemed to have a steady flow of original ideas for layouts and embellishments. I was the only one with idea books and magazines. Then I started reading about scraplifting and seeing invitations to take layouts, design elements and techniques and apply them to your own pages. I hate to turn down an invitation.
I look through magazines and scour the internet to find examples of great ideas. At first I tagged the pages in the magazines, but they got so bulky. Sometimes the magazines had so many single photo layouts, that I skipped over a lot of examples. I always have way to many pictures to focus on too many single photo pages. I decided to start cutting out things I liked and and keeping them in what has been dubbed "The Book of Inspiration." It started out organized and labeled: layouts, techniques, mini-books, tags. I put the examples and sketches in plastic sheet holders so I could flip through it quickly. Lately the Book has become quite cumbersome. Since I only add to it and never take anything out, it's now overstuffed and exploding. Right now I have at least 30 pages of examples and pictures that they are all jammed in the front. At the last two crops I just thumbed through the loose pages until I found what I needed.
I look through magazines and scour the internet to find examples of great ideas. At first I tagged the pages in the magazines, but they got so bulky. Sometimes the magazines had so many single photo layouts, that I skipped over a lot of examples. I always have way to many pictures to focus on too many single photo pages. I decided to start cutting out things I liked and and keeping them in what has been dubbed "The Book of Inspiration." It started out organized and labeled: layouts, techniques, mini-books, tags. I put the examples and sketches in plastic sheet holders so I could flip through it quickly. Lately the Book has become quite cumbersome. Since I only add to it and never take anything out, it's now overstuffed and exploding. Right now I have at least 30 pages of examples and pictures that they are all jammed in the front. At the last two crops I just thumbed through the loose pages until I found what I needed.
As an post script, I was surprised when I one evening the Book of Inspiration offered me nothing even after three trips through every page. Then I reached over to put a completed album back on the shelf and opened it up. Even though I had completed the album over a year and a half ago, looking over it reminded me of things that I hadn't done in a long time. Crazy, I know - I scraplifted from myself. Doesn't mean I've given up the Book of Inspiration-it's only going to get bigger.
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