Inspiration & Warm Fuzzies
Over the holidays my family went to Colorado to visit family and go skiing. It was a wonderful blessing in so many ways - time with family not often seen, a break from the daily grind, quality hours spent with the kids skiing and playing games (no TV), etc. Additionally, a trip to the Rockies provided me with lots of motivation to play with my camera and subsequently to scrapbook. (Needless to say I took way more pictures than necessary, but it was great fun.) When I got home I couldn't wait to start working on an album using all the great shots I'd taken, and I proceeded to process the 800+ pics I took and scrap over 20 pages in 2 days that first week back. I was thrilled to create, and although a little neglectful of some household chores that could have used my attention, I felt so productive when I finished each set of photos and pages. :0)
This warm fuzzy feeling got me thinking about what inspires us to work on our projects. I know what fun we always have when getting together with friends to scrap and how invariably someone will comment that we should do it more often because it "re-motivates" them to work on their photos... I do love getting together with friends to work on photos, but I know that life sometimes gets busy and we miss the monthly rendezvous or the weekend retreat. This means that I realize we need more ways to motivate than group gatherings if we want to reach our goals of preserving our memories to inspire hope for the future without becoming overwhelmed by a backlog of untouched photos.
So here comes my list of ways to be inspired, find a little spark, and get your own warm fuzzy from completing an album page, or a wall decoration, or photo gift, etc. And I'd love to hear your ideas as well, so please comment below and share your favorite motivations and inspirations.
Of course the obvious is a photo you have that can't wait to be displayed - if you're lucky enough to get one you love of your kids, a beautiful landscape, family, event, or anything else, don't linger - share that love quickly and tell the story (no matter how small). And remember the goal is to get it in a lasting medium (album, wall panel, etc.) - just on your computer hard-drive or posted on Facebook does not ensure the preservation of that memory for generations to come.
Galleries of pages and layouts - the web makes it so easy to browse through layouts and pictures of beautiful photo works of art. Oftentimes, seeing a page I'd like to replicate or something made using a photo similar to one I have will be the nudge I need to get to work. Here a couple of my favorites: Pixels 2 Pages ; Two Peas in a Bucket ; The DigiChick ; PixelScapper; and O' Scraps.
Social Media - beyond the online scrapbook specific galleries, you'll find a treasure trove of pictures on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Join some groups and/or like some pages of people that post their work. Search engines make it easy to search for keywords of interest. Let today's push technology send inspiration streaming to you without having to think about it. A few pages I recommend would be Dietta's Digital Dimensions Facebook Page ; Pixels 2 Pages Facebook Page; Your Stories Go Digital Fabcebook Page; and any of these twitter, tumblr, or pinterest searches #digital-scrapbook, #digital-scrapbooking.
Content -sometimes all it takes is some new pretty paper, sticker, or word art to get the excitement going. There is tons of content out there ranging from free to very reasonably priced, and you could easily spend days hunting through it all so I'll point out a couple of my favorites to get you started. Online stores include Forever; Sweet Shoppe Designs; The DigiChick; Little Feet Digital Designs; Simple Pleasure Designs; and Tickled Pink Studios. And lots of freebies can be found at Summertime Designs; and Scrapbook Flair to name a couple. Plus many of these sites also have RSS feeds and/or mailing lists so you can get notifications of new product and sales.
Words - Either written or spoken often prompt the spark in our mind of wanting to remember a moment. Use the words to make a page or a mug or wall print. You can combine the words with other pictures that convey similar thoughts or times, or skip the picture if you don't have a photo. Use some cool content and journal boxes/frames and put it out there. Don't let it pass into the realm of the forgotten.
Magazines - Magazines and coffee table books are a treasure trove of design ideas; just think a magazine is really page after page of layouts with pictures and words. So the next time you're sitting in the dentist office waiting, look at the pages with an eye for what layouts you like and recreate them using your own photos and words.
Well I hope at least one of these gives you some ideas to get started on your projects this year. And once you've gotten your warm fuzzies from competing a memory project be sure to let me know and share your pictures on my facebook page... You never know, you may be someone else's inspiration!
Happy New Year!
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