Some honest weekend scrappin’

I got an e-mail about a week ago asking me about scrapbooking and if I ever get stuck. The answer is yes! Sometimes in general, sometimes I freeze for fear of messing up something so lovely, sometimes I don’t have an idea for something. Every crafter and artist I know faces this – it’s natural. That said, and that e-mail in my mind I decided to share this post.

It’s like this: When I get product I LOVE in my hands that I  have a commitment to work with I freeze. I worry over ruining it, messing it up, letting people down, not meeting expectation, being shunned from society… ok not quite that bad but you get my drift. I freak out just a tad. Oh, and I do it every time, no matter how much I love the kit/product/etc. It’s a part of my creative process and I embrace it.

Then: Anywhere from 5 minutes to a few days later after all those yucky negative thoughts have passed through I play. Enjoy. Love every minute creating with the stuff I’m blessed to work with.

Sometimes: If there’s a block, I find jumping in is best. So I’ll make something as a warm-up, a no pressure “do whatever” project or layout. Something that gets the ideas flowing so I can relax into the happy creative zone.

So this afternoon I pulled out these photos and scrapped a subject I’ve been meaning to get into writing. My 2yo says “5 minutes mommy, just 5 minutes” whenever you set her down for a 1-2hr nap. It cracks me up! Every night she’s started doing it too. So when I finally found some photos of her sleeping I knew I could use them for scrapping. No pressure – just for fun…

SUPPLIES: Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper, American Crafts Chipboard Butterfly, Pink Paislee (pink) alpha, Studio Calico woodgrain number & brackets, Adornit bracket edge word sticker, and random ribbon, buttons, thread, etc.

Now with that exercise complete I feel warmed up and I’m off to play with some of the prettiest paper I’ve seen in a long time. Be back to share more tomorrow!