Category: Creative Journey

Two incredibly creative and wonderful women inspired me in unexpected ways last week. First, I loved Stephanie Howell’s post about who she is as a scrapbooker, and why she’s ok with that. Then Ali Edwards sent out a creative lift for the week via email that was all about, well, creative insecurity.  Which actually hit on point with some stuff I’ve been up to and thinking about, eerily so actually.

I let them both know that I loved what they shared, and shared a bit of myself with them as well. Which then got me thinking about somehow blogging about this creative insecurity and self confidence stuff and all that… and here we are.

First I want to address something: Creative jealousy and insecurity.

It happens to the best of us. When it does, it can be pretty ugly. Here are my thoughts.

I’m really freaking good at being me. I stink at being anyone else, so I’m not even going to try. When I create anything from a project to share in a class to something just for fun to a commissioned project, I have one rule: enjoy the process.

I think about what *I* want to do, what *I* think is fun and cool and what direction I feel like going in and I cut loose.

Every. Time.

Why? Well, when I’m over thinking things or worrying about what ___ will think or if it’ll be as good as ___’s work… whatever I make is crap. I figured it out a few years back when I was trying SO VERY HARD – that it was in fact the trying hard that was messing me up. I was thinking so much that I left no spontaneity, no creative spark, no room for imagination or play.

Please don’t misunderstand- I make some spectacularly UGLY pieces too! I make mistakes, and I have to work long and hard hours in my studio. I’ve spent thousands of hours over the last decade in this very room that I’m typing in now. Crafting is a skill, the more time you put in the more fun it can get.

The thing is, I don’t fear the ugly. I embrace it. Shrug it off. Learn from it. Start over. Go another direction. I also embrace the fear of looking like a fool. Have you met me? I am just me. A book loving, silly, picky, pain in the ass woman with very specific ideas on what I want. Oh sometimes those ideas change but the point is I’ve got opinions. Vision.  And dare I say it… confidence.

So what do I do when I get smacked with the jealousy stick? Whacked with insecurity? Oh, it happens. In fact it happened very recently when I saw a project that was SO AMAZING I questioned my whole existence and reason for crafting for a few minutes until I decided to track down the creator and gush on her awesomeness. Thing is? The other person or people are so not out to get you or make you feel bad about yourself!! So you can’t let that get you. When it hits, I’ve got two things to do, and I’m going to share them both with you now.

1. I try to break down the roots and figure out what is bothering me. Do I wish I did more mixed media work? Am I in a layout rut? Have I not put energy into new ideas? Or am I feeling bad about me for no good reason, and the truth is just I really like what this other person is doing? I break it down as best as I can and dismiss it or take it as a lesson to be learned. Then I get into my studio asap and create something. Play. Be True. Real. Take the energy and make something positive with it. Find a way to let those feelings help me grow creatively.

2. I tell the person I’m envious of that I think they rock. That what they’re doing is amazing and how talented they are. To be honest I do this jealousy or not – I am a huge believer in being uplifting to those who share creatively. Saying to people “I like what you do. Here is why.”  It is something that I do often. Sending encouragement and uplifting thoughts to someone else, NOT focusing on poor me… well that does indeed help.

In my experience the happiest people I know are those who allow happiness in and who want to see others happy as well. Who don’t feed and let fester the negative that we all have. It’s not all sunshine and roses here- but I don’t have to fuel negative fires either. I can focus on the good, my gifts, my blessings. I can also follow my heart and do my best to be one of the happy people vs one of those negative people who always want to be down about something – and that have an excuse for everything.

That’s today’s piece. Next week I will share about my big dark shameful secret that is the sum of all my failures as a crafter and human… and the chronicles (blog series) that will begin from that revelation…

I wish you happy crafting, and I encourage you to go out and send some happy emails to creative people who inspire you just because.

once upon a time…

First of all – I have had ZERO, no, less than zero interest in www.pinterest.com since hearing about it. I think the problem was – the way I was seeing it in use had me thinking it was not at all what it really was. It sounded like some kind of time/soul sucking home decor nightmare I wanted nothing to do with. Lots of weird, hipster, modern, and not for me stuff is what I was thinking.

a few weeks ago…

I’ve been majorly frustrated with my inspiration journals. I don’t want to print every cute idea I see on-line – and even if I did most often imgs are too tiny to really print well so the idea is lost. OR I put into my “favorites” folder and then I can’t remember why I’ve got links/where they are.  I’ve been posting a lot of inspiration on my BPC on-line class message boards and it’s been frustrating to me that I have to go through so much to save the inspiration I want to use in future/share at some future date…

Then a friend mentioned pinterest. I snarled. gagged. Told her what I really thought.

Then she explained it better than I’ve ever had it explained! Think of it as an inspiration journal, a file-folder filled with the things you want to remember. Recipes, party ideas, crafting ideas, tutorials, household stuff, fashion, things you want to buy when you’ve got the budget… ANYTHING you want to be able to pull up in a flash. A place to save favorite blog posts and ideas that would otherwise get lost.

ok, so I don’t have to look at drift wood carvings or diapers made from hemp? oh…..

I signed up. Um, but apparently you can’t just sign up, and it took a week (maybe 2?) before I got an email saying “ok, you can be a member now”.

7am PST today…

You have to use facebook or twitter to sign up (which basically pulls your profile photo + suggests people you know) – that’s ok I guess. Then you’re off. You can make “pin boards” and name them whatever you like. Make their contents as vague or specific as you want.

You can keep editing/adding/changing. I love that. I also love that you can make notations when you pin something. Sorta like sticking a post-it or drawing an arrow & adding a note when you’re working with an inspiration journal.

above you see the start of my “color” board.

You can also choose to follow people’s boards which basically means on the home page you’ll see when/what they add. You could follow ALL their boards – or just some. I’m finding most of the time I only want to follow some because of the way/focus I’m planning on using this.

(above are some of Stephanie Howell’s boards that I’m following)

Here’s my home page right now…

When you go to the home page – you’ll see a live-feed of what YOU and the people you’re following are adding and loving… you can “re-pin” onto your own board(s), choose to ‘love’ something, or leave a comment. Here you see me re-pinning something I found on the JBS (Jenni Bowlin) page…

But you could also IGNORE that entirely and just be an island. do/add your own things and look at nothing else. Truly use it as an inspiration file folder…

That’s what really got me – the fabulous blogs I read? Websites I surf? All you do is add the “pin it” button to your favorites and then you can pin anything. anywhere. anytime. A window will pop up where you leave your note, select a board you’re putting it on, and click pin.

Recipes. Books. Color. Party ideas. holidays. fashion. shopping wish-list. photography inspiration. tutorials. DIY. crafty goodness. Seriously – SO MUCH I get inspired by and want to save – and now it’s easy and instant.

So easy. so sweet. AND it’s going to save me crazy amounts of time. I spend SO MUCH TIME searching for “that thing I saw that one time a year or two ago…” and when uninspired I think it’ll be a great place to refresh and renew my creative self.

So now I ask – are you on pinterest? How do you use it? Who are your favorites to follow? Link me up so I can check you out too! Not on there but have questions? Ask away!

you can find me here: http://pinterest.com/mayflaum

“You’re like, so old school” is something I was recently told regarding my photo preferences, and after I finished laughing I thought maybe I should do a blog post about it…

It’s a kind of a part of my creative journey… and one that I want to share. I often get asked (regarding my Big Picture Scrapbooking classes) what photo sizes to print/what students need to do to be ready. My answer? Good ‘ol 4×6’s work just dandy. It’s what I work from most all of the time!

Once upon a time I wanted so desperately to be COOL. To be the girl that could do the amazing things that those totally awesome + popular scrapbookers were doing with tiny photos. huge photos. all kinds of odd sized photos but no regular 4×6 print sized jobs. I printed out 5 x 7 and 8 x 10 prints when I ordered batches of photos so that I too could be cool. When I first got my photo-quality printer I did a good deal of custom size printing too.

So why did I stop a few years back?

Three reasons:

1. The cost. It was eating up my budget – both ink/paper + cost of enlargements in every batch of pictures
2. It ate up my time budget. As mom of one baby, my time was in short and precious increments. To plan a layout in my mind, then print photos, then go make layout it was insane.
3. I ended up happier with layouts made with 4×6 prints more often than not.

 These days if I print from home it’s because I have a specific idea or digital template I want to play with, or I am on deadline and have some odd size print that I want. I work from 4 x 6 prints about 99% of the time, and those prints are ordered from costco.com or www.scrapbookpictures.com. I’ve really come to LOVE www.scrapbookpictures.com for quality, speed, and ease of use. I like that if a photo is slightly off (color) they auto-correct BEAUTIFULLY and I can skip that step altogether.

When it comes to pictures – I’m all about saving time so I can PLAY with them!

I’ve always been a “print the pics you want” vs a print as you go girl. Reason #1? Not trusting technology/backing up/myself to remember to ever print. I don’t want photos lost. I’d MUCH rather have hard copies. I love them. They inspire me so. I do have digital back-up, but since 2005 I’ve gone back and re-printed a photo… twice at most.

Having photos on hand changes the creative process too. There is the wonderful ability to just scrap. No need for printer to be working or ink to be full – you’re already there. GO! scrap! enjoy! It also lets me see photos in unexpected combinations at times, and I do enjoy cropping my photos too. I do that a lot – it just depends on the page.

Sometimes I see layouts from awesome ladies who have used tiny photos printed special. or HUGE photos. These days I mostly appreciate their talent, but don’t try to copy them. I am ok with not following their path. I stay here in 4 x 6 land.

It should be said that:

1. I am ruthless. Blurry, useless, too many duplicate/similar images, repetitive, and/or not loving them images are DELETED from my files. Same with photos taken just for the blog here or photographic experiments. DELETED. I’m not printing out as many photos as you might imagine because I cull the herd first. I do sometimes save imgs but not print if I can’t quite hit delete but don’t want them now.
2. I am lazy when it comes to a lot of stuff. I do not want to be responsible for having supplies on hand to print pictures out or dealing with all of that. Upload files + hit order is much more my style. Even better? When pictures are delivered to me at home. Unless I’ve planned a trip to Costco, then I don’t mind picking up.
3. I think it’s cheaper per print and better quality. Only at my printer’s best, with top of the line paper am I happy with prints. SO much cheaper to just let professionals print for me.
4. I don’t do much photo editing outside of the awesome-tastic button known as “auto correct”. Oh I can, I just don’t. For me it’s like homework and I’d MUCH rather play with products + photos vs just editing pics.
5. I want the photos to be a BIG part of my pages. Not something I make tiny to allow room for more embellishing and not something I make huge so there’s no room for embellishing. 4 x 6 is a place of balance for me.

Do I think everyone should print out like me? NO! I just thought it might be a good topic to blog about and let it be known that this girl thinks it’s A-OK to not print yourself. There are a lot of us who like the challenge of making it work with multiple photos that are standard print size. That cropping of photos post-printing and having a stack of pictures (literally!) to-scrap is a-ok. Heck – having boxes of photos that are NEVER going to be scrapbooked is ok too!!!

One of my favorite childhood activities was going through photographs. I loved seeing myself, my family, people I barely remembered, events I cherished all captured in the images within the photo box. I keep that image (of my own children) in my mind vs fretting over the “haven’t been scrapped” photos. It’s ok. Some are going to be boxed. Others in albums. It’s ALL wonderful.

Follow the path that works for you, and enjoy.