Mojo Takes a Hike

Everyone has a creative slump sometimes, that's just part of life. 

Being part of a design team doesn't change that fact, and little miss pants here has been in quite the slump lately. I don't even want to enter into contests to win scrappy stuff right now because...I just don't care.

*GASP*

I'll give you a moment to regroup...

This is completely normal. Sometimes you can walk away and come back when you are ready. The last time I did that I didn't step foot in my room for 5 months. Obviously this tactic is not going to work when you have scrappy commitments and obligations. (birthday cards for family members, DT obligations, Christmas gifts planned, etc.) You have to be gentle with your mojo and coax it back into existence. 

Here are some tips to try to get your mojo flowing:

1.  Keep a decorative bowl or jar in your room with some creative prompts
2.  Is there a particular music that seems to get your mojo flowing? Queue that up and just enjoy being surrounded by your space and your tunes.
3. Is your space a mess and just overwhelming? Clean it up one spot at a time. Do this slowly and walk away frequently. Maybe pick up your space over the course of a week doing just a little each day. The important thing is to make sure you don't overwhelm yourself because that will just make your mojo run away even more.
4. Put together page kits. Either with photos or without. Once you have a manageable kit in front of you, you may find yourself inspired. 
5. Peruse Pinterest for ideas. Don't just search "scrapbooking" but go beyond. Look into color palettes or beautiful photos that inspire you. Do you like the color of a particular door in an artistic photo? Or a beautiful mandala? Did someone pin some refinished furniture that you just love the distressed look of? Could you maybe try to recreate that finish on some chippy pieces or wood pieces?
6. Keep an art journal and just make a mess. Grab your art journal and just start throwing paint and stamps and what-not at a page without thinking.
7. Fussy cut some images. Trust me....sounds strange...just go with it
8. Watch an inspirational movie. I love the imagery in Memoirs of a Geisha...just visually stunning as a movie. I adore the art studio and house in The Time Traveler's wife. These are things I pull from, movies that just speak to me. 

For the last month my mojo has been on a serious hiatus. I just have no interest in anything scrappy related. I sat at my desk petting all my semi-recently purchased pretties for an hour...and got nothing. Granted, I didn't have time to clean my room and that was probably not helping but still...what was I going to inspire all my eP gals with?!

I started by perusing Pinterest (which I've already done numerous times) and found myself focusing on color palettes. I decided I wanted to do something with yellow (but I kept clicking on green stuff...don't ask just go with it).

Deciding on yellow I then turned to my pictures in iphoto. There was already a group of photos up from a 2011 vacation so I decided not to overcomplicate things and just pick one. I waited for one to speak to me and then dropped it into Elements and antiqued it to make it more neutral (easier to work with considering the lacking mojo). 

While my photo printing I turned my attention to my desk. 

EGADS!!!!!

I started by moving some stuff to another table. I would only focus on one item at a time and slowly I began to see the top of my desk. When I got to my eP goodies I chose a piece of paper, some scraps of leftovers and put the rest away. I chose a mask and took some bits and pieces of leftover embellies and created a pile. I didn't even have to go to my stash...there was plenty there. I grabbed a couple of mists to coordinate and boom:

I now had a manageable coordinating pile of stuff to work with. Still no mojo...but I didn't have to "wait" on inspiration now to give me direction.

The best thing to do at this point is just not think. I know I wanted the smaller papers and border strips layered under the photo and I wanted to use a lot of my mists and masks so I know those have to be first. Therefore I laid down my photo and the pieces of paper in a generic order. Considering the lack of mojo...it didn't have to be fancy. At every step I just "went with it".

I decided with those little scraps of border I wanted to cut ribbon ends.

Once I had a general idea I traced where my cluster was so my mixed media would pop out around

I used 7DOTS Domestic Goddess for the background sheet, and Authentique-Natural for the mustard yellow background sheet. Remember I said I wanted to do yellow;)

I then added my mixed media starting with a chicken wire stamp, then a holly hock stamp, and finally my Tim Holtz splatters mask. I used Vintage photo and Forest Moss for my stamping. (remember I said I kept clicking on green palettes?) 

Next I added my Wendy Vecchi embossing paste in black through my new Prima stencil for the splatters and the title. I added some Prima wood pieces from the Stationer's Desk collection and flowers from the Petaloo Color me Crazy collection. Some of the Prima flowers are from the new Something Blue collection as well. I finished off the final page with some random dots in Vintage Photo Distress Stickles.

And here is my final page...Completely mojo-less. I actually don't think it's too bad.

So when your mojo takes a hike take heart, you can still create, it will return. Try some tactics but most of all...just let go. 

{{hugs}}

Andiepants

Scrapbook layout with Domestic Goddess

I am STILL head over heals for these 7DOTS papers! I just adore them and want to use them for each and every layout I do.

I won't...but I wanna.

Sooooo....I decided to get my mojo flowing I would look into some online sketch challenges. Considering it's February and that means Valentine's day, I thought a valentine LO would be quite appropriate.

Are you as impressed with me as I was of me? ;)

This is a photo of my daughter Aubrey and me this summer when my girlfriend came in from Chicago for a long weekend. 

For the paper layers behind the photo I decided to do some fussy cutting from the Raspberry Pudding sheet of the Domestic Goddess line

After fussy cutting I went over all the edges with a nail file to smooth the edges and then inked with Walnut Stain distress ink.

Remember not to overlook your packaging. Prima has gorgeous packaging that can be used as embellies on your page. I cut this clock from the packaging that housed the vine in my flower cluster at the bottom of the page. 

Speaking of Prima, I used the adorable little wood clocks here and in my cluster at the bottom of the page. For the background I used the TH layering stencil  in Harlequin and walnut stain distress ink.  I stamped over it with a script stamp in tea dye distress ink.

The large damask chipboard piece was painted with multiple layers of the Art Anthology dimensional velvet  and OH MY WORD...this stuff is like buttuh!!! It's too die for! Trust me on this...treat yourself to some from the eP store. The adorable Maya Road stick pin was the perfect touch to my little edge cluster don't you think? Check out the eP store for a plethora of Maya road goodies for your projects and layouts.

And here is a closeup of the large chipboard piece on the bottom of the cluster. Again I used the Art Anthology dimensional velvet to paint the piece and give texture, but then I sprayed red mist from the left lower corner to give it a faded effect and then finished it with some walnut stain Distress Ink down on the lower portion so it blended with the papers better. I love the way the mist nestled into the grooves from the dimensional velvet. Be sure to check out all the gorgeous Dylusions and Art Anthology mists available in the eP store.

Finally I wanted to show a close up of the sweet little metal trinket that I used. 

I also used another clock in my lower cluster and another stick pin to mimic the cluster at the top and give my layout some congruency.

I hope you enjoyed my layout as much I enjoyed making it. 

Don't forget to check out our get altered challenge this Thursday and join in for a chance to win.

Til next time

{{hugs}}

Andiepants