Home sweet home...

[TimeforT]

:) What a great weekend for me. Hope everybody else had a great holiday weekend. ( I missed the 1000 newbie moment here. )
Thanks to everybody for all the tips for packing. Taking stuff with me was a good experience, but of course I over packed! Then I just stamped randomly, waiting for inspiration or mojo or something! I got a few things made, (and posted now) but not the big weekend blast that I thought would be there.
This brings me to a question..... what is your point of inspiration for creating?
For me it's words, phrases or something somebody says. For example my ant card was inspired by your talk of ants in your homes and having a new sugar daddy stamp from VVLV. Sitting in that hotel by myself left no real inspiration!:confusion:
What works for you?

[Spideycindy]

For me it is the whole journey...I worked on a card this weekend for my mom's birthday...I have been away from my stamps for over 2 years due to work and kids needs coming first. I was so happy to get back to stamping...I thought about my mom and what would she like and picked out some stamps and sat them in front of me and then started to play with my stamp positioner and created the layout I liked with trial and error...ie smudge caused by stamp positioner being moved away as it is a swing arm type. I just totally enjoyed myself and I am still not done with the card but that does not matter at all. I did not have the exact word stamp so I actually masked out a stamp and played around and layered some of the base stamp items to add 3-D to the card and then thought even more about the inside of the card as I wanted to carry through the play of the front to the inside and well here again the process of sitting there and playing and masking. When I am done I hope to be able to post it. I am not the best with scanning and posting...I guess I may need to check out photo bucket and see if I can follow RSC directions for being successful with posting in the gallery.
I have been most inspired by everyone here at RSC and the tutorials and suggestions for uses and techniques. It is totally fun to begin with a stamp as inspiration and have it speak from your heart.
You are correct sometimes inspiration comes in most unexpected places or events!
Spideycindy

[j3annin3]

I'm sorry TimeforT, that your weekend didn't produce all the happy stamping you hoped for, it's as sad a feeling as looking at the last bite of a really good brownie. But it's one of the best things about stamping, you can always repeat the process with new and different (maybe better!) results! I'm looking forward to finding your new work in the gallery. i wonder about about how people are inspired too.

i agree with you Spideycindy, i have been inspired by the people here, it brings me some focus that stamping without a sense of community doesn't offer. i'm not good at scanning/uploading either. I need to read my printer manual...well, i need to find my manual then......


Color inspires me.
For me it is always some color or combination of colors. I love them. From the smooth perfume of ultramarine to the cruch and snap of vermillion,to the the juicy sweetness of lime. I want to touch that color for myself, hold it in my hands, fly through it as if it were a cloud. The stamps come after that... I think "how would this look if i tried it in this and that and then that color?" I make multiples, just to see what colors strike me as best (for just that moment or mood anyway;)) I try them on different papers, with different types of inks, I hang them on my 'clothesline' to see them from far away (and let to them dry) i hold them close to see them in a different light, and that often starts a new combination for me. The colors come from something i've seen or remembered- a garden, the random chance of how paper scraps have fallen together, tropical fish, a particularly bold outfit someone has worn....(not me, i am not a snazzy dresser or even a snazzy nightstand) and then i apply that insiration to what ever subject i am working on at the time. How do you choose colors TimeforT? How do the all of you let your colors chose you? How is it part of your inspiration?

[stampin stacy]

Sorry you didn't have a lot of results from your weekend. Sometimes I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to do something now instead of just relaxing and letting it happen. I had some of the same last month and it is very frustrating.

Nature has been my inspiration lately. I have really began to look at the world around me more closely. When I was at the beach for example I took time to really look at the ocean, what/how many colors were there and how did the light play on those colors. Take a walk and next time you see a pretty yellow flower look at it more closely, by looking at and examining it you have shifted your focus from I have to create. You will then be thinking more about colors, texture and even technique, IE... watercolor verses chalk. Even if you don't feel like recreating what you see right then, it is still tucked away in your memory and you may be surprised at what you are able to do when your muse is ready. As a bonus your walk will have hopefully been a relaxing enjoyment as you take in the beauty around you.

[Inky Whiskers]

All of the above! :lol:

I get inspired all the time by what's all around me. Sometimes its about what need I have to stamp for, like a birthday or a swap. Sometimes it the thrill of a new image that I just have to do something with as soon as I get it. Sometimes it's the layout design of a product label in the store or in a magazine ad. Sometimes it's the color combinations created by the display of flowers outside of the grocery store or a garden. Sometimes it comes from something I or somebody else said that causes that lil bell to go off in my head. You know, they one that signals "HEY! That would be gorgeous, funny, too kewl etc. if I stamped it!"

I do keep a notebook of ideas that have crossed my mind so that if I can't stamp at the moment inspiration strikes I can at least remember the idea later. :D

[alsmouse]

Ditto! I also get inspiration from music, sounds & smells. Yes smells can inspire, try to not get that kid sized inspiration smelling cotton candy being spun at the fair. See, all of you had a flashback to kidhood on that alone. Or the smell of the crunch of fall leaves, crispy, dusty, tangy, green to brown, beginning of compost scent. The breeze blowing through the tall pines in the mountians, the soft rattle of the needles as they shimmer & sway in the breeze, kind of like listening to a gentle snowfall.
As for the music, I have an eclectic taste so it depends on my musical moment. Lately I've be in a contempoary flamenco mood or listening to Andean tribal music. It inspires some imaginative color choices. Head to the music section of the local library or store & pick something that isn't your usual musical choice. Look in a style that you wouldn't go to normaly. If you like country, go classical or african tribal. If traditional try something from Europe that is in the clubs there now. Plus if you enjoy some eye candy some of these artists are stunning. The one playing my flamenco music melts me. So, let's hear of a run to the library for some new music & inspiration from it.
I also keep a book that I paste photos, colors, menu, packages & scraps into, for when inspiration is in neutral. I'm a lousy sketcher but the book is a great prod to get the mind spinning. I also collect art papers & play with the lighting in the room. Even watching TV can inspire (gotta love PBS).
And when all else fails, I clean/straighten my art supplies. serindipity in the junk box. ~C8>

All of the above! :lol:

I get inspired all the time by what's all around me. Sometimes its about what need I have to stamp for, like a birthday or a swap. Sometimes it the thrill of a new image that I just have to do something with as soon as I get it. Sometimes it's the layout design of a product label in the store or in a magazine ad. Sometimes it's the color combinations created by the display of flowers outside of the grocery store or a garden. Sometimes it comes from something I or somebody else said that causes that lil bell to go off in my head. You know, they one that signals "HEY! That would be gorgeous, funny, too kewl etc. if I stamped it!"

I do keep a notebook of ideas that have crossed my mind so that if I can't stamp at the moment inspiration strikes I can at least remember the idea later. :D

[TimeforT]

You all are such an inspiration. The weekend wasn't at all a bust. Just not many finished products. I thought I would be able to stamp out of my 'box', and create something different. I always end up cutsey or typical.
I want to learn to do more collage style stamping, but my brain won't work that way. I love others work, and would love to create that way. I am so critical of what I stamp when I try collage style.
Give me some tips on this please.

[j3annin3]

Hello TimeforT,

i think critical is good. No one i know starts out doing wonderfully well at any new thing. It's a process. Critical analytical thinking is important to achieving your goal of growing as a crafter/artperson. As you look at examples work similar to what you want to do, ask your self about what you are seeing. Really look at the piece. What about that peice do you like, and why. Are there things about the work that you don't like, agian why. When you look at something that you've made and it isn't what you had hoped it might be, what and how is it different from the idea in you mind.

Learning to critically look at your own work and anyone elses is a process as well. It takes practice. i really enjoy looking at the works in the gallery because it gives me the opportunity to really look at someone's work, a lot of someone elses. I look for my first overall impression, Do i like it? Do i think it's pretty? Is it expressing something that touches me? And then i try to think why i have those opinions. Then i look at the 'techincal' aspects, how is the peice balanced, how are the materials used to create the work enhancing or distrating the overall effect. How are the colors and highlights and shadows contributing to the work? Patterns, rythym, scale..... So much to see!

There are so many truly talented people who contribute to the gallery it's hard to find any that don't offer some pointer on some aspect of some technique or another. It's a top shelf array of valuable information, inspiration, and beauty, a great resource for learning.

But be kind in your criticalness. Just picking out faults or looking for 'mistakes' doesn't do anyone any good. It doesn't help with much of anything.

And, finallly, what's wrong with a little cuteness? Cuteness is serious stuff. Gentle humor is basic to humanity. Understanding what is soft and sweet and in common with everyone who sees it, is as important as understanding anything else. Don't dismiss your own work, don't allow anyone else to dismiss it either.

[alsmouse]

Don't dismiss your own work, don't allow anyone else to dismiss it either.
I went through the same conflict. It is hard to break all the years of doing it but try very hard. I still have moments of hesitation/ overly critical of my own work, but I put it down, walk away for a while ( this can be hours, weeks, months) and when I look again, it's right. Never let anyone dismiss your creativity. You are you & expressing you. If they don't like it, tough, they are the ones you should be dismissing. Art is you: your heart, mind, feelings & emotions. No one else knows what is inside you at the moment of your creating. Sometimes even we don't know what we are expressing until the finished piece and only we can know when it is finished.
Now, go forth & take a creative leap into yourself & where you want your art to go. :clap: :clap: :clap: ~C8>

[j3annin3]

Go alsmouse!! :clap: Go TimeforT!! :clap:
It's True!
We all struggle with it. The stuggle is part of the work, even if it isn't the most joyfilled part.

Good for all of us.......
we could choose just to do nothing.

[stampin stacy]

I think collage is about the use of color and balance. Get and learn to use a color wheel if you don't already. Also the magic number 3 seems to work for some reason when trying to balance something visually. If you use more than 3, then still try to keep it an odd number, sounds strange to think of odd numbers as a visual balance but it is what I have heard and read over and over and it does seem to work.

Just because you don't have the exact same stamps as someone else doesn't mean you can't copy or emulate a piece you like using what you do have. Get creative with your substitutions, this too is part of the learning process.

Alsmouse is right, sometimes the best artistic tool we have is the ability to walk away for a while.

[Inky Whiskers]

Once upon a time...at a college far far away...a wise man told me that a true creative spirit contemplating another's art will appreciate what has been done & will always have an idea about what they would have done differently had they been the artist.

This isn't criticism of another's efforts, it's an ackowledgment of the creativity that is inspired by the sharing of art. So study the artwork that appeals to you to discover what it is that you like & then do your best to recreate those elements to your own specifications. It may take more than one attempt, but with each effort you will get closer to creating what you see in your mind's eye.

I'm done being esoteric...go forth and stamp!!! The only person you need to please with your art is YOU! :D

[Audreyrose]

I too am very critical of my work, I feel that iti s never really good enough. I am my own worst enemy. I often feel that what I have done is ok and then someone else will see it and say "Wow, that is great" It always comes as a surprise to me when others like my work.
I read a statement today by Joyce Meyers that said, "Be happy where you are and God will take you where you need to be". That is my new slogan now. To accept myself as I am and God will take me to the place I am to be.
Have Great day.:clap:

[Spideycindy]

Sometimes we just need to give ourselves permission to play with out placing expectations upon any set outcome
You can glance at art books or articles on perspective or point of reference think about larger things being closer and smaller things farther away and that being said some of the most fun results are from tweeking the rules and throwing in a twist...making happy accidents...sometimes the more mistakes we make the better in the process....
If you worry about being too careful try giving yourself exercises of stamping with all your stamps upside down to you and play with shapes and relationships without concern of image...play with paper you can afford to toss and think just for fun...if you happen to hit upon something you love then you can revisit what you did.
I, agree formula wise keep to odd numbers...1, 3, 5 it seems to delight the eye.
May your stamping be filled with joy, laughter, happiness and permission to play!
Spideycindy