Where Shall We Store Inspiration?

There is no reason why you should be bored when you can be otherwise. But if you find yourself sitting in the hedgerow with nothing but weeds, there is no reason for shutting your eyes and seeing nothing, instead of finding what beauty you may in the weeds. To put it cynically, life is too short to waste it in drawing blanks. Therefore, it is up to you to find as many pictures to put on your blank pages as possible.

--Emily Post

Greetings again, my dear readers! Miss Emily here another day. Yesterday we discussed scraplifting etiquette, and a few of you commented that sometimes we don't realize we may be lifting another's idea because we see SO VERY MUCH inspiration all around. I whole heartedly agree with that statement.

I used to pull things off the web and store them on my computer, ads for design inspiration, color combos, art pieces, photos that spoke to me. I kept them in a folder called "Inspiration." But I didn't have a way to properly site the source. Then my friend Elizabeth directed me to tumblr.com. It's quick and easy to set up an account, all you need is an email address, password, and a name for your account. You may customize it, lots of backgrounds and display options are available.

Tumblr is a virtual bulletin board of sorts. Think of it as your online notebook of inspiration, just like the one you paste, staple, or sketch those ripped out magazine pages, color swatches, and design ideas into. Now instead of saving an inspiration piece to my desktop folder, I can now click on the copy the image location, load it to my tumblr account, then add a click through link to the original source. This allows me to always be able to cite my inspiration, and that dear friends is rather valuable to me as an artist.

I'll walk you through the basic process of posting an inspiration piece. Once you set up an account and log in, you will be on your dashboard. See in the upper left corner, under the word "tumblr" there's a picture of a filing system and the first letter is E? That's me.

Right next to the picture of "me" there are icons for the various things you can add, those being: text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, and video. I only utilize the photo and link options, to be honest, I haven't explored further. When I'm out surfing the web for inspiration, say I'm on this site:


and I want to store an image from this post in my tumbler account, say, this photo of the banners:


I would click on that photo and a new screen pops up with just that photo.

I have a Mac so I hit the CONTROL key on my keyboard, and then click on the image. A window pops up like this:

I select "Copy Image Location" (For a PC, thanks to Miss Joy I suggest you RIGHT CLICK on the image, then COPY IMAGE URL) then I go to my tumblr account and click on the "Photo" icon. This window opens up:


From here you can browse your hard drive and load a picture, but the whole reason I use tumblr is so I don't have to keep things on my hard drive. Just below the "Browse" window you can see the words, "Use a URL instead" (it's underlined). I click on that, and this is what shows up:


It's SLIGHTLY different, instead of being able to browse your computer, there's now a spot for you to paste a URL. I'll now paste that URL I copied.


You can then add a caption or description in the appropriate box. Just below that box is another underlined sentence that says, "Set a click-through link." This is how I can link back to my source. I click on that, go back to the source, in this case it is http://simpleblueprint.typepad.com/blog/2010/05/brionesco.html, I copy that and paste it into that space.

Then I hit "Create Post," tumblr saves it and immediately takes me to my dashboard and voila! my post is now there. A dashboard is kind of your behind the scenes, nuts and bolts part of tumblr. If you want the pretty, neat and clean version, look over to the right, just under my name, is my web address: emilygpitts.tumblr.com


If you click on that, you get to my tumblr blog, the pretty version :)


Another fun thing about Tumblr is the "follow" feature. You can follow other inspiration seekers and find even more inspiration. The people I follow are not all scrapbookers, I get inspiration for home decor, stitchery, art posters, photography, sewing projects, bookbinding, and more. Here are some fellow SCers' accounts to check out while you are setting up your own account:

• emilygpitts.tumblr.com
• gluestickgirl.tumblr.com/
• stephaniehowell.tumblr.com/
• davinie.tumblr.com/
• hannalong.tumblr.com/
• moonlightgrrl.tumblr.com/
• kimberlyneddo.tumblr.com/
• jenniferjohner.tumblr.com/
• erinbenaim.tumblr.com/
• vanessameryl.tumblr.com/
• i-am-unique.tumblr.com/
• kristahenson.tumblr.com/
• the-jessica-numbers.tumblr.com/
• kellynoel.tumblr.com/
• joymadison.tumblr.com/
• amyharle.tumblr.com
• for more sites, see this thread
  

Once you start following other people, their posts show up on your dashboard as well and you can reblog them to your personal account. You can "heart" them. If you find something you LOVE that someone reposted from someone they follow, you can go to the original poster and start following them. It's a virtual web of inspiration. It's rather humorous when 5 or 6 people that I follow all post the same thing to their blogs, you can see we all have similar tastes :)

So all this talk about giving credit where it's due, and even more discussion of the scads of inspiration available to us, I suggest you check out Tumblr. The learning curve is rather slight, it's pretty self-explanatory.

Hopefully this post will be of great help to you in figuring it out.

Until tomorrow dear readers,
Miss Emily

Tuesday Inspiration

Since Tina and I are focusing on the Home Front this week, I thought I'd share some of my new favorite blogs with you. My sister got my plugged into home blogs. There are so many different ones to choose from, but through one blog she directed me to, I found a treasure trove of links. So I'll share a couple I've found, but you can explore The Homies 2009for hundreds more options! I like looking at these blogs because they are not scrap related at all, but you can pull inspiration from them just the same.

Door Sixteen--this is the first one that Julia pointed me toward. It's a fun account of remodeling an old house and buying a 400 square foot apartment and doing the same. Some beautiful inspiration photos, and a fun read. She loves white floors and black walls. And I love her stairs.


Simple Blueprint--a collection of images that the author has found on the web. Some really fun things, not all house related, but still very inspiring. But this one is definitely house related, and I found it very cool on the following levels: the grunged up wall on the left, the photo frames on an entire wall, the wood plank floors, and the stacks of books on the left. Lots you could do scrappy wise.


Rare & Beautiful Treasures is an online journal of sorts, she's got it split up into different categories, I got this photo from her decorating inspiration file.

There's just a few of the ones that I've been discovering. I can spend far too much time going from link to link, but I find so much inspiration. I hope you will too!

Totally Inspired.

I'm getting lots of inspiration lately...every time I turn around there's something that I file away in my creative memory bank for later use.

Like this flyer from the event hall down the street from my house (that I wish I'd designed because it's so flippin' cute)



This vintage desk fan I ordered a bit ago from Adripofcoffee's Etsy shop




And I know Christmas is over, but this wintery picture from Miss Vee just drives me crazy.



This "Birds of a Feather" print from Bomobob on Etsy



This book, that I happened upon at a used bookstore this summer, that has tons of ideas on how to use junk to make your house happy..


And the book, Striking Images, a collection of vintage matchbook cover art.



And this fantastic cluster of goodness I saw at Nichole's blog. It totally inspires me.


There's a little peek at what's making me happy... what's inspiring you?

xoxo,

Steph W

May Flaum Signed My Yearbook! (and an oops)

One of the things I love about Reveal Night is seeing what the DT came up with using the same exact things. I'm always floored at how the exact same kit produce so many different layouts! Well according to the extremely talented May Flaum, it's all about your individual style and how you decide to use the products provided you. I know that the kit club concept has stepped up my own personal scrapbooking abilities, having to use certain products makes me look for different ways to put them together. May has taken kits from a number of kit clubs out there right now and designed a class that helps you maximize your own style using your kits. The class is called Adventures in Scrapbooking: Using Kits, and you can read the exact description of her class here at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Here's what May had to say about working with her Studio Calico kit:

What can I say about Studio Calico kits? I am never sure what I will get, but I know that it’ll be fun, fresh, include stuff I’ve never seen before, and be loads of fun. As a crafter who lives and bleeds in kraft, I’m clearly attracted to the kindred spirits at S.C. I love working with neutral cardstocks like cream & kraft and then pumping up the color and funk with papers and embellishments. This October kit has been so great to work with, and I can’t wait to be able to share my layouts with my Big Picture Students.

The YEARBOOK kit is featured in the final week of class, and I can’t think of a better way to close out class than with this super fab October kit. I’m having so much fun with it – I can’t stop creating! It’s been a pleasure putting this all together and I can’t wait to get started with all the kit loving students who will join me.

Class starts November 5

For sneaks and updates, be sure to visit May's blog: http://mayflaum.wordpress.com/

And totally changing gears…do you ever make mistakes on layouts? What do you do? Throw a kicking and screaming fit? Toss it and start over? What if it's the last thing you had to do to finish your layout?

I just wanted to share what I did on my Pencil Proliferation page. I make mistakes all the time, but they usually force me to come up with creative solutions for hiding them :) That's what happened with this page. I left the journaling until the end, a big no-no in my book, but I'd added so many things that I was flat out of room for telling the story. See where the scroll is?

See how the scroll covers up some words? :) I had enough space for two lines of text and I totally totally totally messed up the wording. I used the word "far" two times within in five words of each other. It's a silly thing, but it would have bugged me every time I read it. I usually prewrite my journaling, and I had for this page, but I decided to go all renegade and change it up AS I was writing it in with my pen. I got to the end of the line and realized I hated what I'd done! But I had no intentions of redoing the whole page. I thought about moving the number strip up, but that would have messed up the balance. Then the idea of the scroll hit. I'd already done all the journaling I needed to about this particular habit of my son's on my blog. So I sized a document in Photoshop to the dimensions I'd need to print on my small notebook paper, copied the text from my blog, printed it out on the notebook paper, and smartly glued the whole scroll onto my layout. And you can't tell because of how I photographed the layout. Sneaky, yes? The scrolled notebook paper fits the topic, I covered up a mistake, and I journaled all that I wanted to, without having to start over again. It's a happy thing! So the next time you make a mistake, don't panic, just look for a creative way to hide it.

Insider Tips: "So Ready"

What you'll see here on the blog every Thursday now is something we're calling "Insider Tips". Whomever is scheduled to blog that Thursday will provide some insight to one of her layouts... either a step by step of a technique, a discussion of the design of her layout, why she used a certain product, etc. There was a huge request for this when Maggie posted asking what YOU would like to see here on the blog, so once again SC delivers! :)

Okay, so onto the good stuff. I'm always hesitant to post my "process" because I'm horrible at putting it into words. But this is a layout I'm really pleased with, so I'm hoping I can pull it off. ;) This layout is one I did for the "Back To School" challenge that Joy and Davinie posted last week. I'm going to talk a little bit about the way I used color on this page.

This layout came together really quickly. Those amazing Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend papers had been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks and I was waiting for just the right photo to pair them with. Then, when Erika posted the link on the message board to this cool site, which turns your photos into polaroids, I knew I wanted to use this photo of my oldest on his first day of Kindergarten.

Now, in this photo, Jackson is wearing a dark navy blue shirt. There isn't any navy in these Cosmo papers, but by adding the black accents it pulls everything together. Notice how there are three places where your eye finds the black on the layout...in the chip letters, the buttons in the top left and the punched border above the journaling strip. You will also notice that the other colors are repeated in "threes" as well...the blue chip circle, blue button in the title and the blue paper on the right side of my layout. Then with the yellow...the pencil paper, the circles in the blue paper and the letters in the title. Some people call this using the "Visual Triangle", which really helps bring all of the elements together on your layout.

Okay, that's it for this edition of "Insider Tips"....lol. Happy Thursday! :)

Back to School Etsy Inspiration

Every kid that goes back to school needs school supplies, here are some school supplies etsy style. Be inspired!

Looking for a dope lunch box? Who needs a Ben 10 or Hannah Montana lunch box when you can get this reusable oil cloth bag with room for all your lunch essentials.

I love this take on the traditional crayon. Its easy for little kids to grasp, and who doesn't want to draw with tiny kitty cat crayons :)

I also love this idea for transporting crayons, to school, on an airplane, in the car, to church. This crayon roll is a fashionable way to transport crayons anywhere.

Every student needs a composition book too. I love the way you can hide the not so lovely composition book covers, and carry pencils with you with this supah cool composition book cover.

I'm totally in love with this mixed paper notebook made out of vintage flash cards....oh the inspiration this gives!

Speaking of paper, I love this little pouch, (think lunch money, lip gloss, change, really anything) made from notebook paper fabric!

This is what started this whole quest, actually not these cards exactly, but there was an embroidered note I saw on etsy a couple of weeks ago. I searched and searched and searched for at least an hour this morning, searching for the embroidered notes (on embroidered notebook paper) alas, this was as close as I came. I do think these "write your own greeting" notepaper cards are charming!

Speaking of charming. I'm all about this adorable 3 1/4" disk turned pencil holder. Recycled AND useful! (Check out the rest of this store for other "geek" inspired recycled goodies!)

Another must for school is a notebook. I love these super lovely oilcloth notebooks. Oilcloth is as easy to keep clean as plastic.

Last but not least, school kids need a ruler, right? But, Mom might need one of these vintage ruler hat racks!

Hope you enjoyed this school inspired etsy jaunt!!!

Typographic Inspiration

I get a little geeky when people start discussing typography. My family recently rented a indie from netflix called "Helvetica." (Recommend it highly if you like fonts, my kids even enjoyed it.) I'm definitely not the font of all knowledge when it comes to typeface, but it's something I've always enjoyed. I used to practice hand-drawing fonts, just to see if I could do it. I'll never have enough fonts on my computer. I love getting new alphas, they are definitely the thing I hoard the most in my collection of scrap supplies (my current favorite is Chit Chat from American Crafts).

I wanted to share some fun typographic images with you and a few links to sites that I've book marked for typographic inspriation. Some of my favorite layouts are inspired by ads that use fonts creatively, trying to translate that onto a layout really makes you think differently.





All but the first image were pulled from a fun website called "Things To Save," under the Typography tag. It's a site full of images and no explanation. It's subtitled A Library of Visual References and it's a place I found while looking through google images when I was searching for typographic inspiration. That's where I found the other image, the first one. It just makes me smile, "Have you considered orange?"

Another site I enjoy is Ace Jet 170. Every Friday is Found Type Friday, and he's got some rather interesting examples of typography in our world. Pretty cool.

I found Ministry of Type through Richard's site and this:

It's a linocut of Paris, all the areas are represented typographically. For the story behind it and more pictures, you can go to Mark Andrew Webber's blog post. Pretty interesting. Ministry of Type is a place you can get lost in, clicking links and exploring all sorts of typographic mysteries.

And if you run out of things to look at on these sites, you can always go to flickr and search under typography. I could get lost for days!

I Don't WANT To Sew. So What?

Maybe sewing on your layout isn't your thing. That's OK!
Wait...What's that? You still want to use fabric on your pages? How about stamping on fabric and adding it to your page? How about making a fabric yo-yo flower or two? You want to know how? You want to see examples?

Here Heather Bailey teaches you how to make a fabric yo-yo flower
(this gives me an entirely new appreciation for the gazillions of them that Scarlet's made for us!!)
Here you learn about stamping on fabric

Perhaps you aren't quite comfortable with putting fabric on your page yet and want to try a few cards, first. How about this link to a cute little project?

Maybe you just need to see some more examples by scrappers you know? An extra little "push" of inspiration if you will-- Lisa stamped on the fabric and sewed it to her page. See them both close up HERE and HERE. Thanks, Lisa, for sharing these fabulous pages with us!

On Monday, Tammy V. left a great comment: "I do have one tip for stitching on paper. I like to make sure my stiches don't come loose, so whether I use a stop stitch or not, I always dab just a tiny bit of Aleenes tacky glue on the back of the paper."

Now, maybe you've never used fabric and have no idea why/how you'd go about getting some just for a page or two. I have a few ideas for you:

• I bet you know a quilter/seamstress. I bet that person has a ton of little scraps that she (or he) has kept that are too small for their own projects. Never hurts to ask, right?
• How about some of those old worn out kid/baby things that you can't bear to part with but don't want to give or donate? What better way to commemorate than adding it to a page? Re-purposing or up-cycling! Yay!!
• Maybe you found some old linens at the flea market and a few were ripped or torn. It only takes a small piece or two to make a great card!
• If you must purchase, but don't want even a 1/4 of a yard, consider turning to etsy. I've seen tons of grab bags full of scraps for sale there.

I am always interested in any other ideas you all might have for fabric and sewing on your pages! Send me an email or leave a comment and I'll definitely include it in my next blog post! Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Colour Therapy

Colour, colour, colour.
Do you love how us Brits spell colour?!!

As inspiration is everywhere; you will find that the pattern or composition will be breathtaking but the colour theme may not be to your liking. So sometimes we have to take in extra inspiration elsewhere. Where better to soak up colour than fabrics, clothing, bed linens and wall papers? Its where I get my inspiration when dreaming up digi kits or designing papers.

This week Tina and I will be exploring the stuff that helps us bring our projects together. Of course, we are already grateful to Scarlet and April for perfectly co-ordinating the monthly kits as it is but how about using all those lefts overs and mixing them to your own taste? What might assist your decision is the colour wheel here which will help you match colours without ruining the balance. Then when you discover the many combinations of colour palettes that take your fancy, do what I do and pick out Pantone paint swatches (....but ssshhhhh, you have to go under the cover of darkness to "collect" the paint sample sheets from DIY store)which you then collate and create a catalogue of juicy colours, all in preparation for your next big project.

Tina will be back with her take on the theory tomorrow but if you are at a loose end today, it might be kind of fun to take your favourite punch, go through scraps of cardstock and collect your favourite colours to catalogue into your own palette style. It feels so good!

And really, it is what it is - Colour Therapy, however you spell it ;)

Color Inspiration

I'm completely inspired by color. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, etc. I love them all.

I love to troll fabric stores to see what colors fabric designers come up with. I love to wander through the stationary and housewares departments of Target fondling the browns and avocados, and mustards.

One of my favorite places to consume color inspiration is the front page of Etsy Every few clicks they have a new color palette on the front page. Ooh La la!!! Another way to peruse Etsy is tags! I love tags! You can search for pomegranate, or citron, or almond.

So the other day, I saw this peice of paper. I thought about that piece of paper, pared with maybe pink. I looked up the tags: orange, pink and brown on etsy. Here were some of the lovely pieces that came up on Etsy:



by two tone press



by skrantz



by matilou



by get felt up



by things she carried

Here is the layout those colors inspired:


What colors inspire you?