Bella Blvd. Layout by Janna Wilson from Pinterest & The Scraplift:
Thoughts on the CREATIVE PROCESS: Sometimes I like to switch up my creative process by using scraplifting, it provides boundaries and gives me a place to go so I can get layouts accomplished quickly and it provides a means of getting a little something done everyday. Without this technique, I think that when I'm going through a creativity rut, I'd just stop scrapbooking, and the creativity muscle is like any other - it needs daily exercise. So scraplifting gives me a way to "call it in" while I'm experiencing a creative low. Sometimes, however, I do take a total break from scrapbooking when I'm feeling uninspired; but the scraplifting method seems more productive and gives me something to do and think about in the meantime. My Grandfather was a painter and he'd so his own original art, but sometimes he'd copy the masters just to switch it up. Scraplifting gives me that same sort of creative stretching. Seeing all the new products and layouts from CHA 2012 provided some really great eye candy for this purpose. I've been taking inspiration from CHA 2012 - specifically 7 Gypsies, Dear Lizzy and this week Bella Blvd. I think I'm about done with my scraplifting series. I'm ready to start fresh on something else, I'm not sure what yet, but I'll start something new starting tomorrow.
In the meantime, here is #7 and the final layout in the "Scraplifting Bella Blvd." series:
The Scraplift: I made the base part of the page a week or so ago and did the photos, embellishments and journaling this morning. The original layout caught my eye since the girl in the photo looks like one of my best friends from elementary school (Katie Yerrid) and I liked the colors and it looked easy enough to scraplift. This is a nice layout for highlighting one photo and having some creative time with your patterned papers.
The Story: It is Saturday Morning and I'm feeling a bit lonely. My son is playing wii and wanting to go to Toys R Us (I so don't want to go there). My husband is engrossed in the paper and HGTV. And my daughter is off with her BFF. I have the urge to go downtown to the Saturday Morning Market but no one wants to come. I don't really want to go alone today. So I find myself in my scrapbook room trying to occupy myself, knowing I could be working out or cleaning out closets or doing something more productive, but I think my daily creative time is important. So I started out not feeling very creative but I took the base page and started anyway. I came across this three year old photo of my daughter which was taken on a Saturday Morning on our way to to a craft fair on Corey Avenue, St. Pete Beach; back then she was only too happy to come hang out with me; now she's got her own plans many Saturday Mornings. I know that's the natural process of things. But still, I wish my kids thought I was more fun to hang out with - now they've always got their own ideas about what they want to do. Gone are the days when I could just say "get in the car - lets go on wild adventure" and leave the house without a plan but end up having a day full of fun with my kids at the park or craft fair or beach or whereever. So I'm feeling a bit middle aged - like my kids are half way through and I miss their little selves and all the snuggling that used to be part of my daily routine, now I have to practically beg them for a hug and never mind on the kisses, so not happening. I guess all mothers go through this sort of feeling at one time or another but I'm feeling particularly sappy today, I'm going to indulge this feeling a bit but just for a day, tomorrow I WILL embrace a more hopeful, forward moving, productive attitude, but today, I'll lament the fact that my kids are growing up and needing me less and that I'm getting older.
SAPPINESS: One summer while I was in college, I took summer classes at Eckerd and my roommate that summer was Yoko Yokohama, she was from Japan; Eckerd prides itself on being a very small liberal arts school and having students from all 50 states and many countries so the student body was very diverse which was really cool since there were only about 1500 students there when I was there (its my 20th year reunion coming up this spring - ahhh just one more reason to feel really like I'm getting older and time is passing more quickly than I'd like). Anyway, Yoko was the most delightful person, she was like a puppy - all playful and fun and full of energy one minute and sleeping like a baby the next. She was always so happy to see me (and anyone else) and she was sweet and nice and welcoming and had a excitement that was contagious. I could really use a visit from Yoko today, I'm sure she's get me out of think funk I'm in today. Whereever you are now Yoko, I miss you. Ok, back to my original point. One day, Yoko was in a funk, which was very unusual for her, and the conversation went like this:
"Ohhhh, Katie, I'm so SAPPY today." Yoko declared letting out a long sigh.
"Sappy?" I asked, thinking maybe she needed to look up that word again for the correct usage, I'd never heard anyone describing themselves as feeling sappy before.
"Yes, SAPPY. You know, I'm feeling sad and happy all at the same time." She answered.
That made perfect sense, I thought. I remember thinking that I was pretty sure that wasn't the dictionary definition of that word, but that was the best definition of it that I had ever heard. That moment somehow burned itself into my brain and I can remember it quite perfectly, where she was sitting, our dorm room, the entire place in time, even though I have no photos of that summer or of Yoko or our rooom, I remember the whole thing perfectly. Some moments are like that, twenty years later, that seemingly regular moment is still burned into my brain and it is a conversation I go back to when I'm feeling SAPPY, and the memory of Yoko and how happy she made me feel and how profound her words were to me that day, often times the memory helps to get me feeling more on the happy than the sad side of things. Thank you Yoko, you definately left a forever imprint on me.
P.S. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defintion of SAPPINESS is 1. the state of being full of or smelling of sap, 2. the quality or state of being sappy: foolishness. I like that foolish word because of Steve Jobs's speech, so I'm cool with being a bit sappy from time to time - and my Dad used to tap our maple trees for sap and used to make maple syrup and sugar candy, so I'm pretty sure we were in the state of sappiness back then; plus I miss him and all of his sappiness.
Journaling: Main journaling block: "Saturday Morning. 2009 /2012. These photos are from when you used to happily agree to going to the art fair with me. Fast forward 3 years and you've got play dates with your BFF. Missing you today. Love Mommy." Side tab: "Can we rewind a little?"
Supplies: Patterened Paper from American Crafts and DCWV; Fiskars Border Punch; K&Company Tag (at top and side) and other random bits of ribbon, buttons and brads.
Blogging: The act of making this page helped me work out the feelings that I was feeling this morning, but the page doesn't really tell the whole story does it? Thats ok, sometimes my feelings come out better in blog form. When that happens and I really tell the story better in the blog entry than on the page, I just print out my blog entry and either slip it into a 8x11 page proector opposite the 12x12 layout in my 3 ringed album; or I just slip it in behind the layout; either way - the whole story is there for anyone who is interested (or not) in the future. And I feel like I've gotten then feelings out and can clear my emotional slate and move forward. Scrapbooking as self therapy is a good thing because it feels like play and because the process gets recorded so that when I look back at the page I can remember the process and when I write down the process on the blog and print it out, then maybe sometime in the future, it will help my daughter or hers when she's going through a SAPPY time. Or maybe it will help a blog reader who's going through the same type of thing. Any which way, it makes me feel better. And I do. Ahhh. Maybe I'll go to that Saturday Morning Market thing on my own and enjoy a Gyro and being amongst people on this fine day.
Want to read more on the creative process? Check out these books:
P.S. Thinking I'll incorporate some of my One Little Word Class (Ali Edwards / Big Picture Classes) into my weekend and take a photo safari for my word "HOPE" and probably my last year's word "AWESOME" too - I could use a little more of both of those words in my head and heart today.
