It’s YOUR Turn to Teach!
I’m going to level with all of you… I’m really struggling right now. We’ve been dealing with medication side effects our disabled son has been experiencing since mid-September. Without going into too much detail, you know the one side effect that appears on ALL the lists that begins with the letter “d”? Well, it’s giving him (and us) a great deal of grief. He also had some internal bleeding and that was particularly unpleasant. (That med was immediately discontinued.) While the last couple of weeks have been bad, today has been beyond bad. I haven’t done any recreational stuff in a long time, and have no inspiration or motivation to do anything that isn’t directly involved in surviving the day. So today, I’m giving all of YOU the floor. I know you’ll do a bang-up job too!
So here’s what I want from you. In the comments, I’d like you to tell me what YOU do when your scrapping mojo is missing in action. What inspires you? What motivates you? Whose work do you admire? Which Challenges kick-start your creativity? Share all your tips with me! Then next week, I’ll create a tutorial around your comments so others can see them all in one place.
Thank you all for being so understanding and compassionate. We really do have THE BEST online community!
Praying for your family to have relief from these difficulties and for blessings to abound. xo
Sometimes I build a page around a photograph I love, or even a color. I love being outdoors so I get most of my inspiration from nature. And I love neutral colors and nature themed kits.
I hope they can find a medication for your son that doesn’t have any unpleasant side effects. Prayers for all of you
I’m so sorry you are having to deal with all of that. I hope they get something to help your son get straightened out so you can all feel better. I recently had to be put anti-depressants due to high stress from work and having lost 4 of my puppies in the last two years (all old age). Just was their time but I wasn’t ready to loose them all. I get what little strength I have from them, photos of them and my two kittens recently gotten and from my niece and nephews. I love to take photos so I have plenty. But to be honest with all the stress I’ve been lagging in my creativity until I found your store and forum. You all have given me something to look forward too. And I’m making pages again with inspiration from the challenges. So I thank you. And I’ve spent way too much money in the store since I got here. Just kidding. But it’s worth it. It’s nice to use someone else’s creativity to be creative sometimes. Thank you. LOL
Jan – sending you and your family good vibes. Thank you for all the time and effort you give us.
You provide so much inspirtion to others with your tutorials. I just noticed yesterday that at the top right corner of this blog page there is a link to the Master Tuesday Tutorial Index. If anyone is not familiar with this list, this is a goldmine! Today there are links to 395 previous Tuesday Tutorials. If you think of a topic, there is proably at least one tut on that subject.
I can really relate to your situation as we are going through the same things with my husband. With each new med there are new and different side effects and then it seems like when we find something that works in one area, something else, like being able to complete his transfers gets affected adversely. All that has made it pretty hard for me to get motivated to do much of anything beyond just make it through the day. To try to get my creativity back, I have been going through my stash and rediscovering the kits I have had but not used much. I have also been revisiting tutorials that I have done previously and trying them out with my rediscovered treasures and that often helps. Right now I am stuck which is particularly frustrating because we have a brand new granddaughter (born Nov 2) and some adorable photos of our grandson who turned 2 on October 31st that I would love to scrap but whenever I sit down to get started, I am staring at a blank screen. Hopefully when you put all the ideas together, I will get some inspiration to break me out of this most recent slump.
Jan, I’m sorry! Medical challenges are not fun at all. (I’m usually the one having the medical issue and my poor husband is an absolute trooper.) I’ll keep you and your family in my thoughts.
When I’m stuck I browse my collection of kits and templates, or I look through the gallery. That almost always sparks inspiration. And sometimes I tell myself it’s OK to take a little break and recharge my creative batteries. When I am in a creative slump it makes me anxious and then it becomes a cycle of not feeling creative! I give myself permission to try something else and take a break, and so far that’s always worked for me.
Sorry for your troubles Jan. Hope things resolve soon so you can get back to scrapping and tutorial-ing
When my mojo is low, I look through my folder of LOs I have saved for future scraplifts, I browse the galleries across digiland, I go to the Gallery StandOut blog, I go out and take more photos. I will buy a new kit where the colours speak to me (most of my kit choices are through colour). I look at paper scrapped pages on Pinterest or other sites, the GS challenges inspire me most months (not all though, it is not always inspiring to scrap off season/celebration), getting comments on my pages encourages me. I have a few favourite scrappers whose work I admire…I won’t name them though except for Sylvia who doesnt post here now with the new gallery rules. Her whitespace minimalist LOs always attracted me even though (and maybe because) I mostly scrap the totally opposite style
I’m so sorry to read your post Jan and wish you and the family all the very best.
When I’m at a loss of what to scrap next I always start with the challenges. I try to try at least one different one a month. I love templates – they always are a great starting point. I also go back and look at older pictures to fill in gaps or missed page opportunities. I like scrap both present and past.