Need Some Creative Inspiration?

Are you unsure as to the best way to feature those pictures in a layout?  Having problems finding the perfect font for your title?  Do color schemes put you in a bit of a creative funk?  Want projects finished more expeditiously?  Or do you just need inspiration?  If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you just need some inspiration.  You can literally find inspiration everywhere around you.  I often find that using inspiration pieces helps me to get my pictures out of boxes or off the computer and into albums where they can be enjoyed.  It tends to be a lot faster than waiting for my own creative inspiration to strike me on each layout.

Try this simple tip: check out magazine and other advertisements for inspiration.  Why reinvent the wheel?  Many people are paid good money to spend large amounts of time producing advertisements.  These people ensure that each advertisement has an eye-catching quality, coordinating color scheme and feature a product.  When you really break down your scrapbooking layout, isn’t this what you are trying to do as well: catch the viewer’s eye, coordinate colors and feature your memories?  Memories are your product, plain and simple.  Here is an actual example from Ella Publishing that I did. 

Ella Publishing’s title grabbed my attention with its simple, clean-lined essence.  The beautifully displayed pictures and font appealed to me, but judge for yourself:

Image via: Ella Publishing

I took the Ella Publishing advertisement and used it as inspiration for my own layout:

Using the advertisement for inspiration, the layout came together quickly.  All I had to do was select my three favorite pictures and print them out.  Ella Publishing already provided the colors, but, to fit my mood, I changed the colors a bit.  I even used the colors in the same orientation that were on the advertisement.  The text was large and perfectly displayed the excitement over a new car.  A simple piece of inspiration got these pictures into a beautiful layout and into our album for everyone to enjoy.

You don’t always have to use an inspiration piece in its entirety.  Sometimes, a small piece of a photo or advertisement will establish a design or theme for your creative work.  It could even come from an aspect or feeling associated with the layout.  As an example, a recent trip to the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington set the stage for a scrapbook layout.  I wanted to create a panoramic display of the activities we participated in while we were in Seattle.  Having a general idea and all the pictures from the excursion, I was only lacking a catchy font or title to set everything into motion.  For inspiration: what better theme than the actual space needle itself?

You can see that in order to promote the Space Needle theme in my layout, I replicated the Space Needle itself within my title:

I typed the title in Microsoft Word and used the drawing tools to create the outline of the Space Needle within the word “Seattle.”  This element helped to pull together the whole theme of the layout using simple accessories and subtle images to get the idea across.

Don’t forget color!  Sometimes you have all the inspiration you need for a layout, but not knowing the right colors just frustrates the completion of the project.  Go surfing!  My favorite tool is the Internet.  A quick Google search will provide thousands of blogs, craft websites and product advertising sites to spark your color inspiration explosion.  Recently, I was perusing some of my favorite blogs and came across this picture from the My Favorite Things blog:

Image via: My Favorite Things

 I loved the blending of mustard and gray colors in this craft project.  It just seems happy and clean, you know?  I pulled the happy and clean feeling from this color scheme and used it to create a card:

In this card the gray presents itself in the patterned paper.  The mustard splashes its accent throughout the project, and the craft color of the ribbon accent ties it all together. They all came together beautifully and easily in this project thanks to a little craft blog inspiration.

As you can see, you can find inspiration everywhere you look: advertisements, nature, tangible structures, and from others’ pictures.  So when you feel crunched for time and need something to come together quickly, or you are just out of new ideas and need a little boost, try browsing the Internet or troll through magazines.  You never know: your next layout or card inspiration might be waiting for you!