HOW DO WE COME UP WITH IDEAS?

Do you ever wonder about creativity? Yours? That of others? Are you like so many people who say things like "I can't draw", "I can't design cards", I can't come up with scrapbook layouts", "I'm not a creative person"? I think that most of us have doubts about our abilities sometimes. But I also believe that we are very capable of being creative, artistic individuals. Now how the heck did I get to thinking about this process? Well, the other day I was working at making a card for a home party (Stampin Up) that I was to do. The ideas were not flowing so I started searching the internet and magazines for ideas. Voila! I found a lovely idea in my latest Stampin Success magazine (the magazine received by Stampin Up demonstrators). Being delighted that I had found something I could CASE (copy and share everything) I set to work building my sample card. Well, as I worked I soon realised that this card-making journey was no longer following the map. My mind was taking the path of Pam Godderis when she asked "What if . . . " In fact my mind had left the map and was taking a journey all its own. That got me to remembering how some of my friends go about creating their projects. One friend begins with an idea and knows which stamp she is going to use to express that idea. Her cards are elegant and simple - they are quite lovely in fact. Another friend has an even simpler way of creating and her cards are the very epitome of attractive simplicity. Someone else I know creates by following her own pre-drawn designs. And I know ladies who have other methods of creating their art - and believe me card making and scrapbooking is definitely an art form. And how do I create? I'm not really sure but I do know that the process I go through is not like that of any of my friends. What I do may start with a flash of an idea or I may find an existing idea that sends me on a creative journey, just as this card did. Just as an unknown author once said "Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled", my projects fall from my imagination without order or pattern. And then I begin to explore. What colours? What paper? Is texture important? Can I include some shapes? What about layers? Should there be a greeting and if so what should that greeting be? Are embellishments such as brads, ribbon, clips, buttons, glitter etc needed? And, as I play, the materials in front of me begin to transform. Sometimes that transformation is less than what my mind's image is pleased with, so I take apart, build, re-build, and re-design until the project has evolved and feels complete. This is what happened with the card for the home party (Stampin Up) that I was designing for. Now who is right and who is flawed in their creative search? I believe that no-one is flawed and we are all correct in how we create. We are correct because our creations are an expression of ourselves and the 'self' that is in all of us is what makes us unique individuals. As you look at the cards below you may puzzle how my pansy card could ever have evolved from the lovely, more simple, card from Stampin Success. But it did. And that is individual creativity.