the Latin verb “inspirare” means “to blow into or upon; to breathe into.”
Do you ever feel like your creative work could use a new infusion of . . . something . . . but you’re not sure what?
As someone who actually does like to get “caught up” with scrapbooking, I definitely find myself getting into a groove where many of my pages are quite similar looking. And that’s OK for getting work done. If I’m making a series of vacation pages, I’m OK with the compositions being similar, with the product being repeated.
BUT…just like I want my music broken up by surprising changes in rhythm, melody, volume, or mood…
I also want my scrapbook albums to have interruptions that break up a series of vacation pages by moving into different kinds of storytelling from messages to loved ones to records of home and routines to personal reflections. Just as the story focus varies, I also want my design and product choices to vary. I don’t want my album as a whole to be so predictable, people are just flipping through:
Sigh. Another like the last. Flip.
Finding and using inspiration from outside of other scrapbook pages is a wonderful way to shake things up in fresh ways.
What if you could look, for example, around your home and at how you’ve decorated it and find inspiration for stories to tell? And not only for the stories but for design element choices (like color, texture, shape, proportion, line) and for the rendering of actual page parts (like photos, journaling, titles, and embellishment)?
And what if … once you’ve looked around your home, you could venture out and view things like storefronts, packaging, fashion, and nature to inspire your stories, design, and composition.
What do you think?
Here’s the thing about finding and using inspiration for scrapbooking, though:
If you’re new to this practice, you won’t just intuitively know how to do this work.
It takes, at first, guides to the work.
And then it takes practice.
In 2018 at the Get It Scrapped membership we’ll be adding 9 new classes that are part of a series called “Translating Inspiration.” We will give you guides and specific steps for getting into your own practice of finding and using inspiration pieces.
For each class, three guest teachers will join Amy Kingsford and me in exploring different venues where scrapbook page storytelling and design inspiration awaits. For example: home decor, fashion, nature, curb appeal, board games, and more.
We’ll be showing you how to find inspiration as well as how to design with it.
Guest designer Jill Sprott says, “Inspiration really can be found everywhere. The trick is adjusting expectations regarding what inspiration really is — it is more than a sketch, more than a blueprint. Hunting for inspiration does not just involve seeking out that which visually appeals, but also finding that which intellectually and emotionally engages us.”
To find inspiration, Jill Sprott turned to the one feature in her house that can be found in nearly every room: books.
Translating that inspiration to the scrapbook page.
Once the inspiration is found, we’ll show you how to use it for design. Home decor vignettes, our first focus, are particularly suited to use as inspiration for scrapbook pages not only because these groupings offer plenty of design cues to draw from such as color, size, shape,motifs and so much more, but the individual pieces that make up these creative displays also work together to tell a story.
The colors in Sian’s title were pulled from her vignette’s palette, but the words were inspired by one of the individual pieces, a the book “Neither Here nor There” by travel writer Bill Bryson.
The use of flowers on Lynn Grieveson’s page was inspired by the ‘stained glass’ cabinet in her vignette, as was the arrangement of her photos.
Three guest teachers join us for the first volume of Translating Inspiration
Meet them here and then join us for rich storytelling and advanced design lessons.
I’m Jill Sprott (rhymes with “vote”), and I’ve been obsessed with paper and storytelling all my life. I’ve got the journals, the house full of books (including scrapbooks), and the job as an English teacher to prove it! I was born and raised on Oahu, Hawai’i, where I live with my family, a canine/feline/human mix (it’s all kind of blurry). I’ve been scrapbooking for nearly two decades now — clearly, this love is for keeps. Whenever I’m asked why I scrapbook, I offer up the same defense that Robert Frost gave for why poetry matters: it is “a way of remembering that which it would impoverish us to forget.”
Sian Fair has been a scrapbooking addict since she discovered Get It Scrapped. She lives in the UK with her understanding husband and two grown up children: they can sometimes still be persuaded to stand still for a photo! She has written for scrapbooking magazines worldwide, contributed to online scrapbooking classes and designed for several kit clubs. She is currently with the Creative Team for Get It Scrapped.
Lynn Grieveson is a photojournalist and scrapbook designer living in New Zealand. She has been designing digital kits, elements and photobook templates for around 12 years, and currently sells them at The Lilypad, where she also shares her own layouts and travel photobooks. Her husband often drags her away from this to work on their news website, where she covers economic news and takes photos of politicians and political events. Originally from England, they have lived all over the world but currently share a cottage in Wellington with their teenage and adult daughters.
Get an all-access pass to this Translating Inspiration class and more than 80 others with a Get It Scrapped membership.
