everybody needs inspiration... including yours truly... so here's a few goodies that should make us all smile and perhaps stir a bit of creativity within us... it works for me :)
stacks of paper- yes, note the pluralized word.... the left-hand stack was given to me by a friend, sarah [who makes really yummy cookies]... the right stack was purchased in my 5 minute shopping spree at michael's... yes, despite the fact that i only had 5 minutes, i was able to walk away with some unregretable goodies... [see, for the guys who think all girls take many hours to shop, i'm proof that a few minutes can be wonderful if that is all you have]... don't you love pretty paper and embellishments?!
vintage goodness to add to the collection... vintage goodness such as mary blair's "small world" avon bottle collection... my mom found this beautiful lady for me at a rummage sale for 50 cents!! great deal for sure!!! she was also the one who bought me this mary blair lady... its nice when people think about you even when they shop... gifts gotta give a person some inspiration, eh?!
non-vintage goodness but still a classic... batman toys... batman LEGOS toys on top of that... MCDONALD'S batman lego's toys to top it all off... now, i am not a collector of lego's but i do love their designs and the video games they came out with... star wars legos... indiana jones legos... and my favorite superhero- batman legos... we just started playing the game and even diego is addicted!!! ramel has gotten diego a set of these toys but he's gotten me my own set too... a husband cannot complain when his wife is content with 95ยข toys from mickey d's!!!! honestly, its good to take a break [from creating goodies] every now and again so that you can go back to work fully charged and inspired FROM taking a break [ok, does that make sense?! i'm watching iron man as i type... hehe]
stocking up on artsie goodness cane LEAD to creativity... eventually, at least... after all, you end up having plenty of goodness to work with that you become so overwhelmed that you don't know where to begin... i love brads!! i collected the eyelets before they were really IN and i remember paying an arm and a leg for a measley dozen... i used them in an art project [with pride of finding these cute teeny tiny grommets] and a year later, they became a popular item... i bought a ton on ebay... then i bought a ton of brads... they are rarely used and i tend to send them off in swaps to people who WILL use them... hopefully these lil autumn brads will be used soon in my etsy restocking.... [tba]... the embellishments on the left are paper goodness... they will be used on some notecards soon ;) gotta love having a plethera of crafty goodness to get the creativity rollin'....
and lastly, a good piece of art can be in itself, inspiring... i mean, it feels good when a piece you are working on is turning out as you hoped, if not better... it feels good that even though you took a long break from creating, you didn't lose any talent from it... not that talent goes away that fast, but after such a break, a person can get to wondering... this illustration has a bit of ways to go [glueing the girl and dog down, adding the background flowers] but it's closer than it was a week ago... and yes, that background is from one of my new stacks... see?! it really is inspirational...
so the question is [if i haven't asked it already in another post] what inspires you?! what do you do to stir up the creativity?? share here or in a post ;)
Ohhh, I love this illustration! I can't wait to see the finished project. =)
Posted by: Drea | October 01, 2008 at 10:18 AM
i love this illustration...big fan of the glittery white hair! You are just amazing!
Posted by: viv | October 01, 2008 at 10:44 AM
The little illo is sooo cute. I wish my hair was glittery... And that perfume bottle is the darlingest thing ever.
Posted by: kiwi | October 01, 2008 at 06:24 PM
I loved this post! I like seeing what inspires you. Paper always inspires me =) And love the illustration! Thanks for giving me a blog topic idea!
Posted by: Gracie | October 01, 2008 at 10:52 PM
new paper is always a good inspiration. also, i often take trips to gift stores & it inspires me to make my own version of things i like. it boggles my mind how much they charge for some of the things i can usually make for a few dollars. anyway, i'm loving your ravamped cards. such a good idea!
Posted by: erin | October 03, 2008 at 06:06 PM