Inspiration comes from doing....

I was checking out some of the links on the Crafty Individuals website today... there are some great blogs there if you enjoy rubber stamping. Imagine my delight when I found a couple of cards using my lettering! One at Jo Blogs and another at Paper Paradise. Oh, and then I found this... Eclectic Art... Isabelle has used quite a few of my designs in her art. I couldn't resist looking back over her posts, I was getting quite excited! It's not often that i get to see what other people do with them, and I still get that butterflies in the stomach feeling whenever I see something of 'mine'... even though hardly anyone knows it was me!

I've just submitted some more lettering for Crafty Individuals on a 'seaside' theme.... obviously i can't show you yet, as i don't know what they will choose to use, but I included some background textural lettering as well as some quotations in calligraphy. Here are a couple of teasers....

  

I love just writing and creating textures, black ink on white paper..... a few pages of random words and phrases, blocks of text in different styles and weight. By keeping it simple to start off with, there is no pressure to be clever or creative... it's a good warm up exercise at any time, especially if you have no 'big idea' to be working on. But as I write, words & phrases call out to be played with, certain combinations vie for my attention.... before long, inspired by words of the sea I have more than enough ideas to work on.

I had to restrain myself for a while and stick to relatively simple, clear stamp designs.... but from this I have loads of ideas to work up into larger pieces of work. It proves the point that "inspiration comes from doing" and this applies to any form of art or creativity. If you ever find yourself 'stuck' for an idea, or for what to do for the next stage, take the pressure off yourself by going back to basics... do something simple & play around with it for a while until something suggests itself.... something always does if you are content to 'just do' something... instead of desperately trying to conjure up a fully fledged idea or solution.