Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Creativity Rut, the Bad and the Ugly... Merry Belated Christmas Everyone!

Who, among all of you, fellow scrapbookers, ever went through a creativity rut? Well, if you haven't, I envy you...

For the last 2 months, I have been dragging myself around, hoping that something would inspire me to go back to my favorite addiction. Anything, from colours, photos, papers, magazines to blogs and websites, left me completely blah. Even CHA didn't get me going... there was truly something wrong with me. I checked out articles like 'Getting out of a non-creative rut', and 'Get Out of the Scrapbook Creativity Rut!' but it didn't really help. How discouraged I felt....

And then, one night that I felt very frustrated and upset, I flew down to my scraproom to get some peace and quiet time. I grabbed some Christmas pictures I had handy and decided to create something out of them. Happiness, peace, relaxation... it all rushed back to my mind and my heart! Welcome back, I said... yes, I talk and sing all by myself in my cellar! How satisfying it was to finally recover these feelings that are so hard to describe. I scrapped until 3:00 am that night. Pure delight. And this is what I did:


This layout is about this tradition we have in my family to put our pj's on, make hot cocoa for the kids, and coffee and Baileys for hubby and I, when the time comes to decorate our Christmas tree.

I made a lot of sewing on the layout; I used Sew Easy, it is really easy to use! You just need a little bit of patience.... I also used shimmery cardstock from DCWV (Neutrals), and paper from My Mind's Eye - Rosy Collection. I also used Jillibean Soup corrugated alphas that I stained with Picked Fence Distress Stain (Tim Holtz) and covered with Chandelier Tattered Angel glimmer glam, for a frosty look. I really like the result!

This was my first layout since the crop my friend Natalie held at her place early January. This crop was very special as we (the Divas, and a guest-Diva) decided to use the same Christmas kit for one-day crop. You can see our posts on Natalie's blog. All five of us have a blog entry... this is mine: 'One group kit, and amazing day!'.

My creativity rut was already acting up on that day, and all I have done was two layouts. Not productive at all, when you think I spent over 12 hours in my friend's house... This layout is about my goofy hubby wearing  my son's elf tuque:




Lots of glimmer mist, drops of glimmer glam, heat embossing, massing distressing and inking, some sewing, and a lot of fun! This is my kind of layout: lots of work, lots of creativity and lots of happiness creating something from scratch.

My second and last layout of the day is entitled Christmas Cuddles, a title my friend Sylvie helped me find. Here it is:




This layout is all about love and tenderness. The best thing in life is my kids hugging me and me hugging them. Paper in this layout is also from My Mind's Eye - Rosy Collection. I  used Maya Road snowflake chipboard that I covered with Adirondack Metallics Paint Dabbers in Pearl. This is my favorite colour in this paint collection. The little frame is from Pink Paislee Mistables, and I covered it with Be Positive glimmer glam, which my friend Natalie lent me. I love the result.

So, dear friends, if you get into one of these creativity ruts, don't be discouraged. It will come back one day or the other... in the mean time, enjoy doing other things!! You will soon feel like scrapping again!

Cheers, and thanks for stopping by!

3 comments:

  1. yay!glad that you broke through the rut.what a great and FUN page.
    no matter how much we enjoy scrapbooking,life has a tendency to take over.stress,bad health and other things leave us feeling drained and devoid of creativity,BUT i have found that when one does get through the rut,that is when they create some of their best work!

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  2. You always leave awesome comments Diane! Thank you!!
    NNM xoxo

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  3. i love that your children will forever have that tradition with them. I bet you any money that they bring that forward with them when they are adults; I love that scrapbooking gives us an opportunity to document in this fashion. I absolutely love what you did!

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