One of my biggest tips to anyone who is struggling with mojo for their cardmaking or scrapbooking is to try sketches. They really do help massively.
Very often when I'm prepping for TV shows where I have to have 10 demo's up my sleeve through the course of a couple of shows (yes, we usually do have to prep that many even if we only ever get to show one!) I can really struggle to come up with loads of different ideas in one go as I tend to be in a "zone" with something and I know a lot of you probably work that way too. It very much depends on what stash I have around me as to what I end up with, I don't have the mental capacity to remember to use xyz when they're all put away in drawers and boxes, I need the visual stimulation to inspire me.
And that's where sketches come in. A quick scribble on a post it note really does help - if you've never given it a whirl before then you should especially if you're sat staring at a piece of paper for more than 5 mins. You don't need to draw, you don't even need imagination - just draw some squares and circles and lay them out, overlapping and choose the one you prefer. The bonus is you can keep all the sketches in a folder or a box as an inspiration pile later on if you need them! If you're batch card making this is a good way to make the same card design but to have them all a little different - really what you're doing is thinking about the positioning of your mats and layers which are the outline and frames of what you actually design. Don't forget, you can make a sketch and then turn it round 3 times to get 4 entirely different looking cards - are you getting it now? Go on, give it a try, I bet you're amazed how easy and effective it is. When I don't have time to sit for an hour looking at a piece of paper thinking of what to do this is my method and it works a treat for me.
Right, enough rambling, it's my turn to set this week's Polkadoodles blog challenge and yes, you guessed it, I did a sketch!
Very often when I'm prepping for TV shows where I have to have 10 demo's up my sleeve through the course of a couple of shows (yes, we usually do have to prep that many even if we only ever get to show one!) I can really struggle to come up with loads of different ideas in one go as I tend to be in a "zone" with something and I know a lot of you probably work that way too. It very much depends on what stash I have around me as to what I end up with, I don't have the mental capacity to remember to use xyz when they're all put away in drawers and boxes, I need the visual stimulation to inspire me.
And that's where sketches come in. A quick scribble on a post it note really does help - if you've never given it a whirl before then you should especially if you're sat staring at a piece of paper for more than 5 mins. You don't need to draw, you don't even need imagination - just draw some squares and circles and lay them out, overlapping and choose the one you prefer. The bonus is you can keep all the sketches in a folder or a box as an inspiration pile later on if you need them! If you're batch card making this is a good way to make the same card design but to have them all a little different - really what you're doing is thinking about the positioning of your mats and layers which are the outline and frames of what you actually design. Don't forget, you can make a sketch and then turn it round 3 times to get 4 entirely different looking cards - are you getting it now? Go on, give it a try, I bet you're amazed how easy and effective it is. When I don't have time to sit for an hour looking at a piece of paper thinking of what to do this is my method and it works a treat for me.
Right, enough rambling, it's my turn to set this week's Polkadoodles blog challenge and yes, you guessed it, I did a sketch!
I sort of cheated a little bit as the actual theme was supposed to be Shades of Grey but I forgot when I made the card LOL!! So mine isn't shades of grey at all! This is the card I made using Kuretake's Kurecolor markers for the day 22 advent calendar just before Christmas. There's a full tutorial over there for this so check it out here for a how to.
