It spoke to me.....

Have you ever seen a piece of paper or an embellishment and had that feeling? You know the one I'm talking about, like it was just meant for you to find and before you even know it you have an entire layout/project planned out in your mind?


Well, it happened to me last month when we were kit packing. For you to understand the pure thrill of this discovery, I need to give you some background information. You see, I am a scrapbook wannabe! I've always wanted to be super creative and come up with gorgeous layouts that could be published in a magazine. Instead I am plain old Lorie that didn't know the difference between embellishments and stickers when I first started working for April & Scarlet. Month after month, I've handled each piece of every kit, but I've never had that inspirational flash. Don't get me wrong, I've ooohhhed and aaahhhed over most of it and wondered how on earth you guys would use some of it, but nothing has ever spoken to me like the Tweedle Dee add-on did last month.


Kit packing is pretty repetitive, to be honest, it's mindless work....you pick up the papers first, put them in the bag as tight as possible to keep them from getting damaged, then you go back and gather the embellishments to place on top of the paper, seal the bag and presto...you're done! Last month, it wasn't such a mindless job for me. From the moment I walked in and saw the Tweedle Dee add-on laid out on the table, I started getting all of these ideas for how I would create a mini-album. At first it was a little scary, I've never really had any creative mojo and then all of the sudden BOOM there it is, ticking away in my mind! The three hours that it took me to pack the kit were gone in a flash and all I could think about was getting mine home to start working on my project. I couldn't wait to lay it all out and see what it would look like.


So there I was, sitting at my new desk, surrounded by all of the materials that I've collected over the last year, staring at my brown Studio Calico bag, terrified to open it. What if I couldn't get my vision out of my head? What if I messed it up? What if it looked terrible when it was done? All of these questions were thundering around in my brain....I had sweaty palms and a jittery stomach. Finally, I bit the bullet and opened the brown bag, carefully removing the red sticker to be saved for later use. As I laid all of the papers out on my desk, BAM, the visions that I had the first time that I saw the kit crowded back into my head and before I knew it I had 3 of the pages of the book completed! It just flowed out of my brain, to my hands and onto the chipboard. Techniques that I have read about on this very blog, came back to me and appeared on my chipboard. I must say, I was a little overwhelmed by my little book when I was finished and sat down and looked at it over and over again in awe! I had created this, I had actually sat down and pulled creative images out of my head and put them in an album. I was thrilled and elated, FINALLY I had done it! It was a revelation for me, a goal that I never actually thought that I would achieve, a new outlook on creativity and a new purpose to preserve the everyday happenings of life.


Without further adieu, here is my little project:

It wasn't until I had declared myself finished that I realized that there were no pictures in my little book. I considered reworking a couple of the pages and sneaking in one morning to try to get some candid photos of Natalee and Daddy as they sat at the desk, but in the end, I decided that it didn't need it. This project was about capturing my little one's art and saving it in a way that I could keep it forever, not about having pictures of her drawing. This too was an eye opening revelation for me....I always associate pictures with scrapbooking. This has been the dam that has kept my creativity at bay....I've finally knocked it down and now I have a true picture of what it is that all of you do when you sit down to create.

I finally understand that it is not about sitting down to "scrapbook" a page, it is about creating art that represents your life. The everyday happenings that you want to remember and preserve for generations to come. I'm no longer a wanna be scrapbooker, I am a novice artist!

Make sure to check out the blog tomorrow for a small history lesson about the sights of Bowling Green that inspired the kit names this month....there may also be a challenge involved, so stay tuned!