Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Using Your Smash Book to kick start your scrap Mojo.

Hallo scrappy people!

I've wanted to start an "art journal" forever but it seemed like double effort since I tend to experiment with color combos and materials on most of my projects.

Some pages work out. Most fail the awesomeness test.

Michelle's Page Awesomeness Test

  • Are the colors, patterns and item sizes vibe-ing with (or BETTER yet- against) each other? 
  • Does this page make me wanna do a karate chop while yelling "DAUM! That's HAWT!"
  • Does this page do something different from the ones I've done before?
  • Do I feel like I used up all my energy and ideas making this?

If the answers are yes- we are good to go.
If not, I redo the pages at a later time.
But, while educational, that way of working is getting incredibly inefficient.
A solution was needed.

Enter K & Co's Smash line.
I've actually had 2 of these books in my stash for over a year without ever opening them up!

Then I got the "Eco" Smash book as homework.

My assignment:
Fill 5 pages using only products available in the store.
The book was to be displayed to hopefully entice shoppers to get their own.

What I came up with:
Sorry for the crappy iTouch photos.
These were meant to record the page as a sketch for my next project.
All stamps, papers and embellishments are available at Paper Source.
The book on display:

So how did this help my with my scrapbooking?
1. I made a page made in about 2 hours (a third my usual time).

2. The Smash pages helped define color combos, embellishment placement and photo sizes.
A Flair For Buttons Sunburst White/Color and Woodgrain Days of The Week pins. LOOOOOVE!!!
3. It helped me define what I actually wanted to say. 
I had 3 theme ideas and 6 photos all jumbled up in my mind. This is actually a huge sticking point for me in a lot of pages and I avoided it entirely this time. 
Scrap FX Kraft journaling notes item #2012191k
I'm also glad I finally got to use some of that Basic Grey Wander paper.
When I first got this in a kit a year ago I really hated the colors. Not anymore!

I also found some graph pattern vellum online. I did a little jig for joy when I saw the listing! You'll be seeing a lot of it in all my pages.

GRATUITOUS TODDLER SHOT!!!
Salome at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sound off!
How do you kick start your creativity?

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

6 comments:

  1. I loved your idea of planning.
    The yield with respect to time must be better.
    And the result is wonderful.
    xx

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  2. What a great post! Although, I do have to say that all of your pages = awesomeness in my book! Love what you learned by smashing and its so cool that you have your book on display in the store! I usually kick start my creativity by watching scrap videos or playing with my supplies.

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  3. greatpost...good question...I'm feeling mojo-less right about now and if you could peek in my studio, you'd definitely know that there is a problem....starting Friday, I'm going in! I'm gonna organize by manuf and then I'm gonna commit to making 10 projects this weekend! Maybe SMASH a bit too!

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  4. What a great idea to use your Smash journal as a warm-up for your LO or artwork. I'm liking your thinking!

    x

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  5. What a great way to "plan" your page! Hadn't really thought of using a smash book to do that...well sometimes I art journal but most times I seem to zone out and visualize/plan my pages (like while driving..yikes! or just before I falls asleep). Totally digging the zoo page, especially your buttons and that mini camera!

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Ok peeps lets CHAT! You tell me what you REALLY think and I PROMISE to keep it open minded here.