On creativity and the impulse to "make something"

"I just want to make pretty things even if nobody cares".
Many of us have pinned that pictogram onto our boards or put them on our Facebook page.
It captures how we feel when people question our paper crafts hobby.

I've always felt this saying was a tad on the defensive side.
I make things that are pretty and I make things that are... complicated.
I'm proud of both.
I'm also proud to say I am creative- even if no one cares. Laughing!

When fellow scrapper Laura swung by my blog on Moday and commented she wished she could think outside the box more often I wanted to think about my reply.
Mostly I wanted to give encouragement.
And I wanted to say something that would help us both because many times I feel like I lack the creativity gene that so many scrap happy women seem to share.

This page marked a huge departure from the "norm" for me. I'm using pink.
I'm trying to keep things simple and the page thin enough to fit in my 12x12 scrapbook album
I haven't used since 2009. (!!!)  So while this isn' going to win any innovative design awards I love
 it and it's actually hanging over my desk as a reminder that I can and should stop using brown
and black in my pages so much! Plus? HELLO GREEN RIBBON! LOVE!
Materials: Cocoa Daisy September Kit, May arts Ribbon, Pink Paislee wood letters,
October Afternoon and Echo Park papers.

As I told Laura- the act of waking up in the morning and breathing can seem like a crazy out of the box act of pure creativity some days- especially when everything is going pear shape.
So the question is this:
Are you ready to own it?
Your creative talent and unique voice, I mean.
Can you, will you, stand by your impulses when everyone else is insisting "NOPE! That's not how you do that!"
It's a hard road to take.
If you have a lot of friends who also scrap or sew or share your creative pursuit, it can be even harder to stick to your very specific and interesting story.
But I happen to think it's the road you take- the trip- the adventure-
THE RIDE
that actually matters.
So here is the advice I have Laura (who's blog: Who's This Chick? is CRAZY FULL of gorgeous scrapbook pages! Laura you OOZE creativity!)
I changed some parts up because I wrote it so fast I made a bunch of grammatical errors but it's basically the same thing.

I believe everyone is creative! Living life is a series of problems posed and overcome- how you solve that problem and how happy you are with your solution? THAT'S creativity!
I believe the key to personal creative development is being committed to your story. 
That doesn't mean spending thousands of dollars on scrap stuff. 
It doesn't mean taking tons of classes (although education is key).
It means constantly looking at the visual problems your pages pose and saying to yourself- how can I do this differently? 
How can I tell my unique story? 
Stick to scrapping exactly what you know, feel and love and TRUST me- you'll start seeing how creative you actually are.
I'm by no means an expert but I feel like I've come pretty far considering I stared scrapping in late 2009. I've never taken a class. I have no scrappy local friends- everything I do I learned from reading blogs online and thinking "What if I do THIS instead?"
I think my "creativity" isn't a talent but simply not being satisfied with my work and trying out new things.
What I try to do- even when I use sketches- is tell an authentically "me" story and try to do at least 2 things differently with each page- placing the elements of the sketch in different places, using colors I normally wouldn't use or materials I love that the sketch artist omitted.
Lastly, I think you could improve your feelings of creativity by just keeping a running journal of things you tried that you loved. Just noticing things like "I love this ribbon" or "I love pink and light blue together."  can lead to further exploration and a development of a unique style.
Do the same for things you love in other people's pages and you'll see how you'll develop your own "visual language" and start getting all kinds of ideas about what you want to do in your own work.
Swing back and lemme know if it worked!

So with that I'll share this weeks "Photo Inspiration":

A pattern on an "Old Navy" t-shirt- LOVE! Actually scrapping this now!

This is someone's front door! It's welded iron! LOVE the layering!
Will be trying this  (on paper) soon!

Magazines are a great source of inspiration!
Subscribe to at least 1 that isn't scrap or craft related. You don't  have to read it-
just look at the pretty pretty layouts!

I got in some trouble for taking this photo of the Muccia Prada exhibit at the
Metropolitan Museum- don't care- those colors and pattern combos are FABULOUS!
There are museums in your state- visit them!

What do you think makes for a creative person?
What do you do to spark your creativity?
Write it up below- I can always use more tips!!!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle