What do you all do when your muse leaves? Mine has been gone for a while now, I get tons of inspiration from here, but open Photoshop and just stare at it and end up closing it doing nothing. I've tried staying away from my computer for days, basicly anything and everything but nothing is working. Have any of you ever had this problem if so how did you fix it?
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Oh, I get you, Jackie Dean. Tho I have to admit that my ironing muses tend to take the most frequent brakes, way more often than my Photoshop muses.
Would a challenge help? A designer challenge that runs over a certain amount of time, let's say a week to keep things loosey goosey? Like Day 1: Make a logo. Day 2: Design a letterhead. Day 3: Make a flower. Along these lines? You could limit yourself to a certain palette and then just float off. At the end of your set period you will have a nice stash that you made yourself.
@Bina ๐๐๐ you had an ironing muse? Cripes I doubt I ever met mine!
Inspiration: well I just roll with it. Sometimes I want to to memory keeping, sometimes designing, sometimes other hobbies. Other times I just want to listen to the quiet and drink tea. Perhaps thatโs not very helpful but I just donโt feel guilty and move on either whatever I do feel like doing.
On the other hand if I *need* to scrapbook for whatever reason then I start with either the photos or a story/journaling and build around it. Sometimes that looks like a white background and a solid mat with a colour from the photo. Other items it progresses into a full page.
If I need to design: I start by making basic patterns: stripes, stars, chevrons, solids - and hope that it kickstarts my mojo.
Scraplifting always helps me. Then I only have to half think but I am still being creative because scraplifting is taking someone else's ideas and recreating them in your own way. Picking your own patterns and elements and colors, deciding which design ideas to keep, forget, or change.
I think some scraplifting is helpful, but also I was listening to someone speak recently and they were talking about how it just comes in ebbs and flows... and I think take the pressure off for a few days and then see something happens!
Oh @Jackie,
I totally am with you here! I find all these amazing things I want to make and create but when it comes time to create, I lose motivation and struggle to get started. Or I find I have 3 kids wanting to 'help'!
I always find it a question of do I need to take a break or do I need to push through. Usually I take planned creative breaks, so I feel a lack of inspiration at other times, I'll try to push through. Creativity is a muscle after all, so you have to work it out for it to work well regularly.
I've also found the ebb and flow thing is true. Especially since I have multiple creative hobbies, though I'm focusing more or less exclusively on scrapbooking and sewing these days (along with reading because I will never quit that.) So for me, if I'm just not feeling in scrapbooking, I have something else to turn to. But when I really do feel the need to scrapbook and am lacking inspiration, I've found that things like the layout challenges here help, because it often pushes me outside my box.
@Emily-- I hear you on that! I have 3 too, and they definitely take a lot of my focus!
The Creative Muscle. Yup.
Yet even the best athletes get injuries.... it is a bit of a lifestyle I guess, too.
@Bina ๐๐ creative muscle injury sounds much better than creative block. I love that. Can I frame it?
LOL, love creative muscle injury. I have a bit of that. I just booked myself into scrap and chat at my local store this week, can't wait!!
Iโve found that the busier/more chaotic my non creative life is, the tougher it is to be creative. Sometimes I push through and it works well. Other times it just doesnโt work. I need to get other things off my plate before starting in on creative stuff.
One way I push through is cruising Pinterest. That nearly always gets things flowing!
I had this problem for 5 years. Itโs only recently come back. I think having my son finally getting into school and doing other activities like sports took up my time. Heโs finally to the age where I can leave him be and just do what I want and that helped. I also started going thru all my photos and organizing them and that sparked ideas. My ideas have always come thru my son.