As I’ve mentioned, my muse has been on vacation for quite a bit. When I look at all of my stash my mind wants me to create, but my body says no. Since I couldn’t seem to get started I decided to organize my studio. That involved going through a lot of stuff I’ve not gotten into for years including my bookcase. More about that in a minute.
I thought maybe thinking small like greeting cards could get me back into creating. I have a whole bunch of embellishments I’ve made, jewelry pieces, and other small pieces of fabric that have been in a variety of places in my studio. It’s been so hard to find anything, so as part of my organization I put those items in three separate drawers. It sure helps to know where they are and be able to grab them if needed. I just now need to label the containers!
Now that they are available when I want to make cards, how do I get started? I don’t know about you, but I need something to inspire me. Sometimes it’s another blog, the garden, or a fellow artist’s art. But nothing was inspiring me. It’s like writing. You sit and look at that blank piece of paper and nothing comes. I look at my bins of fabric, put it away and sit down and watch Netflix.
That’s where the bookcase cleaning came in to play. I hadn’t gone through that bookcase in years so I took everything out, pulled it out so I could clean behind it, dusted the shelves and then started making a stack of books I needed to give away. While I was doing that I ran into this book from my scrapbooking days. I have long since gotten rid of scrapbook material, but I kept this book thinking it might come in handy. And it was just the inspiration I needed.
Instead of me trying to come up with a design, she has lots of designs for cards (or they could be for large art projects). Once the bookcase was back in order, and the books I didn’t want taken to the library for their book sale, I sat down and looked through this book. I came across several designs that would convert to fabric cards. This was one of them I really liked.
The author includes the drawing and then a two-page spread of samples using that diagram. I was getting excited. Now to pick out fabric and the embellishment I wanted to use. The dark fabric is some I printed years ago. The daisies are from that printing with daisies project I did this summer. Here is the link to how I printed them. Then I added stabilizer, stitched, and cut them out like my other embellishments. The multicolored piece is commercial fabric I purchased awhile back. I really don’t like to use commercial fabric in my art, but it worked the best with the other two elements.
For instructions on how I make my fabric cards, check out this tutorial. Here is the finished piece before it’s added to the card front.
And the finished cards. I love how they turned out.
But I feel like I’m cheating using those layouts and not coming up with an original design. But that’s what I need to do right now. I can see several of this book’s designs being made into cards with my fabric.
Do you have those times when you just can’t get started? How do you come up with your ideas? Where do you get your inspiration? I’d love to know.
They’re beautiful, Lynda! I’ve had occasions where my muse refuses to play, and tidying the studio is one of my ways of dealing with the creative malaise. I have several “go to” sources to get me going – I belong to several creative groups on Facebook, I browse Instagram (have accumulated several artists I follow) and Pinterest is one of my favorite rabbit holes – I save posts I like for future reference. And recently, I find myself browsing youtube a lot for techniques I’m interested in learning.
Happy card making!
Judy, Thanks. Your muse has been working overtime!!