Thoughts on Creativity Part 1
Join me for creative chat
By limiting choices, you may reduce overwhelm.
In all my creative years the one single thing that I have found the hardest is the feeling of overwhelm. It can be debilitating and totally squashes the confidence of taking the next step or following through at all with a creative project.
I have taken many creative classes over the years, and a common core take-away from both the last class that I took, and the last training video that I watched, was to ‘limit choices’.
At first this was scary, because I didn’t know how my creative self would respond to this. I was afraid that by limiting my choices I wouldn’t feel as though I had enough creative freedom to be expressive, or if I would feel brave enough or ready to make art.
But the opposite happened.
Once I reduced my colour options to a cohesive and limited colour palette I felt less overwhelmed about if it would work or not, I wasn’t afraid about mixing colours and it all going wrong, I didn’t worry about choosing which one to use first etc.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I felt liberated.
The same with the extra bits, like chosen ephemera, or rubber stamps, I didn’t over complicate my creative space and chose some comfort items, the ones I know would be essential and serve me well, and then just a few new to me extra things to experiment with for the fun of it.
If you’re a digital scrapbooker like me, the same process works a treat for our craft and digital process too, and by limiting choices, you can reduce overwhelm.
It helps to understand what motivates you to create
Be clear on which supplies you think are truly required and curate them carefully. If you are finding this hard you need to understand what motivates you to create. Do you have a preference to start with the photos or is it the supplies that motivates you to create?
If it’s with the photos, you will probably select supplies that will support either the theme of your memory, or supplies that would complement the colours in the photo itself.
If it’s supplies that motivate you to create, take a peek at things in your stash you haven’t used yet, or haven’t used for a while and see what stands out to you. Maybe it’s a unique embellishment that you know you want to try and use, or maybe it’s a phrase or word prompt in the kit that is triggering a story or reminds you of a photo you have in your stash that would be a good match to start creating with.
It’s all about a little basic preparation, having the right things around us to make a start, but not too many things that it brings back that feeling of overwhelm. If you’re a digital scrapbooker and haven’t tried creating with just one kit before vs mixing and matching from your stash maybe give that a try. You can always add more things in afterwards if you find you are missing things from the kit you are focusing on, but start small and build out if needed.
When working at my art table I like to work with sketchbooks for creative journaling, art and junk journaling and collage etc. but working in an empty book starts to bring back those feelings of overwhelm.
Over the years, I have learned that I need a catalyst, a jumping off point, and so I like to make a lot of my books myself because I want them to be messy to begin with. I curate messy papers that may have been destined for the recycling bin, book pages and other vintage documents, or painted papers that didn’t make the cut for other projects. Offcuts of fabric, ephemera and scrap bits of paper all make their way into my sketchbook as a base to begin adding to another time.
I suppose, the way that my creative mind works, and the way that I create on my art table, has transposed itself into the products that I create for my digital shops.
Once I understood what makes me tick, and had a better understanding of my own creative process I went forward and introduced Mixed Media into my digital designs and adopted these practices into my digital work.
In the earlier days of my career as a digital scrapbook designer I used to be teased and bullied for experimenting in ‘grungy design’ because huh ‘that’s never been done before has it’ ‘she’s not original’ ‘look at her’ but that didn’t stop me. Those early years of adding more texture to my papers and elements and just playing and experimenting was a catalyst in itself. It was the start of a new signature style, it was the start of me finding myself, and it was the start of falling in love with Mixed Media and being comfortable with being messy.
My portfolio of digital art now includes hundreds and hundreds of Mixed Media styled Kits and Collections that are packed with art marks, (and probably a copious amount of dirty fingerprints) collage and ready made art papers that I know you love to use as your own jumping off points. Just like my scruffy notebooks and journals on my desk that I have prepped with jumping off points, I like to create ready made art for you so that you can have a catalyst and a-ha moment too.
We are on the cusp of ‘Digital Scrapbooking Day’
Digital Scrapbooking Day will be here on Saturday 5th October 2024 - I’ll be writing more about this on Saturday itself, but as we traditionally do at the LilyPad, we release our iconic ‘Build Your Own Collection’ on the first Friday of each month.
Also, when our Build Your Own Collection co-incides with the proximity of Digital Scrapbooking Day, we discount our whole shop when our Build Your Own Collection products go live.
That means that absolutely everything in my LilyPad Shop right now is reduced in price by at least 40%. Deeper savings are available on products that were already bundled up, and products that are ‘designer resource friendly’ are reduced by 50%.
Which Digital Products Can Specifically Reduce Overwhelm?
There are several product lines in my shop that can help to reduce overwhelm but today, I want to chat about Art in Simplicity.
This product series came to fruition as a toolkit to help you reduce overwhelm. The art in simplicity kits are very similar to my regular mixed media digital kits but with the added bonus of what I call ‘loaded papers’. If you are familiar with layered scrapbooking templates or quick pages they are an evolution of both.
Quite simply, the loaded papers are mixed media papers with elements already added to them and a spot for you photo. A suggested composition if you like, for those of you who need a jumping off point.
These kits are smart and flexible, because if you prefer, you can use them as a regular mixed media kit, you could ignore the loaded papers and just use the base papers provided as-is and arrange the elements yourself as you wish, building your own composition as you go.
Or, you can choose to use one of the pre-loaded papers, and as the ‘photo ready’ name suggests, it could be as simple as that and be very nearly finished after placing your photo, or you could keep working on the design, adding extra embellishments and paint or move things around to your liking as it’s all provided as a multi layered file.
There is no right or wrong way with these kits but I like to offer you both options. When the product line first came to fruition I would release only the ‘Photo Ready’ version of the collection which is the all in one option, containing the ‘loaded’ papers, plus a folder with the papers as-is and also a folder of the elements as-is.
This time around, there are more buying options and more flexibility. The ‘Photo Ready’ (all in one) Kit is still available, but I have also unpacked the papers as-is, along with the elements as-is, and also made available the ‘loaded papers’ individually so you can choose to purchase as an all in one option, or just pick and choose the pieces that suit your creative process the most.
Build Your Own Collection for October 2024
Art In Simplicity 3 is here just in time for the Build Your Own Collection at the LilyPad. Can you believe we are already in October!!
As described above, enjoy the all in one product, the ‘photo ready’ kit which includes all the embellishments, the papers plus the ‘loaded papers’ if you need a helping hand with your composition. Also look out for the Messy Tidbits which are new for this release of Art in Simplicity!
Find all the shopping options here and during our storewide sale you can find previous releases in the series on sale at 40% off.
I had lots of fun creating layouts with this versatile kit and used a combination of the loaded papers plus putting my own spin on things and moving things and adding things of my own.
Gaelle used one of the loaded papers as her jumping off point.
Cristina completely customised the same paper as Gaelle by flipping the paper and moving elements around and adding a few extra things.
I’m also very flattered that my design buddy
created a page with my new release of her beautiful daughter!
Typically at the Lilypad we only release new products on Fridays, and when it’s a Build Your Own Collection weekend products are normally limited to that. However to celebrate Digital Scrapbooking Day on Saturday, the LilyPad have a ‘Special Saturday’ where new products will be launched.
Exclusive early access
If you are an e-mail subscriber, and would like the links to ALL of my LilyPad releases that will go live this weekend from Saturday onwards right now, so you can access them straight away, check your inbox as secret links have been e-mailed to you.
If you are not a subscriber, and are reading on the web, the links will be published in a new article on Saturday, along with some history behind Digital Scrapbooking Day, Part 2 of my thoughts on Creativity, plus some other shop updates to share with you.
Here is a little peek of just some of the new things coming at the weekend . . .
I will be back on Saturday but for now, I would really LOVE to hear from you this weekend, please stop by and leave a comment letting me know how you are doing, and/or your thoughts on creativity too!
Chat soon and have a fantastic start to the weekend!
I can already see I’m gonna go bankrupt after this event. 😬❤️