Every now and then, I get sick of looking at project examples, pretty samples, and ‘Pinspiration‘. Sounds impossible, right? But it happens sometimes, especially when your job is your hobby and you’re continuously surrounded. Even if you don’t work in the industry, you’ve probably suffered from crafter’s block: the desire to create without the inspiration to do so. For me it’s often compounded by the feeling that I can’t create because I’ve seen everything and anything I want to make has already been done!
The solution for me is to take a break from looking for inspiration inside the craft world—no more looking at projects! It’s so helpful to break out of the box and try something different. When I am really at a loss for a project, I try to take my inspiration from fine art, fashion, home decorating, food… anything other than traditional arts and crafts.
I’m not the only one who feels this way. Several forums and blog challenges have popped up around using ‘outside’ inspiration. One of my favorites is Runway-Inspired Challenge. There’s always example projects, of course, but I try not to look at them when I’m overwhelmed. If I can look at just the inspiration images I find my mind will wander to all the things I can do. Do I mimic the fabric? Use the color scheme? Is there something to the model’s pose or hair and makeup that I like? It’s so open for interpretation.
Another great one is the Tuesday Trigger from Moxie Fab World by Paper Crafts Magazine. Unlike Runway, it’s easy to look at the Tuesday Trigger without seeing any example projects. However, there’s the occasional craft-based image. There are a lot of home decor images, which I usually find plenty inspiring. Should I make a project that would fit in the room shown? Or do I take the colors and patterns and run with it?
Splitcoaststampers has a forum dedicated to inspiration with a weekly theme that goes back years. They have over 300 trigger ideas from home decor, fashion, and shopping. Anyone can nominate a website to be the inspiration for the week. And, since the sample projects are all links, you can skip right over them if you want. I love looking at the nominated sites, especially when they are cultural in nature. Can you pull new ideas from the fashion trends in other countries? You betcha!
Lastly, I’ll leave you with two color-themed non-craft inspiration sites: ColourQ and Design Seeds. ColourQ, like Runway, has the example projects right on the page so they can be hard to skip if you’re burned out. But what both ColourQ and Design Seeds do is use a non-craft photograph to inspire a color palette. You can pull design ideas (like texture and layout) from the image, or you can just go hog-wild off the color palette. I find Design Seeds to be particularly inspiring in how interesting and different the palettes can be… can you make a project in Aqua and Red?
What do you do for ideas when you’re stumped? Do you have to go outside the craft world, like me? Or is there something special that works for you? Let’s chat in the comments!
Happy Crafting!
~Amanda
I love to create. That being said…recently, I too burned out. I had to give it all up. I just stopped creating and took a break. After a while, I began to be inspired again. I think for me, I was designing for my website instead of for myself. Also, I was trying to design what people wanted instead of what I enjoy. If this was my job, then that would be alright….but it’s not. I just like to share. Even now, I find that I am bored with the same old same old. I find myself thinking in colors and projects and not individual items like I did before. But, I am going to check out some of your sites and see what happens!
Glad you’re turning it around! Don’t get me wrong, loving, living, and working in the craft world is the best thing ever. But it does get hard to make my own personal projects sometimes. I hope you’re able to break new ground and get your groove back!
One of the things that is helping is that I am now using my Pazzles Inspiration Studio Pro to create paper. I have Serif CraftArtist 2 (which I love) and the PSE. With a combination of these programs, I have been designing papers that then go on to inspire me with embellishments. Sometimes you just need to find the diving board so that you can take the plunge!!
Now this is inspirational! A few years ago I lost my desire/purpose to scrapbook….slowly I’ve redirected my focus, and things like this are just terrific, talk about thinking outside the box. Thank you!
I liked the inspirational sites you have provided. It would be great to see more of those on a regular basis–perhaps even in conjunction with the monthly challenge. Thanks for the ideas!
I have been doing things like this for years. This is how I get my ideas when I want to create furniture and embellishments.