Working on that mojo

I'm sure it's just burnout, it happens to everyone, it happened to me when I first arrived in Canada, it will, I'm sure, happen again. I think sometimes I get fixated on trying to constantly produce "wow!" layouts and that is wrong. I'm always telling others that not everyone layout has to have that wow factor. In fact I think if you had an album where each page knocked your socks off, then it would be sensory overload. I, personally, think an album flows much better if you have mostly good pages with the odd spectacular layout thrown in every now and then. By spectacular I don't mean that it has to be so artistic, or so different but more that you have spent just that little bit longer thinking about it, that you finally got out those coveted chipboard alphabets, that you just seem to want to hold on to, and actually use them. And then there is also the fact that we don't always have the wow pictures to produce the wow layout. I want my albums to record our 'real' lives not just the beautiful studio portraits (of which I'm definitely going to get myself) but what happens in the everyday, the playing with the Rescue Heroes action figures, messing around in the garden. And let's face it, not all those candid shots are good shots but I do want them in my albums.

Anyway, I digress, thanks to Bev I have decided that I should just go back to basics in an effort to rediscover my scrapping mojo. So I think I need to plod my way through it and in the mean time get out the sketches.

What I like about sketches is that they really do help you kick start your creativity. You start out with the intention of just going the sketch as is and by the time you finish you can often end up with something completely different. Sketches give you the option of being more creative, or not, if you so please. I'm particularly loving Becky Fleck's (of Memory Creators) at the moment. There is a good variety of sketches, for multi photos, single photos, and large photo formats (very popular in the Gauger household lately due to the recent Photobox special offer of 10 10"x8" photos for the fantastic sum of £1).

Thanks also to those of you who have set me challenges, see also Chrissie's blog for details of the challenge she has set, I love a challenge or two.

I didn't get around to doing much during the recent UKScrappers cyber crop but did sit down yesterday and complete Pam's flower class, below left, and was impressed by how simple and easy it was to create flowers. Definitely something I will use in the future. I also did a very quick layout inspired by one of Becky Fleck's sketches. So 2 pages in one day. Woohoo, I'm on a roll...