Last weekend I took an Inspiration Adventure. What’s an Inspiration Adventure? I made that term up, but not the concept (although, I’m sure someone else has used the term, as well!). An Inspiration Adventure is where you depart from the usual inspiration models — scrapbooking magazines, blogs, and websites — and you actually go somewhere for new types of inspiration where you’ll use your body and your senses.
Mini Adventures
- In your home town
- Between 20 minutes to an hour in length
- See old things with new eyes — because these adventures are local, and we tend not to appreciate the subtle and common beauties of our own towns, these require us to search deeper and observe more.
- Can be done often and regularly
Major Adventures
- Away from home
- Might take a day or an entire weekend or more
- See and experience new things
My adventure of last weekend was a Major Adventure. Izzy and I took a weekend visit to an artist town a few hours away called, Sedona. Sometime in the future I will share photos from my local mini-adventures. Here are some of the inspiration photos I brought home with me from the Sedona Major Adventure. . .
Creative Stimulation & Idea Gathering
By walking around, you are stimulating your creative mind in a different — a very healthy and active — way. Take your camera with you, and possibly a notebook to write down your thoughts. You will bring home new inspiration and energy, which you can use immediately.
You will also have a supply of photos you can look to any time, now and in the future, as a resource of ideas for new color palates, textures, and interesting lines and shapes to translate into your projects.
So how do you embark on an Inspiration Adventure?
1) Get on your feet — or on your bike — and go explore an interesting area.
Are there no interesting areas in your town? Then explore a non-interesting area. I used to think I lived in an uninteresting town, but once I started looking at it through my camera, I realized I was wrong. Also, uninteresting things can be made fascinating through the lens.
Here are some areas to start with . . .
- nature areas
- independently owned shops, both inside and out
- larger shopping areas, including those filled with chain stores, focusing on the landscaping, decorating, and architecture of the outdoor area
- downtown area
- museums
- run down neighborhoods
- art galleries
- parks
- zoos
2) Take Two Types of Photos
- inspiration images (colors, shapes, textures, material), like the pictures above
- inspiration projects (actual projects you want to make yourself)
I like to take the first type — inspiration images — with my good camera. They are a great way to practice seeing objects in different ways, and to practice composition, creating lines and the juxtaposition of different textures, shapes, and colors. These photos force you to look at the details.
For the second type — inspiration projects — I just use my phone’s camera and I don’t worry about composition or getting a good shot. I only capture these so I can remember the idea I had for a specific project. While the point of my adventures are to get inspiration, the point of this second type of photo is just to remember a specific idea.
3) Translate your Inspiration Images
Here are a few different approaches . . .
- Analyze and learn. Digest the inspiration and let it mush around your brain with what is already inside. It will take its own form and translate indirectly in your future projects.
- Practice translating the inspiration directly by experimenting with the colors, textures, and lines in an art journal or practice book.
- Translate directly by conceiving and starting a specific project that incorporates some of the colors, textures, or lines.
the hard part . . .
The hardest part in all of this is to learn to see that there is inspiration where ever you are and where ever you live. The second hardest part is learning to give yourself the opportunity to actually do it. You can help yourself out by deciding right now where you could go this week — somewhere within 15 minutes of your own home. Commit yourself by sharing the destination of your upcoming Inspiration Adventure with us in the comments!
Weekly Roundup
Heads Up!
- Paperclipping Live! – This live scrapbooking show is every Tuesday at 6:30pm PST. Are you free? We’ll be giving away one entrance to Lain Ehmann’s Layout A Day month-long challenge event, and we’ll have a professional organizer call in for part of the show!
- The next Video Tutorial will go out to the Paperclipping Members next week! If you’d like to get your membership set up in time for it’s release, please visit the Membership Information Page. You’ll get immediate access to the archives of over 150 tutorials!
Before I sign off, I wanted to remind you to share with us where your Inspiration Adventure will be! And don’t forget this week to have fun paperclipping!
