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PRT136 – Normal to Get the Blah’s

How do you get back into scrapbooking? Have you been burned out? Have you gone through periods where you lose interest, slow down, or stop completely? This week we’re talking about how to get back into scrapbooking. Come listen!

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This entry was written by Noell Hyman and is filed under Roundtable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Lacey aka Craft Donkey

    Loved the show, listen each week and often fall into the “not commenting but looking forward too.” I’d love hearing from all of these great designers. I am not sure and maybe it’s been done in the past before I listened to the show, but I think it would be great to have a show telling listeners advice on getting onto design teams/designing for others/having work showcased- the what to do’s and not to do’s sort of thing. That’s my two cents worth for now. Like I said I love hearing everyone each week but then also am always curious how they got their start, what they would or wouldn’t do looking back etc.

    http://www.craftdonkey.blogspot.com

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1255966412 Katherine Prefol

    Firstly I have to say I love listening to PRT – keep up the great work! This is the first time I have ever commented and I am doing so as I wanted to share a few ways that I inspire myself to get back into scrapping. There have been many times that I have lacked the urge to get creative – here is a quick little list of what I do to cultivate the urge: clean my desk and reorganise my scrap space, set myself a challenge for example an ingredient challenge, look through my scrapbook albums and find a layout that I really love and scraplift myself or go through my photos and find one that really speaks to me emotionally and scrap that. The other thing that I do is set goals for myself – 2 years ago I started what I called Kate’s Project 52. The aim of this project was to scrap 1 double layout every week for a year and then to make cards from the scraps. I set up a blog just for this project and kept myself accountable by sharing my work on this blog. I am happy to say that not only did I complete the 52 layouts, I actually exceeded my expectations and did 65 double layouts that year! Thanks again for another great PRT!

  • http://www.facebook.com/veronica.tingvall Veronica Tingvall

    Hey you guys!
    I just wanted to say that I totally loved the party episode, it actually inspired me to pick my one little word for 2013. My word will be “celebrate” and I plan to host one party a month, all thank´s to the show :-)

  • Amy

    LOVED this episode (and the party &home decor one by the way – I’d like another show on those topics). I could especially relate to the part where you said that you limit your online “inspiration”. I found that I was spending SO MUCH time in the galleries that I was overwhealmed by inspriation and then when I did do a page, it simply didn’t compare to what I’d seen. The result was I stopped scrapping for a while. Just yesterday I got caught up in what seemed like a whole day on pinterest and I actually said outloud to myself “what am I looking to find here?”. I need to think about the “screen time” rules I set for my kids and enforce them for myself.
    One thing that has inspired me to start memory keeping again has been Cathy Z’s 30 days of gratitude project. I know there are a lot of gratitude projects going on right now, but something in Cathy’s post really got me doing some pages.
    Thanks again for a great show!!

  • Cindy_deRosier

    “Celebrate” was my One Little Word for 2012 and it’s been AWESOME. Enjoy it!!

  • Carol in the Land of Oz

    Ok–no schmo but big dufus–I downloaded the Itunes but I cannot figure out how to “pause”? I often listen while do mundane things at work but often have to pause. Sometimes I backup and relisten to a particular thing. Everytime I hit what I think is the pause stop button it restarts the show. Izzy Help!

  • http://www.izzyvideo.com IzzyVideo

    Carol — Sorry I can’t help you. You might be experiencing a glitch in which case you’d need to contact Apple (maybe check the Apple forums).

    On my computer, when I pause a podcast and come back later, it keeps track of where I left off.

  • C.Robin

    HI Noell and other, this was a great show, I move some of my scrapbook thing to dinning room and a few friends come over to scrapbook and other crafts. It does help get you crafting when you do it with other. We try to get together once a month. Thanks

  • Sharon

    Wow I can not believe the timing of this topic. I have been hosting crops in my home every other month for about 5 years. Just last week I sat down to make invitations for my next crop but I wasn’t feeling it. Without even a conscious thought my invitations turned into a Magic Mike party and I have now hired a stripper. Lol. Your panel said we need to find out what will modivate us to scrap again and I’m thinking these pictures will do it.
    Love you guys and the show.
    Sharon

  • KatieK.

    Perfect topic. I have lost my mojo somewhere back last Spring as result of some very overwhelming family issues. Wish it was due to too much tv or pinning. That would mean I had some space and time and a lot more fun. I can’t remember which of you commented on the making the effort or time to get back to scrapping which meant also the deliberate action of pulling away or clearing yourself from those other things that prevent you. They said it better. Like Noell said about longer being away harder to come back to- true for me to. Starts feeling like another overwhelming task, real heavy. Dabbling our toes back into the water by making a card or project life- yes that surely works just as in exercise and writing a term paper. Why I listened as I cleared surfaces from neglected crop spaces and found forgotten memorabilia that triggers ideas and stories.

    Sharon’s serendipitous idea for finding her inspiration is a hoot! Reminds me of a time when some ladies came over for a crop and one friend’s photos were from a bachelorette party and I had to ban my kids from serving the soda :)

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    Are you for real?! ROFL!!

  • http://twitter.com/abandy Allie Trumpower

    It’s been a long time since I’ve commented, but still enjoying the show 100%! Losing my mojo is usually a big deal– and it happens more than I care to admit. I’ve found if I busy myself with “mundane” things, the minute that don’t have TIME to do anything crafty is when all of my ideas come!

    I was listening to an older episode this morning, and I heard Noell mention her “thrive/push” series… how’s that going? I would love any update!

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    Hi, Allie!

    In blog terms I set the Push series aside because of time demands. Trinity had started homeschooling last year and some time through the year we realized she needs me working with her most of the time to help her comprehend the material. On top of that we spend 30 hours/week at the dance studio now. That leaves me only enough time to do my main work tasks, like the videos, a blog post here and there, True Scrap, PRT, and emails to the audience. Can’t do a year-long extra series anymore.

    In terms of my own projects – I’ve continued to use my binder for the home (don’t know if you saw it), but things are kind of on hold now as we try to decide whether to get out of this crazy neighborhood we live in or just stay here. Most other hobbies of mine are also on hold while I dance. :)

  • http://scrappingmariangeles.blogspot.com/ mariangeles_spain

    Wow!! Have fun!!

  • http://scrappingmariangeles.blogspot.com/ mariangeles_spain

    I LOVE this show!! I listened to it yesterday while reorganizing my scraproom, along with two more episodes hehehe, and enjoyed so much.
    I love all the ideas, thanks!!

    I have two or three more episodes in my pendrive to listen to you while finishing in my scraproom hehehe

  • Courtney

    I print my photos from Costco. I then leave them on my desk and flip through them to find what I want to work on. Sometimes I find the “blah” is I’m just not interested in my current photos. So I’ll print out the next batch.

    I also find that listening to PRT or playing a video (especially Glitter Girl from TwoPeas) can help me get excited again. It’s not always the most recent episode, so I’m very, very happy that you leave all episodes of PRT available to listen to.

    I don’t ever have parties, but I love listening to Anna.

    As a non-apple user, I listen through another podcast service. It automagically pulls the most recent episodes for me. Does this still count as a hit for you?

  • pearl

    hello noell and izzy,

    this is going to be the 3rd time i’m trying to leave a comment… tried on itunes and failed (if i was smart i would’ve ctr C before i tried to post). let’s see if i can recreate it…

    welcome to our family!

    i discovered your podcast back in september through the studio calico message boards. LOVE LOVE LOVE your podcasts! since september, i’ve caught up on all your podcasts… yes, you do the math. that means i am listening to you literally all. day. long. :)

    i listen to your podcast as i am scrapbooking, cleaning, in the kitchen, in the car… so much so that my boys (5, 3 and 1) will ask “are you listening to the paperclipping roundtable again?” they even recognize your voices! they may or may not have learned to become more independent while they wait for me to finish an episode, but i swear they got at least 2 square meals a day!

    the funniest part is that whenever they hear izzy laugh, they ask “what was so funny?” izzy, your laugh is so contagious. i find myself cracking up too. seriously, i love everyone you guys have had on the panel. and hello anna, love her sense of humor. i think we could be BFFs.

    okay, seriously now, i really enjoyed this last topic. it’s like having 3 kids and needing a break. a mental health break. just because you leave your kids for a weekend trip doesn’t mean you love them less. doesn’t distance make the heart grow fonder? and when i return from my trip, i find myself so much more patient and engaged with them. and that’s how i feel about scrapbooking. my breaks from scrapbooking are more about time management than the blah’s, but when i can get back into it, i am in love with scrapbooking again.

    anyway, LOVE the show, wish i could give you 5 stars on iTunes… will try again later.

    going through withdrawals…
    joe schmoe (pearl)

  • Debbie D

    Love listening to your show while i scrapbook, it really does inspire me. I love that the discussions are live and you just roll with everything! My only suggestion would be to change your intro and exit music, not a fan!lol

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    I love that music!! :)

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    By the way — I’m glad you like the show and that we keep it natural. It makes it imperfect (awkward pauses once in a while!) but we like that it allows people to be genuine and comfortable!

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    Ahhh – we’re happy to be part of your family! :)

    Thanks for listening and for trying to give us 5 stars! Sorry iTunes was giving you problems — we definitely appreciate you taking the time.

  • D Coop

    well i sure am stuck and have no idea why… its like the lights just went off ,,,,haven’t been in the craft room for months. continue this topic again real soon please. I miss my craft room and my creative outlet. thanks Noell.

  • Rebecca Nelson

    Love this show! I just recently found my mojo and then it took awhile to find the time to act on it! I’m currently sitting in a crop room for a mini retreat – so excited!! There are two things I did to find my mojo. For my digital scrapbooking, I made several mini-books on Shutterfly. By taking a single topic and dumping photos into premade pages it got me ready to do more in my own style. My kids love the books so I knew that they didn’t have to be “perfect”. That got me ready to do scrapping for me, where I can tell my story the way I want to. For my paper scrapping, I always take a few Big Picture classes and then I make cards. Stacy’s class 12 has been amazing and now I just need to translate those ideas to pages. Slowly but surely, I’ll get there. I’m happy to have to desire to scrap and I hope I can capitalize on these good ideas!

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    But wait! You have to just get back in there and do something — just something light and small. And then hopefully you won’t need us to continue the topic again so soon, LOL! ;)

  • Tiffany W.

    Thought the show was great this week. I consider myself a prolific scrapbooker, but there are times when life creeps in the way and I can’t get to scrapbooking. I find that time away does contribute to losing interest or creativity.

    Since I’m a list-maker, I find that printing out a batch of pictures usually motivates me to get started again. I also try and do some type of memory-keeping every day–whether that be updating my blogs, sorting or editing pictures, or going through my supplies. I count that towards scrapbooking and don’t beat myself up when I can’t always make a page.

    If I truly have the blahs, I will pick a magazine at random and find a layout that draws my eye and scraplift it. That usually kickstarts my creativity. I also make photobooks through Shutterfly or Snapfish, which makes me feel good. For me, creativity is all about feeling good and expressing myself. If I am not feeling good, it is hard to feel creative. So sometimes, I may need time to figure out my emotions. I may need to let go of guilt, anger, or forgive someone or myself. That tends to help.

  • Tiffany W.

    I forgot another way I fight the blahs. Sometimes product choices become overwhelming and I get paralyzed by perfectionism. To fight that, I’ll pick a kit or two and then leave my house with just the pictures, kit, my basic tools. I’m forced to actually create instead of dally and debate over product choices.

  • Catherine

    Great topic. I love to listen to your show. We don’t have anything comparable here in Germany.

    When I lose my mojo I find it easiest to start with some fresh pictures. I also find it highly inspiring to listen to your show, while scrapping. Even if you scrap on your own it gives you the feeling of beloning to a wonderful community.

    Thank you for making me feeling like that.
    Catherine
    PS: Sorry for my bad english…

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    Your English is great! We’re glad to be here for you. It’s not just Germany — I don’t think there’s anything comparable to the Roundtable anywhere in the entire scrapbooking world! ;)

  • Emily

    I just want to send a huge thank you to Nicole and the panel this week. This episode was the right message at the right time. I had my first baby 6 weeks ago and haven’t done anything creative in that time. Needless to say my only priority right now is taking care of her and my creative mojo has evaporated. I have over 200 baby photos, but no time or energy to scrap. Tonight my hubby sent me to my scraproom for an hour – he said even if I just sit on the floor and read a magazine in there it would be good for me. I then realized that I had not listed to PRT in 6 weeks either so I went to the site and decided to start with the most recent. As I listened, I completely agreed with Nicole – being away from something you love for so long is hard and it is hard to come back. I am overwhelmed by my stash and don’t even know where to start. But then I began to clean up and organize my desk. It felt good to bring some order to my space. Then I started going through the bag of baby shower ephemera and sorting into piles of what will go into album pages and what will be kept in a memory box. This episode showed me that I need to reset my expectations, but being a new mom doesn’t mean I have to abandon my creative/stress relief outlet – I just need to redefine how I do it. This could mean that now I only get to scrap 1 hour a week and I have to force myself to take that time. It could mean doing small tasks like sorting photos. Or I use my “go-to” page design template for all my pages to keep it simple. I think if I get sad or frustrated, I’ll come back to this episode as a reminder. Thank you again for this great show. Looking forward to catching up on the remaining 5 in my queue.

    PS. I do still have time to watch Survivor :) much easier to feed a baby and watch tv than it is to scrap and feed!

  • Kim

    First, I must say, I love the show! I discovered the Paperclipping Roundtable over the summer while I was trying to find something to listen to while I trained for the Susan Komen 60 mile walk. The show was I life saver, keeping me entertained while I walked for hours and hours and I have nearly listen to all your show! I am also a member and love the videos.

    Second, to Izzy, I have completed all your assignments….subscribed on iTunes, commented on iTunes, and sent links to my friends! I hope you get tons more listeners!

    Third, I love this show! So much of what you said is so true and helpful. I too have suffered from having no creative energy. I totally agreed with the comment about sometimes when you go away from scrapbooking for a while, when you come back you feel more inspired and creative. My problem has been getting myself to come back. Sometimes my time away has lasted years! This year, I decided to do Project Life and a Photo-a-day in the hopes that it would keep me more engaged in my hobby and….it worked. Not only have a kept up with Project Life and Photo-a-day (and love dong it), but it has inspired me do scrapbook pages for those topics or events I want to tell more of a story about (or given me ideas to complete pages of past events). I have completed 2 scrapbooks this year (plus my project life books) which is more than I have done for the past 10 years. Thanks for a great show!

  • Marie-Pierre

    THAT’S HILARIOUS!!!!! :) Thanks for sharing. lol

  • Marie-Pierre

    I think it’s the first time I have a hobby that I keep that long!! Before I started scrapbooking I did some watercolour painting, mosaic, paper cutting, cards, and all sorts of things crafty that didn’t last very long. I’m happy I discovered scrapbooking. So I rarely get the blah. Sometimes I do wonder what my next page will be about though. In that case I just found out that having a broad theme helps a lot. I’m on a design since june and that is awesome for waking up my creativity. When I’m asked to do a page about a theme like for example a table…..well, all sorts of memories come to my mind. It’s a broad theme so we could do so many things with it. The table theme for example reminds me of me eating everyday at the table with my family. How was it? What did I like about it? What did we eat? Who was typically there? I could write 2 pages of journaling about that! Or I could do a page about my grand-ma’s table as we were staying 2 weeks at her house in Florida over the Holidays, every year! I could also make a page about how my grand-father grilled some steaks in the fireplace and served it to us on some wooden plates with white rice. Or how we used to have 2 tables at Christmas at my grand-ma’s house because there wasn’t enough room for all of us at one table. So we sat together with the kids at the small table and I used to play “who will eat more pickles” with my cousin because my grand-ma was making them herself and they were so good I could have eaten the whole jar in one sitting! And it goes on and on…. If you would like to get broad themes like that to play the game and get ideas, you could always go to Debbie Hodge’s blog and see the themes we get to create and create your own pages from those given themes. (By the way, I didn’t mean to make free publicity, but this helps me a lot not to get stuck with no ideas so I wanted to share. Hope you don’t mind.) :)

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    This reminds me of the way I think. I call these “seed” ideas and I love how one simple word or idea can trigger so many memories! It’s fine that you shared Debbie’s blog. I love that you shared all the specific story ideas that came to you from just one general word. It’s a great example of how to generate ideas.

  • Jersey Girl Anne

    I loved this episode. When I lose my mojo..I always print out new pictures. I find it interesting that I DON’T lose my mojo the longer I am away from my scrap room. It is just the opposite for me. My hands start to itch (if you know what I mean ) and I just get more and more ideas and cant wait to scrap!! Last year I wasnt able to scrap for about three months due to my caring for two elderly relatives and it just about killed me that I could’nt. When I was finally able to scrap again..I made more pages in a short amount of time than ever before. Oh, and on a side note.. I did enjoy the party episode and I really enjoy when Ana is on the show. All your guest are great!!

  • http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

    OH, this was the episode for me! I feel like you’re in my head! I haven’t scrapped since last March and I’ve been perplexed as to why. Prior to that, I’d been scrapping on and off–once a month or so–also, wondering why it had dipped off from my page-a-day pace from four years ago.

    After hearing the podcast, I think it is just as simple as I’ve been away too long. So many things in life have pulled my attention, making it so difficult to dive in (writing, art school, Taekwondo, homeschooling, etc.). Plus, the pressure I’ve been putting on myself to explain my reasons to myself why (hazards of geek-hood) and the pressures I’ve placed on myself to get back in an make layouts (hazards of being creative) have culminated into a serious case of scrappers block.

    So, I’m following your advice–I’m scheduling it into my life. Just thinking about it makes me so jazzed! Whoo-hoo! Thanks Noell, Izzy, Nichol, and Jess!