As many of you know, I love to be creative. The whole process is very interesting to me. First, I have to be in a creative mood in order to be successful. This doesn’t mean I already have an idea it simply means I want to go through the process. Very much like when you get in the mood to go for a walk. You may want to go for a walk but not quite sure where you want to go.

The next step is to be inspired. To become inspired, I look through photos on Flicker, videos on YouTube, sit on my craft room floor and go through magazines, and sometimes I simply just pick up a medium (e.g., polymer clay, decorative papers, ribbon) and relax my mind and see what comes to me.

Then I get started. Slow and steady. I use my intuition and gut feelings to tell me if I am going in the right direction or if I like the placement of my efforts on the page. This is where the creative juices flow and it is hard to explain how it works. It is just a feeling you get when something is going in the right direction.

When do you know you have gone too far? If you rush through a project, you will easily go too far. Unfortunately, it is often very easy to go too far. When you feel like you need to work on the piece to “recover” the effort, usually it is too late. The photo to the left is an example of a project that went too far. The intentions were right but it turned out too dark. I then tried to recover by adding components which are bright on top. See the little yellow flower, butterfly, and the bright green flower in lower right corner. This just made the piece feel even darker.

So, I bailed on the project and have started a new piece. Yes, it is frustrating but the creative process, whether successful or not, always teaches you something about a technique. In this process, I learned how alcohol based colored spray blends quickly to form new colors when overlapped. I thought it would have just covered the other ink with the darker spray. But, instead I got different colors. In this piece, I only used purple, bright lime, and blue colors.

So, off to the next piece. I hope this turns out better. I just need to stop when I feel good about the piece and trust that it is done when it is done. Sometimes, simple is better.

Update: I finished the second piece and decided to keep it simple. Yes, I want to do more with the project but in this case, simple is best. To the right you will see the revised attempt. This is a sheet of paper glued to a board, a stamp design on the paper, alcohol ink sprayed cardboard frame and corner element, and the word Love stamped in the lower left corner. I have blocked out the photo for privacy reasons. But, I promise he is a real cutie pie.