What inspires you?

Yesterday I finally got a few minutes to stamp a card for my last Sunday Morning Challenge, but I didn't have time to photograph and upload it until this morning. And, of course, I figured out after I assembled and adhered everything together that the horizontal stripe was supposed to go on top of the vertical stripes, so I didn't even get that part of my own challenge right -- Sorry! But you get the idea.

For this challenge I used Glorious Green, Green Galore, tempting turquoise, brilliant blue (all from the bold brights color family), groovy guava from the new in color 2008 family and whisper white. I used the glorious green and brilliant blue markers to stamp the flowers from the Year After Year set. I then colored the image with the green galore and tempting turquoise markers, and used a blender pen to add a little groovy ink to the center of the flowers. I sponged the edges of the whisper white card stock with green galore and added groovy guava and brilliant blue mats. I used the tempting turquoise card stock for the card base. I stamped the happy birthday greeting in brilliant blue on groovy guava card stock and punched it out with the small oval punch, then added a mat of green galore punched with the large oval punch. I adhered the sentiment to the vertical stripe of brilliant blue card stock and I placed the two horizontal stripes of glorious green and green galore on the side. My edge treatment was simple tearing, thought I might do another card for this challenge and get a little more creative with the edges.

Now, I will admit that this color combination is not exactly something I would reach for on my own. Which brings me to the topic of this post. What inspires you? The most common complaint among stampers is that sometimes we get into a rut or loose our stamping mojo -- we find ourselves reaching for the same color combination and the same layout, even the same stamp sets or, worse yet, we find we cannot stamp at all. If this ever happens to you know that you are not alone -- it happens to all of us. And the question then becomes what will be the inspiration that will snap you out of your rut or will bring back your mojo?

For me challenges work best. I love it when someone else has already figured out a layout and/or a color combination so that I can just focus on one aspect of the card -- stamping! I also love how challenges force me to use color combinations and layouts that are outside my comfort zone.

Leafing through current or past Stampin' Up! catalogs is another good way to get inspired. I sometimes do that to find an interesting color combination or a good layout. I often find that my creativity is significantly boosted after leafing through the catalog and my head is filled with ideas. Of course, I usually only use a fraction of those ideas, but it's much better to have too many ideas than not enough.

But inspiration does not always come from stamping related sources. I sometimes get layout ideas while looking through catalogs or magazines, and I definitely use these sources to find eye-catching color combinations. For example, the color combination I used on this challenge card came from one of my favorite catalogs -- Coldwater Creek. This was the Spirit catalog, and if you want to get inspired just like me you can go to their website and leaf through the catalog on-line. There are some absolutely fantastic color combinations in this season's offerings.


One jacket that particularly caught my eye was this simple striped jacket. I just loved the combination of blues and greens with just a touch of groovy guava. Since the colors all came from two color families, I decided to use these colors in my challenge card. I placed the card beside the photo of the jacket so that you can see how they look together. I really like how the card turned out. I'd love to know your thoughts.