Creative Saturday: Inspirations

Inspiration can come from anywhere, at anytime. Sometimes, inspiration is found close to home and other times it can be found in far flung places across the globe. Often, where Lita and I are concerned, the combination of being together and a bookstore usually leads us down a path strewn with creative ideas and little inspirations that tug at our sleeves, begging to be realized.

We met in the morning and headed out to our first bookstore. We found inspiration before we even stepped a foot into the store. Right outside was a small photo booth with black curtains that enticed us to climb in and be silly.

Approaching the bookstore, we are like two wide-eyed children outside a candy shoppe, drooling with delight over all the bright colored goodies stacked on the shelves. What will we find? Or more correctly, what will find us?  We have a method to our madness...usually we hit up the magazine section first. Looking for goodies in the Computer, Photography, Craft and Art sections. Our most favorite magazines for inspiration are the ones by Stampington & Company including Digital Studios, Somerset Life, Somerset Studio, Art Journaling and Artful Blogger to name a few. Just browse a few pages of any one of these magazines and I guarantee you will be rushing home with a head full of creative ideas. Today Lita and I both picked up the new Somerset Life. From the pages, we each picked a project that we would like as our Christmas gift. Lita will make the one I picked and I'll make the one she picked. We will interpret the project in our own way and at Christmas, we will exchange them as our gifts to each other. What fun!

Our lunch today was another place to gather inspiration. We chatted about our ideas, talked about our recent creative projects. Even the tables, dressed to perfection gave inspiration. I even took pics of the bathroom wall, made up of tiny little marble rectangles.

After lunch, we headed to our second bookstore, Barnes and Noble. We found a bonanza of new books in the Arts and Crafts section. While browsing this section, I found 4 very strange books stuck together, stashed among the books on journaling and mixed media:

What kind of personality was carrying these four books around? Why did they suddenly stash them in the Arts & Crafts section? What the hell were they doing in that section anyways? Are they still roaming around the store? Watching us? Seeing what we would do when we came across them? Probably didn't expect me to lay them all out and take a picture! It was just too interesting to resist! After the picture taking, I hurriedly stashed them back into the piles of craft books. Needless to say, it gave us quite the belly laugh!

Surprisingly, there were a few new books in the Photography section which has inspired us to make plans for an upcoming Photo Safari which I'm already so excited for! And, I've been inspired to do a photo series this week...one picture everyday of the same thing...I think I'm going to do my morning coffee. I'll post the whole series at the end of the week. Who knows what that will lead to...maybe a new inspiration will come from the coffee series. Ya just never know!

My inspirational haul included: The Crafter's Devotional which is full of 365 days of tips, tricks and techniques for unlocking the creative spirit. I haven't decided if I will start this book right away or wait until January 1st and make the book my 2011 project. The Big-Ass Book of Crafts I got this mainly for some of the photography projects but also just because the name makes me giggle. inner Excavation is subtitled Exploring Your Self through Photography, Poetry and Mixed Media. Three of my favorite things! Oh, I had to have!

Book + Art is about handcrafting artist's books. Something I've not done but find fascinating. I also picked up a Victorian Designs clip art book. This has a CD that includes all these great copy-right free images that I will be using via Photoshop. I love all the Dover clip art books! And, finally the Somerset Life magazine mentioned above.

We also found inspiration at a huge costume store that opened near my house. It's only open for Halloween and will pack up and be gone by next week. When we create our digital art in Photoshop one of the things that always frustrates us is trying to change hair color, especially Lita's dark hair to blonde. We were digging on all the wigs we found in the store:

Lita as a blonde, with lots and lots of curls!

This one is called "Trailer Park Trophy Wife Wig"

Are you kidding me? Hilarious!

Laura as a brunette goddess, purchased for an upcoming photo shoot with Perseus. :)

I hope you, dear reader, will spend some time in a bookstore or library near you. Browse the books, feel the paper, marvel at the covers. I promise you will find some inspiration hidden there, on the shelves, between the pages. 

If minds are truly alive they will seek out books, for books are the human race recounting its memorable experiences, confronting its problems, searching for solutions, drawing the blueprints of it futures.- Harry A. Overstreet