I have been thinking a lot recently about my lack of creativity and what the cause of it may be. I have come to the conclusion it is because I have too much of everything! I am completely overwhelmed and have totally lost my way.
I went to a new crop yesterday and there were only 7 of us in total, which was really nice. It meant that we could all chat away and no one was left out. It also meant that the conversation took many twists and turns. One of the recurring themes was about a lack of mojo, of creativity. One lady said she felt she had gone back to basics as she didn't know where to start with regards to creating a scrapbook page. Another lady said she needed a sketch or a page to scraplift before she could make a page. Others there were not scrapbookers but made various other papercraft items and various creations and techniques were shared. I had taken paper to sketch a minecraft man to add to a cardigan for Logan, partly because I didn't know what to take with me that wouldn't overwhelm me.
On the journey home I was thinking about my own lack of mojo and missing creativity and why I was feeling this way. It came down to 2 things.
1. In scrapbooking I felt so overwhelmed by how much stuff I have and the fact that my current way of organising things isn't working too well.
2. For art journalling it was a lack of space and the fact that my supplies were not organised in a way that meant they were easy to access.
The common theme of organisation and lack of easy access seems to be at the core of things. My craft room has more storage than I had before but I have about half of the desk space I had before and that is a bit of a problem. When I moved into this room I could spread my supplies, which I did but then as I now have scrapbooking stuff, art journalling materials, genealogy supplies and my daily life mail and filing system all in a smaller space some thing will have to change. I have only fairly recently realised that I am trying to cram more stuff into a smaller space than I had before. I had tried to keep things the same when I moved from my bedroom and attic space to a single room downstairs but it simply won't work. There is always an overspill and so the desk is always cluttered and not easily accessible for creating.
I recently reorganised my bedroom so that I could put everything away in a given place. Much of the overspill that didn't really belong in my bedroom came downstairs and some went into the still to be sorted attic space. I now have to think carefully about what I should have where and try and get my craft space sorted in a way that encourages creativity rather than stifles it. This is the the crux of the whole thing.
To that end I have spent most of the day trawling Pinterest for ideas on how to change things for the better. There is no point in me drooling over lovely big craft spaces, as I will never have that. I now have lots of space in my bedroom and only a little space downstairs so I need to rebalance the equation.
I have my scrapbook papers and embellishments sorted pretty much but one of the biggest problems is my stamps. I have a serious problem when it comes to buying stamps and I have a lot I may never use and many that I seldom do so that is the problem I am addressing first. I currently have my stamps in their original packaging in baskets of sets which roughly go together. I have thought about cd and dvd cases and I thought about folders but I have decided to use Tim Holtz unmounted stamp refill pockets which I had started to use a long time ago, but with the folder they are meant to be stored in. Back then the problem was I had too many stamps for the folder, my problem now is I simply have too many stamps. Once my folders arrive I am planning to split up my stamp sets and store my stamps in categories. For instance I will have all sentiment stamps together rather than several sets with sentiments and pictures. I know this will be a lot of work but it is an essential first step on my road back to creativity. I so need to be creative in ways other than with knitting and sewing but I need to make space and have my supplies stored in a more easily accessible way.
I intend to blog about my progress, even if it is only to keep me motivated to finish. I think it may be a longer journey than I had hoped for but if it fulfils its purpose it will be more than worth it.
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