Tidy Studios are not Creative Studios. Tidy Artists are not Creative Artists

Remember last week when I spent days cleaning up the studio so my STARS club could not only enter the room & find seats, but also have clean tables to play on after being seated? Had to be done and the studio is gorgeous. But my creative mojo has flown right out with the trash in the dust pan. Gone. Vanished. I enter that room and can't think of a single thing I want to do.

And it's because it's just too tidy. I need that brown kraft paper back on the tables. I need to see all that ink and paint, evidence of my last guinea pig class where everyone was having fun.

So I made myself the card you see above. And I'm keeping it on file to remind me how to start a mess... I mean project.

I should tell you I love journals and I have dozens of them. When I travel I carry one with me to make notes. You should see me on long flights, scribbling away as the ideas come to me. Same thing when I get a new publication. I love to look at the photos for inspiration, though I never see what the artists have made. Instead I see something completely different that sends me down a totally unexpected path. It may be a color combination I haven't used before...or a shape...or a pattern.

Think about an old telephone with a rotary dial. It's not just a dial. It's a circle cut from bristol board. The holes are punched (where are my punches?) Now I can use foam mounting tape, or a brad, or a brad run through the bristol board, then a foam circle, and then my base cardstock. Now it's raised just like a phone dial. But I don't have to stamp numbers & letters on the base to show through the circles. I can stamp anything! I can punch clip art faces. I can glue on different colored buttons. I can stamp letters that spell out a word. I can stamp tiny words to make a sentence.

And while I'm cutting out a circle of bristol board why not cut out 2? For this one I'll punch a tiny hole in the center and add a game spinner. What will I stamp around the edges?

And that makes me think of a Crazy 8 Ball. Remember those? "Does not look good" "Check Back Later" "Try Again"

And that makes me think of the jar of fortunes I bought at Stampaway last week. Which makes me think of art using those fortunes. How about a journal with pockets...and a fortune tucked inside each pocket.

I've got to make a mess in the studio. Gotta do it. Soon.

And then I've got to start making my samples for new classes. Which reminds me of the lesson I've learned over the years. Don't send off the ONLY sample 9 months before you might be teaching the class. Make several while you're making one.

Gotta make another card...