Finding Inspiration....

Hi all! Christi Snow here with you today.Every Tuesday, one of the dt gets to hi-jack the Unity blog.TODAY is my day....hehe!
Today, we are going to talk inspiration. I know, you all aren't surprised, are you?
I love inspiration! 
The fact is, I try to create something everyday. 
But when you sit down to that blank sheet of cardstock, it can be a bit overwhelming.
It doesn't matter how gorgeous your stamps are, if you are lacking inspiration, it can really be NOT FUN to sit down to play with them.... especially if inspiration is nowhere to be found (i.e. LOST MOJO!)
So I work daily to keep my inspiration quota up high enough to keep up with my creating and that keeps ME (and my Creative Muse) creative.
So where does inspiration come from? 
One of the easiest and most readily available sources for creative inspiration is through challenges. In fact, Unity has several that we issue every week. One of those is our FWF inspiration challenge. That one can be found every Friday right here on the Unity blog.
In fact, last week's challenge (FWF50 from Carolina) inspired this card that I created...

Stamp Set used: Undeniably You & Picture Perfect (ledger stamp)

I was inspired by the gorgeous layout of her card. I also was inspired by another challenge for my color scheme...Curtain Call Color Challenge- Act 55. One of the things that I love about that challenge blog is that they use items from their environment for inspiration, esp. decor items. LOVE!

Some Great Color Challenge Sites:

*Curtain Call Color Challenge

*The Playdate Cafe

*Color Throwdown

*Off the Wall Craftiness

*Embellish Magazine Color Challenge

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The layout below was done from a sketch challenge. 

I have the sketch printed out, but I have NO IDEA where it came from *eek*! So, if you recognize this layout design, hook me up with a link and I am so sorry to whomever did this sketch. (hint: I think that I printed it up 4-6 weeks ago.....)

Stamp Set used: One of a Kind (Melody Ross kit) & ledger block from Nov kom

I love using sketches as inspiration. For me the funnest part of creating is picking out my product. This way I can concentrate on that aspect of it and leave the layout design to the inspiration sketch.

Some great Sketch Inspiration Sites:

*Pencil Lines (scrapbook)

*Mojo Monday (card)

*CPS (card)

*Get Sketchy (card)

*Pagemaps (both)

*2Sketches4You (card)

*Card Patterns (card)

*Inspired Blueprints (both)

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Finally, we come to my favorite type of inspiration.... although this is a little more vague than the others. This type of inspiration comes simply from images. A lot of the time those images are from collages of photos, weddings, home decor, or even fashion. For these types of inspiration, I simply try to recreate the original feel of the images that inspired me. 

For instance the card below was inspired by this wedding from the Style Me Pretty website. I loved the happy, whimsical feel of the color scheme and styling and tried to re-create that with my card using the same colors and similar patterns.

Stamp Set used: Picture Perfect (Nov kom)

Some Great Design Blogs for Inspiration:

*Style Me Pretty

*A Field Journal

*A Creative Mint

*Anthropologie

*Ruche

*Snippet & Ink

*The Party Dress

I hope that this has inspired you to look a bit more for inspiration around the web. 

The goal is never to have a LOST MOJO because we want 

to keep those pretty Unity Stamp Company stamps INKY!!!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!!