Inspiration is a funny thing...

Inspiration is a funny thing.  I just never know when it will hit or how hard it will hit.  But WOW!--when it does hit it is a wonderful thing for jumpstarting my mojo!  I have been away from cardmaking for so long it feels like forever.  First there was the illness and surgery of my husband that took my complete attention.  And while he is still "on the mend" he is doing much better and  I find that I now have time for some crafting.  I just don't have the mojo.....Then my middle child was graduating from high school.....well, that is just big doings around my town!  There are events, banquets grad parties and on and on and on.  So in between my husband getting home and now there has been numerous soccer games, track meets, Clarice's grad party at our house and her actual graduation....and grad card after grad card.  Grad cards are fun but creative?  Not so much for me ;-D  So, after all was said and done, all the events were finished....I sat down to create and....nothin'.....I went on the different challenge sites that I like and....nothin'.  Finally I had some time and all I could bring to the table was a big, fat zero in the creativity department.   I had to face the unpleasant fact that my mojo was gone. Kaput. Left...in a big way!

Until today.  Today I visited the Penny Black Blog to check out the calorie free PB & J Mondays with Jill Foster of Inspired By... and watched her tutorial for the day and YOWZA!  I not only LOVED HER CARD here but dropped everything (and by everything I mean my housework that really needed to be done....) and sat down to try her technique.  And I followed her tutorial step by step.  Even down to using the same stamp, colors etc..... The funny thing is that I had pulled out that very same stamp late Friday night when I couldn't sleep and just messed around with it....but really, didn't like anything I was coming up with (could have been the fact that it was after midnight and I was dead tired...) but when I saw Jill's card it was a "light bulb" (well in the card creating sense) moment for me.

I basically completely copied her beautiful card....I just made a few changes to accommodate the larger card size that I used.  I stayed with her color combo ....well, just because it is so durn fabulous! And I added a tag.  And some bling.  And, I'm happy to have done somthing.  And, really, isn't that what tutorials are for?  I mean....I followed Jill's steps almost verbatim....just added a little somethin'somethin' of my own.  But my next card will be more "mine"....more me....and the card after that even more so....and that is the beauty of a good tutorial.  It provides the blue print for baby steps when we have lost our groove....it provides the starting point. It is up to us/me where I take this tutorial five, six seven cards from now....so here is my jumping off point...based on Jill's card.

Here is my next step....as I also had time then to create another card.  This  one is for my daughter's friends who also graduated and is leaving tomorrow for the National Guard....we won't see her again till Christmas time and we are all sad to see her go.  She has an absolutely infectious giggle and she has been a wonderful friend to Clarice.  I love this kid to pieces and wanted to give her another little "goodbye" for her to tuck into her bag and read on the plane.

So, I'm pretty happy with how these turned out...and I am more than happy that I had fun, and got a little bit of creative juices flowing. So.....Thank You Jill Foster out in blogland for getting ME inspired again!

Be well,

Sheila