A Peek Into My Creative Process
Ever wonder what someone else’s creative process looks like? Are you the neat-freak type or the wild child type? A peek into my process would likely indicate a little bit of both and probably best labeled ‘organized chaos’.
As April draws to a close, I had a goal to complete 1 scrapbook album, and I can say that is now complete. One album down, 10 more to go, over the next 11 months. You can read more about that here. My process isn’t always pretty, but it does get stuff done.
I commandeer the dining room table and do a few pages every few days. It’s nice to leave the supplies out and just pop in and make a page or two. Focusing on it weekly and daily has also made it a success.
So, what can we learn from this, and how can you apply this in your life?
- Commit to what you want to accomplish. This isn’t someone else’s goal. This is YOUR goal. Own it. Know why you even want to accomplish it. And then if it’s still important to you, go after it.
- Prioritize it and schedule time during your week to work on your goal or project. My goal is to make 11 scrapbook albums over 12 months. For me that is roughly 1 album per month with a little bit of flex time built in. Seriously blocking out time during your week will get you so much closer to your goal. I block out a few hours on the weekends to do the bulk of the scrapbooking, along with an hour or so during the week. Make it a priority.
- Make a mess. Even if it’s an organized mess. But get into it. In my case, it was setting up a space to be able to set out my supplies. I could come and go, do an hour here, or a page there. Creating is messy. Be creative. Be messy. Be okay with it.
- Organized chaos. Have your supplies semi-organized. It allows you to find what you need when you need it. This may take some time up front, or maybe even after you’ve been working at it and need to take a breath and just re-organize. As you can see in my organized chaos (if you look closely) you can see a bin of stickers, a few different bins of papers organized by size and color, bins of markers, and a bin of scissors. When I’m scrapping, papers tend to end up all over the place and after several sessions, I usually take the time to get everything back to its original home. Now that I finished an album I’ll also likely do that.
- Most importantly, have fun with it! After all, this is something YOU want and probably something you enjoy doing. So have fun with it. Set mini goals — a piece of chocolate for every section finished — to help celebrate your progress.
That’s a look into my creative mess process. What project are you working on? Have you used any of the techniques listed above? If so, how do you apply it to your organized chaos?
