I have been down in the dumps the past few days! I get sick, my scrappin’mojo leaves, the kids act up, and you know- everything just seems WRONG. Bad wrong. Thankfully, after about five days of Ben and Jerry eating misery, growling at anyone who dared come to near, wondering if my bad temper was offending everyone in a two mile radius. . .I feel better.

This probably has something to do with the fact that I got a nice raise at work (go me), and I’ve been a flurry of work designing upcoming kits and getting loaded up with various design obligations. Originally I was panicking about these because, people, when I’m down, I’m down. I understand Holly Golightly’s mean reds. When you’ve got those nothing creative is going to happen. That is probably the hardest thing about my job. I am paid to be creative. It may sound like a picnic, but when you’ve lost your muse- it’s a very scary thing.

Oh, I can fake it pretty well, and I’ve had to do it on more than one occasion, but every time I do my art lacks the je ne sais quois that makes my art mine. And then I end up hating it. I’ve got art coming out in an ad in Creating Keepsakes soon- I would really like that to be some of my best work and not a crumby representation of myself going through the motions. Largest scrapbooking publication out there. . .no pressure or anything. . .

The thing that I’ve found with creativity is that you’ve got to do something creative every day. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to make something astounding on a daily basis, but you’ve got to nourish that part of you. Make a card, finger paint with your kids, read something well written, admire other’s art; it doesn’t matter, just play and feed your creative side. Our creative selves get weak and fall apart just like our physical and spiritual selves will without daily sustenance. If you want a part of you to thrive, you’ve got to practice growing it. Great faith and huge muscles don’t build themselves overnight- neither does a creative mind. And for some of us, losing that creative spark equals a very unfulfilled life.

So- what are you going to do that’s creative today?

Here’s a little peek at what I did: