Welcome all you blog hoppers! And any random non-blog hoppers out there. 😀
Hopefully you’ve come from Gayle’s blog on your trip through LOAD-world. If you haven’t, start with Margie, and make your way back here. 🙂
First, if you want to know what I think you need in order to successfully complete a LayOutADay, check out this post from last year. And! The post immediately before it talks about the first time I did LOAD, so it might help you figure out what to expect if this is your first time attempting LOAD. But that’s not what I want to talk about this time around. This time I want to talk about how, by doing LOAD, you become a better scrapbooker, and you discover your own strengths (and weaknesses) by committing to a month of dedicated creativity.
It’s true. It really is true.
Have you seen this poster?
I saw it on Pinterest a few months ago. And then, Stacy Julian linked to the interview with Ira Glass that this quote comes from, and everything clicked.
Do a lot of work. On a deadline. Create a volume of work. As you make more, and learn more, your output improves, until it meshes with your own taste and style.
That’s LOAD!
LOAD is how you find your creative style. Or one way to find your creative style. There are other ways to commit to a creative life, but this one works for me.
So this is what you need to do. Commit to making a page every day for the month of February. Don’t allow yourself to make excuses. No “I’m tired, I’m sick, I’m too busy,” excuses. If you really want to scrapbook, make, no scratch that, TAKE time to do it. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time. In fact, having too much time can get in the way of finishing a page. Just make a promise to yourself to do it.
Of course there are things that can get in the way of finishing a page. Important, life altering things. Only you can decide if the excuses that get in the way of creating are important enough for you to walk away from the crafting table. But everyday life? You shouldn’t let that stop you.
Listen to Lain’s prompts. Do they speak to you? Do they inspire you? Then work with them. If the prompt isn’t working for you that day, work on something else. A project you’ve been working on for ages. A story that’s just begging to be told. A photo that just grabs your heart, and you need to showcase it. Do something.
Some days you will love, love, love, what you have made. Other days, it will all seem to fall apart as you go, and you’ll be disappointed in the final product. Don’t second guess yourself. Just move on to the next page.
Keep everything you create in one place. Make a big pile. Keep it in a binder for your brand new pages. Your pile of pages will grow. You might even make a dent in your stash. (I’d have to do hundreds of pages for that to happen.)
And at the end of the month, look at what you have done. What pages are your favorites? Why? Do you have any pages that you dislike? Again, why? What are the common threads that run through your pages? How are they alike? What makes them different?
By answering those questions, you will discover what kind of scrapbooker you are. Are you a story teller? A technique lover? A fan of color or monochrome?
Only by creating a body of work, and then going back and examining it, will you be able to find your creative process and style. Only by committing to creating do you build a body of work.
If you haven’t signed up for LOAD 212 yet, what are you waiting for? This is the quickest and easiest way to build a body of work.
So commit. Create. Explore. Find yourself.
Next stop? Gina!
And here’s the links to everyone’s blogs, so you can hop and skip among them if you’d rather.
Margie
Kelli
Jennifer
Lisa
Monica
Kimberly
Eileen
Danielle
Pam
Katrina
Cate
Gayle
Heather (that’s me!)
Gina
Kristie
Janet
Lydia
Lovely approach to the meaning behind our dedication to LOAD – I hope it inspires many more to join – See you on Flickr!
Jennifer
@atthebluebarn
I hope so too. Committing to creative time really helps you figure out what kind of creative you are.
Awesome post! I love that poster. I’ve never seen it before. Love the way you spelled everything out. So true!! 🙂
Oh, even better? There’s a video graphic. Check it out! http://youtu.be/PbC4gqZGPSY
That’s what Stacy J linked to, and I recognized the quote from the poster.
I love how you included the quote from Ira Glass. It’s so inspiring! What a great post in prep for LOAD!
That quote is one of the earliest things I pinned when I joined pinterest. It captured the creative journey so well.
What an awesome poster! It’s true that it takes time to see your own style…I’ve been stuck and I find once I get into the groove and start creating every day in LOAD, similar likes/trends/ideas keep surfacing. Way to go!
I love it. I wish I had the original source so I could print it or buy it for my home.
And you can even go back to your old pages, and see how you’ve changed as you’ve travelled your creative path.
I have never seen this poster, but AMEN!! I am glad you shared it. I really feel like this past year, when I did three LOADS, I finally found my own, personal creative voice. I loved the intensity of a the process and I loved that I came out the other side feeling more in touch with myself as a creative. Thank you so much for sharing.
That’s why I love LOAD. I am so much more confident in my abilities and my motivations. I’m looking forward to “enforced” scrapping again. 😀
An amazing and inspriational post, Heather! It’s all so true! You can’t help but be yourself in your pages with such limited time and deadlines. You really have to go with your gut and thereby, go with your own style. Love it! Can’t wait to see your work again!
Thank you! I can’t wait to go wandering thru the gallery again. I love seeing what people do!
Another AMEN to the poster! Wonderful post, Heather! I like your thoughts of pulling what is our creative self out of a body of work, having something to examine!
Thanks Kristie! Looking at what you like about what you’ve done is really the best way to figure out where you want to go next, no matter what you’re doing.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this quote and it is SO true whether you are talking about scrapbooking or any other endeavor. No one is born a natural master at anything. It takes dedication and hard work!
That’s so true! Not only do you become better, you become more confident in your own abilities. Hard work and commitment are key. Now if only I could apply that to housekeeping. 😀
love that quote. thanks for sharing. super inspirign post. looking forward to scrappin together.
Yay! I can’t wait to see what you post, I always love your work 🙂
Heather – fantastic post. I think Ali just posted Ira Glass as well. I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but I think I’ll do that before starting LOAD. Loved your post. Heidi
Oh, try to make time to listen to the Ira Glass stuff. It was just what I needed to hear this month.
Heather,that was amazing you are such a powerful writer, I could feel every word going through my body(I’m not sure if that makes any sense but to me it does) your passion is so inspiring. Thank you so much.
I have noticed on a couple of blogs they mention Pinterest can you tell me what it is. I keep learning so much belonging to the LOADster Blog hop and the Scrap Happy family and Lain sometimes I feel overwhelmed and so privileged to be a member.
Once again thanks Heather need a coffee it really has got to me.
I love Pinterest. I think the best way to decribe it is as an online pinboard. Say you find a recipe that you really want to try, or a page you want to scraplift. You pin it to a themed board you have named, and then you can come back to it later to give the recipe a try or do your scraplift. It’s like having a bunch of corkboards that you have pinned newspaper and magazine articles to, only it’s all online. If you want, I can send you an invite. 🙂
Heather – what a great post! Thanks so much for sharing. I think it’s exactly what I needed to hear. I can’t wait to see your pages and can’t wait to start creating mine.
Yeah, I’m really looking forward to February too! See you on the boards!
Heather-thanks for the great take on LOAD. I really feel that this is the most important part of the LOAD process. It’s easy to get caught up in what we perceive as the “rules of the game” rather than on the process of creating. Thanks for sharing.
I really feel like there’s no such thing as rules in scrapbooking. And I feel like it’s my job to help people let go of the rules that are holding them back. Scrapbooking should be fun, and not a chore. 😀
This is exactly what I want to get from doing LOAD this time around. Love the poster, I’ve seen in on Pinterest, but didn’t relate it to LOAD – I’ll have to find the Ira Glass interview. Thanks for such an inspiring blog post!
There are actually 4 parts to the Ira Glass interview. Technically it’s about storytelling with video, but there’s no reason you can’t apply it to any other story telling medium.
LOVE LOVE LOVE your post! You are so right on! And the poster is just perfect!
Thanks Danielle! I’m glad you like the poster. I wish I could find a way to buy it. Guess I’m going to have to make my own.
LOVE!!! Great post!
Thanks Dani!
I am in twelve and really loved reading that comment from Ira Glass. Great reminder that LOAD can be just what we need to do a lot of work to help us improve. See you in the gallery.
P.S. I totally feel like Twelve has helped me curate some of the stories I want to tell in LOAD. We’ll see since it’s my first…
I’m digging the content in Twelve so far, too. I love approaching scrapbooking as a philosophy.
You rock! Thank you for all you do to support LOAD and fun and scrapbooking and me. 🙂
Thank you for letting me participate. It is so much FUN!
Hi Hearther,
I tried to reply a couple of times but I didn’t seem to get it to work. if you don’t mind i would love an invite.
Also if I get stuck with my blog can I get some help and advice from you.
Thanks
Deborah
I’m late getting to everyone on the hop but this post is so inspiring – as I was reading it the words rang such a bell and then I realised it was the video that Pam had sent me the link to – so very true, such meaningful words! thanks for the reality check 😉