Inspiration -- Always A Work In Progress!

Inspiration, Mojo, whatever you choose to call it, for scrapping and crafting can flood in in overwhelming waves, and just as quickly dry up and float away.  Both states of mind call for an inspiration "bank" if you will.  When you are filled with ideas, when you see something (anything) that sparks an idea, that is the time to fill your bank so you have some Mojo in reserve for those droughts!  I was inspired by Susan, who keeps a scrap journal (adorable altered notebook), by Psychomom Tonya, who made a fabulous multi-media journal for her daughter, and by 7 Gypsies fabulous journal pages and book covers, to create my own Inspiration Book. 

Cover
7 Gypsies Ruban Book Covers, Very large Binding Rings, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Misc. "Inspire" Rubon, 7 Gypsies sticker, vintage flamingo stickers, tulle.

Not wanting to run out of room and wanting to always be able to update my book, I tried to think of a way to switch out my bits and pieces, pictures, and textures.  Voila -- VELCRO, along with stickpins, and hanging things from the binder rings!!!!  Though I am stamping, using rubons, painting samples on, and inking some of the pages -- pictures of collections, color palettes, bits of lace and such are attached to pages with small pieces of velcro and pins, and tied to the binder rings, making them movable and removable!

Inner Cover inked with Walnut TH Distress Ink, handmade embellie using Ranger slide mount products, 7 Gypsies Journal Pages, 7 Gypsies gear rubon over gears printed on page, black gems in centers, small piece of Prima black Say It In Crystals swirl, page inked in Victorian Velvet TH Distress Ink

Boing!! I had a V-8 moment and realized that these really big binder rings were great for displaying items inside the book and they can be switched out!  In addition, the size of the rings allows the book to be as thick and lumpy as I want and still close flat.

7 Gypsies Journal Pages with a few of my favorite things -- Love Bird sizzix die cut from striped TH Grungeboard and inked with Broken China and Stormy Sky TH Distress Ink, my FAVORITE stamp in the world, the frilly dress, and a piece of my grandmother's vintage lace with a stickpin I made.

The love bird -- which begs for more embellishment when the impulse strikes -- is attached with velcro and the piece of vintage lace is attached with a stickpin.  There is a piece of velcro on the reverse page hiding the pin and presenting another opportunity to display items, in this case a heart cut from a vintage marbelized cardboard box (seen below).

The fantastic dress form printed on the jounal page is inspiration in itself, but it seemed like the perfect place to attach a small picture of the Prima Donna Downey fabric dress forms that just arrived at Flamingo Scraps.

Da Vinci's exquisite anatomical and mechanical drawings have become my new fave Steampunk images -- I have several more to add.  And this fabulous 7 Gypsies Journal Page with the grid just begged to be home to color and medium samples!

I am really excited about my Inspiration Book!  The gorgeous 7 Gypsies products made it easy to get inspired and now I have one place to go to give my mojo a jump start -- instead of getting frustrated digging through the piles of paper and memorabilia I sadly tend to accumulate.  This book not only has additional pages for goodies, the removable items will allow it to always be a work in progress.  And isn't that what our inspiration should be? -- always changing, evolving, growing, always a work in progress.