Organize your Stuff: Week 7 (round 3):Ideas Part 1

Ideas are those thing that get our mojo going to create. They can be magazines, books, blogs, threads on message boards… just something to give you the Ah-ha moment. This week is one that I kind of glossed over the first time (link here). This is because the Inner Hoarder does not want to let go of any of the boxed up magazines that I have from the 1990s, and PA Me not at all interested in going through the pages of these magazines to try and save some of the best ideas and recycle the rest. My goal is to go through at least one magazine a night. PA Me told the POW that to expect any more would mean a strike and a repeat of last year’s Misery reenactment. As the POW is still having flashbacks from that particularly nasty episode in inner personality relations, she agreed.
These are some of the places I have gotten online inspiration lately...

Here is this week’s card from Tuesday Trio (#38). I had my flowers fall like they were in the wind (רוח). And used sticles (a kind of glitter glue) on it as well. This site is an example of the places where I get my ideas these days. Every week there is a new sketch and a challenge associated with that sketch. Some weeks you go Seriously?! …and others you go Wow! I think that most people, myself included, choose to do cards based on these sketches, but some (shout out to you Shir Benovich!) take it a step further and applies this sketch to a scrapbooking layout. You Rock Girl! (As a PS- I just got picked for the design team! Yeah! The POW is in heaven!!!) So check them out!

Two Peas in a Bucket, of course, as that is from where the inspiration for this blog and my organization come. They have a message board (or boards) and are teaming with sample projects and groups doing everything from cards, to heritage albums, to multi picture layouts. There is a niche for everybody if you need it (unpaid service announcement) *smile*.  Without this site, I would never have read the works of Zen Master Wookiemouse or been taken on this journey by the Fabulous Crisann (and everyone else on the organization threads!).

Another site that I am currently visiting is Dixie Pieces. I am on Week 5 of a 6 week Glee Club Challenge. This sparked my attention because each week is a specific genre of music(as I have been lamenting in previous posts!). This week is Carrie Underwood country music! Ok, the POW is officially not amused (but that is just because I am a Northerner, and country music is not my thing). I love concept, and Southern Gospel: Country Music Version actually led me to create one of my best, or at least most endearing layout in a long while. But with only 6 Weeks to explore all the different types of music out there, I thought two weeks of country is a bit excessive…even if your website IS called Dixie Pieces (and Dixie implies Southern for my non-USA readers, and Southern usually means likes country music). That being said, it still gives me ideas and helps me create (even if it causes the POW to think very dark thoughts).

This summer, I found another site that combined a book club and scrapbooking. Had I more free time, I would have done more with this, and I might go back after the Glee Club ends, if I don’t stumble along anything else online. It was The Open Book Challenges. This used cover art and the content of the book as inspiration for a layout. Books ranged from deep thinking books to Twilight. I only did one of these, but I did read a book that I probably would not have if I had not found the site! (here is the blog entry with the layout I did).

I guess my final online site, for now, would be Scrapbook Calls. This is where I actually found some of the above sites, by checking out their Design Team calls, contests, and challenges. It is pretty cool, just to give you a feel for what is out there, and it is updated a couple times a week.

Back at the end of the week with how Ideas- the magazine portion is working out…