Idea books, sketches, scrapbooking magazines, and instructional sites like this one are all great sources of inspiration for your scrapbooking layouts, but sometimes you have to heighten your senses and just look around you for your spark. If you keep your eyes peeled for anything that is appealing, you can then allow your creative side to take over and apply it to your layouts - sometimes literally!
Perhaps you'll take a closer look at the lemon you slice in half while you're making dinner. Maybe the pattern that nature has given to it - that spoked, starry look - is just what you want for a layout about that adorable picture of your granddaughter in her Easter dress. Or maybe on your next trip to the lake you'll take greater notice of the green lilypads, light blue sky, and cracked-bark birch trees, and in them recognize the perfect color combination for a layout about your husband. When you look at nature through the eyes of a graphic designer (which you are), you never know what will strike your fancy.
The day I took this picture, it was raining and my daffodils were looking pretty droopy. But what caught my eye when I composed the picture wasn't the buds themselves, but the striation of gray, yellow, and green. It inspired me to create the following layout in mimicry of it.
This is our barn, which is probably almost 70 years old. It's not exactly "natural," but being wood it is (mostly) made of natural materials and has certainly weathered many years of nature's ravages. It's in poor repair, and will probably have to be torn down in the next few years, but it has great design lines. The steeply sloping roof, off-center peak, and gaping open front inspired me to draft this layout.
The color of these crocuses is really brilliant, and I couldn't help but be inspired by the way they collected the rain in shimmering drops on their petals. I decided to try to re-create them in a paper-pieced embellishment, complete with dew made from Diamond Glaze™.
Nature has a lot to offer us in our creative pursuits. She gives us a wealth and variety of beauty just waiting to be incorporated into our albums.
Open your "Designer's Eye" and look around you for some natural inspiration. Create at least one layout applying some natural beauty.
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