Have a Lightbulb Moment

I had an idea ... well a few of them ... ideas of things I want to accomplish ...

I want to post to my blog more.  So I'm formally setting up Tuesdays as one day of the week that I'll post something creative.  I use the word "creative" in the broadest sense of the word.  It may not be something creative that I've done ... it may even be a link back to someone else's blog with a great creative idea.  And I'm going to give it a go throughout the summer.  Although there are so many things pulling me in different directions in the summer, it tends to be a creative season for me.  And it's always good to be joggin' the noggin', isn't it?

So without further ado, here is my first installation of Creative Tuesday.

Have a Lightbulb Moment!

I found these little glass lightbulb jars for $1 at Christmas Tree Shops.  How adorable!  They're blank - I added the word "ideas" with rub-ons onto the front of the glass.

The trick about making the rub-ons look good is using a set of imperfect rub-ons - ones with a mixed, casual font so your placement on the glass doesn't have to be perfect.  I used the JBS Printer's Block Alpha, a great set of letters in varied sizes and fonts.

I placed a bunch of ideas of things to do during the summer in mine.  There are so many other lists you could add to your lightbulb:

things to do to bring back your mojo

things to do on a rainy day

things to do on your staycation

a "honey-do" list

journal prompts

artsy techniques to try

The lightbulb top is small, so you have to write or type on small strips of paper to shake them out. I also added sequins to mine because what's a great idea without sequins to brighten it even more?!

Have a great Tuesday!

Reason One Why I Hoard Love Classes

... to learn something new, of course!  And yes ... OK I now know ... 37 classes in 12 years does not count as a hoard!  But I have this urge to sign up for every class I'm seeing lately ... including the new Photoshop Friday series at Jessica Sprague.

Learning something new was reason enough to take the new Photoshop Friday series at Jessica Sprague ... and I'm in "learner heaven" from lesson one alone.

Lesson One was about extracting patterns, something that I though I knew most of what I needed to know, but I was wrong.  Even if you think you know a subject, the teacher could have her own spin on it, there can be a unique tip you didn't know about, or you can be inspired in a different way than usual.

I used the class to create this layout using a template from Jessica for the class, some of the elements from the template, and the digital kit Tangerine Dream from Jenni Bowlin Studio digital.  Ahem ... I'm a bit impressed ... if I do say so myself.

I Hoard Classes

... or at least I think I do.

I listened to the Paperclipping Roundtable podcast #149 about online scrapbooking classes and it inspired me to take an inventory of the classes I've purchased since I started scrapbooking 12 years ago.

I truly took inventory.  I checked my hard drive, checked my email folders, checked the online sites I frequently learn from ... and put it all on a spread sheet.  I found 37 classes that I have purchased over the years.  I'm sure there are a few that I've missed.  That doesn't really seem like a lot for 12 years, but as I typed notes and links and passwords for all the classes on my spread sheet, I realized that I've probably only finished a handful of them.  By finished, I mean going through the entire class and absorbing all the content, whether it be videos or pdfs.

I got a bit bummed about some of the learning I've been missing by not entirely finishing a class.  I thought I might challenge myself to not buy any more classes until I finish those I've purchased already.  But heck, new classes keep my brain going, they're my motivation, my mojo, my therapy!  And I've already got three classes in mind that I just need to take in the upcoming months alone.

So I will continue to hoard online classes, but hopefully with a more conscious effort to glean all the information I can from them.

And to help me do so, I've placed a shortcut to my spread sheet on my desktop, so all my class links are right there, at my fingertips.  Literally.

So next time I need to know how to get that perfect digital shadow from Peppermint Granberg, or want more inspiration for scrapbooking the grid from Lisa Dickinson, I can just grab my spread sheet and learn from that class I've had on my hard drive all along!