Our last interview about getting out of a creative rut is with Pamela McNichol of Digitreats. She's one of my favorite designers, and I've blogged about her before. Here's a little about her....
I have been paper scrapbooking for over 15 years but found digital scrapbooking around 5 years ago. I bought Photoshop Elements 5.0 and purchased a few video tutorials and figured the rest out on my own. I quickly went from just scrapbooking my own photos to trying to figure out how templates were made and then full out designing. I started designing freebies a few years ago and giving them away on my blog and then opened my Digitreats Store shortly after and began selling my designs. I still give away lots of free designs and I am currently working on 3 different kits in 3 different colour schemes that I give a portion away for free every day.
Digital Scrapbooking ... I love that I don't ever have to make a commitment in digital scrapbooking - I can move things around, make changes without having to rip things off of paper and I LOVE that I can reuse my supplies. I also love that I don't make nearly as big of a mess with digital scrapbooking.
What causes creative block for you?
Pressure ... the pressure to get something done especially when I feel like there is a due date/timeline. I like to give out a freebie every day on my blog and on days where it is getting to the end of the day and I haven't had time to make something I start to feel the pressure and then get blocked. Those are usually the days when I don't post something!
Which is harder, getting started or getting finished? Why?
Finishing ... I love to start a million projects but then I feel a sort of pressure to finish it and I bail! This is especially true when the project is not exactly working out how I imagined. I am a perfectionist and if it doesn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to then I trash it all together.
What do you do when you get stuck in the middle of a layout or project?
Start a new one! I just move on and hope to come back to it later. I got sick of doing my Project 365 album from 2009 and just left it until January of this year even though I was more than 3/4 of the way through it in 2009. I got it in the mail last week and I love it ... wish I had it sooner lol!
Do you have a photo of a "stuck project?" (any plans for getting it un-stuck?)
I find it difficult when I have way too many pictures for an occasion and I want to include them all. I cheated on my Year in Review book last year and just ordered photobooks with no digital scrapbooking - just photos. I am disappointed in them and will have to go back and do it over again. I usually get stuck on the "what to say" part of a page but the layouts always look better with text and it really is an important part of capturing the memories.
Do you have any "go to" tricks or techniques that always work for you?
When I get stuck and feel pressured to complete a layout I purchase a new kit that I love and then "save" all of the layouts the designer/creative team has made with it and then I scraplift! Once you get a few quick and gorgeous layouts done with the new kit the inspiration comes back!
(what a great idea!!!)
Do you ever find inspiration outside the digital scrapbooking world? How does that "outside inspiration" translate to the digital canvas?
No ... I can't say that I get inspiration from outside the digital scrapbooking world except from my beautiful children of course :)
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