Karen Bearse Designs: Where Does Your Inspiration Come From?

Hello Topflight Stamps Fans, on this Mixed Media Monday we are looking at where does inspiration come from? Is it from the museum, or books, online tutorials or videos? If you look for it, inspiration is everywhere & if you are in the zone you can be inspired by something as simple as the back of a cool car.
*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like so enjoy the inspiration.
**some of these links are affiliate, I receive a small percentage from the company at no cost to you. This helps me deliver free content!

Sometimes I may be inspired by something like a tag & then once started I go in a completely different direction but the original inspiration is evident in the piece. Right now I am working on a planner book for the month of May. The 1st page is going to be the title page. Supply list with links at the end of this post. Remember you can save 12% off your Topflight Stamps order (some restrictions may apply) if you code in karenbearse.

Although inspired by this tag by Rachel Greig of Darkroom Door Stamps (DRD), my creativity went into a different direction & I ended up using all the fun things & making a collage page. This was fun to just pull out a bunch of product and have a play.

Here is the video that inspired me, it is a flip though of Rachel's awesome art journal! The tag page is at the 9:06 min point but I encourage you to watch the whole video! You will want to check out Rachel's & subscribe to her You tube channel.

Let's Get Started!

I started out with an Elizabeth Crafts die cut for my planner. Just plan white card stock will do but in hind site it would have been better to get my back ground done 1st & then cut the page out. Doing the cut 1st meant that I had to re-punch the binder holes. Tear & glue some book page, music or book paper. Glue stick is great for this part as it is low on water & the paper won't ripple. The next layer was using Andy Skinner's Rice paper which has the bonus of being a bit translucent so the book paper can be seen underneath. I just tore random pieces out and glued them down. This paper has such a richness to it & is so dynamic. It comes in 2 packs.

Time for Some Background Images

Next up was to add some background images. One way was with a stencil & some Glimmer Mist- the red stars are nice & shimmery. 2nd was some background stamping using inks with the Cogs & alpha texture stamps. Darkroom door has all sorts of great stamps for making this type of background called Texture Stamps.

What About A Title?

I knew I wanted the Story title from Seth's stamp set as well as the word May die cut. I just love the look of embossing powder for titles, it really makes them pop. I went with this lovely Jade color. I didn't think of it until after but Emerald is the birthstone of May so that works wonderfully. I embossed on white & pattern paper but chose the white with some Roasted Coffee distressing. The Title didn't fit so I tore it into 2 pieces which worked well to bring some balance to this busy page.

Tag Time!!!

This is my take on Rachel's tag. I used some of the Rice Paper to cover a tag. A bit of background stamping & May which was die cut out of black card stock. Adding the black did help calm the busyness a bit!

These images from Darkroom Door Steampunk Squares Collage Stamp were perfect to add some pictures to the page. This stamp type comes in all sorts of images with matching stencils as well. They also link in well with the background cog stamping.

Then it was just a matter of assembly. Not 100% sure that I love how busy this is so I am going to leave it for now but I may add a layer of gesso over some of the background images like the book paper to tone it down a bit. Sometimes you just need to wait & see if it grows on you. Thanks for joining me today, I hope you get the chance to get inky!