Where do I get my ideas?

Hello my fabulous stampers,

Did you have a good weekend? Maybe you were super creative this weekend and ideas for cards and scrapbook pages were "flocking to you?"

One of the questions that I get asked is, "where do you get your ideas?" and as usual, the answer is, it depends. There are times when I sit in my stamping corner and I'll start one card after another but I am not happy with them. So I put them in my "not so happy box." And then I have evenings like yesterday, where I looked through those cards and I'll pull out one by one and they all get the right finishing touches and they look great.

More often than not, I pick out a layout in the Idea Book and Catalog that I really like and then I use one of my stamp sets to recreate that look.

One of the perks of being a SU! demonstrator is that I have three great sources for ideas:

• Stampin' Success: This is a monthly magazine for SU! demonstrators with wonderful ideas for cards and projects to use in workshops and classes. Of course, I use the layouts for my personal cards too because these projects look great and are easy to make. This of course is the trick to being a great demonstrator to show off great projects in short amounts of time.

• The Demonstrator Website: Here I find more ideas for cards and scrapbook pages including workshop planners! Really great stuff.

• Stampin' Connection: This is like "facebook for demonstrators." We share ideas and creations and leave comments for each other. There are actually too many pictures to browse them all from all the demonstrators. This is one of my favorite places to see what other demonstrators have done with particular stamp sets. When I get done looking at some of their artwork, my creative juices just start flowing.

Until May 31st, everyone who signs up as a SU! demonstrator receives two workshop WOW DVDs with their SU! starter kit and these DVDs are loaded with presentations on great projects and techniques. What an amazing way to get started as a demonstrator!

If you are curious about any of these, send me an email at tanja@spunkycards.com and we can have a coffee date to browse these online sites. I'd love to share what I do with you.

Tanja