Jeepers, I wish I could be more relevant

[Nevermore]

to the community but until that happy day, I will just have to post in the section for "off-topic" gab and forsake the "of relevance to the community" forum.

I swear I am so tired I can hardly think straight (no unkind comments invited or necessary). It has been brutal lately but one more day to go before the long weekend (it's Canada Day! on Saturday). You can tell by the plethora of white and red kits and the usual patriotic elements, rotflmao. We probably could use a hoser kit: toques, 24s, beer, back bacon. Hmmm, probably managed to offend both Americans and Canadians in one fell swoop. Not a bad day's work.

My calling card is suffering from neglect. I have been able to throw a few minutes at it here and there (mostly in the wee small hours minutes) and it is be-draggled and uninspired. I was trying to go a bit upbeat but so far it is the usual dark stuff. In part that may be because of the Poe connection (let's face it, old Edgar was not a barrel of laughs) but I wonder if it is me. Not to stereotype but I feel driven to create by angst, depression and despair. I look in my gallery and there just ain't a lot of sunshine and light.

Okay, that's it. I am chucking my card, will use it for another Rolodex ABC sooner or later and will redo it a la sweetness and light. Or at least light. Not sure if I could be driven to sweetness in this lifetime.

Calling all happy campers--do you truly find happy moments creatively drive you or are you just on better meds than me?

[akissling]

You know every time I try to do something with a purpose it just falls FLAT! It is as if I am trying to hard. Then when I am playing around...zip...I am DONE AND I like it (usually). Maybe we need to seriously find some inspiration. It will do some searching tomorrow to see what I can find. What kills me is that you made mine for me (although I WILL not use it and cheat!) and it is beautiful! Now I am trying to do mine and I am virtually blank! I can say that happy moments are not the drive behind my work. Sometimes it is frustration and the computer is a relief, sometimes it is because I have a half an hour to burn and I am playing. There is no real rhyme or reason for it! All I know is that it is frustrating when nothing comes out!

[kygirl]

Please define "relevant to the community" for me. It must mean something different to you than it does to me. :-)

As for the card, Raven, why on earth would you feel compelled to do "sweetness and light" unless that's the mood you happen to be in. If you feel "Poe-ish," I say go for it. After all, of all the pieces we've done, shouldn't our calling cards reflect who we are?

[Nevermore]

Donna, just poking fun at me and the administration (it is one of my indulgences). The forums are divided into "Heart to Art Chat" , Community News ("Members share news relevant to the community) and Off Topic Gab. Whenever I go to post a new thread, I ask myself, is this news relevant to the community? And inevitably (odd exception to rule that proves it), the answer is, nope, it is just gab. And off topic at that.

As for the sweetness and light, I would like to think that my odd mood swing takes me there, lol. You may well be right that the wrong place to try to express that rarity is in a calling card ie. maybe the card should be reflective of the "normative" persona so to speak (I did use apostrophes). Now I am thinking I should do two calling cards? Wow. Great. Thanks Donna! If I am gonna be stuck might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

Alison, I am of two minds on the "forced thing". When I first started scrapping I would go to crops. They would have one or two hour deadlines and I loved them. There was no time for anything but action. You just had to run with the idea. I still think I did some of my best work with that kind of deadline. On the other hand, deadlines that are longer out (like a week) seem to hang me up. Too much time to second guess and get crazy about the perfect thing. A lot of times that instinctive grab for what comes to mind is the perfect thing. Haven't you had that happen? You reach automatically for an element. You have some time so you replace it three or four times but go back to the first grab because it ends up having been the right choice?

Okay, all this input is working for me. I need to do two cards and I need to start both of them two hours before deadline. The path is clear!

Alison

[akissling]

Well, you also inspired me to get busy and just do it! I did a bit last night and as soon as I started reaching for the same old tricks I saved it and will start again tonight! Thanks!!!

[akissling]

ps I often overwhelm myself because I have collected so many digital kits and cds that I don't know where to begin! I really need a giant board with all of the kits and images on cds printed out and in my face. I think it would take up all four walls of the office. Hey, maybe I could turn it into wallpaper!!! Now there is an idea!

[Madge]

So much angst - so little time! Maybe the problem is that you're trying to create to order instead of just playing and going with the flow. Stop thinking of it as a calling card and start thinking of it as a piece of your artwork - that's the true you, and that's what we love.

I did mine today and it's not great art - probably not even art, but it's a bit of fun and I enjoyed it. It's something outside my normal comfort zone. :)

Maybe we should have a whole new forum title called Cries of Woe and Despondancy!;)

[webchyck]

It seems contradictory, but I have the best FUN when I'm doing the angst-driven stuff. Of course, when I get an idea for something FUNNY, that is fun to do, too, but not nearly as emotionally satisfying.

I didn't think too much about the quirking card. Haven't looked at it since I put it together. Maybe I better make sure it's still what I want to do before I zip it off to Alison!!

[akissling]

Madge,
I think we need that forum, Cries of Woe and Despondancy!!! For whatever reason, once you admit you have the problem, it seems to help. I think it also helps to know that you are not the only one! I have so many friends at home who will say they have never had "that problem" (that went for child rearing, household, school etc). Then you feel like an idiot for saying it out loud!!!

[webchyck]

Oh, I know that tone you get, "hmmmm....really?" (You must be the lamest person on earth if you can't do THAT!) UGH! Let's hear it for CWD's!!! I think maybe Maya might pipe in on that thread after last night's "fun" with the new store, and Amy with her computer issues...I can certainly CWD with the best of 'em considering my husband's crappy work schedule (so much for his day off today...he's still in Portland and won't be home 'til tomorrow! Gotta go look at my Honor Anger art piece again...) CWDs and relevancy anyone?

[Vania16]

Ah, Cries of Woe and Despondancy! I have a bunch of those coming from my office today! Yesterday was pretty brutal and I've been running around like a loon all morning today too. But, the judge is off to golf soon, so that will slow things down :) And, on a happier note about work, I found out yesterday that we're all getting a pretty big raise starting in July, so that makes things a whole lot better, crazy or not! And, it's just in time for me to blow it all in Maya's new store!

As for the creating, I find, like Raven, that if I have a bit of time pressure it can really inspire me - I think it's my many years of procrastination at work LOL. And, like Alison, I have so much stuff now I can spend a long time just looking through it all! Wallpaper sounds like an excellent plan :)

[SteinwaysMom]

I love Nevermore's poetic kind of moody style - there are plenty of cheery perky people in the scrap world, I wish we had more Nevermores to balance it out, ya know?

It's weird, for the longest time I was energized by the weekly challenges at Scrapartist. Then it was the excitement of DAQ. But then all the challenges and ideas and projects just totally freaked me out and I couldn't handle it anymore....

Rant section (not even relevant but for those who are interested):

My latest 'phase' is doing cute kiddie LO's. I finally got to shoot some great photos of kids I love and I want to capitalize on this opportunity. They aren't particularly quirky, which is why I haven't been posting here lately...but as a childless person w/no nieces and nephews, I gotta take my opportunities when they come.

The thing is, the control freak in me wants to painstakingly edit and scrap every stinkin kiddie photo and I'm like - I can't keep going to these kiddie events and work like that or I'll burn out.

I just shot 60 or so photos of my friend's granddaughter at the town 'beauty pageant' - to our amazement, she won! We figured it was rigged and she didn't have a chance.

So I cropped them all and did some actions and gave my friend a CD that she can use to make prints. She kind of looked at me weird - I don't know if she thought it was chintzy to just do a CD but I wanted to scream that I had spent 4-5 HOURS cropping/editing the photos!!! I have pix of her ballet recital yet to do an then there's the birthday party + the birthday party pix of this other kid I love...I'm just going to give these people a photo CD and then maybe a quickie slide show DVD and then I am going to scrap the photos I really like whenever I feel like it.

So I guess the bottom line is I want to 'adopt' these kiddies for my scrap lo's but I don't want it to become this huge ordeal but I have the personality that turns everything into one!

[Nevermore]

My mind is boggling just a little at the thought of Debra mired in cute kiddie photos. It's okay, Debra, this, too, shall pass. I did wonder where you went but thought perhaps you had just gone underground for a while. I have always thought that that was one of the bizarre side effects of cyber-communication: people can disappear.

I went to the new Maya shoppe and plunked my money down: as you stated, it is the most money I have ever spent scrapping in one fell swoop and significantly over last week's high point (which was $20, lol). I didn't really do it for the free kit. Frankly, I have TOO much new stuff and it will take months before I "settle" into it. But I do appreciate this site immensely and don't really know any other way to say "Hey, thanks for DAQ".

[webchyck]

Debra, are you saying that your friend did not appreciate your efforts on the photos/CD? That would make me want to run screaming into the hills. If anyone EVER gives me a photo they took at an event of my child, I gush and gush. And if they gave me a CD full of photos, I would probably cry!

Kids ARE fun to scrap and I hope you have a blast doing it. Knowing you, you'll do it in a unique way, different from all the stuff we traditionally see. I noticed there was an artist in the gallery at SBG (part of Ronna's creative team I guess?) and it looks like she is using a lot of images of famous people to scrap/showcase Ronna's work--so it doesn't matter if you know the people (I assume you do know these kids, though) or not--you can still create great art. I would put these in a Kids I've Known album or something. They don't stay kids forever!

[happyrobyn]

Calling all happy campers--do you truly find happy moments creatively drive you or are you just on better meds than me?

Well, I personally live on cloud 9! I would be scared of myself if I actually did drugs. Although an occasional margarita elevates me to cloud 10 every now and then! ROFL! I guess the point here is that I live in the clouds and worry very little. My poor DH worries enough for both of us.

[SteinwaysMom]

Becki,

I used to hang out w/this family a lot - I would give my friend clothes for her granddaughter and stuff but sometimes I just felt like they forgot to say 'thanks' ....

So when I handed her the CD (and DVD that I had stayed up til 1:30 freakin am to make) she didn't gush or even say thanks. I think she was tired and stuff but I really wanted some sign of appreciation. I really love taking pix of this kid but I don't want to end up feeling angry and resentful which is why I set the boundary of giving them a CD and not paying to have the pictures printed...

I think this may be why I stopped hanging around them before - they got wrapped up in all their family problems and I felt kind of left out. I dunno...but the granddaughter saw me a month ago and just hugged me and I realized it was an open door to be in this kids life and get some wonderful photo shoots in.

Maybe people just don't realize how much time I spend on this stuff. Many people just shoot a zillion pictures and print them 'as is'. I crop and edit each photo just because that's who I am...