When do you get your best ideas?

[CathyRose]

I often get ideas for projects very late at night. I have had to resort to keeping a notebook in the bed with me. Last night (actually 3 AM) I thought of a couple of ideas for a small series of ATC's and had to put the light on to write them down. If I don't write them down, I know I won't remember them. I
tend to obsess about a project and it runs through my mine over and over under I start it. Then sometimes it stalls and takes me quite a while to finish.

[webchyck]

I get a lot of my ideas while reading magazines. I, too, have an idea book I jot things down in, but it's at my desk. Early on, when I first started digiscrapping, I could hardly sleep with all the ideas running through my head. LOL It's settled down now.

[Vania16]

I get a lot of late night ideas too! But, it seems like they'll pop into my head at other times too. I got myself a little moleskine journal that goes with me everywhere so I can jot down ideas and sketches and whatnot as they come to me - that's helped settle down the scrap-madness in my head quite a bit LOL

[AmyK]

I was up last night writing too. I have notebooks in every room of the house. I've tried to pare down to just one or 2 books, but I addictively buy more. I've been drooling over the moleskines at Barnes & Noble lately, but for the junk I put in my books I can't bear to pay $10. Maybe I should treat myself to one for quirky things. :D

[AmyK]

oh yeah, the original question!

I get my best ideas just before going to sleep, while on walks outside, or while taking a shower. Sometimes when cooking dinner too. It's usually when I've finally given up on a project and gone off to do something else.

[jessica b]

AmyKwirk, dear.... you need to buy yourself an $ .88 composition book and alter it to suit your quirky needs!!! Have I mentioned my addiction to altering comp books? Yeah, I thought so...

I have about 5 notebooks laying around, for various things, and I'm also a jotter. I really should start using tabs because I am always skipping chunks of pages and then it takes me a while to remember where I wrote something. doh!

My best ideas tend to come when I'm getting ready for bed, right before I fall asleep, when driving, shopping, etc.... It's just never when I'm actually working on something and could use a burst of creativity, LOL.

[CathyRose]

Altering comp books is one of my favorite things to do! I have made a ton of them for gifts but never made one for myself. I think I will put that on my to-do list.

[AmyK]

I am a big comp book alterer too! 2 of my current notebooks are altered (partially). The one which I consider my quirk book was done in a fit of madness a few weeks ago - it's just a bunch of torn papers and a huge clock mod podged (can that be a verb?) to the cover of a book. I need to finish that thing! Or alter the alteration.

[Vania16]

mod podged is totally a verb LOL You'll have to post some pictures of it!

[jessica b]

I have several pairs of pants that have been inadvertently mod-podged during the altering process. (sort of off topic? yes. but I need to post)

[AmyK]

That reminds me, I altered a pair of pants and a back pack in high school. I embroidered all these different designs on them and thought I was so cool. I think I've always been a quirk!

[Ursula]

Well, it sounds like we're a bunch of proverbial peas in a pod. I cart around notebooks too, must have half a dozen. And I can never find one when I need it. And yes, the best ideas always come when I'm in bed with the lights out. That's when the pictures begin to play in my head. There's no distractions in the darkenss. And I always forget it if I don't write it down too! I can tell you that when the kids come home is NOT a time of inspiration. I can't get a complete thought to happen when the family is around as they always break in to my thoughts with chatter. LOL My DH hates it that I like to stay up at night, so I often go to bed with him and then get up after he falls asleep. Nighttime is definately the best!

[Ursula]

Hee hee, I've always been a quirk too. I had this pair of pants, don't know what you call them, but they were made of the really cool Indian silk and they looked like I had a big load in my pants. Honestly, they looked pretty goofy, but I loved the fabric and the 'quirkiness' so that I wore them anyway. Hmm, maybe that explains my lack of friends in HS.

[CathyRose]

Ursula, I do that all the time, go to bed with my DH, then sneak out as soon as he falls asleep. Hey, whatever works. We have been married 38 years and nobody's complaining!

[Kazadoodle]

I get ideas all the time - so I started carrying around a pocket sized Moleskine journal and gel pens

And speaking of pants - I was in a project called the Travelling Pants (about three years ago now) - this woman wanted her jeans altered and she called for participants and then they travelled around - my DD (2.5 at the time) even contributed to them - they were great. We also had to take photos of whatever we wanted, to go with the pants - so I took a photo of the pants after I altered them, the post office where they were picked up and sent off at, the mall where the post office was, my front door and the street where I lived. It was a hoot. When the pants returned home, we all got a CD of the all the photos taken, a photo fo the finished pants and one of the person wearing the pants.

[Ursula]

Kaza, that sounds like tons o fun! what a great idea, maybe you could post a photo of the finished pants.

[kygirl]

I wake up with my best ideas. I literally dream in digital.

This is, I swear, a true story. Saturday night, I had a dream that included both George Clooney and design. I woke up excited -- about the layouts. Look what this group is doing to me!

Back to the notebooks, have you seen the cool little notebooks they sell at Target for around $3? They have cloth bindings and elastic closures. Add a little paper and some art, and they're cooler than anything you'll find at B&N.

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

OMgoodness!! I'm totally tripping out on all the similarities we all share here on this board! It's like almost all topics there is a common thread!

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

What I found to be the common threads I share with some of you on this topic are:
* Late night rendezvous > Yes, I too sneak away for Art!! My dh's name is Art too so you could call me 'artlover' lol!
*Notebooks > I've got stashes of them and have a really hard time throwing them away...even after the ones that I've torn all the pages out!
*Comp book & Target book alterating > I love altering those!!
* I too dream in digital!

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

I have several pairs of pants that have been inadvertently mod-podged during the altering process. (sort of off topic? yes. but I need to post)

lol! Going off topic is a great way to add posts!! lol!

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

Sea monkey stole my money....yes I'm a natural blue...

*Okay, that's way off topic now!! Hey I too gotta work these posts!! lol!

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

Well, it sounds like we're a bunch of proverbial peas in a pod. I cart around notebooks too, must have half a dozen. And I can never find one when I need it. And yes, the best ideas always come when I'm in bed with the lights out. That's when the pictures begin to play in my head. There's no distractions in the darkenss. And I always forget it if I don't write it down too! I can tell you that when the kids come home is NOT a time of inspiration. I can't get a complete thought to happen when the family is around as they always break in to my thoughts with chatter. LOL My DH hates it that I like to stay up at night, so I often go to bed with him and then get up after he falls asleep. Nighttime is definately the best!

Totally tripping cause I could've wrote this...except for the kids coming home part!

[CathyRose]

Oh my goodness, speaking of pants, how bad is it when you don't even notice if you have gesso on your pants! I had delivery people in my house last Friday and thought one was looking at my butt a few times. After they left I was going by my full length mirror in my bathroom and I saw that I had white goop all dried up on the back of one pant leg. :p

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

Okay, enough fiddle faddlin' I'll answer the question now...

I get ideas pretty much all the time, but especially at night! My problem is that I have too many ideas to even list them all nor do them! It's really an ADHD thing...my mind is constantly racing. In fact I'm not physically hyper so I was surprised to learn I was ADHD but my Dr. stated it's your brain that's hyper! Sometimes though my brain will completely blank for a few days (probably cause it burned out) but then I'll get my best ideas right after 'the quiet'!

[Cre8tvlyYrs]

Oh my goodness, speaking of pants, how bad is it when you don't even notice if you have gesso on your pants! I had delivery people in my house last Friday and thought one was looking at my butt a few times. After they left I was going by my full length mirror in my bathroom and I saw that I had white goop all dried up on the back of one pant leg. :p

Too funny Cathy!! That happens to me but mostly it's my shirts that get 'decorated'!

[AmyK]

Oh my goodness, speaking of pants, how bad is it when you don't even notice if you have gesso on your pants! I had delivery people in my house last Friday and thought one was looking at my butt a few times. After they left I was going by my full length mirror in my bathroom and I saw that I had white goop all dried up on the back of one pant leg. :p

That is too funny, Cathy! I hate it when things like that happen. For me, it's usually baby spit up on my shirt. Half the time I don't even look in the mirror before I leave the house, so I get some of the funniest looks. Usually it's when I'm still wearing the baby sling, but without a baby in it. :rolleyes:

[kygirl]

Understand about the baby goo -- that used to happen to me too. Once I got all dressed up for work, thought I looked good. So, I wasn't too surprised that everyone was looking at me and smiling as I walked down the hall. It wasn't until I got to my office that I realized I was still carrying my daughter's pacifier.

[jessica b]

LOL!! We were out with friends one night a long time ago, when someone pointed out the diapers and wipe case poking out of my purse.

"yes, they're MINE!" :rolleyes:

[Ursula]

don't have baby puke anymore, but likely as not I'll have some plant paraphenilalia in my hair. I'm wondering, maybe I'm ADHD cause my brain just never stops. I have the hardest time sleeping cause I'm always thinking up something or other. I think art provides a wonderful outlet for all that creative energy.

[Vania16]

Back to the notebooks, have you seen the cool little notebooks they sell at Target for around $3? They have cloth bindings and elastic closures. Add a little paper and some art, and they're cooler than anything you'll find at B&N.


I love those Target notebooks! I've done a ton of them as gifts and even one for myself for a Bible study I was in - perhaps I should do one for quirking :) Can't part with my Moleskine though - there's something about them that just makes me happy and nothing else could take the abuse it gets in my purse LOL

[CathyRose]

OMG, Amy so funny about the baby sling! :D

[happyrobyn]

I daydream about arty things as I drive. Honestly sometimes I don't know how I get from point A to point B! LOL! I NEED to write down these ideas but don't. I just go with the flow and create whatever comes to my head at that moment. But I need a journal. About 2 weeks ago, I drove by a barber shop with one of those barber shop poles and I had the coolest idea ever. But for the life of me, I don't know what it was. Now I'm pretty obsessed with barber shop poles. Someday I'll get that thought back.