Scrapbook Inspiration

I have been a member of several Yahoo email Scrapbooking groups for a couple of years. I don't participate in them regularly because of time factors, but I do luck and am occasionally inspired by a challenge or a "question of the week". This was the case this week.

The Question of the Week on Stampingscrapbookers@yahoo.com was "When you set out to create a LO what do you put on the table first? The photos or the stamps? In other words, do you look for pictures that work with the stamps you want to use or vice-versa? "

When I thought about what my answer would be, I realized that I didn't have a pat answer. I am inspired by different things.

• Sometimes it is a picture
• Sometimes it is a set of clear stamps I have to have and know that I will use over and over again because they are cute, or appropriate for a subject that I will have lots of photos for. In my case that is usually beach or little boys.
• Sometime it is a great piece of paper that I fall in love with and I go in search of a picture that might look good on that paper. Or I stage a picture to go with the paper.

As I was scrapbooking this week I actually was inspired by two of these three scenarios.
This first layout it was definitely the picture that inspired me. My daughter in love, Amy had posted a picture of Drake on Facebook and told the story of how they had just watched "The Incredible Hulk" movie and how Michael and Drake had played HULK. Michael took one of the pictures of Drake while they were playing and altered it in Photoshop. My sweet little grandson was transformed into a Green Hulk. As soon as I saw the picture I knew it had to be in Drake's scrapbook. I emailed Amy and asked for the file. I immediately went to work putting together this layout.

(click on picture for larger view) Since I didn't have any Incredible Hulk embellishments in my stash, I searched the Internet for ideas I could reproduce. I found a font on my computer that resembled the font used in the logo I found online. I used my Klick N Kut to diecut the title. I then used Tim Holtz Distress Ink to add a little dimension to the letters.

I created the Hulk embellishment from a piece of clipart I found by Googling Hulk images. I printed it out 4 times.

• First layer used as printed.
• 2ND layer I cut out the Moon and the Hulk
• 3rd layer I cut out just the Hulk
• 4Th layer I cut out just the Hulk's face and forearm.

I then layered all the layers -one on top of the other using pop dots for dimension.
The journaling reads, "I am so glad your daddy plays with you and teaches you 'boy things'.........
The 2ND layout I did this week came about simply because I was looking through my stash and found a piece of paper I really liked. It was the inspiration. The paper is from the Out and About Short Stack with Glitter by My Mind's Eye. I purchased it at Hobby Lobby. My Mind's Eye is one of my favorite Paper manufacturers and I find it hard to not buy the new lines as they come out.
I found this piece and decided it would be good for one of our outdoor/hiking pictures. I looked through some photos I had sitting in a basket on my desk. I found some that Mike had taken of me during one of hiking trips to the Balcones Canyonlands.

(click on picture for larger view) The embellishments for this page include a piece of leafy Venice lace left over from the days I designed wedding dresses. I glued Prima flowers with Foofala buttons in the centers over the flowers in the lace. I also added some large pearls to the lace.

The butterflies were cut with Spellbinder dies and a Cuttlebug die. I embossed them with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and lightly sanded the raised dots to give the butterflies the same polka dot effect of the background paper. I coated the butterflies with Stickles glitter glue (color - waterfall) and put little pearls on the center of each butterfly to resemble the body.
The "Nature" title are glitter alphabet stickers by Making Memories.
The journaling block and mat were cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities Label Dies.
Two completely different styles of layouts whose inspiration came from different directions.
WHERE DOES YOUR INSPIRATION COME FROM?????