Through all of the chats & crops for NSD and using all the great inspiration pieces, I realized something:
I'm a scrapbook legalist.
If there's a sketch, I pretty much use it exactly. If there's a template, I feel like I HAVE to use every piece. If there's an ad inspiration, I tend to do it almost exactly.

Where do you get CREATIVITY from??? I feel like the only way I'll have really creative/cool layouts is if I'm scraplifting!! (And the scraplift crop yesterday was HARD for me because I felt like I HAD to use all those flowers!!)

Anyone else lacking natural creativity like me??

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perkidawn
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IKWYM. I don't generally like to use templates as a rule b/c I feel it's like cheating, since it doesn't come from me. I do make sure I add a twist though. And I always feel like my best pages are from a scraplift, so again, not very original! I used to do lifts almost exactly when I started doing challenges. Now I take a good look at the page I want to lift, then close it until I'm ready to upload my own L/O. I get more of my own input that way.

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~Nancy

LOL I have the opposite problem - I try really hard to stick to what it should be but end up on another tangent altogether!

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I think you have to unlearn the conventions you know. This is something I struggle with as a designer too. Like you do what's "accepted" and that limits you. I've come a long way from a year ago, but I struggle with it on a lot of levels. Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to do something completely out of character and unusual and it sometimes comes out so well.

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LaWanna Desjardin,
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I'm like SR, I think If I'm scraplifting a page, I find that this or that just doesn't work for my page and end up changing something. I think if you want to scrap less "exact", try scraplifting just one thing from the page--the way elements are grouped, the photo placement, the colors. Then, put away the scraplifted page and see what you can do with your own. It's fine to scraplift--this is how we all become better

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Neisha
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This is where i have trouble... Some times it is fun to scraplift or do a sketch but the other day I did a challenge that asked you to copy the sketch exactly down to ever last emelishemt... man was that HARD... it was a buzzy sketch and my lo are usually more simple.. I was able to make the embelisments smaller then in the sketch so it was not so buzy and it worked but i prefer just to use as inspirations not copy exactly.

I think alot of people have the same problem they think this is right and this is wrong... not true.. .It should be you... not well you get the idea.. If you like it then that is right ..

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Help I've fallen behind and I can't catch up!

Past the 1/2 way point

Your not alone! I do the exact same thing. I'm always surprised when I post how everyone was so creative their templates and mines look exactly like the template.

I felt the same about all those flowers in the scraplift challenge - it was something I probably would not have done but I really like final LO.

I totally know what you mean with this. I feel like I'm getting better, but I definitely fall into the rut of feeling like I have to do things just like the original LO or follow the template exactly. There are time that I want to scrap, but if I don't have a sketch or a template, I'm just completely stuck - and I wonder if I have even one creative bone in my body. I think Neisha's suggestions above are great! Picking a certain part of the layout to "copy" and then make everything else your own, would be a great way to teach yourself how to branch out. Another thing to do would be to just create shapes on your layout to represent where you expect things to go (kind of like creating your own template first). Then, after you have replaced the shapes with photos, papers, and elements, give yourself permission to move things around and play with it. Hmmm - maybe I'LL try that!

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