Where's the Mojo?

It happens to everyone at some point. The mojo goes missing, and it's frustrating, to say the least. That happened to me last month when I had some scrappy deadlines. I had lots on my mind with trying to get my house ready to put on the market, so I was blaming my lack of mojo on that, but I knew I had to get moving with my Work in Progress layouts. So after staring at the awesome July kit for several days, I decided to go to my sure-fire mojo booster. It's a method I've used lots of times before and I knew it would get me going: I'd scraplift myself.

I picked a layout I had recently done that I really liked and said I'll just scraplift that. Here's the page I picked:

This page was inspired by a Creative Scrappers sketch (working off of sketches is also a great mojo-booster) and also a challenge at Color Combos Galore:

And here's the page I made for WIP, scraplifted from my "Sweet Freedom" layout. I'd had this picture printed out for a while and knew I wanted to do the "redneck" thing for my "Book of Silly." The papers in this kit were perfect for the feel I was going for on this page. And I think the techniques I borrowed from the "Sweet Freedom" page worked equally well for this page.

In the original layout, I was working off the image on the Color Combos Galore Inspiration Board. The tearing was meant to mimic the foam on the ocean waves, and the threads I left from the stitching were meant to give my page an easy-[sea]breezy feel.

On my redneck page, the tearing and loose threads, along with the patterns--plaid and more muted shades-- gave my page a rustic, down-home country feel, I thought.

On my original page, I left the edges uninked to give it a clean, crisp feel, whereas on my scraplift, I inked the edges of the papers to give it a grungier feel.

So, the same design and techniques yielded two layouts I liked that have to very different looks and feels. And you know what? Once I got this page finished, my mojo came back and I was able to make several more pages with no problem! If you haven't tried scraplifting yourself before, give it a whirl! And I'd love to hear your best tips for getting your mojo back. :)

Details, Details--A Look at the Jenni Bowlin Flag Banner Stickers

If you were lucky enough to snag the April WIP kit, then you have this sheet of lovelies in your stash:

I love going through the WIP Gallery to see how the design team members used a particular product, and I'm always having that "why didn't I think of that?" reaction. So many clever ways to use these little banner flags, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at all the different ways we used these stickers this month.

I love how Cindy tucked the flags behind that pink paper, overlapping and staggering them. Such a cool little detail and a perfect way to incorporate the date and location into her design!

And how cute and clever is Cindy's idea to use the banner flags for part of her title, hanging those flags from the little tree! They are the perfect size for holding those Echo Park letter stickers that came in the kit.

Love how Jamie clustered the journaling card, sticker, and banner flag to tell her story (and how clever was she to use the notebook punch on that journaling card?). And that little flag in the bottom corner was just the perfect little detail to balance the blue paper, which without that sweet, perfect detail, the page might have felt heavy. Brilliant, Jamie!

I also used the flags to hold the date of my mom's birthday and added buttons tied on with baker's twine. The banner flags were perfect to add a festive birthday touch.

On this page, I used the flags to hold my title by turning them on their side and attaching them to stick pins. I added pop dots under them. 

Here's a close-up:

Just a couple of these little banner flags adds a lot of impact, and with 32 on a sheet, you can use them on many, many pages, so I love having lots of ideas for using them in different ways . Please share your ideas for how you've used these banner flags--and I'd love to see your projects if you've got them posted somewhere, so do share links!