Inspire Me Monday: Find Your Own Perfection

 

Hello Friends! I'm back today with another Inspire Me Monday post! Hope things are bubbling along in your neck of the woods. Here, we're having a bit of a cool spell - temps in the low-80s instead of the usual mid-90s. I finally pulled the bike out of the basement and have taken some early morning rides to take advantage of the cooler temps.

Like many of you, I've been in a crafting slump. It's been too hot and humid and with current events, I'm still struggling with the new normal of my daily routine. So when I thought about this week's post, I wasn't sure what I was going to write that could be inspirational.

Earlier in the week, I thought that trying something new and out of my comfort zone might inspire me to craft. So I put away my Copics and pulled out my colored pencils. Let's just say that my colored pencil work is not quite ready for prime time. I didn't have much to show after several tries with both my Prismacolor and my Polychromos pencils. 

But I wanted to color the image that I had picked - Spring Meadow Bouquet - an older digital stamp released before I became a design team member. I've always loved this image, the delicate flowers and insects (especially that bumble bee - SWOON!). So I cropped the image, said hello again to my Copics and got to work!

Honestly, I didn't know where I was going with the image. I tried a few different color combinations, but I couldn't get the delicate, airy look that I could see in my head, but wasn't coming out of my markers. My colors weren't perfect. My coloring wasn't perfect. And I bet [insert name of favorite crafter] would have figured this out by now! What to do?

Well, I did what any frustrated crafter does - I watched coloring videos on YouTube and looked at card ideas on Pinterest. Two hours later, I still didn't know what I was going to do with the image, but I pinned some great crockpot recipes if anyone is interested!

But back to coloring ....

So there I was, forty-eight hours away from Inspire Me Monday staring at an uncolored image. It's remarkable how a publishing deadline can focus your attention! So I finally did what I should have done in the first place.

I pulled out a favorite marker combination and colored the lilacs. And then I pulled out another favorite combination and colored the bleeding hearts. And let's not forget about that bumble bee (swoon!). And I just kept on until I finished. 

And then it happened ....

How? Well, I'm not quite sure. But I do know that when I stopped worrying about getting it perfect and  stopped thinking about how [insert name of favorite crafter] might have colored it better, I found my own perfection.

Makes me kind of wonder what would have happened if I had finished those earlier attempts at colored pencil....

Until next time --

Nancy 

SUPPLIES

Stamps: 

• Spring Meadow Bouquet Digital Stamp by Power Poppy. Also available as Burst of Kindness Clear Stamp Set. 
• Always There by Power Poppy [sentiment]

Copics: B60, B63, B66, BV31, BV34 (lilacs); BV31, BV34, G24 (summer snowflakes); RV10, R81, R83, R85, R89, BV31, BV34 (bleeding hearts); Y15, Y19, YR04, N3, N5 (bee); G20, G24, G46 (leaves and stems); E71, E74, E79 (branch)