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Monday, August 10, 2009

Designer Inspiration with Becky Novacek

Inspiration is one of my favorite topics. I enjoy talking about it and sharing sources with my friends and fellow crafters. I have notebooks filled with torn magazine and catalog pages, as well as many, many pages filled with sketches. Sketch books are another topic that I would like to talk about sometime…but today my focus is my torn print pages. Some of my favorites are/were Domino, Country Home, Mary Engelbreit Home Companion, Martha Stewart Living and Wedding Issues, plus JCrew, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters catalogs.

One of my favorite, relaxing pastimes is flipping through magazines looking specifically for inspiration. Tearing pages, or sketching my ideas and adding them to vintage ledger books or simple paperback albums. For me, sitting and relaxing, and putting anything stressful out of my mind really helps me to get my creative juices flowing.

I recently grabbed one of my existing books with torn pages of inspiration looking for an idea for a page. I found the page on the right intriguing and decided to go with it-

This is the page that I made that is actually a pretty literal translation. Some designs end up looking nothing like my pages, they are just a starting point, or it may just be colors that inspire me, or maybe one small detail.

On a sidenote, my inspiration books aren’t just about crafting, some ideas are home décor, cooking, baking, organizational and anything else that interests me. I hope that if you don’t keep inspiration journals, that this may encourage you to give it a try!
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5 comments:

  1. RanjiniAugust 11, 2009 at 7:48 AM

    Becky, I love this idea and have been stockpiling my favorite mags for awhile in hopes that I will get around to doing just this. A question -- what type/brand of album do you use for this? Is there a brand name? Also - it looks as though the pages are in page protectors - do you add your own to the album or do they come with?
    Thanks! - Ranjini

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  2. beckyAugust 11, 2009 at 12:59 PM

    you will love it ranjini! the journal pictured is an older album from SEI...but i often use vintage ledger journals too. no page protectors. lots of my journals have bits of collage and sketching, not just the torn pages.

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  3. Crafty PAugust 11, 2009 at 3:25 PM

    i love my inspiration journals/binders. I often get stuck though on how to organize everything I rip out of them though. Any tips?

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  4. bethchienAugust 11, 2009 at 5:09 PM

    that is such a beautiful layout! I love the take on that mag page!

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  5. beckyAugust 11, 2009 at 10:20 PM

    thanks ladies!

    crafty p-i can't say i really organize my pages! the way i do it is pretty random. i save a bunch of pages and then sort through them when i'm ready to put them in an album and trim or tear them down to fit in the book i'm using at the time. lots of my journals have more doodling or masking tape with writing, smaller cuttings from magazines, etc...in the case of smaller cuttings, i make a sort of collage page. so i guess i'm not very organized about it!

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