I'm feeling totally inspired.

I have to say, I’m not an idea book junkie. Since I can only buy idea books online, it’s rare for me to buy them. What can I say? I love to flip through books before I shell out £15 each, and you just can’t do that when you buy online.

I’ve been feeling the urge to experiment lately. I want to change up my style a bit. I want to play. I want to be inspired.

After hearing all the great reviews on Cathy Zielske’s book Clean and Simple Scrapbooking for the last year, the fact that I love Cathy’s blog, and the love I have for clean and simple layouts, I finally decided to order the book. Of course to get free P&P I also grabbed Ali Edwards’ book A Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking :)

One question: why didn’t I buy these books a YEAR ago?!?

I’m feeling completely inspired. To be honest, I haven’t really learned anything new. But that’s not the point. I feel the need to scrap, and scrap in a different way than usual. They’ve made me think, and made me stretch my legs and take a step out of my box. They’ve made me realize that I really need to buy more cardstock. Especially white. Loving that white cardstock. :)

So while I’m feeling inspired, and still getting my feet wet in a new-to-me style of scrapbooking, I’m having a play at lifting a few layouts of some of my favourite scrapbook designers that fit this style. For me, doing a few lifts is the best way to learn—kinda like training wheels for scrapbooks. More on that to follow as soon as I get around to photographing those lifts. But most importantly, I’m having FUN!

Right now, I gotta scrap. And stalk the UK shops for Stacy Julian’s new book The Big Picture because after hearing the fab reviews on that book, I’m not waiting a year to buy it. ;)