Inspiration Elevator - November 2012

Welcome to our November Inspiration Elevator Challenge!  You may recall from our previous posts, that the purpose of this challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. You can view each of the challenges on my blog - they are posted on the 15th of the month.

This month we have a wonderful guest designer, Katherine Sutton.  She is very talented and we are excited to be working with her!  You can see more of her work on her blog, Fruits of my Scraps.

Our challenger for this month is the super talented Cathy Harper.  Here is her challenge:  

"I scrapbook for the joy of it, the creativity part of it, the love of paper part of it....I hardly ever bare any of my feelings in any of my work! I often tell my kids that they can make up there own stories to their pages...I am that terrible about journaling. I guess it is a bit superficial or a whole lot superficial.

So here is my challenge - I want you to create a page about REGRET.

“No regrets”…they say we should live our lives without regrets… if it were only that easy, right? Most of us hold onto 1 or 2 (or a mountain full) of things we feel regretful for in our lifetimes. A lost love, those words you WISH you had said, the weight you wish you had lost… you know them, right?

I encourage you to confront them… take those suckers on and scrap about them… or just one.

This can be something superficial to something serious and painful… it’s up to you how far you want to dig. I DO encourage you to use this as an opportunity to really stretch yourself. Journaling is very powerful and you might be surprised by how you feel afterward.

This is going to be super tough for me (I may already regret it, lol )...as I am one who lives with a mountain of regrets and know in my head that I should move on, let it go. I am hoping this challenge will help me actually "let go" of some of these things. Maybe by putting in down in 12x12 form, creating it, seeing it and feeling it, that I can put some of it to rest! It's worth a shot! Pictures, no pictures...that is all up to you!"

Wow! Another awesome challenge that really made me dig deep!  First, I had to think about regrets.  I realized that I am not one who likes to live with regret.  I usually confront my regrets, deal with them and move on.  I feel that regrets are part of life and help us to grow as individuals, so I don't hang on to them.  

When I thought about this though, there is one thing that I wish were different in my life.  I wish I didn't live so far away from my family.  So I did a page on family - my family with my Mom and Dad, 2 sisters and 3 brothers.

I began with a photo that was taken about 4 years ago, just a couple of months before my Dad passed away.  This picture is very special to me as we were all together as a family, celebrating my Dad's 80th birthday.

I wanted the page to be cheery and fun, so I used papers and chipboard from the Fancy Pants line, The Good Life.

I also used some puffy stickers from Heidi Swapp (love them!)

My journaling is tucked behind my photo and it reads: 

Family is the single most important thing to me. Twenty eight years ago, when I married and moved away from the only home I knew, I didn’t realize how much I would miss my dear family; Mom, Dad, 2 sisters, 3 brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. All the people who meant so much to me were now 200 miles and another country away. I regret that I could not have married the love of my life and stayed close to my family at the same time. But it was not meant to be. 28 years later, I am still in love with my wonderful husband and would not have changed anything about the life we have made together – except that I wish I was just minutes, instead of hours, away from the ones I love.  

Thank you Cathy for an amazing challenge!   

I hope you will stop by and see what the designers on this adventure have created:

Cathy Harper

Sue Sykes

Lisa Spiegel

Joanne Burton

Christa Uttley

Laura Whitaker

Audrey Yeager

Lisa Moen

Laurel Seabrook

Ann Jobes

Katherine Sutton, Guest Designer

We would love to see what you are inspired to create.   Add a comment below and we will be sure to drop by and say hello!