Everyday Inspiration | Magazines

As cliched as the term “everyday inspiration” may sound, there *is* a reason it became a cliche in the first place. Because it is true. You can find inspiration from the minutia of everyday life that frequently goes unnoticed. I, for one, am guilty of feeling blocked, being uninspired, or seriously lacking in creativity at any given time during the day/week/month. I think it happens to most people on a fairly regular basis. If not, please see me after this post and I will gladly pick your brain for your superhuman talents and ideas.

One of the things about creative constipation is that it really doesn’t have to put a permanent kink in your mojo. All you really need to do is stop, change your attitude, and actively seek out inspiration from a different point of view.

C’mon… try it with me; it will be painless. I promise.

One of the easiest tricks is to take a break from your stalled project and pick up a magazine. Pick up that familiar friend and flip through the glossy pages. The beauty of this is that it doesn’t even matter which magazine you grab. They are all put together by professional creatives who have loads of experience in knowing what works and what doesn’t. Use their knowledge and creativity to reboot your own.

• Look through a National Geographic & get inspired by a picture. They also have poetic prose & lovely titles. Use one of those for a layout, poem, or journal entry.
• Find a Psychology Today magazine & take a quiz. Use the results as the starting point for your next creative adventure.
• Real Simple or Oprah Magazine always have tons of colorful eye candies to inspire a new palette for your creative mind. Or use headlines, quizzes, recipes, organization tips, or any other fun finds to motivate you. As an example, the February issue of Oprah had a great chalk design on the cover. That cover was an amazing source of inspiration. Create a scrapbook layout with chalk or if that isn’t quite up your alley, simply use the colors as inspiration and create work with a black background with pastel elements. The possibilities are endless.

If and when you run out of ideas and inspiration from the content of the magazine, the next fun trick is to use the layout of the magazine to inspire you. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be a magazine. You could even use a catalog you receive in the mail. Last week, I got a catalog in the mail from Lamps Plus. I am not really in the market for lighting, but I flipped through it anyway. There are always interesting colors and/or looks that might be inspiring, but that particular day, what I really looked at was the layout. Their layout inspired me to create a scrapbook page.

Here is the image from the catalog

and here is what I came up with.

Easy peasy. Just take something you find and tweak it to fit your own style and personality. I’ve never looked at car magazines, but I’m sure there are inspirational nuggets in them too. Just be willing to look at something from a different perspective. It is really as easy as that.

I’ve even included a template you can play with on your own. Just click on the image to download:

Link us up if you put it to use!

Where do you find your inspiration? Please let us know in the comments!