Memories On the Move

POSTED ON March 6, 2013 IN From the Desk of Nettio Designs, Life Adventures

From the Desk of Nettio Designs Issue No. 8

Hello hello and welcome to Issue Number 8 of From the Desk of Nettio Designs, my weekly email series where I share my thoughts on creatively capturing your life adventures, life and everything in between. This week’s issue leans a bit more heavily on the life side of things but I promise by the end it’ll wrap back around to memory keeping so stick with me.

I don’t often write about our life as a military family because well, to be honest, it’s really not that exciting! Outside of the fact that my husband wears a uniform to work and occasionally leaves the house at 4am or spends the night out the field, our day-to-day life is really not that different from any other.

But there are two military events that tend to affect our everyday life in a big way: deployments and the always popular PCS aka Permanent Change of Station move. Thankfully Adam is not deploying again but it does mean that, after a little over 2.5 years, our adventure of living here in San Antonio, Texas is coming to an end.

So where are we headed next you ask? Where will our 5th move in 8 years be taking us?

Well come May we are going to be moving to…..drumroll please….

Houston, Texas!

I know, kind of anti-climatic, huh? And not nearly as exciting as someplace overseas like Germany or Korea or Italy. Believe me, we tried hard for Germany.

But it’s true, our Texas adventures will be continuing for another two years as we move three hours east from where we are now to the 4th largest city in the US.

If you’re wondering if there’s a military base in Houston, the answer is no, there is not. Adam will be overseeing the medical recruiting process for the area (they’re the people who recruit doctors, nurses, medical specialists and such for the Army) which means this will be the first time in eight years where we won’t be living within a short distance of a military base.

But considering we’ve yet to ever actually live on a military base, we figure this shouldn’t really be all the different for us. Plus it’ll be a nice test run for what life would be like if he eventually decides to get out of the military since that’s the next big decision we’re going to have to make in a few years.

This past weekend we drove over to Houston to scope out the area, celebrate Adam’s 30th birthday with our fave Crave Cupcakes and do a little rental home hunting.

We went into it with uncertain expectations but ended up finding a place we loved so much that we didn’t want to gamble on it not being available later. We’re still waiting on final approval but fingers-crossed it works out because it’s exactly what we were hoping to find and weren’t sure would exist in our budget.

It’s an apartment so we’ll be downsizing quite a bit from our much-too-large-for-us single family home we live in now but it’s perfect: hand-scraped wood floors, 10 foot ceilings throughout, a kitchen with an island which we’ve very very much missed from our house in Colorado, and of course, lots and lots of natural light.

But as excited as I get about the chance to explore another new city, there’s always a little part of me that finds the moving process a bit bittersweet. When I was a child, I was the one who would tear up when an awesome camping trip or vacation would come to an end because I knew those experiences would never happen again in that same exact way.

And the truth is, there’s a little part of me that still feels that way.

Which is probably why I’m so passionate about scrapbooking – because it’s an awesome way to capture these priceless memories and adventures and save them for a later day.

So as we start preparing ourselves to say goodbye to our current home, I’ve been thinking about what stories or photos I what to make sure I capture before we leave. And I came up with a little list:

1) Make a San Antonio bucket list and scrapbook it

We’ve known for awhile we’d most likely be leaving San Antonio in the near future, so Adam and I have talked several times about things we want to do/places we want to go before we leave. But now that we’ve got a timeline in place, it’s time to make it official. I may end up scrapbooking this as a digital layout but I also think it could be a really fun item to include in my Project Life album.

2) Take more photos around our current house and neighborhood

I’ve definitely taken photos around our house and neighborhood while we’ve been here but since I’ve made quite a bit of progress on my on-going “Operation Home Sweet Home” home design goal, I want to make sure I capture all the details of our home in it’s most final state. When we moved from our home in Colorado in 2010, I ended up doing this a few days before the movers arrived and it’s so fun to look back now at what our house looked liked at that time.

3) Capture our San Antonio area faves

You had to know there’d be some form of the faves on this list, right? Haha. But really I’d love to take the time to make some Top Ten-type lists about our favorite restaurants, places we go, etc. Might even be fun to do it as an awards type of thing like “Best Place For Breakfast Tacos” (Little Texas Cafe) or “Most Visited Store” (Target).

I’m sure as we jump into the decluttering/planning/moving stage I’ll think of more things I want to capture but I figure this is a good start. My general rule of thumb when it comes to memory keeping is “You never remember as much as you think you will” and since a lot of times with military moves, there’s always a chance we might never return to where we were before, I always try to capture as many details as I can. Better to have too much than not enough, I say.

It’s Challenge Time!

Your adventure challenge this week is to take a moment to capture where you live, right now. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy: a single photo, a series of photos or a layout would do. Even if you’re in your forever home, life changes and I can tell you from experience how fun it is to look back and be reminded of all those little details and changes that have happened when you didn’t even notice.

And hey, if you have any awesome moving tips, feel free to lay those on me as well.

Well that’s it for this week’s installment of From the Desk of Nettio Designs! As always if you have any comments, questions or just want to share what you’re up to feel free leave a comment below. Until next time…

This post is Issue No. 8 of my From The Desk of Nettio Designs weekly email series. Want to get in on the action? Sign up for Nettio Designs emails here.

Can I take Levitra if I am taking other remedies at the same time

The Truth About Growth: Maximize Impact, Minimize Effort

POSTED ON February 27, 2013 IN From the Desk of Nettio Designs, Memory Keeping

From the Desk of Nettio Designs Issue No. 7

Welcome to From the Desk of Nettio Designs Issue No. 7. Ooo, lucky number 7! So glad to be back chatting with you again!

This past week I started reading The Art of Growth by Tara Gentile. If you don’t know Tara, she’s one kickass lady currently trailblazing a path for entrepreneurs to the New Economy. I’ve been following Tara’s work for quite awhile now and what I love about her is she makes me think and she has a knack for saying exactly what you need to hear at precisely the right moment.

While The Art of Growth is primarily a business-related book focusing on how to grow your business in an impactful way, while I was reading it I couldn’t help but draw parallels to how I look at growth as a scrapbooker.

In The Art of Growth, Tara talks about how growth is about maturity. How it’s like raising a child: in the beginning you have to tend to their every need and then slowly as they mature and grow older, they require less of your hands-on care.

The scrapbooking process follows this same path. When you’re a newbie scrapbooker every decision requires your energy and attention, but as you become more comfortable with your skills and style, you’re able to naturally do things that we at one time difficult, freeing up your time and energy for more meaningful storytelling and creativity.

As Tara puts it: at it’s core, growth is about identifying ways to maximize your impact while minimizing your efforts.

Wow. Let me say that again.

Maximize your impact. Minimize your effort.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the goal of growth stated so simply before but when I talk about the importance growth as part of creatively capturing your life adventures, this is exactly what I’m talking about.

We want to maximize the impact our storytelling, photos, design, even maximize the impact our adventures and memories have on our life, while minimizing the amount of time and energy it requires to do these things.It’s all about getting the most bang for your buck.

This is exactly why Project Life has become so popular as a memory keeping system. Because it maximizes the impact of everyday storytelling as part of a simple and streamlined system.

But what if you don’t want to jump on the Project Life bandwagon? What if you want to keep doing what you do while still maximizing the impact of your scrapbooking and minimizing your efforts? Are there other ways we can do this?

Here’s a few ideas I came up with:

1) Streamline your systems

How much time do you waste looking for photos, finding supplies and coming up with layout ideas? Why not instead use systems to your advantage?

Organize your supplies and photos in a way that not only makes them easy to find but inspires you in the process. Create a content capture system for all your storytelling layouts and ideas that pop into your head at random moments. That way when you have the inclination to get your scrapbook on, you’ll already be one step ahead.

2) Focus on what you love

We all have part of the creative process we love and parts we love not quite as much. So why not minimize the amount of effort you spend on those less fun tasks?

If you don’t love editing photos, embrace actions. If page design isn’t your thang, grab a template!

The less energy you expend on the parts of the process that don’t make you want to dance for joy, the more time and energy you’ll have to focus on the parts you love most.

3) Find your own style

In the scrap world, style tends to be seen as this elusive abstract concept. But in reality, all style really means is having the confidence to repeatedly do something in a certain way.

Understanding your own style takes the guess-work out of scrapbooking. It allows you to make more impactful layouts and designs because you know what you love and you know the steps to take to get the result you want.

Less uncertainty=more stories captured with less effort.

4) Dig deeper

Get to the heart of why you scrapbook and focus your time and energy on the stories that are most meaningful to you. Imagine yourself 10, 15, 20 years from now – what stories/moments/adventures do you want to have captured?

Start with those.

Now It’s Your Turn

I’m sure I’ll be revisiting this idea of maximizing your scrapbooking impact while minimizing your effort more but for now, I want to hear from you:

What’s one way you can think of to maximize the impact of your scrapbooking while minimizing your effort?

I’d love to hear your thoughts so feel free to share in the comments below.

That’s it from me this week! I’ll be back next week with Issue No. 8 of From the Desk of Nettio Designs. See you then!

A little note: I did receive my copy of The Art of Growth for free as part of my KickStart Labs membership (which I paid for) but I wasn’t perked in any way to mention it, so just consider me a happy fan sharing some insight from a wise woman. None of the links above are affiliate links.

This post is Issue No. 7 of my From The Desk of Nettio Designs weekly email series. Want to get in on the action? Sign up for Nettio Designs emails here.

Benefits Of Using Canadian Pharmacy

How Can We Turn Our Scrapbooking Struggles Into Assets?

POSTED ON February 20, 2013 IN From the Desk of Nettio Designs

From the Desk of Nettio Designs Issue No. 6

At the end of last week’s From the Desk of Nettio Designs, I asked you to share with me what you’re struggling with right now when it comes to creatively capturing your life adventures. A huge thank you to everyone who did! I loved reading all of your responses.

While I know it can be a bit uncomfortable to admit when you’re struggling with something, I can say based off all the responses that we are all definitely in the same boat. In fact I don’t think there were any struggles I read that I couldn’t nod my head right along with you and say “Yep, totally been there.” And I know I said as much in a lot of my responses back to you, haha.

Speaking of which, if you sent me an email or left a comment on my blog, you should have received a reply from me, so if you haven’t yet, either I missed it or it got lost in cyberspace, so please feel free to send your response again. I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Since you were all so kind to share your scrapbooking struggles with me last week, I wanted to share a few of my own scrapbooking struggles with you this week. Because yes, even after 7 years of digital scrapbooking, I still have things I struggle with too, like:

1) Taking WAY too many photos

Ok, so maybe it’s not the taking photos as much as it’s a problem of managing the sheer volume of photos I take. Don’t get me wrong, I love that I have so many more details of our everyday life & adventures captured, but keeping up with the continuous flow of digital photo organization and editing sometimes makes me wish for the old days of dropping off a single roll of 30 exposure film at Target. Photo flow is not something I’ve managed to master just yet.

2) Taking on too much

I love the rush of new projects, ideas, brainstorming – that’s the fun part of projects for me. The actual details and execution stage: eh, not so much. Which means sometimes I get easily excited to start something and lose steam half way, and other times I struggle with not knowing how to give myself permission to without feeling guilty I didn’t finish.

3) Balancing work with scrapbooking for fun

There’s a funny thing that happens when you pair your hobby with your work: the line between what’s work and what’s for fun becomes very very blurred. It becomes even trickier when work from home and love what you do but still want to maintain some kind of work/life boundaries. I struggle with this and I know more than a few of you on Creative Teams expressed you struggle with finding this balance as well so I know I’m in good company here.

How Can We Turn Our Scrapbooking Struggles Into Assets?

So now that we’ve all admitted and shared our struggles (woohoo, group hug everyone!), where do we go from here? More importantly, how can we turn our struggles into assets?

Well, the first thing we need to do is reframe how we look at our struggles in a more positive light. When most of us hear the word struggle, the first thing we think about is hardship, frustration and pain. And yes, struggle often involves all of those things.

But when I look at my own scrapbooking struggles, what I choose to see is opportunity. Opportunity for growth, for improvement, for learning.

Because the areas where we struggle are not a sign of our failures. Instead they represent where we have the most opportunity for true growth – where we’ll get the most bang for our buck, if you will.

If we can conquer what we struggle with the most first, aka the biggest speed bumps in our creative process, then that will free up more of our time, energy, inspiration and creativity to be put toward the areas we really love.

But in order to get to that point, we have to first understand the root cause of why we struggle with these things in the first place.

Back in 2011, I asked a similar “what do you struggle with” question on my blog and being the numbers/infographic nerd that I am, I came up with this pie chart at the time to show the five main categories of scrapbooking struggles based on the responses:

Time & Focus – finding time, avoiding the black hole of social media, maintaining balance
Design – all elements of design: composition, design principles, photography, title work
Inspiration – staying inspired, managing inspiration, finding your own style
Storytelling – journaling, telling your story, title work
Organization – both photos & scrap supplies

All of the responses I received this week could still be classified within these five categories. But that really only tells part of the story.

Two Key Causes of Why We Struggle

When I looked a little deeper at the WHY behind all of the responses from both 2011 & 2013, what I realized was all of these struggles could actually be categorized into two key causes: overwhelm & lack of confidence.

Overwhelm, as I’m sure most of us know, is that feeling you get when you have too much to do and not enough time. It includes struggles like: too many photos/photos/ideas/supplies/projects, not enough time to start/finish, a lack of focus when you do start, disorganization with you supplies or photos.

Lack of Confidence is that little voice of doubt inside your head that makes you rethink your choices (do I put this button here or here?) and whether you really are good enough (news flash, you totally are!). It includes struggles like: lack of confidence in your design/technical/photo skills or creativity, in your ability to tell your story thru your words and photos, and even in how you’ll look in a photo (which is why you hide behind the lens).

How overwhelm & lack confidence manifest themselves in our struggles is going to be a little bit different for each of us, and of course some struggles are going to fall into a combination of these two causes. But at it’s core, when looking at our struggles as opportunities for growth, what we need to do is focus on out how we can take action on these two things: reducing our overwhelm and/or increasing our confidence.

Which brings me to this week’s challenge…

It’s Challenge Time!

This week I want you to choose one of the struggles you shared last week and take action on it by doing two things:

1) Categorize the root of your struggle as either overwhelm or lack of confidence (or both). Really try to be as honest as possible and get at the heart of why this particular part of the creative process is a struggle for you. Don’t be afraid to mull it over for awhile and dig deep.

2) Write down one or two simple actionable steps you can take this week to help combat the root of your struggle – keep it something that is small, simple and doable – no big bold “I’m going to organize all my scrap supplies this week!” statements. We’re trying to reduceoverwhelm, remember?

Since I find having an example always helps, I’ll make it easy on ya and go first. You aren’t getting graded on this obviously, haha, so don’t worry about it being a well-edited essay – a simple list or mind-map can be a great way to do this as well.I’m choosing to focus on my I take WAY too many photos struggle which more me is a combination of both overwhelm and a lack of confidence:

Overwhelm because I get overwhelmed by the sheer volume and ongoing nature of the photo-taking process. Even when I’ve managed to get my photos organized I’ve struggled to keep them that way.
Lack of confidence because I know if I had more confidence in my abilities to compose photos I love in camera or get the right exposure/sharp photos the first time, I wouldn’t feel the need to take quite so many photos in the first place.

For my action steps, I’m going to do two things this week:

Spend 30 minutes one evening adding the rest of my photos into Aperture
Spend a little time (less than an hour) browsing through my pinned photos board on Pinterest and look for patterns in the photos I love. Then try to incorporate one of these patterns into my own photos.

See what I mean about keeping things simple? Your goal is not to solve your struggle in a single night. I just want you to spend some time getting to know your struggle and what it might take to eventually get yourself over the struggle hump. And if you’d like to share your plan, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you’ve got planned. We can be accountability buddies, hehe.

This post is Issue No. 6 of my From The Desk of Nettio Designs weekly email series. Want to get in on the action? Sign up for Nettio Designs emails here.

Fraudulent Drugs Are A Huge Global Problem

Happy Birthday Nettio Designs and Five Lessons Learned In Year Two

POSTED ON February 13, 2013 IN From the Desk of Nettio Designs

From the Desk of Nettio Designs Issue No. 5

Hello hello creative adventurers and welcome to this special birthday edition of From the Desk of Nettio Designs! I know we have some new people joining us this week so a hearty welcome to you all – so glad to have you here!

I hope you all have your party hats handy because this week, Nettio Designs officially turns 2! Woohoo, it’s party time!

That’s right, two years ago today, I officially opened the doors of Nettio Designs. Hard to believe my little business baby is already a toddler. *sniff sniff proud mama tears*

It’s pretty safe to say that owning my own business has been one of the most crazy and rewarding creative & life adventures I have ever been on, full of some high highs, low lows and incredible opportunities and experiences.

But as challenging as the day to day nature of being a solo-preneur can be at times, it’s hard to deny that there’s something unbelievably rewarding about knowing that every single dollar you bring in (no matter how lean that income may be at times) is a direct result of your own personal blood, sweat & tears.

Since Sweet Shoppe Designs is also celebrating its birthday this month (lucky number 7!) I’ve kept the birthday festivities here at Nettio Designs pretty chill. (I’m guessing this is how my dad felt every year he had to share his Dec 23rd birthday with my grandma.)

But since I had such a fun time sharing the lessons I learned in my first year of business during my anniversary celebration last year, I thought it’d be fun to share a few lessons I’ve learned in year two of owning my own digital business. Because lord knows there have been some lessons with a capital L, haha.

Lesson #1: Never compare your insides to someone else’s outsides

One of the great things about owning an online business? You can spend the day working in your comfy pants and ignoring the ever growing pile of dishes in your sink and no one will ever be the wiser.

The downside to this? The same is true for everyone else. You can’t see their reality either unless they want you to see it.

Which means, because it’s human nature for most people to put their best foot forward, it can be easy to get caught up in comparing your reality to what you imagine every one else’s reality to be. And let’s face it, we all imagine everyone else’s situation to be more glamorous/easy/insert your fave adjective here than our own, right? Especially when you start adding designing and money into the mix, it can be easy to get stuck in a spiral of feeling like you’re not as talented/fast/organized/perfect as everyone else.

I admit when I first moved to the Sweet Shoppe last year, I fell into this trap a bit. I went from designing within my own little happy bubble here at Nettio Designs to suddenly having to compare my work to 29 other designers every week. It was tough and I had more than a few moments where I felt like I wasn’t as talented/creative/organized as every one else. And I admit, there’s still times when I struggle with this.

But then I remind myself that this isn’t reality, its fear. And the more you talk to people, the more you realize everyone in the world is making things up as they go, even the people who seem like they have everything together. They just don’t want you to know that, haha. So run your own race and push yourself to be the best you can possibly be.

Lesson #2: Make things for people you love

When I first moved to the Sweet Shoppe last April, I felt like a tiny fish thrown into a big pond. Suddenly I went from designing for a customer base I knew was excited about what I did (because well, I was the only designer here, haha) to feeling like I had to please this ever elusive much broader Sweet Shoppe customer. And I admit, I wasn’t totally sure what they wanted from me. Did I now need to design school-themed templates? Or baby books even though I’m not a mom? I started to feel a bit lost.

Then over the summer I read the book Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon (which I wrote about before here), and there was a great quote at the end of the book that went like this:

“Make things for people you love. For people you want to meet.”

And I realized, that’s what I want to do.

A huge part of the reason I started Nettio Designs was because I want to connect with other tech-lovin’, patterned paper obsessed, creative & adventurous (or would like to be) scrapbookers like myself. I want to design products to make our lives easier – products I’m excited to use for my own scrapbooking – and solve problems I struggle with in hopes it’ll help you out too.

I know what I design or do isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and you know what? That’s perfectly ok. Because the more I focus on the people who are most passionate about what I do the more we can all grow together. And that’s really what it’s all about, right?

Lesson #3: Planning to-dos against time is the key to getting things done

This is a new lesson I’m still learning on a day-to-day basis so I’m just going to say this: if you’re the type of creative person who loses track of time and takes on WAY more ideas than they have time to implement, planning out your individual to-do list items on a calendar will change your life.

Will it be fun when you first write down everything and have to admit you don’t have time to do it all? No. That part actually kind of sucks if you’re a big idea person like me, haha.

But the more you do it, the better you get at estimating and managing your time. And once you start seeing big goals become reality (without scrambling at the last minute or working late into the night), it starts to make it all worth it.

Lesson #4: The best ideas don’t come when you’re in front of a computer

As a tech-lover, it pains me a little bit to admit this, but it’s oh-so-very true. Whenever I’m stuck, the best thing I can do is walk away and do something simple: go for a walk, hit the gym, or my favorite, take a shower and do my hair/makeup so I feel like a productive member of society. It never fails that it’s in those moments that a solution will come to you or the right words or phrases fall into place.

Lesson #5: Chatting with you is my favorite part of this job

It’s cheesy and cliche’d but it’s true. My favorite part of this job is getting to connect with all of you. I love nothing more than replying to blog comments or reading the emails you send me sharing how your Blurb book brought you to tears. Those moments make all the hard work absolutely worth it and are a huge reason why I do what I do. Nettio Designs wouldn’t be here without you so I hope you know how much it means to me that you trust my designs with your most favorite memories and adventures.

Which brings me to this week’s challenge…

It’s Challenge Time!

Last year as part of my 1st anniversary I sent out a survey asking for your thoughts. This year I’ve decided to simplify by instead asking you to send me an email or leave a comment below with your answer to this question:

When it comes to creatively capturing your life adventures, what are you struggling with right now?

Best part, there are no right or wrong answers, and no reason too big or small. I just want to hear how things are or aren’t working for you right now.

And with that, it’s time to close out this week’s birthday installment of From the Desk of Nettio Designs! Owning my own business has been a constant cycle of learning and growth and I’m not going to lie, it’s kind of a rush. I’m excited to see what year three brings to Nettio Designs. Here’s hoping this business toddler can avoid the terrible twos…

This post is Issue No. 5 of my From The Desk of Nettio Designs weekly email series. Want to get in on the action? Sign up for Nettio Designs emails here.

Fraudulent Drugs Are A Huge Global Problem

What I Learned From Challenging My Own Creative Assumption: Clean & Simple White Space

POSTED ON February 6, 2013 IN From the Desk of Nettio Designs, Memory Keeping

From The Desk Of Nettio Designs Issue No. 4

I mentioned in From The Desk Of Nettio Designs Issue No. 2 that one of the key components of creatively capturing your life adventures is having an attitude of willingness to push outside your comfort zone and challenge your assumptions of what you think you’re capable of without worrying about failing.

We all have assumptions we make when it comes to our creative scrapbooking abilities, things like:

“I’m not a white space scrapbooker.”

“I can’t use bold colors.”

“I’m not as creative as so-and-so.”

While sometimes these creative assumptions are rooted in the reality of our skills and abilities (maybe we really don’t have the skills yet to pull off a certain technique), often times what they represent are our own insecurities: the fears & doubts we tell ourselves in order to keep us safe from failure. Because let’s face it, failing at anything, even something new, kind of sucks, right?

This is why actively challenging your own creative assumptions is so important to your growth as a creative artist. Because not only does it teach you what you actually are capable of (since almost all of us underestimate our true abilities), but with each step you take outside your comfort zone, the process gets a little bit easier.

Yes, there are going to be times when you try something outside your comfort zone and fail. That’s a given.

But that little voice telling you you can’t do something is almost always wrong. And to prove it to yourself, you have to ignore that voice and push outside your comfort zone in spite of your fear. Because that’s when the magic happens. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

At the end of last week’s From The Desk, I challenged you do exactly this by confronting one of your own creative assumptions. Scrapbook a layout in a style completely opposite of your own, try a new technique, scrap a topic you normally wouldn’t.

And I promised you I’d do the same.

Well I did and this week I want to share how it went when I challenged one of my own creative assumptions: designing simple & clean white space-focused layouts.

If you’ve ever seen one of my digital scrapbooking layouts, it probably comes as no surprise that designing simple, neutral, white space-focused layouts would be one of my creative achilles’ heels. I mean, I love me some bold colors and layered patterned papers and embellishments, so the idea of keeping a canvas mostly empty with just a few carefully placed elements more-than-a-little intimidates me.

Yet I constantly find myself drawn to these types of clean & simple layouts. I love the neutral backgrounds, the carefully placed elements and the generous use of open white space.

So I decided to design a simple & clean white-space-focused scrapbooking layout as my creative challenge this week.

Challenging My Own Creative Assumption: White-Space

Now I’m not going to lie, thinking about this challenge all week made me a bit nervous. A little knot would show up in my stomach and that little voice inside my head would come out with it’s “This isn’t what you do” and “What if you totally suck – you’re going to have to show this to people, you know!”

I’m going to tell you: this is a totally normal part of the process. Yes, it can feel a little bit uncomfortable in that moment, but I promise you it gets easier the more you do it. You just can’t give in at the first sign of fear.

In an effort to quiet my inner creative wimp, I decided to start with a small baby step by gathering inspiration. And to do that I headed to the first site I think of when I think clean & simple scrapbooking: Paislee Press. As Liz’s tagline says, I wanted to embrace my inner minimalist this week.

Quick Tip #1: This is what you want to do when you first start challenging your creative assumptions – start with a small step, a baby step if you will, that doesn’t seem so scary. Do a little research, find some inspiration. And then move on to the big stuff from there.

After spending about 30 minutes cruising through the Paislee Press blog, I narrowed my inspiration down to these four layouts from her Creative Team:

Layouts clockwise from top left: Sue Falstaff; Jippo; Sue Falstaff; Susanne

What I loved about these layouts in particular:

Fantastic use of white space (obviously)
Neutral yet still interesting backgrounds
Pops of color
Graphic use of text
Mostly neutral/B&W photos

With these guidelines in mind, I set out to create my own clean & simple layout. And to make sure I didn’t fall back into my Sweet Shoppe layer-lovin’ ways, I decided to use a Paislee Press’ kit, The Weekender, as well. Figured I might as well help myself out a bit and use a kit designed for this minimalist style of scrapbooking, right?

Quick Tip #2: When first trying something outside your comfort zone, do whatever you can to make the process easier on yourself. Use a kit in the style you want to try, start with a template or sketch or even scrap lift someone else.

Now let me just say, most of the time as I worked this layout, I felt a bit out-of-sorts, kind of like I was trying to walk with my right shoe on my left foot. I felt out of my element and the design process didn’t feel as natural or easy for me as it usually does. Again, this is totally normal.

But I kept at it, adding elements, moving papers and reminding myself that in the wise words of Young House Love, “The middle makes no sense.” Even when I had doubts about how it was going to turn out, I continued to push forward until I had eventually had a completed layout I was happy with – a clean & simple white space layout with a Nettio-twist…

Neutral photo? Check.
Pops of color? Check.
Graphic use of text? Check.
Neutral yet interesting background? Check.
Fantastic use of white space? I like to think so.

And the truth is, I’m really happy with it. It’s me but more clean up and refined. Does this mean I’m suddenly going to become a white-space lovin’ scrapbooker all the time? Yeah, not so much. In fact there’s a major part of me that is itching to increase the size of the photo and add on a few more buttons and flowers to the layout, haha.

But the finished layout is not the point of challenging your assumptions anyway.

Quick Tip #3: It’s not about the end result, it’s about the journey of getting there. So slow down, don’t stress and just take this challenge one step at a time.

It’s all about the process of pushing yourself to try something you didn’t think you were capable of because it forces you to slow down, look at your creative process with fresh eyes and question what you’re doing and more importantly, why you’re doing those things as you design your page.

Because that can offer you some very valuable insight into your regular creative process.

As I was designing this layout, I was forced to question my creative instincts the entire time. To ask myself things like:

Do the vertical shapes look balanced? Is there a good flow throughout the layout?
Do I have enough variety in my colors & scale of patterns? Is it too much?
Does it need more embellishments or is it good as it is?

All of these things are things I think about when I normally scrapbook a layout, but usually they’re so ingrained in my process and style that I don’t consciously think about them. But because I was scrapbooking in a style completely opposite from what I normally do, my brain had to stop and really question each design decision I made.

And as a result, I learned some valuable lessons:

I love having my photos be a focal point of my layouts, which is probably why I love using single photos or a single repeating photo as opposed to many different smaller photos.
Neutral backgrounds with pops of color & pattern can be fun – I should really try this more often!
I like having space to tell my story – and I didn’t feel like there was enough room for that with this design.
I heart geometric shapes.
White space isn’t nearly as scary as it seemed like it would be – you just have to find a way to balance out all that space.

These are all insights I can apply to my regular style of scrapbooking. Are any of them mind-blowingly earth-shattering on their own? Not really.

But each time you step outside your comfort zone, you gain more and more insight into your own creative process and what you truly love. And that is ultimately how you create a style that is 100% all your own.

This is exactly why I push myself to do challenges like this and why I highly encourage you to as well.

Now It’s Your Turn

If you didn’t challenge your own creative assumption last week, I really hope you’ll take some time to do it this week. And if you did complete the challenge, WOOHOO, you get a gold star! I’d love for you to share all about what you did and how it went in the comments section of this post.

I’ll be back next week with a special Nettio Designs’ 2nd Anniversary edition of From The Desk where I’ll be sharing a behind-the-scenes peek at some lessons I learned in my second year as a crafty business owner. See you then!

This post is Issue No. 4 of my From The Desk of Nettio Designs weekly email series. Want to get in on the action? Sign up for Nettio Designs emails here.

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What Ziplining 140 Feet in the Air Taught Me About Challenging Creative Assumptions

POSTED ON January 30, 2013 IN From the Desk of Nettio Designs

From the Desk of Nettio Designs Issue No. 3

It all started when my dad asked if any of us would like to go zip-lining in redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains over New Year’s. A friend of his had been and he thought it might be fun to go.

“Sure,” I said, figuring it would be a good adventure to end the year on a positive note. My husband Adam and I had been zip-lining once before in Hawaii and while I’d been a bit nervous at first, by the end I loved it so much I was volunteering to zip first. I figured, how different could this time be?

My mom and my two sisters refused to go so my dad, Adam and I made a reservation for the morning of New Years Eve.

Our zip lining trip started out innocently enough with a gear introduction and your standard safety brief.

“Don’t touch your gear, we’ll do that for you.”

“Don’t worry, you’re always strapped in.”

“These ropes can hold two elephants worth of weight.”

We did a quick practice zip to learn correct form and braking and then it was time for the first zip.

It was at this point that I started to get nervous. To get to the first zipline platform, you had to cross a rickety-looking rope bridge over to a seemingly small circular platform attached around the trunk of a very large redwood tree 30 feet in the air.

Now let me take this moment to say that heights and I? Not exactly friends. I don’t hate them, but hiking around the rim of the Grand Canyon made me more than a little nervous, and I’m certainly not planning to be sign up to for bungie jumping or skydiving any time soon.

So the thought of crossing that bridge made me more than a little nervous. And by the time I’d hurriedly walked crossed, my hands were shaking and I was starting to think that maybe this wasn’t the best idea.

And then I looked around and realized just how small the platform was and just how high we really were. And the first few zip lines were only going to get higher, with zip #3 maxing out at a whopping 140 feet above the ground.

Have I mentioned these circular platforms couldn’t have stuck out maybe more than maybe 5 feet from the tree?

By this point my brain was screaming at me, “ABORT, ABORT, TURN AROUND WHILE YOU STILL CAN! If you think THIS height is bad, it’s only going to get WORSE!”

But everyone else in our small group seemed to be fine and I didn’t want to be the lone person to take the chicken exit back to solid ground. So I hugged the tree a little tighter (literally) and reminded myself that it was going to be ok, that I’m strapped in and the guides most likely wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t think it was safe.

Then it came time for the first zip. And this is when I realized that in order to get strapped into the zipline, I would have to stand on a very small stool at the very edge of the platform overlooking the ground 30 feet below.

I was scared. Majorly freaking out inside may be a better description. But I’d committed, so I forged ahead with the first zipline.

Hand on brake, feet up & here we go. No turning back now right?

I made it to the next platform and you know what? It wasn’t that bad. It was maybe even a little fun.

Then came the second zipline. And by the time I’d finished with the 3rd and tallest/fastest zipline of the bunch, I had a pretty big grin on my face. 140 feet in the air and all.

With each zipline, my confidence grew. I started looking around more and hugging the tree a little less. Admiring just how pretty the trees were. I even took some photos with my phone (being careful not to drop it into the forest below).

Sure I still wished our guide would strap me in a little faster so I didn’t have to stand overlooking the edge for very long.

But by the time we got to our 7th or 8th zipline, I didn’t want the trip to end. And if you ask me if I’d do it all over again, I totally would.

This is what happens when you step outside your comfort zone.

Your brain’s instinct is to keep you safe. To stay the course. To stick with what you know because it’s safer & easier.

But with each step further you take outside your comfort zone, things get a little easier. Your body starts to relax and your confidence grows. You start to think, “Hey, maybe I can do this.” Before you know it you’re looking back and admiring how far you’ve come. And by the end you’re high-fiving someone from the rush that comes with the realization that “Hey, I CAN do this!”

Stepping outside your creative comfort zone works the same way. Which is why challenging your creative assumptions of what you think you’re capable of is so important to creatively capturing your life adventures.

Because that little voice inside your head is going to try to protect you in it’s own misguided way.

It’s going to tell you that you don’t have the skills. That you can’t scrap the way so-and-so does. That you aren’t creative enough.

But that little voice is wrong. And to prove it to yourself, you have to ignore that voice and push outside your comfort zone in spite of your fear. Because that’s when the magic happens. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Sure, I could have turned around at the sign of the first scary bridge. But then I wouldn’t have this awesome life adventure and smiling photo to share with you would I? Even with a 2nd scary bridge looming in the distance…

And that’s exactly what creatively capturing your life adventures is all about.

Now It’s Your Turn

Your mission this week is to step outside your comfort zone and challenge a creative assumption of your own.

What’s something related to your scrapbooking that you don’t feel you’re capable of doing? That makes you feel a little bit nervous at the thought of actually doing it? Think scrapbooking a layout in a style completely opposite of your own, trying a new technique or scrapping a topic you normally wouldn’t.

Then email me or leave a comment on this blog post and let me know how it went. Did you experience moments of doubt? Did the process feel uncomfortable at all? How do you feel now that you’ve challenged this creative assumption? Are you ready to high-five someone in a totally dorky air-five yet?

I’ll be challenging myself to confront a creative assumption of my own this week (can we say white space? eek!) and I’ll be back next week to share my experience. I’ll see you then!

This post is Issue No 3 of my From The Desk of Nettio Designs weekly email series. Want to get in on the action? Sign up for Nettio Designs emails here.

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