A couple of times each year I find myself in a scrapbooking funk. You know what I mean, when you feel like you don’t want to scrapbook or that everything you do scrapbook isn’t good. We affectionately call it “losing our mojo.” Despite sounding fun, losing your mojo can be a very debilitating experience. On more than one occasion, losing my mojo has made me question whether or not I should continue on with scrapbooking.
The thing is, I have a lot to lose if I leave scrapbooking behind. Mainly, that my memories would become just pictures that are saved on an external hard drive. That’s what keeps me coming back every time. So. over the years, I’ve come up with a few tricks to try and regain my mojo. I wanted to share them with you today.
- Forget the past – one thing that always keeps me hung up is when I get behind in my scrapbooking. When you’re doing a weekly-style project, just a few weeks of no mojo can leave you pretty far behind. I’ve found that the best way to find my mojo, is to leave the backlog behind. I start right from where I am. Sometimes I go back and do the weeks I missed, sometimes I don’t. I’m ok with that.
- Push outside of your box -Another trick I try is to do something new, something I haven’t tried before. In the past, I’ve tried art journaling, switching from 12×12 to pocket scrapping, and minimalist scrapping all to break my funk. More recently, I experimented with using certain colors on my pages, which I wrote about a few days ago on the blog.
- Eliminate the “have tos” – One thing about the digi scrapping community is that we all end up part of some smaller community or team. We take on responsibilities to create layouts for designers or blog for a certain team, because we want to be part of the community and help out. When I am really down on my mojo, I find it best to eliminate the scrapbooking that I’m required to do. Take a leave of absence from a team or work out a small break, do whatever you can to get back to scrapbooking for you and you only.
- Enlist some help – I really wouldn’t have made it this far in digital scrapbooking without the help of my online friends. They are there to support me when I’m down, to push me to try harder, and to help me make sure that my head is working in unison with my heart. Having someone like that to help you break out of your funk is often key in finding your mojo again.
- Take a break – This one is pretty drastic, but often is the most relieving and inspiring. Sometimes, when I am really in a mojo-less funk, I decide to step back and take a break. I decide to spend some time not scrapbooking, to fall off the digital scrapbooking “grid.” I’ve only done it a few times, but each time I’ve known it was the right decision and it got me back on track faster than any of my other tricks ever have.
Losing your mojo can be a very disheartening experience. Trying some of these tricks that have helped me in the past may help you find your mojo quicker than you can imagine.
Giovana says
Spot on!! I am not a scrapbooker, but a cardmaker and I have felt this way several times!
A break always helps, always ;)