Good morning!  This is my first post of 2012 -- hooray!  Things are busy right now but you're going to hear a lot from me very soon.

What I want to write about today is creative juices.  I know for me, once my creative juices start flowing ... watch out!  Whether I'm participating in a creative blog challenge, planning a workshop or scrapping at a retreat, if the mood is good, my creativity is unstoppable.

But sometimes, I'm just not feeling it.  I may have a great idea but have trouble executing it.  Or I may just be stumped for ideas.  Or I may have lots of ideas but have put too much pressure on myself for it to be AWESOME that I have stage fright.  (Or page fright, in the scrapbooking sense.) 

For example, I'm in the middle of a project right now and I have 4 great design ideas that I'm excited about.  They are all sketched out and ready to execute.  However, I'm having so much trouble actually getting out the paper, trimmer, glue, ink and sparkles to bring it to life.  On one end, I don't want to mess it up.  On the other end, there's the deadline I've set for myself to get it done.  And they are squeezing the creative flow right out of things.

What did I do?  I gave myself permission to walk away.  I had set aside last night to work on this project and was really struggling to get into it.  So I took a deep breath, curled up on the couch and watched Jeopardy instead.  The project is still there.  The ideas are still there.  But I've taken some of the pressure off myself.  And I feel so much better about going back and trying it again today.

So if you're ever feeling Page fright, the best advice I can give is to walk away for a short time.  If it's something for yourself, then it's up to you when you come back to it.  If you have a deadline, then take a shorter break and plan another time to be creative.  But don't be afraid to take a break.  It will do you and your creativity some good.