Make Your Own Idea Book

What is an Idea Book?

Before we talk about how to make your own idea book, you need to have an idea of what an idea book is. I mentioned scrapbooking, because that is one craft where idea books are frequently made and sold.

Often published in magazine form, these "books" give you a glimpse of what other crafters are doing. The idea is that looking through an idea book will spark your imagination and improve your projects. You can borrow ideas from the pages or even copy the layout directly if you like.

If you rely on purchased idea books for your inspiration, you're going to end up spending a lot of money you could have otherwise spent on craft supplies. Why not make your own idea book and spend the money you saved on materials for projects?

How Your Idea Book Works

My thought for encouraging you to make your own idea book is that you can incorporate all the different crafts you enjoy and have one book that can offer you inspiration for any craft you might be wanting to do.

This idea book will serve as a kind of scrapbook of inspiration, a collection of things that have interested you, projects you might want to try, ideas that struck you that you didn't have time to work on at that moment. Once you make your own idea book and start working with it, you will feel more creative, see opportunities for creativity and potential projects everywhere, and have a lot more fun with your projects. Let's get started!

How to Make Your Own Idea Book

First, in order to make your own idea book, you need a book. I like the basic spiral-bound scrapbooks that can usually be found on the scrapbooking aisle in your local crafts store. These books usually have pages a little bigger than normal notebook paper, and they have heavy, unlined paper so you can draw on it, glue things to it, staple it, or whatever else you might need.

Once you have a book, you can start collecting ideas. Or, perhaps more accurately, you can start collecting inspiration.

What to Put in Your Idea Book

Once you start looking for things to put in your idea book, you'll probably find that it fills up pretty quickly. I'll bet you've got a file folder or two filled with patterns you'd like to try someday—these can go in your idea book.

If you collect magazine clippings of different things that catch you eye, such as stunning flower arrangements, the perfect paint color, or a really great upholstered chair, these images can go into your idea book as well.

Also write down ideas that you might have had for projects but have never gotten around to. You don't have to explain the whole project if a few words will jog your memory: meditation pillow, plaid baby blanket, latte-scented candle. You might want to reserve a page for these memory jogs, leaving room for sketching or writing about the ideas as they come.

You don't have to know exactly how you are going to use something for it to belong in your idea book. If something appeals to you, there's a reason. Slap it on a page.

Don't give a lot of thought to how you organize your idea book. You might want to devote different pages, or even different books, to different crafts that you enjoy, but sometimes the most interesting ideas can come from seemingly unrelated things that end up together. You might get inspiration for the perfect color for a candle from a knitting pattern, or realize that the texture fabric you liked for no apparent reason is exactly what you were trying to do in the afghan you're crocheting.

The whole point of making your own idea book is to be open to the creative process that happens when you start thinking about life as a creative experiment. Not everything has to be pretty, make sense, or go together. Just gather things, store them, and save them for later.

Using Your Idea Book

When you are looking for a new project or maybe feel stalled in the project you are working on, pull out your idea book. Thumb through the pages, but don't go looking for anything specific unless you know you've got the project in there that you really want to tackle.

The idea is to be drawn to something, to let the thing you want to work on choose you. I know it sounds a little silly, but we all need a little silly. And once you've gone through this process a few times, you probably won't think it's silly any more.

Just looking through the book with an open mind will give you an idea of what you should be working on next. If you're still uninspired, doodle on one of the pages. Draw or write about the kind of project you'd like to be working on. Just taking a little time to think, consider and play can make you feel a lot more creative.

This will make you feel better about the project you are stalled on or give you insight into what to do next. After using your idea book regularly, you'll start seeing combinations and thinking more creatively than you ever have before. You'll have more confidence to design your own patterns and try new things, even if they don't always work out. Just remember to document it all, because anything could provide the germ for the next great new idea.