I have pretty much always wanted to be one of those 'creative' people who could turn their hands to making and creating, the beautiful and unusual. In my mind, and from past experiences in life, I have always been aware that I was an unlucky person who would never be able to create anything of substance or anything of beauty, so like many many millions I gave up trying in childhood. Yet I would constantly look at other peoples creations with jealousy and think to myself 'why can't I do that'.
It was not so long ago that I became ill, and ended up in an extremely bad place. During this period I felt an overwhelming sense that I needed to vent my anger, my frustrations and my inner most feelings, yet I had no way of doing this. I wished I could draw, or paint, write, anything at all but I had nothing, nothing at all.
It was then I met a group of people who understood where I was at, but one lady in particular was to have a major impact on me. The first time I met her she just encouraged me to have fun with creativity no matter how silly I felt doing it, the trick was to let go. Now that was easier said than done. She taught me (without even realising it herself ) that being creative in some shape or form was an amazing release and a healthy one unlike my previous methods. If it meant I was childlike in my approach that was fine, I was to enjoy myself and whatever the results were. The first things I made were cards, and a few months later I was hooked. As much as I loved doing that it was not quite enough, I needed something exclusively for myself , and that is when scrapping (making scrap books) came into my life. From that moment on I have never been so glad that I found this fantastic creative outlet. It enables me to be me, it gives me the creative scope I need, and fills a void I had previously felt. It gives me a sense of major achievement in my own talents and has taught me that I have many more abilities than I initially believed. Most importantly it lets me vent when I need to but has also taught me to believe in myself a lot more and shown me that when I set my mind to something I can achieve it. I truly believe so many people around the world could benefit with a creative outlet and my dream would be to enable that, anyhow back to reality. The most important thing I take away with me is that creativity in any shape or form is completely individual, our own personal vision so to speak .