Challenges are Rockin' my Little Stampin' World!!!

Okay, I've already confessed to doing nothing but challenges all day (and sadly this amounts to 3 cards, "heeheehee oops!"--said in my best happy ditsy falsetto,) but I just hafta tell you (what you probably already know) that challenges are AMAZING sources of creativity. Whoever first came up with 'em was made up of sheer ingenuity. :0) So here's a third challenge post, and it's deceivingly simple-seeming: take a card you've already made and redo it changing nothing but the stamp used. (This Monday's SplitCoastStampers technique challenge.) Here are mine:

Pretty basic, right? Except, this challenge subtly forces you out of your left brain ("hemisphere of organized thought"--place of routinizing, labeling, and other standard modes of thinking) and into your right brain--what I like to call "the upside-down-happy-creative hemisphere" (based on drawing exercises from the astounding book Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.) When Beth titled her technique challenge "Think Fast" I assume she meant 'Think on your toes.' (She had left a stamp set behind and needed to figure out one, to borrow, that would fit her design); however, "Think fast" also touches on the idea that when you have to think quickly & creatively you cannot resort to your rational mind. Instead, you just tap into your intuitive (right-hand) side.

So why the excited babbling? I found this process absolutely fascinating. It really does become a technique in its own right: you use prescribed supplies to achieve a somewhat prescribed method, but that can have unexpected results. When I wanted to use black or blue ink I had to stay with "Always Artichoke" (I'd NEVER stamp an artichoke snowman! Just wouldn't occur to me.) Then, I would've coloured him blue-my 'default' colour (Nope, had to use "Cranberry Crisp.") I also would have never beaded him. (I bead flowers--that's my schtick,) but turns out I like the artichoke-cranberry-snowman-all-beaded much better. So there you have it, my thoughts in a nutshell (and now I'll stop beating you over the head with my right brain! )

Thanks for the mental challenge Beth! ;0)
Mel