Music Therapy Maker: Trying To Create

Last weekend, I sat down and made a handmade journal. It has about 80 pages in it and is made of scrapbook paper. I put in a coptic stitch binding, and it looks pretty good to me. Now, it is time to decorate the thing. 

This is the point where I struggle. I am not someone who likes lots of frou-frou and gee gaws in my journals, but others do. I decided to use a sticker set I got from Stickii called "cozy critters" as the basis of my color palette and theme for the journal.

Many of the journals that I see on social media and other places are packed to the gills with flip outs, journal pages, tuck spots, hidden compartments, and pockets galore. There are stamped cards and stained papers and all sorts of things that I just find make my own journaling process more complicated, so I don't bother in my own books, but this seems to be what sells, and I want things to sell.

I find that forcing these types of projects places me into a place of suspension. I just cannot move into the process the way I want to because I am not sure what is happening and where to go next. So, I stare at the project. I don't do anything to move forward.

I am this way with other things as well - not just in my creative process but in all sorts of situations. I get overwhelmed and cannot move forward. I have learned that when this happens, I have to step back and focus on one small thing rather than looking at the big picture. I am both a big picture and a detail-oriented person, so there are times when I am crushed by the big picture and times when all the small details get scattered around in my brain. I have to figure out what to do at that point - do I look at the big picture or do I focus on something small?

I take classes for making journals, and I find that the structure of a class is something that I do not want for myself. I like the camaraderie of being in a place where we are all making things, but I do not like being told how to put things together. I want to find more camaraderie in my crafting. so I am going to try something which allows me to create on my own rather than following directions so everything looks the same.

I haven't created anything for my music therapy sessions lately. I haven't made any file folder activities for other classrooms lately either. I want to focus on those things in this next week.

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