MOOD BOARDS

Our monthly theme for June is mood boards. We will all be working with these two gorgeous mood boards over the next few weeks...

In today's joint post we'll talk you through our individual experiences with mood boards and how we use them...

Maria: Mood boards are a brand new discovery for me. I had never used one until just a couple of weeks ago! I had seen them around, especially on challenge blogs and in Facebook groups, but I just never knew what you were supposed to do with them. Now that it has been explained to me and I know what they are, everything is clear and I love the concept. So with a mood board you get a few images that you can take inspiration from. Imagine you have an image of a pink bird, a rainbow and a ballerina ... you could create a layout with birds on it, or feathers, or anything that reminds you of a bird. From the rainbow, you could be literal and use an arch with the rainbow colours, or just be inspired to use the colours in some other way. With the ballerina, you could use a photo of your daughter dancing, or perhaps give your layout lots of texture using fabric or ribbons that resemble a tutu. So there you go, quite easy, as you can make anything you want from it and make it suit your style. I will definitely play along more often with mood boards as it is difficult not to be inspired by them.

Susan: I'm not sure when 'inspiration boards' became 'mood boards' but I do think the former term is more descriptive of the way I like to use them. The first thing I notice when looking at a ready made board is the overall colour scheme and that is the element I am most likely to pick up on for my inspiration. If I don't like the colour palette I probably won't look further into the board. I know some of you will be saying as you read our joint post, "Oh mood boards aren't for me." but I bet you use Pinterest? Pinterest is one huge reference for inspiration and from it you can easily make your own boards. I like to set up boards on Pinterest for different palettes and as I browse I pin things that take my eye - absolutely anything, flower arrangements, postcards, advertisements, room settings, clothing, you name it. I then have ready made inspiration when I need it for my scrapbooking. I noticed recently I have a bit of a stockpile of yellow cardstock, so I've got a yellow inspiration board on the go. Expect a rash of yellow layouts very soon!

Lisa-Jane: As a recent convert to mood boards I am really loving the inspiration they give. When I initially look at the set of pictures, I will usually be drawn to one or two things first and this drives the rest of the inspiration for me. I will probably decide at this point whether the board will be for me or not. You can really quickly get an overall feel (or mood!) for the board just by a quick glance at the colours and textures. Then when I know I definitely want to use that board I will look in more detail at each of the pictures and see what sorts of things I can incorporate and which elements speak to me. I never feel like I have to use all or even most of the elements and I'm happy to add in a rogue colour or texture etc, whatever makes it work for me. There are so many ways to be inspired by the same mood board over and over again by taking the inspiration in different ways and letting the different elements lead you down alternative avenues, for example a single white feather can inspire you to use white, feathers, make you thinking of sleeping on feather pillows, inspire you to scrap about birds, inspire a light and airy feel to your page, encourage you to use fringing, or even to journal about tickling! :)

Jess: I don't often use mood boards as I am more likely to create based on whatever supplies I have available. I have a fairly small stash of products so I go with whatever I have at the time until it's all used up. Saying that though I did create my own mood board on Pinterest. I was falling in love with spring time and spring colours and I wanted to put together a colour scheme to work with. In all honesty it was totally based on some enamel dots that came in a past Studio Calico kit that I loved and couldn't find anywhere again. Pale blue, peach, pink and yellow. All the heart eyes! Putting it together helped me to use products I already had and to choose new products to buy that had the colours that made me happy. When I used a mood board recently for a challenge I found that the finished layout didn't look much like the colour scheme however using at it for inspiration gave me an idea for the layout, a photo I knew I wanted and colours to start with. I still used those colours in my embellishments though and the layout would never have come about if it wasn't for that mood board.

Vicci: mood boards are literally my fave thing to draw inspiration from if I’m feeling I’m out of ideas. I love them because they allow your full creativity and interpretation to roam free but still help to get the creative mojo going. I haven't got a specific thing I always take away from them because each one is different. Sometimes a certain element reminds me of a photo I want to scrap or a story I’d like to tell. Other times it's the colours because often there are colour schemes I would never think to put together myself. More often than not I choose a mixture of the elements and the colours but I also dig deep within the mood board because sometimes there are ‘hidden’ elements that don't always jump out at me straight away. I always draft my layout whilst looking at a mood board for interpretation and I always make notes! Then I go ahead and create my layout!

Laura: I work with mood boards very loosely! Sometimes I get a general overall feel for the board or focus in on just one image; sometimes I'll go with two or three things from a board. This board is lovely, and you'd think you would have to use mint colours. Not so! You could focus in on other things... there are two lots of confetti to inspire you; there are flowers and flowing fabric; there is ombre colour (remember you don't need to use the same mint colour); there are curvy glass vases that could inspire shapes in your layout. Look a little deeper and go with the less obvious choices ...

Sarah: I do love a mood board for inspiration. I was first introduced to them while doing GCSE Graphic Design. We had to produce an A3 sized mood board as part of our coursework; it was my favourite part. I have a board on Pinterest dedicated to mood boards, and often look through the pins to spark some inspiration, be it from the colours or from the images. I find them really useful.