inspiration jar

Hi friends.  Here I am again.  I've mentioned my inspiration jar on a few of my recent posts -- here, here, and here, so I thought I would show it to you.

This is certainly not an original idea, so I can't take credit for it.  Essentially, you have words or ideas to pick from a jar that will give you a starting point for your project.

I printed words on my computer onto card stock, with enough space between them to punch them out with a circle punch.  I used a 1" punch.  I also used a 1" circle die to cut circles from cereal box chipboard.  I glued a word to one side of the chipboard and a piece of pattern paper to the other side, just to make it pretty.

I put all the word circles into a jar that I bought at Walmart.  I wanted a jar that was big enough to put my hand in and mix up the words without spilling them.  I also wanted a jar with a cover, so there wasn't a chance they would all end up on the floor.  The system that I set up could easily be expanded if I think of more words to add.

When I need a little nudge getting started on a project, I reach into the jar and randomly pick three circles.  These words become my jumping off point for my project.  The words could be a color, a technique, a product, an image, etc. 

You can certainly set your own parameters for how many words you pick.  There are no rules; it's just a tool to help you get started.  I think three is a good starting point, but you might want to choose only one.  Interpretation does not have to be literal, but can be anything that comes to mind, even if there is no correlation to the word at all.  So far, I've used my inspiration jar three times and have had no problem using all three words each time, but I could use just two of them if I wanted. 

Here is an alphabetical list of words I used.  It's alphabetical so it's easy to tell if I already have a word, so I don't add duplicates.

acetate / alcohol ink / alphabet / autumn / background stamps / birds / birthday / black / blue / book / borders / bottle / butterflies / button / canvas / cat / chalk / chipboard / chocolate / Christmas / circles / clock / clouds / coffee / cold / collage / corners / copper / corrugated cardboard / cow / curves / dark / diamonds / die cut / distressing / dog / doily / doodles / door / embossing / embossing folder / embossing powder / envelope / eyes / fabric / face / feet / finger paint / fire / five / flowers / folds / four / freedom / friend / game / gesso / gold / green / grunge / hands / handwriting / happy / hard / hearts / hexagons / horse / house / lace / layers / leather / leaves / letters / light / love / magazine / masking / metal / monochromatic / moon / mosaic / music / newspaper / numbers / old book page / orange / ovals / owl / paint / pencil / people / photo  pieces / pink / pocket / pretty paper / purple / quilt / rain / rainbow / recycle / red / reflection / repetition / ribbon / seeds / sewing / shadows / silver / sky / soft / song / splatter / sponge / spray ink / spring / squares / stamps / stars / stencil / stitching / string / stripes / summer / sun / sweet / tag / tape / tea / texture / thread / three / time / tissue paper / torn paper / trees / triangles / turquoise / two / warm / washi tape / water / white / window / wings / winter / wood / yarn / yellow

I have over 100 words, but as you can see in the picture, they don't even take an inch of space in the bottom of the jar.  I also have a few extra circles without words in there, just waiting...

I plan to crochet a small doily to tie over the cover of the jar, just to make it pretty.  

I hope this is helpful to you.  I would love to see yours.  Feel free to use my list of words, add your own, or delete some.  Make it personal.  

Thanks so much for stopping by.