5 Places to Get Free Inspiration

Jellyfish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)

Yesterday April Bowles-Olin from Blacksburg Belle wrote a guest post on Heartmade (my two favourite blogs by the way). You can read the post over here. It's all about inspiration and where to find it. There are some great tips and tricks!

I commented on the post, because I felt so inspired just reading it. I thought I'd share my tips with you here too.

So here are a few of my tips for where I go to get some inspiration (in addition to April's places):

Muir Woods (personal photo)

Muir Woods (personal photo)

1. Plant or gardening stores. Or a botanical garden. Or a national park. It's usually quiet there so have time and peace to take it all in, plus it's really colourful, and the smells are amazing. I look at texture, shape, colours, what it feels like, etc. Also, it's pretty easy to take pictures there using your phone. I wrote two posts on plant inspiration here and here a while back. Check them out as well ;)

2. Home improvement stores. I look at tools, nuts and bolts, how things are put together/ constructed, shapes, colour palettes, the different materials and their texture, etc.

3. Ikea is also a good place to go. You can even pick up some free fabric swatches for sofas there, which you can save for inspiration later. Look at the swatches; their texture, colour, pattern, the feel, etc.

Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)
[The school of fish looks a bit like a Pacman haha]

Jellyfish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)

4. An aquarium. The colours are amazing there!! Whenever I go to one I'm bursting with inspiration! Nature is so fascinating. And it's pure. It's everywhere around us, we just need the time to take it all in. Plus it's free :D


5. A music store. I love looking at posters and album covers. They're so creative and fun. Think about it, this artist or band has to express and represent themselves and their music in one piece of artwork. This artwork has to represent the rest of their art (their music). This can be important to look at for creative entrepreneurs. Creative entrepreneurs need to express themselves through a blog post or their etsy listing or their business card, etc. We need to pay attention to the small things that represent us and our business!

Jellyfish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium (personal photo)

Try out these tips and April's tips. It's free to walk around in stores and in nature. Use what we take for granted every day. Grab each opportunity you have to get inspiration. A camera (eg. on your phone) or a notebook (or writing notes on your phone) would be handy for when you want to remember all your thoughts and ideas. Remember, you may think different things each time you see these pictures, so pictures are clever to keep for a while!


Where do you go for a little inspiration?

Colourful Fish @ Monterey Bay Aquarium
(personal photo)

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