Creativity: Not necessarily a straight line

Today I thought I would show you how to go from to in 10 easy steps.

1. Leave your job and enrol in some art school classes to unlock the right side of your logical, left-sided brain.  Here I learned how to paint with acrylic paints, in a large format, creating backgrounds.
2. Leave your backgrounds to "cure" for 8 years because you don't know what to do with them in their large format, and they are too good to cut up.
3. Receive from your generous sister some Stampsmith photo stamps.  Put these in a box to "cure" as well because you can't figure out what kind of cards to make with them.
4. Take a class in making handmade books.  Make a few, then put this aside.  (Was severe artists' block setting in?)
5. Dream about buying a Zutter Bind-It-All but tell yourself you can't justify the cost.
6. Wait at least five years and then begin the challenges over at Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team.  I have never been one to do the many card making challenges I find on the Internet, and I often wondered why I didn't do these when I needed a creative jolt.  But I recently found this site, and Michelle's challenges seem suited to my love of basic art supplies and techniques, and this one particularly intrigued me.  I started to think about those large papers again.
7. Join a new artists group.  Several people in the Vancouver Artist Trading Card Group make books, and I was drawn back to this wonderful art form.  I made a few hand stitched and folded books and found some wonderful blogs to further inspire me.  Some of the book artists I found on the Internet use recycled materials, and make books containing mixtures of different types of pages.  What a wonderful idea for a journal!  I also started to think again about buying a Bind-It-All and a couple of the people in this group helped me by answering questions about it.
8. Get inspired by iHanna's blog.  (I found this wonderful blog through the GPP Street Team Challenges).  I'm especially drawn to Hanna's use of bright colours and I decided to paint the other side of my large papers.
9. Find a used Bind-it-All.  Many people bought this binding machine and found they just don't use it.  It was sold as a scrapbooking tool, and although there is nothing wrong with the machine, some people like to make their own books and some people don't.  I found that one of the ladies in my local stamping group didn't use hers.  This made both of us happy!
10. A few days before the monthly stamp club meeting, decide to make everyone a little coil-bound journal.  Who knows, they too might be inspired to try a new medium.  I was a bit rushed but I got them all done.  And used up a lot of supplies that had been sitting around for awhile, including some scrapbook paper that had been "curing" for a few years as well. 

Thanks to everyone who had a hand in this creative journey.  Creativity is not necessarily a straight (nor short) line.