The thrill of inspiration

I realised recently that my favourite part of the creative process is that heady moment when inspiration sparks.

I'd been wanting to design something new for the Handprinted Fabric Swap 2. Translucency had been in my thoughts constantly - that lovely thing that happens when you overprint colors and end up with new colors in between. I did all the prep: went to buy some base ink to mix and experiment with, did a bit of overprinting research online and thought about the fact that the design should consist of simple shapes so that the colour and translucency are the stars. But... I had to wait patiently for inspiration to strike... I find this stage of the creative process can be excruciating!

Then, all of a sudden one day...

I thought about circular paper garlands...

(picture in my head only but much like these ones, thank you Pinterest!)

And car lights in the dark...

And looked again at the string of hanging lanterns in my kids' room...

and I had the design there in my head. Phew! And this is what it translated to (complete with 'help' from my little studio junior ;-)...

How about you - do you find the process frustrating, exhilarating or a mix of both?