How to Create Inspiration Files

The Internet is full of inspiration. You only have to log into Pinterest to see pages upon pages of inspiration. Everything from food ideas, to travel destinations, design and photography.

But, what about if you don't have access to a computer?

What if you're tired of looking at a computer screen all day for work and don't feel like doing the same thing when you get home?

You want something physical to look through. You want to let your fingers do the walking...but not all over the keyboard.

Creating an inspirational file is not only easy, but it's also a lot of fun. It's a way to unwind and let those creative juices flow, and to create something for you, for your family, or as a gift for a friend.

• Time. Don't limit yourself to half an hour. Book yourself a Saturday afternoon or an evening during the week. This is a fun project and you shouldn't need to worry about time if you can help it.
• Space. You can use the dining table, the kitchen counter top, your bed, or even the living room floor for this.
• Scissors
• Glue
• Markers (if you want to write in captions, etc.)
• White A4 pieces of paper or cardboard
• Loose plastic sleeves - punched
• A4 lever arch files
• File dividers
• Magazines

You can decide to put all your clippings into one file with many dividers, or you can separate different topics among your files. It's up to you how many you'd like to use.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Food - recipes, cooking tips, etc.
2. Travel - dream destinations, holiday ideas, favourite spots, etc.
3. Body - workout routines, natural medicine advice, meditating types, etc.
4. Gardening - types of vegetables, flowers and herbs; tips on gardening
5. TV - weekly listings, movies, series, celebrities, etc.
6. Your City - favourite spots to hang out, to eat at, to visit, etc.
7. Feel Good - quotes, inspiring images, reading books, art, etc.
8. A New Language - worksheets and translations
9. How To - a file on making new things. You can add your inspiration files!
10. Romance - date memorabilia, poems, pictures, etc.

When working on this project - and depending on how many files you're going to be filling, it's best to try and keep things as organized as possible.

Keep the area where you're working clean. If there are fruit bowls on the counter - put them aside. If you're going to use your bed, take off the pillows and blankets if you need to and put them on the floor while you're busy.

Also, make sure that you have a plastic bag close by so that you don't have dozens of crumpled pieces of paper lying around when you're busy cutting out your images.

• Put your files to one side - you will only be filling these when you're completely finished
• Start cutting out the images from your magazines and lay them into piles for each file

Once you've finished cutting out the images, lay out what you're going to be using in front of you. These will be:

• Stationery - glue, scissors, markers, etc.
• White paper or cardboard
• Plastic sleeves
• Magazine image piles
• File dividers

Now for the fun part - putting it all together!

You can get as crazy or as creative as you want to here, it all depends on what you want from your files.

Using your glue, stick down the images on the pieces of white paper or cardboard. If your images are a full A4 page from the magazine, simply slide these into the plastic sleeves.

Lay out your images in straight lines or mix them up diagonally, add borders and captions - or leave the pages simple and clean.

Do whatever feels or looks the best to you!

When you're finished adding all your images to your sheets of paper, and filled the plastic sleeves with these, organize the filled sleeves into the order that you'd like them to be in the files.

Lastly, slot them into your file dividers and add a table of contents to the front page of each file.

And there you go, your inspiration files are finished!

A couple of hours of fun and creativity, and beautiful (and useful) files that will keep you, your family or your friend entertained and inspired for many, many days - weeks - months, and even years!