An age old question. Well, a question anyway...

On Aunty's Forum one of the girls has come up with a question. It's a good question.

Fi asks "Is it just me that is fed up with seeing the same images on some of the blogs?", wanting to know if anyone else felt the same.

I'd have to agree with her. A lot of the work we see is no longer "original" per se, but just continuous rehashes of someone's original work. A kind of "well, that works, I'll copy it and tweak it and and and....". Which is fine. It's all well and good. But when you see endless repetitions and variations of the same thing, it can get a little tiresome. And oh how I know and understand that. We have our own version of it on Auntys, called the monthly challenge. When the challenge calls for "monochrome with one embellishment of a winter colour" or "at least two bows and two buttons", you're going to see a lot of similar work. The challenge then becomes being original within that theme. If everyone else is using ribbon to make their bows, make yours out of paper or stamp and emboss them. The trouble is, it gets tiring trying to be original.

Another problem is where one is looking - if you're searching for inspiration it can be hard. Though I guess that if you're going to go looking at a blog called "Tilda & Co", you ought to expect there to be a lot of Tildas, just as there will be lots of inchies on the Inchy by Inch (or is it Inch by Inchy?? ) blog. I love the Inspirational blog as they showcase such a lot of talent, and a lot of ORIGINAL art. But again, after a while the art on there can seem to meld into one big blur of gorgeousness.

I suppose there are some collage images that are done to death (like the Paper Artsy ones) but I admire everyone that can do that kind of work and get away with it - oops, I mean succeed at it cos I just can't quite do it (Yay - Rosie, and Esther & Ruth). I try to be artsy, but fail miserably 90% of the time. I'm rarely original enough to call myself an artist, just a bit artistic. At least, I think that's what that bloke called me.

But yes - to answer the question I'd agree wholeheartedly with Fi. Something new and trendy comes out and everyone jumps on the bandwagon - gotta have the latest thing! Be it Tilda or Sugar Nellie or Lizzie Kate. Next up will be Maggie - and whilst we are all cheering Sally very loudly on..... I hope I don't get sick of the sight of Maggie. Bless her two dimensional cotton socks. I've got my eye on the witch Maggie - but I'd really like to see Medieval Maggie and Tudor Maggie, and perhaps even a Maid Marion Maggie complete with longbow and arrows.......

Sally?