Material Musings - Nurture and Self Care

 

Join us in the studio for creative reflection and self-care for Material Musings.

Before You Go:

Check out the papers on Patreon

Creative Vision Summit - Coming Soon!! 20th - 22nd January 2026

 

Excited to share that I will be one of the speakers at the Creative Vision Summit

January can sometimes arrive with a lot of pressure - with new habits to form, unfinished goals from the previous year and lots of hastily made promises of tomorrow and the next day - I have done it many a time!

For some people, they enjoy the fast-paced energy. As a creative it can create pressure and cause you to stumble before you have even caught your breath or warmed your muscles up.

But calm isn't "falling behind."  It's often a great place to start, because it is where you can actually think clearly, and at a reasonable pace. 

FREE Creative Vision Summit

Join us and take part in The Creative Vision Summit which coming in January 2026 for 3 days 20th - 22nd January 2026 and is FREE, so you can sign up and enjoy a fresh perspective for 2026. I will be one of the presenters

That's what the HobbyScool Creative Vision Retreat Summit offers - a free, online fresh start that feels steady, grounded, and spacious.

Instead of rushing you into decisions, the summit invites you to:

• Ease into reflection without pressure
• Reconnect with what you want this season to feel like
• Create a vision that unfolds gently, one intentional step at a time

​Choose the kind of year that you want to have and start putting things in place🤩

I'll be teaching Art Journal for Vision and Goals - it is about providing yourself with spaces where you can combine creativity and goal setting and make it more meaningful and I'd love for you to join us.

Creative spaces for our Goals

There are a range of other wonderful sessions for you to check out as well and it is all FREE for the duration of the summit

If your schedule is full, the VIP All-Access Pass is worth a look! There will be lifetime replays + $688+ in bonuses. Use code CREATIVE30 for 30% off. Check it out HERE​

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Learn More about the Summit

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Free Monthly Digital Art Downloads January 2026

The digital downloads are now available for January - available until the end of the month. You can now join us on Patreon as a FREE member with early release and member exclusive posts, behind-the-scenes videos, hints and tips and more, this is a great way to spend some time on yourself and do something creative. You can join us HERE   

Download January’s digital papers for FREE today and the rest of the month on my FREE Patron Tier and use them in your creative projects and art journals. January 2026 papers will be available until the 31st January.

We also have papers released on the paid tiers each month you can check out as well and also see all the benefits that they receive on the different tiers.:

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Creatively Treasured Tier Papers 

Creative Gifts Tier

Creative Talent Tier

I am look forward to creating and connecting with you. Take time to explore what you like doing in your creative journey and begin to make room for yourself. Whatever stage you are at there's always something new to discover and create.

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Wishing you lots of peace, grace, and endless inspiration

​

Amanda xxx

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Declaration - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

 

You made it – thank you so much for joining me on this journey.  

Taking part in any challenge however long is an amazing feat, If you showed up for any or all of the days, Thank you so much!  You showed up for creativity, courage, and commitment. That’s worth celebrating!

I have taken part in many challenges over the years, and there are always nuggets of inspiration that you can get from each challenge, and often if you have completed all the small tasks you now have a body of work you can expand on.  

Even if you only did a few days there is something to be gained, you might decide to go over the tasks again and give yourself more time.

I will be creating a FREE course on my platform that you can come back to anytime you want to refresh yourself with the activities and suggestions.  There will also be a few additional guides, checklists, audio files that you can access as well. 

What can you do?

• Journal about your creative identity. Celebrate it visually in a page with your art supplies.  
• What do you want to say about your creative self now? What are you claiming or stepping into?
• You might write a love letter to yourself, or a simple declaration like: “I am an artist and these are the things that I like” 
• Then, turn it into a page that reflects your journey - use your favorite colors and supplies. Add elements that you like using - anything that makes you smile.

This is your creative celebration. Let your light Shine.

Takeaway Nuggets:

·        Celebrating yourself deepens your creative confidence.

·        Step into the Artist that you are!

 

Remember to check out the course platform and sign up for the challenge and additional support materials, you can access it whenever you want and it is a great companion to the Full Course - Filling the Creative Well

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here  You can access FREE papers each month.

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Reflect and Revisit - Filling the Creative Well Blog Series

 

Today we take a gentle pause to look back. 

Reflection is a powerful part of our creative process, t is where we get to turn experience into insight, pages into patterns, and effort into wisdom.

Overall, what exercises were you able to do? What resonated with you and why?

What themes or images repeat in your work? Are there certain colors that keep showing up? Did anything surprise you? What felt hard, and what flowed easily?

What you can try

• Let yourself revisit one page that feels unfinished or sparks additional thought, what comes up for you?  
• Do you feel like adding to it, maybe a word comes up for you.  
• Follow the Threads - Add to it, write beside it, collage over it. Or just sit with it and notice what it taught you.

Reflection doesn’t have to be heavy. It’s simply noticing and acknowledging your growth.

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Reflection turns your creative experience into meaningful growth.
2. Every page carries a lesson - if you pause to receive it.

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Break the Rules - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

There are no rules in how you want to express yourself creatively and it is entirely up to you what mediums you use and the combinations.

A lot of us still carry around the negative talk of others, ‘don’t make a mess’, ‘stay within the line’, ‘you’ll never be’ – and fill in the gap for the fragments of negativity buried deep within needs to be excavated and released. Today, break them.

What you can try

• Choose one creative “rule” you usually follow and break it boldly. Let that spark a wild, free page.
• Paint off the edge. Use your non-dominant hand. Cut a hole in the paper. Tape something in backwards. Turn your journal upside down. Layer paint before it's dry. 
• Use a tool “incorrectly.” Delight in the freedom of doing things your own way. Think outside of the box.
• This exercise reminds you that you are in charge of your practice. You get to choose what works for you.

What rules have you been following without even noticing? Today, drop them. And see what happens.

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Rule-breaking leads to creative liberation.
2. Art becomes more alive when we stop trying to “get it right.”

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Follow the Fun - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

What lights you up creatively? What brings a smile to your face, makes you laugh, or makes time disappear - those moments where you have been creating when it seems like only a few moments have passed but you have been creating for several hours, it is amazing and delightful when that happens you have been totally immersed in the activity.  Where do you find your creative joy? 

Creative fun can look like whatever you want it to be, and you can have several different activities which take you to that place where you can just play.  Fun might look like cutting up paper scraps, splattering paint, playing with stickers, drawing wonky characters, or writing poetry from the words you cut out of a magazine. It doesn’t have to be meaningful or serious it is about loosening the reins and going with the flow.

 

We can forget to follow the fun in our art because we think it has to “matter” or be impressive. It also sometimes gets caught up in the words of the ‘critic’ who will lurk in the background of our minds and have some throwaway negative comment.  So having these fun and creative activities is a great way to ‘do it anyway. 

 

Following what delights you leads to authenticity in your work will help you grow into your style, and your creative truth.

What you can try 

• Choose your favorite supply and go wild. Let joy be the only goal. Follow the fun and create without editing or overthinking.
• Make something just for the joy of it. No meaning. No message. Just fun.

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Joy is a powerful guide to creative flow.
2. Art doesn’t have to be serious to be meaningful.

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Listen to the Page - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

 

Sometimes we approach a blank page with all our ideas already formed or sometimes we look at a blank page and nothing comes to us. But what if the page itself had something to say?

Today is an invitation to slow down and listen.

 

What is it that you want to say about your creative journey.  Visually these moments can be meditative as we practice being still and listening.  When we listen, the page becomes more than a canvas, it becomes a companion. A mirror. A witness. And sometimes, that is where the real magic happens.

What you can try

• Start without a plan. Choose one color, one tool, and one word or shape. Add, pause, listen. Let the page guide your next steps.
• Instead of forcing an idea or trying to make something beautiful, begin your page with gentle observation. Start with a color that feels right. Let your hand make marks without a goal. Pause. What’s emerging? What does the page need? A little space? A layer of texture? A word?
• Treat your page like a living thing. Let it guide you. Try responding instead of directing. This type of intuitive creation opens the door to new discoveries it’s less about control and more about connection.

Takeaway Nuggets:

• Intuition deepens when we slow down and respond to the process.
• The page becomes a mirror when we truly listen.

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Zoom Out + Celebrate - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

Think about your creative practice and how many times you have shown up for yourself and celebrate. If you have been joining me daily on this journey then You have made past the halfway mark, now take time to zoom out, reflect, and celebrate. You’ve shown up for your creative self for 26+ days. That’s no small thing.

As you look back through your journal or art pieces. What do you see? How have you grown, where have you shown courage? What does your creative voice sound like. These are the fruits of your commitment you have shown to yourself.

What you can try 

• Create a page that celebrates this journey so far. 
• Take a moment to celebrate yourself today. 
• Make a joyful page, dance, write yourself a love letter. Share your work if it feels right.

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Completion is a form of creative joy. 
2. Your journey matters—every single step.

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Your Creative Why - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

Why do you create? What brings you to the page and into your studio or creative space, the paint, the thread, the glue? Your creative “why” is your foundation, it is important to articulate it. 

It can ground you when you’re lost, fuel you when you’re tired, and give purpose to the process.  Check out the following Video:

What you can try

• Create a page around your creative purpose. Use images, color, and affirmations.

• Spend time today reflecting on what drives your creativity. Is it joy? Healing? Connection? Play?

• Once you find your “why,” document it. Write it down. Make a visual reminder. 

This will become your anchor in future moments of doubt or creative fatigue.

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Your “why” roots your practice in meaning.
2. Purpose sustains creativity through the peaks and valleys

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Express - Filling The Creative Well - Blog Series

 

Expression is at the foundation of our art, and we can find many different creative ways for that expression to be visible. Let go of the idea that it has to take a specific form or be what 'others normally do'. It is coming from you, and it doesn’t have to be pretty. It just needs to be your truth.

Let go of polish and focus on truth-telling through color, line, and texture. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it is a practice that you commit to.

What are you holding right now, it could be emotionally, mentally, spiritually? Pour it onto the page this is not a performance it is for you. Let the work be raw, real, and uncensored.

What you can Try 

• Make a page that expresses a strong emotion or truth you’re carrying today

• Use color to represent mood, create marks, writing, or found words.

• This is your space to show visually how you feel to vent or celebrate. Cry on the page, laugh, sing or whisper.

Expression is not about art that’s understood, it is about art that feels.

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Expression is healing even when it’s messy.
2. Your page can hold what your words cannot voice.

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Wild and Free - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

 

I used to worry a lot about what 'they' would think about my work and me if I posted. I started to ask myself who the 'they' were that I allowed to take up real-estate in my mind for FREE. I tried to put a face to the 'they' - all those who had negative things to say, or who I imagined would have something to criticize me for and I decided to untether myself.

Consider what it would be like if you threw off the rules, expectations, and perfectionism, and let go of all those negative thoughts that only delay you.

Let yourself create with childlike joy and abandon.  We can hold ourselves in such ridged constraints worrying about what the others might think.

What you can try

• Put on music and move while you create. Draw with your eyes closed. Your creative practice doesn’t have to be tidy it just has to be true and come from you.

• Create a page that’s loose, bold, and unfiltered. Let your instinct lead.

• Create on the wild side and tap into your intuition. It lets your hands speak before your mind interrupts. You can also rediscover the part of you that just wants to feel good creating.

Whatever you make today, let it be untamed. Wild lines. Loud color. Bold movement. Nothing is too much.

Takeaway Nuggets:

• Wildness invites joy and surprise.

• Freedom is where the real magic begins.

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Visual Voice - Filling the Creative Well - Blog Series

 

Your creative voice is already with you it lives in your color choices, the lines and patterns you repeat, the shapes you love. You don’t have to “find” your voice, you just have to notice it and allow it to be express. 

 

Today is about tuning into our creative voice.  Look through your past work and think about what patterns emerge.  What symbols, colors, or subjects come up time and time again?  Your visual language might be soft, abstract, intricate, or bold and interchangeable. All of it is valid.

 

What can you Try

• Create a visual self-portrait using colors, symbols, or textures that feel like “you.”
• Create a piece using materials that bring you joy.
• Draw or collage with your favorite colors.
• Let your hand make the marks it wants to make, your not trying to impress anyone, it is all about expression.

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Your creative voice is already inside you start to pay attention.
2. Expression over imitation leads to authentic work.

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Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey 

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .