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.”

👇👇👇👇👇👇

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.

👇👇👇👇👇👇

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.

👇👇👇👇👇👇

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. .