Being More Creative

Many times I seem to get into creative slumps. This year I found two things that helped me be more creative.

On the first day of November a post that I shared to my timeline from the year before showed up as a memory in my Facebook news feed. It was a challenge to make time for art every day even if only for a few minutes.  It tugged at my heart and I mentioned the challenge to my husband who encouraged me to do it.  I reluctantly posted on Facebook the challenge and asked if anyone wanted to join me.  To be accountable I then posted updates on my Jane Allen Creates Facebook page.

I must admit that I had to make time to paint and most days it was not for very long….but something amazing happened…the joy of painting/creating came back to me.  I would just create without trying to make it perfect because it was going to be a pattern or in a book or magazine or class sample.  I looked forward to going to my studio and just played.

This year I have been teaching drawing once a week to a few students. When it got near Christmas we decided to take a break and make some gifts.  It is amazing when you start creating with others (especially kids) how many ideas bounce between you.

This is an angel that I created in my monthly challenge.  Notice the small bowl I turned upside down to  use as part of the base.

Daniel decided that base would make a great hat for a snowman ornament.  (You will probably see more of that in my designs next year).

Daniel decided he would like to paint a canvas for his grandfather and put it on a base like my angel.  Since Sara was painting little trees to put on her glitter houses we thought it would be fun to put them on top of his canvas.

It was so much fun and we continued to bounce ideas off of each other and create many other fun projects.  I would show you more pictures, but the more fun we had the less we thought to take pictures.

So if you are having a creative slump or just want to charge your creative battery, I encourage you to take time each day to create and to spend time creating with others.

Happy Creating,

Jane

Ps.  Here are a few more creative projects that came about from playing together:

My friend Sophia created these beachy houses for her grandmother, which inspired me to create a house for my friend who is a beach lover.

Amelia created a cone snowman but was inspired to put arms on her.

I had been creating one-tone houses but Addison broke the rules and created a two-tone house.