I wanted to offer a quick show & tell of some images from my Make & Do 365 journal.
I have found that this daily creative practice has taken on a new level for activating self-care and creating an opportunity of creative refuge. I’ve worked my way through filling the journal’s pages for plans and wishes… and currently finishing pages dedicated to the section on dreams. I use the valuable creative time I have committed to this journal and to myself as a way to connect to a sense of mindfulness, hope, and peace of mind – a process and act that I continue to have much gratitude for and hold sacred.
Happy 2017!  I hope your year has gotten off on a creative start!
I wanted to introduce the 365 project I decided to work on this year: Make&Do 365. Right now I am using a journal I have had for awhile now, Things to Make and Do by Nikki McClure. My intention is to work in it everyday through art journaling, altered art, doodling, and whatever other creative inspiration happens.
The journal is divided into several themes: plan, wish, dream, build, explore, learn, make, grow, give, and find. Great prompts to help guide me this year. Since January 1 I have been working on the pages dedicated to planning. Seems super appropriate with the beginning of a new year ahead and thinking about & getting ready for what the next 12 months hold! Enjoy!
‘Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there. A new idea is a light that illuminates presences which simply had no form before the light fell on them.’ — Susan Langer
On this first day of the New Year, I am excited to share the new 365 project I’m about to embark on: Illuminate 365.
My intention with this new daily creative practice is to capture images throughout the year that reflect variations on Illumination.  In 2012 and 2013 I started regularly taking photos of light with a project I called Through a Grateful Lens. The last few months, I’ve been thinking about how much I’ve missed this practice and the special connection to gratefulness, hope, and comfort these light captures helped inspire during this time. I am curious to discover what a whole year’s worth of captures each day sparked by the expanded concept of light, insight, and understanding will reveal or offer. Bring on Illuminating 2016!
My plan is to use digital art making through fun apps and programs to get creative with the images that I take in the spirit of this project and share them in quarterly round ups here on this blog. Daily captures will be shared on Instagram.
How would you like to illuminate 2016?
Here’s to a Happy New Year to us all full of art and creative goodness!
This week begins the last week of my 2015 creative daily practice of Creative Deed 365. I have so enjoyed doing this project throughout the last 12 months, both in the making & giving! Inviting others to join in this effort has been super inspiring and lots of fun to see and take in throughout the year…
This post is a little pre re-cap about the goings on of the project before it ends on December 31!
On Making:
In previous posts I’ve shared how introducing a daily creative practice into my life has been such a huge benefit. I’ve written about how creating these little pieces of art helps slows things down and take pause in my day. I’ve also stated how those moments where I am most busy or active in my day are the times I feel like I get the most out of this process.
For this year’s collection of art I started using half sized index cards, then started to use playing cards- which I ended up really liking the most because of their texture and thickness. I used a lot of magazine photo collage or scrapbooking and printed paper gifted to me in stash swaps, as well as stamping ink, rub on/transfer lettering, & a variety of pens from gel, ink, paint & sharpies.
On Giving:
What really inspired this 365 was the intention to give away all the art I created this year. I really enjoyed this part of the project!  It was exciting to release what was made and its accompanied message into the universe. Whether someone claimed the creative deed as their own or not, the spirit & energy behind its creation was “out there”. In times of challenge, stress, or moments of tough things going on in the world, I hoped that a creative deed helped bring some kind of light.
Equally exciting was where/how/when to release the creative deeds. My favorite public place were gas pumps. The most oddest place I sometimes would put creative deeds on were on the tops of garbage cans. I wondered if it would be an easy way for them to end up as trash? Surprisingly I enjoyed leaving creative deeds out during the winter months because it helped me get out & about in the bitter cold and snow more than I would have without this special mission. I don’t know if anyone ever noticed that I was leaving one behind. There were definitely times that I stayed around (mostly in coffee shops) and could watch the different reactions of someone discovering one. Sometimes they would be picked up, looked at oddly and put down- and other times welcomed with a smile and then claimed.
In addition to the public random places I left creative deeds, over the last couple of months I finally finished mailing out creative deeds to everyone who requested one through this blog or social media. I also mailed out some batches when inspired to friends and supporters of the project. From January to December I’ve slowly put these tiny pieces of art in the postal mail here in the US, to Australia, Europe, New Zealand, UK, and Canada. Below are some pics from some of the creative deed deliveries received in December. Awesome to see these captures made upon their arrival and in hands @ their new home!
Creative deed delivery to Rosann, Bailey, Theresa & more!
Instagram photo credit: @franckstagram
On Connection:
I was super curious how inviting others to become involved in the process would work out and in what form. I created the Creative Deed 365 Facebook Group as a space for anyone interested in also spreading this form of creative goodness throughout the year. I had no idea how important this group would become to the process! Not only was it an inspiring, encouraging, and positive place for sharing our creative deed efforts, but I enjoyed seeing the variety of creative deeds everyone involved in the idea were making for others. I hope others did too. Social media through FB group primarily, but also Instagram with the hashtag #creativedeed365 became another way for ones creative deed energy to be released “out there”.
It was also just as fun to invite art therapist friends and colleagues this summer to join in on the #creativedeed365 fun while attending the national conference in Minneapolis. It was like a Creative Deed treasure hunt in the hotel we were staying at.
What was always a nice find on my end was when someone who discovered a creative deed would use social media to share the news, using the #creativedeed365 hashtag— again on Instagram and sometimes on Twitter. It was a nice feeling to know the creative deed was received and read the expressions of gratitude, surprise, and joy. The creative deed e-mail was also used on a few occasions to share finds as well!
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I was also really delighted that Ursuline College, where I am on faculty in the Counseling and Art Therapy Department, became aware of this project and invited me to guest blog for their online publication VOICES last month. You can read this post here. In this post I was able to reflect on how the project started, the role of community & social media, and the creative goodness this effort has hopefully helped spread.
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In celebration of the remaining days left in this project, I wanted to share my Top 10 favorite creative deeds and some of the quotes I posted with them:
“Compassion brings us to a stop, for a moment we rise above ourselves.” -Mason Cooley
stimulus + response + space = power & freedom
“The starting point of all achievement is desire.” -Napoleon Hill
“by walking the path, we make the path visible.” -Phil Lane Jr.
“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Faith and hope work hand in hand, however while hope focuses on the future, faith focuses on the now.” -David Odunaiya
‘Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love’! ~Hamilton Wright
Past updates, creative deed work, discoveries, and more from this year can be viewed here. I’ve been using Flipagram recently to document the last few months of offerings. December’s will be coming next week when this year’s project ends!
I thank everyone who has participated on some level with this project: as a creative deed maker, finder/receiver, supporter, through this blog and my updates….. 🙂
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With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see. – Ella Wheeler Wilcox
It’s been a super active last couple of months during my Creative Deed making, so I am catching up on sharing my offerings here for the months of September and October!
In moments of long days & busy scheduling; having a moment everyday to stop & create truly fosters a sense of centering and opportunity to catch & regulate my creative breath. It’s times like these that this daily creative practice is important more than ever. It’s also a valuable reminder how essential it is to have this commitment part of my day and self care. I breathe in stillness & grounding. I exhale the possibility each deed released into the world could offer to another.
Creative Deed 254 discovered on September 11
So here are the offerings I’ve made over the last 2 months with these quick videos from Flipagram (click on the image to view!)… These little videos are so much fun to create!
I also recommend these great reads to advocate for the role of creativity in self-care:
It’s Day 152 of this year’s 365 Project! As I reflect on this past month’s creative deed activity, I think about how each piece of art is created with hopeful possibility for its finder or new home.
Below are the offerings made throughout May:
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With the nicer weather, I’ve been leaving many more creative deeds outdoors- often in random spaces along a street. Sometimes propped on a storefront window, stuck in between planks on a wooden fence, or left behind in a flower bed. I also continue to use my creative deed mailing list to send out more through the postal mail.
As always, it’s super fun and inspiring to see what other creative deeds are being made and released into the world through the Creative Deed 365 Group on Facebook! I am grateful for these daily affirming, artful intentions that pop up on my news feed and to see the support & enthusiasm of community members helping and encouraging one another.
I also invite you to take a look at these posts from this past month:
With Daisy Yellow’s Index Card a Day Challenge (ICAD) beginning tomorrow for the next 61 days, I am excited to participate again this year, this time incorporating creative deed making as a nice twist.
During ICAD, I’ll be working with 3×5 index cards to give away and let go into the world. If you are new to the concept of ICAD created by Artist Tammy Garcia, the intention is focused on “the doing”, not on “the keeping” and having a commitment to create art everyday. I definitely recommend you check this annual summer challenge out– It is so much fun! 🙂  Look for an update on June’s efforts & offerings next month!
“Try to make at least one person happy every day. If you cannot do a kind deed, speak a kind word. If you cannot speak a kind word, think a kind thought. Count up, if you can, the treasure of happiness that you would dispense in a week, in a year, in a lifetime!” ~Lawrence G. Lovasik
March is coming to a close, and with that so is another month of art-making for my Creative Deed 365 Project!
Here’s a short video featuring the pieces of art made for Days 60-90:
This month I’ve continued to leave my art in various public places (craft stores, gas stations, community bulletin boards, bus stops, and more), as well as mailing a few more through the USPS mail to friends and from my #creativedeed mailing list started at the beginning of the year. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am eager to leave my creative deeds out & about without having to wear gloves and in more outside locations, which is slowly starting to become a reality as a (little) more spring weather arrives.
It’s also always a pleasure to visit the Creative Deed 365 Group each day to see and learn more about what other artists are making and leaving out in the world in the spirit of creative goodness! So much kindness translated into small pieces of art for the taking….
And…. from the web: here’s more about what others are doing with their creative deed creating so far:
365 Days of Art | The Light of the Heart- A Community Art Therapy Project
It’s awesome to see this project growing and carried through in various places with different ideas, materials and reflections….. Feel free to join in with your own creative contributions– You can begin anytime! 🙂
January went super well for Creative Deed 365! Keep making art everyday + giving it away as a gift of creative goodness = win, win for kicking off 2015!
 After I make my Creative Deed for the day, I keep the art with me so I can “gift” it in a place that will hopefully inspire someone to claim it as their own and appreciate or be surprised by the spirit of the project.
During this cold and snowy weather, which can sometimes become exhausting & full of blah, leaving Creative Deeds in various public places has been nice to spark some extra fun & excitement. Since my last update, I’ve added car windshields, post offices, copy machines, and greeting card aisles to my list of Creative Deed drop offs.
Here are a few of my favorites from the rest of January:
Day 19 Creative Deed
Day 21 Creative Deed
Day 23 Creative Deed
Below is another January found Creative Deed that I received a kind note about- this one I pinned on a school bulletin board…. I’m happy it was found and appreciate the thank you e-mail from Mara to let me know:
I decided that since I am giving away all the 365 art I am creating for this project and won’t have a growing physical collection, that doing a short video each month would be a nice way to document everything.
Behold Days 1-31 & January’s offerings:
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The Creative Deed 365 Group continues to be an inspiring, daily art gathering & doses of creative goodness that are being made, shared, and given away all over the world with artists & creatives who have joined me in this adventure! Check out this post from earlier in the week by Petrea Hansen Adamidis, an Art Therapist in Toronto who is also enjoying the project. It’s going to be great to see what the next 11 months bring for us, all the creative deeds out there, and their finders! 🙂
It’s gotten off to a good start! I remember last year when I started my new 365 project, it took me a little while to get use to it– not the making art everyday part, but just finding my rhythm and connection with beginning something new and different at Day 1 again. This 2015 creative daily practice is a departure from the 365 art I’ve worked on the last 2 years, in that I am not keeping what I create or cultivating a collection from each day, but instead giving it away in the spirit of hope & paying it forward through random acts of creative kindness.
Handful of Peace | #creativedeed365 14/365
This is a process I’ve really been enjoying a lot! I continue to value the time I make daily to create and the wonderful bonus is it’s so liberating and fun to release and gift this art into the world. Another part of the fun are the other almost 100 creatives who have joined the Creative Deed 365 Group on Facebook to share their own process, art, & drop offs, as well as contribute to creating an encouraging community to support our art-making adventures.
Yours to Keep | #creativedeed365 12/365
So far I’ve left my creative deeds in a variety of places when I have been out and about: outdoors & inside of stores, parking meters, left behind at local coffee shops or eateries, a college I was at for a speaking engagement, and I’m starting to use the mailing list of individuals who would like a Creative Deed randomly sent to him/her sometime this year. The giving away act of this 365 project is very exciting and challenges me with curiosity about where, when, and how to leave the art behind…. and what it’s new life & home will be….
Every Moment | #creativedeed365 6/365
I’ve been using mostly gel pens, sharpies, stamping or distressed ink and stain with magazine photo collage words to create my creative deeds. Each piece of 3 x 2.5 art continues to be labeled, dated, and signed on the back and is enclosed in a small plastic bag.
Creating It Forward | #creativedeed365
This week I had my first encounter with someone who discovered one of the Creative Deeds I dropped off inside a local Starbucks (Yes!) . I was delighted to discover the find through searching the creative deed hashtag on Instagram:
As always, I am curious to see how this new project unfolds over the year…..! You can follow this project and activity on social media through #creativedeed365 on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if you’re interested in getting your own daily dose of creative goodness. For more inspiration, you can also read about other art therapists who have taken on 2015 creative practices:
I am excited to introduce my new 365 Project for 2015… Creative Deed 365!
Since 2013, I’ve completed two 365 projects with 730 pieces of daily art as part of my own creative daily practice. This year I am making small pieces of art (3 x 2.5) to randomly gift to others as acts of kindness and to spread creative goodness to others in the spirit of 6 Degrees of Creativity’s 2014 Creative Deed Project. I want to dedicate 2015 to sharing this process with others and give all the art away with year long positive messages of hope, inspiration, and possibility.
I invite you to participate and become a part of this new creative adventure with me:
I’d also love to send you some of my Creative Deed art sometime in 2015! If you’d like to receive a piece of this project sometime throughout the year, please send a mailing address to creativedeed365@gmail.com.
You can make your Creative Deed art with whatever materials, media, and supplies you want! I am using mini index cards with a label on the back to briefly described the intention of the project. I’ve also purchased (at the local craft store) small ziploc bags to help safely protect the 365 art in the process of gifting to others– whether this be through the mail, outdoor or indoor places & spaces, etc.
Today’s first Creative Deed 365 offering I decided to leave outside of a store I was visiting:
Here’s to new creative adventures starting! I can’t wait to see how this project unfolds and what develops throughout the year!
Together, we can make every day of the year full of creative goodness…. 🙂
creativity in motion 
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