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Kristal Norton on 09.06.12 In Monday’s video I talked about setting aside a certain time everyday for your creativity. But I realize that the thought of creating everyday seems just about impossible to many of you. But in order to live a creative life, you must learn to work creativity into the everyday. So today I’m sharing five of my favorite quick creative activities that you can do on those days where you feel like you just can’t fit in a whole creative session.
#1. Doodle or Tangle
Even if your creative time is next to nothing on a particular day, you can always squeeze in some doodling! The simple act of doodling (even on a napkin) can keep your creative mind humming. If you’re in need of some relaxing art time, try tangling! Creating Zentangle art, or “tangling”, is a meditative exercise to drawing structured patterns. To learn more about Zentangles, visit their official site HERE.
#2.
Collect Color Inspiration
If your home is anything like mine, then you have a ton of old magazines laying around. Spend a few minutes looking through some of them with the only intention of finding inspiring color combinations. Rip the images out and glue them into a journal, then add some notes about what attracted you to the image. An “inspiration journal” like this is great to refer back to when you’re ready to create something.
#3.
Get Messy!
When time is tight, you can’t focus on making things perfect. So try being messy! Scribble with crayons or splash some paint, just have fun with it!
#4.
Snap Some Photos
Looking through the lens of a camera is a great way to see your surroundings with fresh new eyes. Go on an inspiration hunt (even if its within your home) with camera in hand. You never know what you’ll find when you’re looking!
#5.
Art Journal
At first glance, art journaling may seem like an intensive activity, but its really not. Your pages don’t have to be a “masterpiece”, and you don’t have to finish a page in one sitting. When you feel like playing with color or imagery, you can slap some paint down, or collage some images in. When you feel like writing, you can journal over your pre-painted pages.
I hope these have given you some inspiration on how to live a creative life and work it into your everyday. What do you like to do when you don’t have a lot of creative time?
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Kristal Norton on 05.07.12  Left Hand Drawing Sometimes the fear of failure, or fear of creating something less than perfect holds us back from creating anything at all.
That’s why I find it super important to just let loose every once in a while (or better yet, daily).
Having an art journal is one great way to remind yourself to just let loose and play, since its a book only for you. But even still, sometimes that little monster in you starts to wish your pages looked a little more professional or “show worthy”, which puts you right back into that fear mode again.
One of my favorite exercises to beat this fear and let loose again is to do a few drawings with my wrong hand (in my case, my left). You know for a fact that its not going to be perfect. Your mind uses that as an excuse, and so its able to set free the worry of perfectionism so that you can focus on the fun you’re having just creating!
Give it a try today (or right now!), even if you’re just doodling on a napkin or scrap piece of paper. Anything to get your mind and hand moving, creating, + feeling free again.
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Kristal Norton on 03.05.12 The wandering mind is a creative mind. The more freely you think, the more creative ideas will come to you. Do you ever notice how children can sometimes be more creative than us? One of the reasons why I think this falls true is because they do not have a preconceived notion as to how the world works. Unlike us, they are moving through life constantly asking questions and exploring new outcomes. They believe anything is possible, so they experiment more.
Our minds are too constricted to work this way. We have gone through life collecting certain outcomes and believe those are the only true outcomes that are possible. As we grow up, we slowly loose are ambition to experiment and ask questions.
“Every child is born an artist, the problem is to remain one once they grow up.” ~Pablo Picasso
So this week, your creative exercise is to constantly ask questions, without necessarily pursuing the answers. Be curious. Wonder about things. Like, “Why are those little styrofoam pieces called peanuts?” or “If you blew a bubble in space would it pop?”.
Asking questions like this all day will help you to gain a new perspective on everything around you. If you stop yourself from pursuing the answers, it will also help your mind to think freely without the pressure to know or learn something. Just let your mind wander and be curious. Focus on asking silly questions as often as you can today or all week, and perhaps your mind will surprise you with some inspiring thoughts!
Come back and let me know what kinds of questions you come up with by leaving a comment below!
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Kristal Norton on 02.20.12  Play is so crucial to creativity and generating new ideas, and yet so many creatives don’t give themselves any time for play. I hope you’re not one of them. Please don’t be one of them. But if you are, there’s always time to change. All you need to do is to take a time out, and go PLAY. Take a pen, and write it into your calendar. Right now. Yup, right now. I’ll wait… Done? Have a self play-date on your calendar? So now you might be asking, “Play what? What am I scheduling here?”. Anything really. You can go out and play basketball for all I care. Just go out and be a kid again. Free yourself and your mind from all of the constraints you have put yourself into. Do something without rules, or worries. How about some finger painting? If you’re a painter, and you allow yourself to just play with your paint once in a while instead of worrying if your peers will like it, it will set you free. It will explode your mind with inspiration. If you’re always focused on whether your work will be accepted, or trying to make it “perfect”, then you are stifling yourself to come up with original ideas. What’s worse, is that your rigidness will show in your work. You need to loosen up, and create from the heart. So take that time out to go and PLAY!
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Kristal Norton on 01.23.12 To me, there is nothing more inspiring than picking up a new tool or medium and getting to just experiment and play with it. But, with the holidays just passing and the snow coming down, you may be like me snuggling up on the couch not wanting to go anywhere, and perhaps a bit hard up for cash to be going out shopping for new art supplies. So… time to go on a hunt!
Take a walk through your home, and with a fresh eye on things, take a look around you for some tools or random things you could use in your art journal or to use along with your favorite medium. The junk drawer always proves to be a treasure chest for imaginative ideas! If you’re a quilter, try sewing on some washers or bolts to create a design. If you’re a potter, try finding things in your home with interesting textures that you can press into the clay. If you want to experiment in your art journal, look for things like q-tips, old gift cards, toothpicks, or just about anything that inspires you to push around the paint or stamp with. 
Collect at least five things from your home, and bring them back to your “studio” (whether it be an actual studio or your kitchen table!) and get to work – I mean PLAY! It’s amazing the amount of inspiration you can get from a few simple household items. Give it a try!
I hope you enjoy this creative exercise. Give it a try, and let me know how it goes! What things did you find in your home? How did you use it in your art? Leave a comment below!
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