2023 Top Nine Arts and Crafts

The title of this blog post is actually a joke. The punchline? My creativity!

I set a goal in 2023 to “do more drawing”. Wow, so vague. Draw what? Draw when and how?

The umbrella goal was to be more creative, and the way I wanted to do that was to practice drawing, create a summer scrapbook, and play with my supplies that have been sitting around for years untouched.

I knew that motivation wasn’t going to magically appear, and it didn’t. I knew that unless I was very specific in the tasks and actions that would get me closer to the goal, I wouldn’t move the needle at all.

It took a lot of months to get real with myself and try something different.

In the spring, I made loads of gelli prints using old thank you cards and turned them into German vocabulary flash cards.

In the fall I finally just started tracing cool drawings I found on Pinterest. Shhhh don’t tell the art bosses! jk jk

At the end of December, I finally finished my Summer Scrapbook. Just kidding, I still need to add some journaling.

But I made things. I learned, and re-learned lessons about setting and achieving goals. And I rediscovered some of my creativity that I thought had gone missing.

And here are nine pieces of arts and crafts to show for my year of lazy exploration.

RESETTING MY CREATIVE GOALS FOR 2024

I have not done this exercise yet, setting my creative goals for 2024. Maybe I won’t. I like goals because I have a terrible memory and they remind me what I truly want. I love creating things, but I forget or I push them to the bottom of the to-do list.

If you don’t prioritize something, it won’t get done. Rule #1 of goals. If there were a rule book for goals that is.

I found some puffy paint while cleaning out a box the other day. I am dreaming about sparkly embossing powders while I type this post. I want to run a class teaching folks how to carve their own stamps with justice-centered messages to make into postcards and send those to their government reps.

One, two, three. Looks like I’ve got a list started.

What’s on your list?