Une entreé of creativity
Guest contributor Clare Albans helps us to begin cultivating a creative practice
Hiya 🌊! I’m Lucy from Hype Yourself. If you are new to this page, pop your email below to ensure you receive my posts sent every Sunday. 52 PR Tips challenge tasks are sent out every fortnight(ish) to help you with self-promotion, templates, expert tips and opportunities. Come and sit with us.
The first of the many amazing discoveries I’ve made on Substack was
who inspired me to collect seasonal leaves and decorate with my children.The reason I’ve been successful in my career beyond any business or PR tip has been creativity. It helps me think differently and put myself where I don’t belong.
It is still an area I’m rehearsing in, so
is here to give you some creative nourishment.For those who have children and are on half-term this week, next week (or at the end of February for people in the Var like me) there is some inspiration for things you could do with your little people too.
Lucy x
1. Find pockets of time
It’s easy to feel like we don't have time for creativity. And it can become even harder and more overwhelming for us when life gets in the way, like work, the school runs (or home educating in my case), and swimming lessons.
If you can start to look for the small pockets of time for creativity, this is where the magic happens! Find joy in ten minutes here or half an hour there; it can boost your mood and a bit of calm and make a massive difference to your day.
Take a small creative project during your lunch break, or prioritise the first 30 minutes after the school run.
I loved this post about motherhood and creativity by Kayla on Substack, which brings together the voices of thirteen mothers from around the world who are also trying to balance being an artist.
2. Embrace change
Change can be hard for many of us to navigate, but you might need to make some habitual changes to make space for creativity.
This could be a small one, like doing sketches in a smaller notebook so that you can carry it around with you more easily.
Small changes can make a big difference to how accessible we feel our creative practice is. When we think that it is accessible, then we feel more positive about it.
I find it helpful to remind myself that the creative process, how and when I am most innovative, is constantly changing. If you find change a little tricky, you might enjoy this podcast on Emerging Form (via Substack), an interview with Brad Stulberg.
There’s some excellent discussion around the nature of change, how our approach to change can impact our creative practice and the idea of ‘rugged flexibility’.
3. Seek creativity in everyday things
You don’t have to sit down with your watercolours or sewing machine to be creative - creativity can be found in mundane, everyday things if you remember to look for it.
It’s all about how you see creativity and learning to look at things differently, to find the fun in the things in your life that you do time and again.
Stopping to notice them will also help you to be present and slow down, which is excellent for your mental health. It can also inspire our creative projects.
A few examples of this are:
Going on a walk to the shops and collecting some natural treasures (links to thinking seasonally below)
Finding faces in places in everyday objects
Keep the curtains open a bit longer to admire the sky at sundown, and create a colour palette based on it
Stopping to watch the raindrops on the window and guessing which one will win the race to the bottom of the window
Look up and admire the architecture where you live (which usually leads to spotting something you’ve never noticed!)
These things might seem silly or random, but noticing small details or looking at things differently can spark our creativity. In the words of Victor Hugo: “Inspiration is everywhere. Carry a notebook.” You never know when that next idea will come to you.
4. Plan ahead
Planning is essential if you're juggling lots of things and need a reasonable amount of time to be creative.
If you can, try to earmark some time in the week that's allocated for your creative time. Try to protect this at all costs, and remember you don’t need to feel guilty about doing that. You might need some quiet for your creativity to flow, so plan where you’ll work or if the kids need to be out of the house to be able to do this.
Sometimes, planning might look like prepping your materials together in advance so you don't waste your time looking for them (this is my biggest waste of time!). You want to prepare to try to use every minute the best you can, and then you’ll feel fulfilled and appreciative of the time you’ve had to focus on being creative.
5. Collect ideas
When time is limited, it's helpful to collect ideas to optimise those little pockets of time.
This will help to avoid those feelings of wanting to create something but then having time but not knowing what to do! Pinterest is perfect for this, or you can save posts on Instagram and organise them in a private folder, too.
When collecting ideas, I’m generally focused on colours, patterns, lettering, and fun things to make with my kids. Although some of my Pinterest boards are a bit neglected, the ‘art and illustration’ board is one I usually keep up with. Here are a few ideas from there that would be fun to try out this week:
Make these cute animals from toilet roll or kitchen roll tubes with @supermakeit
Wooden spoon people from The House That Lars Built
Draw a mirror self portrait inspired by Handsome Frank (you could even make the mirror out of cardboard and stick it on!)
Make some collage paper hearts inspired by Laura Blythman
Make a poster with a message that you’re passionate about, inspired by Into The Fold Mag
Get creative with some sticky dots, inspired by Hagar Vardimon via The Jealous Curator
Create your own piece of art based on a poem, like this one by Lemn Sissay (it doesn’t have to be a giant mural, but it could be!)
The link to my art and illustration board is: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/hellohoorayblog/art-and-illustration/
6. Create collectively
Having time to create independently is lovely, but it’s even better to do it with friends, family, or your kids if you have them.
Making it something you do regularly will automatically build more creative time into your lives. And the best part is that you’ll all be learning through each other’s ideas, techniques and interpretations of whatever you’re creating. You don’t have to make art; you could cook a meal or plan a trip - anything that sparks your creativity.
Collaborating with other creatives on projects is also a brilliant thing to do. It allows you to be open to new ideas, bouncing your ideas off people and coming together to create something new.
7. Think seasonally
Thinking seasonally can help us navigate the year and our creative process too, because we naturally have seasons that we need to work with and not against.
Sometimes we need to rest and remember to prioritise rest. Have you ever noticed that when you switch off, you might develop a great new idea for your next project? As creatives, we need space in our minds to allow those ideas to come, and that’s why rest ultimately helps us creatively.
Projects that follow the seasons are really fun, and there’s a lot of joy to be found in inventing them. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Take a photo of the same tree every day or every week for the whole year to see how it changes. You could also do this with a view at the beach or just the view from a window at home
Make a paper heart garland for Valentine’s Day
Make pressed wildflower suncatchers (this is labelled a craft project for kids, but I want to try these for myself!)
Make pom poms through the year and then put them together to make a pom pom wreath for Christmas.
For more inspiration on how to take time out to be creative, you can subscribe to future posts from
over on or why not invite her onto your podcast, offer her a written Q&A or collaborate with her on Substack?Over to you…
How do you bring creativity into your work? Are you going to try any of Clare’s tips? Got a productivity tip on how we can be more creative? Let me know in the comments. I’ll go first….
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Ah I love this post - so many fab ideas, thank you Clare!
Reading this has made my heart sing. Thank you for all the inspiration Clare 🙏