5 minute creative exercises to keep things moving

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This tag with a face? I’m not sure where I’m heading with it. In the background you see my desk and my vacation album in current progress. Right now I just counted and there are over 20 “must complete soon” projects sitting around in some state of progress from a product pulled to feature all the way to “waiting to be photographed”.

So how on the busiest days do I keep finding minutes to work and create and play? I utilize small pieces of time. Instead of sitting and surfing social media for the few minutes between an appointment and picking up the kids (for example) I might:

  • Pull out paint or paste, a few stencils, and cardstock and just stencil quickly a few backgrounds for later play.
  • Take one paste/stencil/stamped background and add color (ink, watercolor, paint, mist…)
  • Pull out photos and decide on a design for a layout
  •  Take out a commonly used punch or die cut and punch scraps of paper
  • Add stitching or pen work to finish off a project
  • Flip through older stickers and find inspiration for a project – start setting it up

The list goes on and on! By thinking about those tiny bits of time between the crazy rush, I find sometimes as much as an hour in a “there is no time to create today” day. The benefit as I see it, is that my brain is happy (yay! crafting!) and when I do have time to actually sit down and craft it isn’t like I haven’t been keeping active so I won’t experience crafter brain freeze where I just don’t know where to start. I’ve already got stuff in the works.

Do you have tricks and tips for using small amounts of time? I’d love to hear them!

6 thoughts on “5 minute creative exercises to keep things moving”

  1. Great tips!
    I follow similar creativity boosters for limited time. Something as simple as stamping images to be coloured later is a great way to keep creative. Even if it’s just the angel policy stamp on the back of card bases.

    I’ve been silent as of late, but following along by email. Trying to sift through where I’m putting things in my office. 🙂

  2. I have a notebook in my bag, an larger project notebook that I use to track project ideas, and various purse projects which are usually some small needlework projects (one was made entirely of french knots), or spinning with spindles made from toy wheels. If I’m going somewhere for a longer period I’ll stamp up a bunch of images with very faint ink to watercolor or color with markers.

  3. Great ideas, you are so inspiring. I make embellishments with stamps and I always have a few small sheets to cut hanging around and I do that. I also have a small notebook with embellishment ideas and I’ll write a few down. I still need to manage my time better, and that’s hard with my situation, but I keep moving along. Thanks for sharing your ideas. Michelle t

  4. I think this would be an awesome topic for a mini-class or as part of a larger class, like Camp scrap or Use Your Stash.

  5. Sometimes the deterrent to creating is a cluttered space so if I have only a couple of minutes, I try to tidy up a bit so it’s more inviting for next time.

  6. I love all of these ideas May and really love Melissa’s suggestion above about developing a class around this concept!

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