Introducing: The Creative Play Challenge

Update: Hey guys, The Creative Play Challenge is now finished. However, you can still access many of the prompts we completed here on The Creative Play Challenge page.

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I don’t know about you, but September is my January. It’s the beginning of the school year (or was the beginning back in the olden days) and with the influx of new calendars and school supplies, I always feel like starting over. In elementary school, I very dutifully changed my handwriting at the beginning of the school year—I have no idea why, but it was really fun—and as an adult, I still tend to make goals at the beginning of the school year rather than in January.

So with those feelings in mind, I decided to make a Creative Play Challenge that starts today which just so happens to be the beginning of September.

Here’s the truth: it really helps me to have some sort of challenge or parameter in my creative life. 2030make helped me last year to remember to take the time, no matter how small it is, to work on creative projects and try new things. Going on creative mini-retreats keeps the ball rolling on projects that would otherwise be shelved for forever.

It’s this strange conundrum . . . I LOVE to create and make things (and really love encouraging others to do so as well as it makes us so much happier), but when life gets in the way, creative projects are the first to be shelved.

I know I’m not alone in this. I hear from you sweet people all the time (thank you!) and lack of time is the number one reason we don’t get around to working on our creative projects.

So how will the Creative Play Challenge help this?

~ For one, there is bound to be at least a few weeks (if not more!) this year where you can participate.

~ Each week you’ll be given a prompt that you can use towards your own creative projects. You do not have to be an artist (or consider yourself creative) in order to participate. You can be 3 years old or 93 years old; it doesn’t matter. (Although, most of the challenges will be geared towards adults, you can adapt them for children if you’d like.)

~ The benefits and joys of community. The biggest difference in this challenge (as opposed to 2030make and the letter-writing challenges I’ve hosted before) is there will be a private Facebook group for you to answer the prompt and share your work if you’d like to. I will pop in from time to time to encourage and share my own projects. I want you to know that you’re not alone in this life, juggling all the things and your creative inner self. A community group that is loving and welcoming will help that.

I purposely am making this challenge super simple.

I’m not going to lie. My life is really busy right now with no signs of letting up. This is a season we’re in, and that’s fine. But I don’t want to toss the creative bug out the window (not that I could. ;)) So, I’m going to make this challenge simple. Here’s how it will go:

~ At the beginning of each week, I’ll share a prompt, idea, or project to try during the week on my blog AND in the Facebook group. The blog post will be longer and share more pictures, while the Facebook group post will allow YOU to share your own work in the thread of the week. If there are supplies needed, I’ll let you know, but I’m trying to use things that are fairly common or easy to come by so we don’t have to spend a lot of money on extra supplies. 🙂 (Since this challenge is over, the Facebook group is now closed, but you still can access The Creative Play Challenge prompts here on the blog!)

~ Throughout the week, we’ll share what went well that week in our creative practice and celebrate!

Simple and sweet.

This Challenge is Now Closed, But . . .

You can click here for all of The Creative Play challenge prompts. Feel free to go through them, and have fun!