These are an assortment of handmade creative cards to help me through moments of: dullness & low energy, moodiness, feeling stuck, and exhibiting destructive behaviours or poisonous thoughts that are detrimental to my artistic output.
I’d seen creative cards before, cards you could purchase at a store, but I’d never considered making my own until I started reading The Creative Entrepreneur. I’ve been methodically making my way through the book and completing the small, but meaningful, creative projects along the way. Once I got to the section on Mastering Your Modes Recipe Cards I thought, “Brilliant! This might work!”
Working for myself, I often find it difficult to sustain my inspiration and enthusiasm for my own ideas & projects, so creative recipe cards, tailored to my own specific experiences and remedies I respond to, seem like a great way to motivate my passion to create. I often have all these great ideas but I don’t actually do them. So, I’ve decided that it’s time for more action. Armed with my new creative cards, and a few supportive & nagging friends (namely Nathalie), I hope to amp-up my productivity this year!
I have some friends who really responded to the idea of my cards so I thought I’d share the concept with you so you can make your own!
[Conversely, you can tailor the cards however you wish. If you’re not a creative type, but you spend too much time at work, you could try making Relationship Building Cards that help guide you to spend more time with your loved ones.]
Creative Cards Recipe
Each card represents the different challenges that disrupt my creativity and on the reverse are the solutions I can use to counter-act my negative thoughts & behaviours.
Ingredients:
glue
scissors
card or thin cardboard (from the recycling bin)
magazines
newspapers
tissue paper
old greeting cards
makers
pens
pencil crayons
paint
Preparation:
a) First, I made a list of all the destructive feelings, thinking, and actions that keep me from achieving my goals. (In the example you can see both constructive & destructive for each but for this exercise the focus is on the destructive aspects).
b) I choose a few of my top challenges from the destructive columns and used those for my cards.
c) On the front: For each destructive challenge I made representative images meaningful to me.
On the back: I glued a corresponding list of remedies.
(You could always switch it around and try making a picture of your remedy instead).
d) You can make extras and give some to your creative friends! My friend Heidi, who is a mother/housewife/shop manager, could use a stop Excessive Worrying card… can’t we all?
Card Size: I made mine the same size as a deck of cards I had laying around the house. I used the standard card to trace the size onto random card/thin cardboard I had in my recycle box: a cracker box, a brie cheese box, some old greeting cards, etc.
Decoration: Then I decorated them with coloured tissue paper & images from magazines, cards & old projects which I had around the house. I also made sure to add some hand drawings so I could feature some of my own personality.
Storage: I keep mine in a lovely brown leather watch box that was waiting for something to keep in it. You could decorate a special box or envelope for yours. My creative cards sit on my bookshelf; laying in wait for the next time I need inspiration.
Now I just have to remember to actually use them… Happy creating!!!
