The Creative Family Manifesto

The idea for this came about after reading The Creative Family Manifesto by Amanda Blake Soule*. Tom’s Mum gave me a copy of this for Christmas a few years ago, and after Littlest One was born I finally started dipping into it when I got 5 minutes here and there. It is the most wonderful book, and I wish I had started reading it sooner! If you want to live a more creative life and encourage your children to get involved at every opportunity, then I would highly recommend it.

Soule encourages you to use simple things around you to encourage creativity as a family. I love the part where she talks about imaginary friends, as Little One has an imaginary camel and he comes everywhere with us! He really is like a part of the family now, as is Camel’s friend Elephant and Elephant’s friend, Oscar the dog. Soule also emphasises the joy of sharing the tradition of handmade things, which is obviously something that is really important to me too.

Writing our own family manifesto

We are about to embark on our home education journey, as Little One will soon be 4 and would be going to school in September. It seemed like the right time to write our manifesto with this in mind, but also with everything that’s going on with Covid 19 too. It is a very surreal situation isn’t it? We are social distancing now, and it has actually been really good to think about what should be on our manifesto as we’re going to be spending much more time at home! It might be something that you can do with your family too as a positive activity to complete together. It doesn’t have to be framed if you don’t want to – even just jotting down your list of statements is a good place to start.

I used my personal manifesto as a starting point, as there were a few things that I thought would be good for our family manifesto. There were others I wanted to add to encourage things for our children and for ourselves. This is the list that I wrote, which contains 14 statements:

• Stay curious
• Go outisde
• Explore
• Make a mess – tidy up later
• Try again
• Learn from your mistakes
• Notice the little things
• Create together
• Make music
• Collect things
• Play
• Read every day
• Always be kind
• Love your community

This list covers things that we want for all of us as a family – things we want to encourage, and the ways in which we try to live our lives. I don’t see creativity as a separate ‘thing’ that we do, it’s in everything that we do. At the moment, Little One  frequently says that she can’t do things, so we’re always encouraging her to try again. We try to create things together when we can, whether that’s music, craft or something else. We read every day, and we emphasise the importance of being kind.

I wondered about changing the phrase ‘collect things’ as it reminded me of the phrase ‘collect moments, not things’. In the end, I decided that this is actually what I want it to say! Collections are great – leaves, stamps, feathers, colour charts – all of these things can inspire us in so many ways. It isn’t so much about having physical things for me, it’s about how we take inspiration from them. So I left that bit in!

Making your own creative family manifesto: materials

To make a family manifesto to be displayed like ours, you’ll need a few basic materials:

A big sheet of good quality card (we used an A1 size piece of card that I bought from our local art shop)

A set of watercolour paints and brushes

Some coloured paper

Stamps and an ink pad

A pencil

Scissors

Double-sided sticky tape or glue

A frame to display it in

Step 1

Take your large piece of card and set up the watercolours. Then get each member of your family to paint something on it! We went abstract and painted whatever popped into our heads. Littlest One even joined in too, and you can see where he painted with his hands in the corner. I think he was just 10 months when we did this, so it’s something that all ages can join in with. Leave it to dry completely.

Step 2

Now take your stamps and ink pad, and stamp out each of the creative statements onto coloured paper. I used a different colour for each statement, and chose 7 colours of paper for the 14 statements. When the ink has dried, carefully cut around each one in a rectangular shape.

Step 3

Remove the packaging from your frame. Take out the mount, but don’t discard it as you’ll need to use it in the next step!

Step 4

Once the watercolours have dried, place the mount on top and draw around it with a pencil. Then carefully cut it out, so that you have the right size to fit in your frame. If you prefer, you can use the mount to display – just do whatever works for you and adjust the size of the painted card accordingly.

Step 5

Position the creative statements on top of the painted card and work out where you’d like them to be. Stick them in place with double-sided sticky tape or some glue.

Step 6

The last thing to do is to put it in your frame, secure the back and then display. We have hung ours in the hallway, as we wanted to be able to see it frequently. Little One asks about it every time she goes up or down the stairs, which is great!

The beautiful pennant hanging above our manifesto is by HouseofHooray on Etsy*. The Pride of the North hoop is designed and stitched by me as an exclusive for For the Love of the North, an amazing shop which supports creatives from the North East of England. You can purchase one here! The pink pineapple embroidery was stitched by me, and you can read about that on my blog here.

Share your manifesto!

I would really love to see your manifesto if you make one – let me know in the comments below, or tag me on social media @hellohoorayblog. I hope this project brings you joy, especially during this really tough period. Stay safe, and wash your hands!

Please note that links marked (*) are affiliate links.

The post Our creative family manifesto appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

My creative hashtags for Instagram are divided up into the following 7 categories: craft, creativity, colour, nature and florals, blogging, food and finally, a list of other ones I couldn’t categorise.

Craft

I guess I post about this the most because my blog is mainly craft-related, so I’m often making use of craft hashtags. Some of them are related to specific crafts, like sewing or embroidery, whilst others are a little more general. Here are the ones I use most:

#craft – generally a good place to start!

#fabric

#sewing (also tags like #patchwork and #quilting depending on the type of thing I’m making)

#crafternoon – a good hashtag if you’re sharing progress photos of a project or crafting with friends

#embroidery

#stitchlove

#imadethis – good for showing off your makes!

#feelingcrafty

#craftymama – I’ve started using this one since Little One was born, and it’s lovely to find other crafty Mamas

#ilovehandmade

#handmadelove

You can use #cbloggers, #craftblog or #craftbloggers to get your craft blog noticed

There are also some lovely crafty communities to get involved with:

#wemakecollective – community created by Francesca Stone from Fall for DIY and managed by Claire Wilson of Claireabellemakes

#makersgonnamake – suggested by one of my Instagram followers, Claire, and I’ll definitely be using this one – it’s for sharing current projects, craft supplies and tutorials

#craftsposure – this is a new one for me, but the @craftsposure community has over 229K followers on Instagram!

#molliemakers – for the community of Mollie Makes fans

#abmcrafty – for the crafty followers of A Beautiful Mess (just one of their many hashtags!)

#makeitsewcial – community originally created by Allison Sadler (see her latest project in the Creativity hashtags section)

Creativity

There are lots of great creative communities out there – some were mentioned above in the craft section – but I wanted to give particular mention to these:

#creative

#creativity

#freestylecreativeliving – created by Allison Sadler, it’s a wonderful place to share and discover and I really love the ethos behind the project! Read about it here and here.

#creativehappylife

#abmhappylife

Colour

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I like a bit of colour! These hashtags are great for finding inspiration:

#colour

#colourful

#crafttherainbow – a side project from The House That Lars Built

#colorcolourlovers – hosted by Xanthe Berkeley and Andrea Jenkins, usually to brighten up the winter months but people seem to use this hashtag all year round (well, it’s autumn or winter somewhere in the world now!)

#livecolorfully

#abmlifeiscolorful

With some colour hashtags you need to check your spelling of ‘colour’ to see if you need to go American, but I generally stick to English English

Nature and florals

I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of looking at beautiful floral photography! Even a simple daisy can be just beautiful. Use these hashtags to share and find floral inspiration:

#flowers

#floral

#nature

#floralfridaycompetition – run by Emily Quinton of Makelight (I really LOVE Emily’s photography)

#allthingsbotanical – Selina Lake‘s hashtag for sharing particular natural things (it’s roses for June 2016!)

#inspiredbypetals

#naturelovers

#floralstyling – great for inspiration!

Blogging

Using the right hashtags can often get you noticed by certain groups – marketers looking for sponsor opportunities or perhaps other bloggers in the same niche or geographical area. Some of these are specific to me in the North East of England, so search out hashtags for your local area!

#lbloggers – lifestyle bloggers

#newblogpost – good to show when there’s something new up on your blog

#ukblogger

#lbloggersuk

#creativebloggers – show what you do in your hashtag

#nebloggers – this is a hashtag for bloggers in the North East of England

#nefollowers

#hellohoorayblog – have a hashtag for your blog!

Food

I haven’t used too many hashtags for food – I try to avoid Instagramming my dinner if I possibly can! Most of the ones I use are baking related as that’s mainly what I do at the moment. I’d love to use some more foodie hashtags, so let me know if you have any suggestions!

#baking

#cake

#chocolate

#instafood

#sweet

#fresh

#homemade

#foodpics

A few others to finish…

These are a few other hashtags that you might want to consider – I couldn’t think of a good category name for these ones as there are just a few for a few random things!

Styling

#stylingtheseasons

#aquietstyle

Kids

#littlefierceones

#childhoodunplugged

General

#tbt – to throwback to something from the past on a Thursday!

#followfriday or #fridayfavourite – use these to showcase another account or maker that you love

Don’t forget that you can join me with the hashtag #futurecreativeprojects on Instagram – use that hashtag and tag me @hellohoorayblog so I can see what you’re planning to make!

I hope you found my list of creative hashtags for Instagram useful, especially if you’re new to Instagram If you’re an old hand, are there any that I’ve missed off that you think I should be using? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Creative hashtags for Instagram appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Future creative projects will be a way of bringing together things that inspire me to create something. It might be a particular tutorial that I want to follow to the letter, and I’ll make it exactly. Or it might be that I gather inspiration from several places to create my own version of something. A creative project might be something I sew, bake, build or experience. It can be anything creative, but I’m saving my inspiration on my blog and sharing my ideas with you.

My first future creative project is to make some new cushions for our living room. We have a lovely collection of cushions that we’ve collected over the years, but they’re all a bit mis-matched! I’d really like to update them and use some lovely fabrics that compliment our purple curtains and the decor. I have pinned some inspiration on my #futurecreativeprojects Pinterest board if you’d like to see – there are lots of vintage fabrics, pretty trims and different shapes that I’d love to try! I particularly love the tutorial from Fall for DIY which would be great for using up some fat quarters.

I’ll be using the hashtag #futurecreativeprojects to share my ideas on Pinterest and also on Instagram If you’d like to join in with me then you can! Just use the hashtag on Instagram and tag me @hellohoorayblog – I’m looking forward to seeing your future creative projects, so put the kettle on and think about what you’d like to make!

The post Future creative projects appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

You may be wondering why I am only just reviewing it now, given that Blogtacular was back in June! The main reason is that because it tied in so nicely with many of the themes at the conference, I actually just needed a bit of time with my thoughts to really think about it. Another is that I just had to read it again, as I enjoyed it SO much! My first reading of it took place on the train to London, and I read half the book on the way there and the rest on the way back (despite me having to get a super early train to be back at work on the Monday morning!). I really felt that I just had to read it again, and do some of the suggested activities and think about how they could help me.

“Have nice times.”

The first message that Pip discusses it the concept of happiness. It was really interesting to read this – and she’s so right when she talks about how the pursuit of happiness has actually become some sort of anxiety in itself. One of my favourite quotes from this section goes like this:

“Happiness is something to celebrate. But don’t let it get in the way of you having a nice time.”

Focussing on the nice times can be helpful not only in appreciating the real happy times, but can also help to build a system to be able to cope with the not-so-nice times, which happen to us all. Don’t think that this book is all about the good stuff – Pip acknowledges that ‘life isn’t always peachy’ and I think that she’s got the balance between the two just right. I really appreciate Pip’s honesty in this book, as she discusses so many things that have happened to her as examples, both good and bad, but she emphasises a need to think about how you perceive these things to be able to move on (or not). And to think about how they might be encouraging or inhibiting creativity.

“Movement is the key to happiness and creativity.”

Over the first few chapters there are various activities to think about who you are and where you’re at in terms of the creative process and productivity. I really enjoyed the section about getting out and about – I know that this is something that helps me when I have creative block, but Pip talks about building a morning walk into her routine and the impact that has had on her physical and mental wellbeing. We have recently been getting off the bus a few stops early and walking the rest of the way to work, and I notice a big difference when we don’t! When I went out the other week to collect elderflower to make cordial, I had such a lovely walk at about 8am and that day I really noticed how much more productive I was. So I’m thinking about trying to do this more often on my craft days. It was good to have space to think, and I know that I’m really bad at taking downtime – I tend to only do it when I’m forced to through illness. I have this thing where I want to make the most of every minute of the weekend, but I should really appreciate that it’s ok to rest up! This is something that Pip refers to at various points in the book – I must remember to take it on board.

I’m currently working on some of the exercises from chapter 4: be yourself. These involve a little bit of reflecting and thinking about who I am and what my mission statement might be. I used to really hate self-reflection. It used to (and sometimes can still) feel like a bit of a ticky box exercise, usually for some sort of work-related development task that doesn’t mean a lot. But since reading this (and attending Blogtacular) I have felt different about it in terms of me personally. It’s great to be able to do it for me, for a purpose. Not in a ‘what can I do for your company?’ kind of way.

“Creativity and ideas need practice”

Once the basics of enjoying nice times and really knowing how to get the best out of your time are covered, the rest of the chapters discuss opportunities to get creative. Pip shares loads of ideas of how to do this – finding new skills, making with friends, making new friends and collaborating – and there is a whole section at the back with some super project ideas. I find myself yet again thinking that I must learn how to crochet to be able to make a gorgeous blanket like the one on the cover!

The styling and design of the book is lovely, and the quotes dotted about the book are thought-provoking and inspiring. This one by Sigmund Freud (see below) really resonated with me, having discovered my love of making things once I had left my music teaching career. It took me a long, long time to come to terms with leaving that job behind, but I would never have got into doing what I do now if I hadn’t. This was the toughest thing at the time, but now I realise it was a really good thing to go through. Pip talks about small-scale changes that you can make to enhance your creativity (you don’t have to have a career change!) and how to create new opportunities for creativity. The chapter about doing it with your friends and getting out there and just doing it are really inspiring. There’s a LOT to think about in this book, but reflecting is good!

Each time I pick up this book, I take something new away from it. It’s not a book to read once and then let it gather dust on the shelf – it’s a book to be used, to be referred to, to share. A bit like creativity, really. It’s reassuring to know that the things I often feel are things that Pip often feels too! We have never met and we live on opposite sides of the planet, but (just as she does with her blog) she builds a connection through her book. To echo what Clare Bowditch says in the in the foreword, Pip builds a relationship with her readers as friends, and you feel like you know her a little better by the end. You feel like she might also know you too.

Craft for the Soul: how to get the most out of your creative life is published by Viking (part of Penguin Books Australia). At time of writing this post, I could not find out when this title will be released in the UK. I will update this if I find out – promise!

The post Craft for the Soul appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.