Michelle G Brown | Mixed Media Art

Dispelling the “I can’t do it” Myths of Creativity

This article was written by Michelle Brown

It is so hard to find that extra time in the day to fit in a little crafting and creativity into our lives. By reviewing where our time goes during the day and making a determined effort to have time to practice and learn new skills, while getting together the materials we need, we are able to open up the opportunity for us to be creative.mixed_media_art_collage

I have been creating cards and paintings and mixed media creations for many years; from when I was in High School, through studying at university, working full time, then having kids and working full time.  Because mixed media arts and papercrafts are my passion, I will find time and space to create, fitting it in as and when I can.

I am always very interested when I find others who are amazed at what I make, and by their excuses as to why they could never make such nice things. It seems to boil down to one of three reasons (or a combination of all three):
1. I don’t have enough time
2. I don’t have the talent / skills / know-how
3. I don’t have the equipment or materials

I see these are the three “I can’t do it” Myths of Creativity. Let’s look at each one in detail.

Don’t have enough time
While working and children and keeping a house does take up a lot of time, it is important to understand where our time goes. Every person on this planet has 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week. It is how we choose to use our time which determines if we have enough time for creative pursuits.

If you are one of those people who doesn’t know where your time goes, it may be time to do a “time audit”; keeping a written record of the tasks you do through a normal week. Even a simple breakdown into categories of Kids, Household, My time, Working, Computer, Garden, Television will help you to see where your time goes. At the end of the week, summarise where the time goes each day.

Then it’s time for some real thinking. Are you surprised as to where your time goes? Are you seeing proportionate results for your effort? Now you can take stock and consider if how you are spending your time is in line with your goals and values.

For me to fit in my crafting, I concentrate my housework into a limited number of hours in a week; what gets done, gets done, what doesn’t will either get delegated or left for next week. Then I schedule in time to create. At times it has only been for half an hour (an hour at the most) in the evenings, after the children are in bed (or at least playing in their rooms). By planning my crafting activities (Christmas comes around at the same time each year) and allowing enough time, I can get these projects done by spending a little time, most days, completing each project bit by bit.

Don’t have the skills
Wanting to create is enough to get started; developing the skills will happen in line with the creative process. Especially with the Internet these days, we all have access to so many different techniques and other artists, that reading up on the basics is enough to get you going. Then there are courses and classes with your local stores or crafting groups. All of the people I have met across many crafts are always happy to share what they know.

More advanced skills will be developed as you get more practice in while you are creating. Many techniques are dependent on the latest crafting fashions and these can be developed the same way as your basic skills. And these are the more tangible skills.

The intangible skills of colour mixing and knowing just where to place things can also be developed through practice and consciously looking at he work of others. By consciously, I mean that when you think “oh that’s nice” then begin to ask yourself why – it is the colours, the techniques used, the placement of embellishments? Becoming more analytical will built your skills.

My talents are mostly developed through practice and seeing other people’s work, with a few classes thrown in. I tend to stick to safe colour combinations. For collages I follow the steps I have outlined in other articles. Then the placement of images and embellishments are done until it feels “right”.

Don’t have equipment or materials
As we have seen across the Mixed Media Arts site, there are many things that we already have around the house or borrowed from the children that can be used to start creating. Card form cereal boxed, glue sticks or sticky tape, basic paints, pens and note paper – if you don’t have these hidden somewhere, a trip to the local variety shop will help get you started. Remember that you don’t need every colour or size or shape to begin with. Stick to some basic colours and multi purpose stamps and inks. You will find that your artistic tastes will change as you create more artwork and learn different techniques. Your materials and equipment collection will expand as opportunity presents itself.

I have had many years to collect my craft supplies. I have things stuffed into many corners but I just don’t use them. Unless I go through the drawers on a regular basis, then I forget what I have. So not having lots of supplies is not the only aspect that will keep you from crafting.

Creativity is a skill like any other that needs time doing it to get better at it. Finding the time to spend creating is where the challenge is in our modern busy lives. By being aware of where we spend our time we can make decisions about how we use it and if crafting is a priority for you, the time slots will present themselves. All the wishful thinking that you had more skills or time or materials will only help you if you use it as motivation to change what you were doing yesterday, and try something different today – that is the only way to create lasting change in your life.

So get creating!

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Foundations of Creative Wellbeing

This review was written by Lisa Toffoletti with course access provided by Carla va Laar, as part of the Mixed Media Art Design Team 2022.

Foundations of Creative Wellbeing is an online course developed by Creative Arts Therapist, Dr Carla van Laar. The course is a hands-on experiential journey with videos that guide you through 15 mindful creative activities designed to help you access and cultivate your own creativity for self-care and wellbeing.
 
Carla draws on her Doctoral research to engage you in arts-based processes and creative reflective journaling as you:

  • practice paying attention to the here and now through relaxation, breath and your senses
  • tune in to your environment and create spaces that support your wellness
  • use arts-based activities to make conscious choices that illuminate your personal values
  • connect with parts of yourself that want to be nurtured and developed through creativity
  • find out how sharing your creative works with others can deepen and strengthen relationship
  • understand the big picture of your life and imagine your way to creative wellbeing.

Course review by Lisa

I have just undertaken the online course Foundations of Creative Wellbeing with Dr Carla Van Laar, a course that is guided but allows freedom to express your creative thoughts through mixed media using mindfulness activities. I found the course to be a positive personal creative journey – one I really enjoyed.

The course is made up of a range of activities split into 5 modules. Each activity provides an opportunity to create and includes writing a reflective journal entry. I am a visual and tactile learner. Each activity was different, engaging and well presented with a clear description of what was required.

To begin give yourself time to undertake the course, it involves meditation exercises, getting outside and creating artwork. Throughout the creative journey I used a sketchbook with medium weight paper (decide if you want to do your journaling entries in a separate book or in the sketchbook), a grey lead pencil, my phone, water colour pencils, coloured pencils, paint, ephemera, gel medium, inks and fine liners. The course is designed so that you can use any medium you’re comfortable with.

The website is easy to navigate the course. After each video it marks the activity as complete, when you log back in you can pick up where you left off.

The course modules are designed to progress through from one to five. The activities are to be done from your own personal creative expression. I took the approach to be guided through and craft along with the lessons but you can easily watch the lesson then do the activity however the reflective journal entries are essential, even if you make a few notes, because it’s used in an activity later.

The highlights of the course for me were connecting with your inner creativity and bringing it out onto paper. It was at times challenging yet rewarding; the meditation brought a sense of calm, drawing your breath on a paper was an unusual but interesting activity. Viewing and responding to a piece of artwork was my favourite activity and an activity to use a box as a metaphor for ourselves, initially was challenging to find things for the box but once I started sorting through my magazines and ephemera the task was a lot of fun.

There is no correct or incorrect in this course, it’s a personal creative journey to explore how you feel and what inspires you as a person and for that, getting to the end and having completed each activity has given me another place to draw my inspiration from when I craft.

I would recommend the course for crafters looking for inspiration and for anyone who wants to reflect on their life to gain a more informed perspective of where they are in life. There is freedom to create your thoughts using your desired medium and engage in mindfulness exercises, it’s flexible and inviting.

Thank you Dr Carla – it was a creative journey indeed.

For more information and to sign up – click here: Foundations of Creative Wellbeing


Lisa Toffoletti has always dedicated a space in her life for art and craft, from a child making greeting cards using pressed flowers to art in many forms including small papercraft projects, scrap booking and card making, to create things that have a purpose and are useful.

Lisa is married with three children, whilst raising the children as a stay-at home-mum she worked for the family upholstery business and lives in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. She many other interests and hobbies including gardening, reading, photography, tracing her family tree and spending time with family.
To view Lisa’s creations, log onto Facebook at Handmade Greeting cards by Lisa T

Passport journal with gloss sprays

This project was created by Joanne Hughes with products supplied by Mixed Media Art, as part of the Mixed Media Art Design Team 2021.

This project is my latest in a series of “designer” journals, honouring designers and artists whose work I love.

Joanne Hughes

Materials List

To create your passport journal

Begin by randomly spraying gloss sprays direct to the gel plate.  The paint pools and runs and makes great prints. 

Press one side of the watercolour paper onto the plate for a print.  Drying time is really quick so it doesn’t take long to do these steps. 

Grab some string, arrange on the  gel plate and spray again over the top. As a bonus your string matches your cardstock, perfect for bookmarking. 

Turn watercolour paper over to print the reverse size pushing into the gaps in and around the string. 

If you have any white space you don’t like you can spray direct to the paper to fill in. 

Don’t forget to use a tag or card to mop up excess paint before cleaning and putting the gel plate away.

Using the Passport book die with your cutting machine, cut two covers and a spine.  The hard part is deciding which side of the print is your favourite.

I have always wanted to use the white print from Dina’s collage paper, instead of my usual choice of black.  Choose an image and glue with gel medium to the front cover.  I was disappointed with the result, silly me, it’s collage paper NOT tissue!  It  dulled the bright colours so out came the Scribble Sticks. 

I left the face and coloured the hair and around the head, adding colour until I was happy.  Then I added a bit of colour to the eyes and lips.  I still wasn’t happy.  It just didn’t “pop” for me so I grabbed a fine black marker to outline the printed image.  I was trying not to alter the image too much but kept going until I was happy with a dark outline.  And even happier when I used Black Archival Ink to stamp Scribble Hearts around the image.  “You are enough “ was very appropriate to finish the cover!

I used black print collage paper for the spine!

Make up the journal following Eileen Hull’s instructions.  You can choose to feature the spine or cover it with your front and back covers.  I made my signatures, using the passport die, to cut a variety of pages.  In the style of Dina Wakley’s Media Journals, I included Kraft paper, vellum, lined paper, water colour paper and canvas.

The cut pages line up perfectly and the string that was coloured on the gel plate easily threads though the holes in the papers and spine to tie the signatures in.


Joanne Hughes loves to share her knowledge and ideas with anyone who will listen,  and has worked with Michelle and Mixed Media Art at the Picture to Page shows for many years, demonstrating and behind the make’N’take table.  She is thrilled and honoured to kick start the Mixed Media Art Design Team 2021.  There is a story behind each of her pieces and she is only too happy to share with you.

Joanne is mum to three adult children and lives in the same house she and her husband bought in 1982 and has been craft making in various forms for as long as she can remember – from macrame in the 70’s to considering herself a Mixed Media Artist, Joanne is a “Jill” of all trades, focussing on her love of stationery and everything that goes with it – paper, pens, inks, paints and stickers, along with the tools and techniques of the creative process.  When she is not making a book, she is thinking of the next one, be it a journal, letter journal, hand made or altered book.  She is a hands on crafter, loving messy play with glues, inks and paints.

Mixed media tag holder

This project was created by Lisa Toffoletti with products supplied by Mixed Media Art, as part of the Mixed Media Art Design Team 2021.

Materials list & craft supplies:

Creating your tag holder:

Using the Heavy weight watercolour paper, die cut the folio journal, only one with no spine

Using a small piece of mount board, die cut 2 of the folio journal base pieces and the tag
Using digital paper Die cut a mandala
Select chipboards to use; “make”, “do”, love heart and fern
Spray all the pieces with gloss sprays until happy with the colours and spray chipboards as stencils onto the watercolour paper as desired.


Use gel medium to adhere bookpaper to the back of the “make & do” chipboards and the piece of the tag.
Allow to dry, the watercolour paper will absorb a lot of paint
Assemble the folio as a tag holder, the longer edge is now the back / top, using the “base pieces” tape them into the sides to create pocket. Use gel medium over the joins to strengthen.

Using gel medium adhere die cut mandala, cut off excess and use elsewhere, adhere the coloured chipboards and spray with a splatter of gloss Night and tie some string around to finish off.

The holder sits on a flat surface but can also be hung, hole punch top corners, fasten eyelets, thread string. With Fude ball pen outline where desired.

Now add your tags – you can see how to create these stunning tags here


Lisa Toffoletti has always dedicated a space in her life for art and craft, from a child making greeting cards using pressed flowers to art in many forms including small papercraft projects, scrap booking and card making, to create things that have a purpose and are useful.

Lisa is married with three children, whilst raising the children as a stay-at home-mum she worked for the family upholstery business and lives in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. She many other interests and hobbies including gardening, reading, photography, tracing her family tree and spending time with family.
To view Lisa’s creations, log onto Facebook at Handmade Greeting cards by Lisa T