Are you in need of a few Creative Ideas? Because I have an abundance of ideas that I do not mind sharing with you! I love creative list writing, so this is a fun blog post to make: a list of one hundred (100!) creative ideas that will spark you into a creative mood, a place where you can take action and play with any creative materials you’ve got!

So how about One Hundred Awesome Ideas to Spark you into Creative Action, all with a link to a previous blog post of mine where I myself have explored these ideas? I hope you’ll all like this list of ideas (the first 100 Ideas here).

Let’s get going, it’s a long list…

100 Ideas to Spark your Creativity

1. Make a a DIY Inbox for paper scraps on your desk
2. Alter an old book and make it into your own personal art journal
3. Hang your art on the wall – don’t let it reside in boxes for ever!
4. Fuel Your Constantly Creative Brain – start a journal
5. Mix black and white and paint something in gray-scale
6. Look for hidden faces when you’re out walking in your neighborhood or when on holiday
7. Sew your own bunting flags – because they’re easy to make and so cheery to look at
8. Embroider on top of a ball – super addictive craft once you get the hang of it
9. Personalize your Planner and make it your own, spice it up a bit with colors, stickers or printables. Since you use it often, why not make it your personal happy place?
10. Fill an inch of fabric with embroidery – you’ll learn to appreciate the time embroidery takes…
11. Create an ATC for a friend – everyone loves surprises in the mail
12. Write a Yummy List – what things are yummy in your life?
13. Colour Swatch – and name your newly mixed colours, pick the most poetic names you can imagine…
14. Allow Everything to be a Diary – documenting and reflecting is important
15. Make your own December Daily Book out of Christmas remnants and ephemera – one of my favorite projects to plan and do when winter comes again
16. Create Colour Studies in a Sketchbook – which combinations speaks the most to you?
17. Try Paper Weaving – quick, easy and so much fun
18. Get a bottle of Masking fluid and try drawing “the white” when you’re using watercolors – think in reverse…
19. Blind doodle to music
20. Fill a whole page with doodles in just one color
21. Pimp a Moleskine Notebook cover
22. Infuse the season you’re in with a creative daily activity
23. Get a fresh pile of books from the library or the craft shop, and do one project from each book
24. Knit a pair of Fingerless Mittens – it is not as hard as it sounds if you know the basics of knitting
25. Make your own saddle warmer for biking on cold autumn days
26. Paint and spruce up something from the flea market, I love the needle holder I upcycled a few years ago
27. If you have a transparent tape holder, here’s a quick and easy idea on how to “transform it”
28. Paint a bunch of happy circles on a page in your art journal. Make it shine!
29. Take a Photo Walk by the water and only photograph the reflections you see in the water. Isn’t the world also beautiful upside down?
30. And when you’re out on your photo walk, here’s where to look
31. Take a stab at Embroidering some Magic Feathers – they are not as hard to stitch as they look
32. Sew a personalized messenger bag, using little scraps and doilies from your stash
33. Make your own Ring Binder using a vintage book cover
34. Need more room for your greenery? I always do, so I loved thrifting a pedestal that I then spray painted pink. Altering/personalizing furniture is always a blast
35. Draw what you wore today (or yesterday or any day) and join the movement of fashion drawers
36. Sketch from reference material and see how different it turns out, at least if you’re like me and usually doodle from imagination (random mark making)
37. If a Fancy Sketchbook isn’t something you want to keep, I suggest a Doodle Diary
38. Look for inspiration in your sad and lonely drawer of old art work
39. Find a thing and make a ring
40. Give Free-Form Quilting a try – no measuring but a lot of cutting and sewing. My favorite form of quilting.
41. Make an Empty and Blank Notebook come alive – fill it with you!
42. Sort your collection of Washi tapes (I bet you have one) and try this great storage idea
43. Browse a fabric store with your camera – sometimes “just exploring” and photographing feels better than buying… (and you can always go back later and do a few purchases if you can’t stop thinking about that fabric…)
44. Decorate your Inspiration Board with happy mail, postcards and pretty magazine images
45. Try Watercolor Engravings by drawing with a knitting needle…
46. Make a paper doll of your Inner Critic (IC) so you can tell him or her to shut up and take a vacation
47. Write found word poetry. It amazes me every time I do this how beautiful and special found words strung together become. So… poetic.
48. Make a brown-only art journal page (or use another difficult or strange color that you rarely use in your art)
49. Write your own Summer Manifesto (or a manifesto of the season you’re entering into next)
50. Collect Random Things for a spread in your art journal – use your imagination!
51. Play with your Dymo Label Maker – cool 3D words in an instant
52. Don’t forget to pick flowers maybe not #onebouqetperday all summer will be your thing, but at least one a week if you can. Bringing nature inside will be sure to brighten your mood.
53. Doodle a Mandala Snowflake – start in the middle and let it grow outwards organically. It looks complex in the end, but just go slow and deliberate and you’ll do great.
54. Upholster Old Cushions with happy fabric, and give them new life
55. Sew a quilty apron - makes great gifts
56. Embroidery a tiny series of Artist Trading Cards, explore new ideas in a minature format
57. Write a list of places you wish to visit some day (or today)
58. Knit yourself some cool wrist warmers – preferably ones that match the book you’re reading of course…
59. Write a list of things you “know for sure” (or things you kind of thing you might know by now, maybe)…
60. Create a Art Journal Card (loose page that you can trade or give away)
61. Fold leaf roses – great fun in the autumn when the leaves turn red and orange
62. Trade or give away some paper scraps and ask someone else to be creative with them (I love getting ephemera in the mail)
63. Spot a common theme in your photos and group them together –
    what do you detect, what about this inspires you, is it a series of photographs?
64. Try book spine weaving - this art form might have been invented by me, but it’s easy to do if you don’t mind ripping apart old books
65. Paint on index cards, because why not (ICAD coming up soon, and you should consider joining us Icad:ians this year)
66. Create a black and white collage – I love this look but usually I can’t keep away from the colors…
67. Sort through your materials – find new inspiration in old stuff
68. Set a new desktop background on your computer – it always cheers me up
69. Finger stamp with the whole family – makes for a fun craft-a-doodle-challenge
70. Make a colorful pattern on the site of ColorLovers – cool playground
71. Watercolor doodle hearts and some lovely things, because love is beautiful
72. Stitch a Bracelet on wool, with wool, using wool. So woolyfull!
73. Create a Typography Collage using different fonts from magazines
74. Grab a Scrap Notebook when you’re about to get started and do a warm up collage in it
75. Slap some paint on a piece of paper and then cut it apart to create postcards that you can send to friends and family
76. Write a list of Creative Cravings that you have right now, things you want to try out (check out one of my lists here)
77. Try Free Motion Machine Embroidery – take your sewing machine for a spin and just doodle with the needle. Super fun! I used my painted and embroidered cloth as a journal cover
78. Write a list of your Achievements – of this year, this month or this week – and celebrate all the great things you’ve already created
79. Cut out positive words that you like, and glue them into your journal
80. Always Create an Evidence Page when you buy or get new art materials, it’s a great way to get starting using that stuff
81. Add a sub-page to an already bound art journal and expand it even further
82. Embrace different styles of art and journaling, even ones that seam silly or too childish – embrace your style(s)
83. Dye old clothes in a smashing, ravishing color that stands out and makes you happy
84. Keep a Glue Book of Inspiration where you can paste in any magazine inspiration you find on any topic, for example on DIY Fashion
85. Make a Digital Kaleidoscope Image from one of your own photos – super cool digital play
86. Doodle on round Stones – then return them to nature if you can part with them…
87. Print a photo book of a week of your life, to document how it is to live right now in your life – what does your life look like documented in photos and words?
88. Go Outdoors and bring your creativity with you, sit in nature and breath the fresh air, and paint, write or stitch.
89. Try tissue paper collage – a favorite way to create transparent layers for me
90. Keep using Pinterest to find inspiration, but don’t forget to use that inspiration and make stuff yourself too
91. Use Instagram as a Tool to share your creativity and inspiration, but also to find others who enjoy your kind of creativity and shares their inspiration – leave comments and hearts everywhere
92. Paint wet on wet and see your watercolors flow out and into each other – so yummy!
93. Use video to Document your Life too, and be sure to save it for the future (backup, backup, backup)
94. Bind book pages together when they’ve already been worked on/filled, it’s a totally different experience than working in a notebook from start
95. Crochet with Tricot Yarn - because it is so chunky and soft that you will not want to stop
96. Write your own Mission Statement for living a good and creative life
97. Use scrap paper to Generate New Ideas – because it’s true that a new format can bring out new ideas, so why not give it a try?
98. Sign up for my newsletter and get my free pdf of printable quotes to use in your notebook
99. Tweet this 100-List to inspire friends and followers to add a bit of creativity into their life too, or share it on facebook or your next blog post. I’d love to see your list too..
100. Make your own list of things you want to create or try and post your link/comment below

Print and start checking these of, right?

This list was inspired by my “recent” list 100 Ideas from 2009. I thought it was high time to write a new one, with more arts and crafts ideas to pursue.

Let me know if you enjoy this kind of list posts, and which of these ideas will make it to your own list. Also feel free to share a link to your 100-list below, or a few of your ideas that you’d like to add to my list.

xoxo

/Hanna