Setting a Creative Intention

Happy New Year 2018 dear readers! It’s time to set a Creative Intention for the year, and go forward with confidence and joy. Right?

I’m popping in to wish you all a happy new year. May you sail through the clouds of life to find your own sunshine this year. It’s a new year and it is full of potential. 365 days of possible new beginnings where you can start new journals, new projects, new sketchbooks or anything you can think up. I love this time of the year.

In December, and to some extent into the two first weeks of January, I can imagine myself as a new person that is more organized, that wakes up earlier and finds energy every day. That gets to start the day in a great way….

Happy New creative Year to you may you sail through the clouds to find your won sunshine (Photo copyright Hanna Andersson)

What each must seek in their life never was on land or sea. It is something out of their own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.
Joseph Campbell


I’m really excited about Project 365, doing 365 Creative Things in 2018, that I blogged about last month, it is a project full of potential for change, growth and creativity for sure. A lot of people has been getting excited about it, and that makes me excited. I will write a bit more about it this week, but for now I’m just contemplating my own plans for the year.

I’m back after a long Christmas and New Year’s Holiday, that looked a little like this:

My Christmas week in images, by iHanna
My Christmas week in images I took here and there, as I’m always and for ever looking for inspiring colors, patterns & light. Time to go back home, where there is less snow but more room to create, write & paint.

If you follow me on instagram where I’m iHannas with an s at the end, you might have seen some of all the snow I walked through and the? magic of Christmas lights in the afternoon darkness of Sweden.

I got out of the habit of painting, art journaling and posting to instagram in the middle of November, but want to find my way back to that now. I feel a sense of encouragement and power right now, so let’s hope that continues as we go forward.

Instagram most liked nine photos by @ihannas in 2017 #2017bestnine #artjournaling

This morning I started the day by doing Yoga with Adriane on YouTube. The 30 day long program that started today is called True. I did this last year too, and it was amazing and transformal for me. But did I keep it up after January was done? Nope, I let it slip. Maybe I’ll do it differently this year. Let’s hope that’s the truth.

At least, that’s my intention this time. Keep going. Don’t stop. Never stop exploring what feels good.

Last morning coffee of the Year
Iced Coffee, my knitting project & my passport sized DIY Traveler’s Notebook all in one photo. Last morning coffee of the year, and I wish you all a great day of celebration, contemplation or simply a day of hibernation until 2018 is here.

Setting a Creative Intention

Lastly, because I like to hang out over on YouTube more and more, and I’m thinking about what planner system I want and need (yes, still in the first week of January!) I wanted to share this video by Kelsey Humphreys with you all:

Kelsey’s video above made me LOL, but also, think about my intention for the 365 project and my creativity in general. Adriane talks about setting an intention with your yoga practice all the time, and I find I almost always come back to the same thing.

  • I want to have as good day as possible.
  • I want to experience happiness.
  • I want to feel that I’ve done something important at the end of the day. And that what I intended to make gets done, so that I can sleep well without feeling stressed out for tomorrow.
  • I simply want to feel good about myself, what I create and what I put out into the world.

Kelsey suggests that we set one focus or a intention for what we want to do for the areas that are important to you. Think about what you want to accomplish, where you want to go but most importantly on what you want to feel.

I immediately thought of my own creativity for the year, and what feelings I want to evoke. So I’ve set my creative intention to be:

I will create things that makes me happy, as I’m making them and afterwards, and encourage my readers to do the same here on the blog.

If you set an intention for your creativity, what would it be?

Also read Setting Goals and 365 in 2018.


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7 Responses

  1. Yay for Yoga With Adriene! I just started True today too. I’ll be focusing this year on my art journals and Right Brain Planner. Thanks for your ongoing inspiration and support. <3

  2. I’m trying to do “True” yoga this January too, thanks so much for sending me in the direction of Adriene! I would also like to try the 365 Days of Creativity that you are doing! Thanks for your inspirational ideas as we head into 2018!

  3. One of my goals this year is to do something creative every week. It truly makes me happy to work on my projects but I haven’t given it enough priority in the last few years. Now that I understand that is important to me and my happiness I will.

    I’m so looking forward to read your year! You’ve always been such an inspiration to me!

  4. Hanna,
    I am very excited about your 365 day project! I have followed you for many years and love all that you do. I have my Sister following you and she will join me in make wonderful art this year! Our intention is “We will create in 2018” Two Sisters Create!

  5. I’m going to borrow Apple’s old slogan and “think different”. Trying a new pen, a different color of paint, or ways to make art was something that really excited me when I started making ATC’s all those years ago. I was happy even when things didn’t turn out as expected. Now I’m hoping to deliberately shake up my collage routine & see what happens.

    Happy New Year! Can’t wait to see what you’ll be doing in 2018.

  6. Thank you for sharing the yoga, I am starting it tomorrow morning! I know myself well enough to know I can’t take on a 365 day project so I have committed to a 52 week, My Year in B&W photography. Looking forward to seeing all your projects throughout this year.