#CarolynsCreativeChallenge
Since most of us are at home or working from home, I’ve developed and hosted daily art and creativity challenges since March 21, 2020. The hashtag is #CarolynsCreativeChallenge.
Students, parents, and children of all ages will enjoy participating. No prior art knowledge is need and we could spend 15 minutes on a project or two hours since there is not time limit. Our work doesn’t need to be perfect, but we should feel that we accomplished something creative everyday. Most of the materials can be found in our homes, but if we are missing anything, modifications can be made – which inspires more creativity.
Occasionally my Instagram Stories will feature a behind-the-scenes look on how my projects are completed step-by-step. Follow along @CarolynBelefski.
Join in anytime or try to jump around different days to catch up. Our motivation to participate may be to stay sharp, hone our creative skills, take our minds off current events, or simply pass the time. I hope these prompts teach us something about ourselves and the world around us during this solitary situation.
Join in the fun! Post and tag your work with #CarolynsCreativeChallenge!
If you enjoy these challenges, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon. Thank you!
Examples of participant’s work
1. Make a rainbow out of found papers.
2. Make a shape out of food using only your teeth.
3. Draw an apple from memory with your eyes closed.
4. Create a spring altar display decoration in your home.
5. Cut letters from publications and arrange them into an alphabet ransom note.
6. Let’s make salt dough starfish.
Mix one cup salt, one cup flour, half a cup cold water. Form into a ball and flatten with rolling pin. Use a star cookie cutter or create your own star. Bend the edges a bit. Use a straw to poke a hole. Bake at 200 degrees F for two hours on parchment paper. Let cool. Paint with acrylics and attach a string to hang or wear. Instant summer vibes!
7. Outline the shape of a pizza slice. Then draw on your own fantasy toppings!
My fantasy food pizza is a pretzel crust with nacho cheese and tortilla chips, sprinkled with herbs and small baby spinach leaves. Yum!
8. Draw a monster!
9. If you were a bumper sticker, what would you say right now?
10. Use any type of liquid to make a stain on paper. Using a straw, blow the liquid around and let dry. Then make it into your masterpiece using any media!
This prompt was inspired by my Inktober 2019 HijINKs! project. For my stain, I used beet juice.
11. Here is a mini tutorial on how to draw the head of my comic strip character, Curls. Let’s see how you draw Curls!
12. Create a 2020 political button.
13. Make a sock puppet!
Meet “Howlin’ House” (he goes by Howl for short) -- an old blues man hound who has seen it all.
14. Let’s make fizzy lemonade.
Mix 1/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon sugar in a cup. Stir and set aside. In another cup place 1/4 cup lemon juice. Add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to the lemon juice. Watch the magic happen! Pour the juice into the sugar water and enjoy! If you don’t have these ingredients at home right now, make yourself a creative drink!
15. In honor of WrestleMania, we will be making marks!
Find 15 pens or pencils. Then draw with each to make marks on one sheet of paper. I have a ton of old pens in my collection and definitely threw away two of the pens that were used in this challenge due to lack of hustle, deal with it. This is a good project for clearing out the clutter of pens that don’t work anymore.
16. Fold a sheet of paper in half. Open it, then put paint on one half of the paper. Fold the paper over again, then open the paper and let it dry. What do you see?
I see a waterfall in mine. Then a walrus. I used acrylic paints.
17. Write and draw a comic strip! These words help me to write: “Beginning, Middle, End” and “Goals, Conflict, Solution”
18. Find some hard shapes in your home and grind them into the carpet to make your own Carpet Crop Circles design.
19. We are making paper eggs! Fold paper in half and cut out circle or egg shapes. Keep folded while you cut out random shapes out of your circle. See what appears!
I used construction paper, but you can use any paper you'd like. Try coloring or painting it. Make it your own!
20. Collect all the food or candy you can find in your house with holes. Find a string and make yourself a snack necklace. Wear it and munch throughout the day!
21. Make hard-boiled eggs then dye them using food coloring, an egg kit, or natural dyes like beets or tumeric. If you don’t have eggs or materials, draw a colorful egg dye design.
I used tape for “masking” to reveal the original egg color underneath. Dye used was Galactic Eggs from Paas. I did go outside to photograph the eggs in grass.
22. Use a pencil to draw your self-portrait.
23. Create a bunny with your choice of materials.
I’m using construction paper, scissors, glue, and a cotton ball. The “E” for Easter turned out to be a great happy accident.
24. Design an umbrella.
25. Make a toilet paper roll character design.
26. Concept a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
27. Use a hole puncher to create circles and arrange them into a composition. If you don’t have a hole puncher, cut your own circles.
My challenge reminds me of a sari kantha.
28. Create a hanging mobile to brighten up and add movement to your living space.
29. Create a composition using only black and white.
30. Face a fear you are having by creating art that addresses it.
31. Play with your food.
32. Let’s melt crayons.
Don’t toss out the tiny broken crayons in your home! Peel the wrappers off and put the crayons in a silicone mold. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees F for 10 to 20 minutes. Let cool and then enjoy a new drawing tool. If you don’t have access to crayons or a silicone mold, create something that comes to mind when you think of the word MELT. Luckily I own a silicone mold from the brand Fred & Friends that features brains! Voila! Brain crayons!
33. Happy Earth Day! Create art inspired by our planet.
I created an Earth stamp using a zucchini end and acrylic paint. Thoughtful that the vegetable grew in the ground and now represents the Earth.
34. Make your own magical eye.
35. Create a band name and design a logo for your band.
My band is called Raspberry Jam.
36. Look at yourself in your phone or a mirror. Use a pen to draw yourself without looking down at the paper. You are only able to use one line, so don’t lift your pen off the paper until you feel finished.
37. It’s time to clean out that junk drawer! Assemble a piece of art made only from the items in your junk drawer after cleaning and organizing it.
38. Make an upcycled bookmark.
Upcycling is when you reuse discarded objects or material in such a way as to create a product of a higher quality or value than the original.
39. Draw a food you are craving to eat right now.
40. Calling all chefs! Create an original wacky food recipe. Remember to take a photo before enjoying!
I discovered a bottle of yeast inside the refrigerator door... and now bring Unicorn Horn Pretzels into the world!
41. Find a bottle and create a character design based on the shape and form of the bottle. Save your bottle for tomorrow's challenge.
42. Use the bottle or container from yesterday’s challenge to create a vase. If you have flowers in your yard or home, put them in. If you don’t have any, use other foliage from nature or make your own.
43. Make a coin rubbing. Then create a mixed media visual composition using at least three other mediums.
44. Make a scribble without thinking about it or have someone else you live with make a scribble for you. Then take a different drawing tool and make a recognizable picture out of the scribble.
45. Design goggles for a chicken (inspired by a tweet from US National Archives).
46. Let’s marbleize paper.
Spray shaving cream in a bowl or dish. Add food coloring and mix a bit with a spoon. Place thick paper on top of the mixture and pat down. Lift the paper and use a ruler to remove the cream. Flatten your paper with a stack of books for a few hours. If you don’t have these materials at home, make art created by liquid.
47. Create a country for yourself. Name it and design it’s flag.
48. Draw a Sad Fish.
This prompt is inspired by the Sad Fish Carolyn created in her first Make 100 challenge. All 100
Sad Fish are published in a book and the original art is available for purchase.
The comedic characters of Sad Fish are uplifting, but they also disguise a grim aspect of existence. Sad Fish is more than Carolyn Belefski’s artwork, it’s a credence, a mindset, an anthem. If you woke up breathing, then you have more life to live. Sad Fish is about enjoying your time and the struggles, melancholy, and hope that comes with staying alive.
49. Create a butterfly using a medium of your choosing.
I made Butterfly Bagels!
50. Make a frame devoted to the past 50 days of your life and your creative activities.
51. Paper Quilt
Fold a sheet of paper several times. Then color in each section with a different color to create a folded paper quilt.
52. Craft Ice Cream
Cut cardboard into a cone. Glue the cone on your main base paper. For your imaginary ice cream, combine 1/2 cup shaving cream and 1/4 cup glue. Stir paint into the mixture. Paint mixture above ice cream cone. Use crayon shavings as sprinkles or create cherries from construction paper and place on glue mixture. Place your art aside to dry overnight. When you touch your art the next day, you will feel a puffy paint sensation!
53. Wax Paper Hearts
Make crayon shavings and place them inside a folded sheet of wax paper. Sandwich the folded sheet of wax paper with craft paper on bottom and top. Carefully iron. Let the wax paper cool down. Cut out a heart shape and hole punch at top. Attach string and display near a window to see marvelous colors come to life.
54. Beaded Shamrock
You’ll need three pipe cleaners and sixty pony beads to make this project. Place twenty pony beads centered on each pipe cleaner. For each one, loop ends together then braid or twist stems together. Bend loop into heart shape. Combine all three heart stems together to form the shamrock.
55. Wax Paper Shamrock
Make crayon shavings and place them inside a folded sheet of wax paper. Sandwich the folded sheet of wax paper with craft paper on bottom and top. Carefully iron. Let the wax paper cool down. Cut out a shamrock shape and hole punch at top. Attach string and display near a window to see brilliant green colors come to life.
56. Paper Cicada
Use whatever paper you have to design a cicada! I used parchment paper for the wings to create a translucent effect. The red eyes where shaped with a hole punch. You can also obtain a leaf from outside to do a rubbing with crayon so the cicada can pose with a nature element.
My cicada design is inspired by the enamel pin I’ve created — view it in the store.
57. Halloween Rocks
If you’re like Charlie Brown and only get rocks instead of candy while trick-or-treating, this is the perfect project for you! Decorate rocks with paint and other objects represent ghouls, pumpkins, ghosts, and even aliens.
58. Recycled Planet Art
Use a piece of cardboard as your canvas. Tear or cut sections of black paper and glue onto the cardboard. Use a circle stencil to create your planet from paper using the same method with different colors. Add stars in your galaxy.
59. James Webb Space Telescope
Create art of the James Webb Space telescope (which is also a time machine that is used to show us what the universe looked like over 13.5 billion years ago). I used paper and paint to create my space art.
60. Orangutan Craft
Create an orangutan out of a toilet paper roll.
61. Red Rose Craft
Use heavy cardstock paper or cardboard as your base. Create a spiral shape with tissue paper and glue to your base. Attach a chenille stem with glue to represent the rose stem.
If you enjoy these challenges, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon. Thank you!