'These Moments Matter' Creative Prompts 1 & 2
Kicking off a month of challenges from Rachel and Lynn
Welcome to a month of challenges!
Happy New Year and welcome to a month of challenges for creatives using pixels, paper and paint!
Whether you enjoy digital or hybrid crafting, we would love you to join along with us to create with us between now and the end of January.
By exploring the theme of “These Moments Matter” we hope to uncover the joy in the little details of everyday life, pinning down the micro-moments that actually, in the end, shape us and define us.
Over the course of January, each week we will be setting four challenges (or you could view them as creative prompts) that anyone can play along with.
A little housekeeping
There are a total of 20 Challenges/Creative Prompts
2 Challenges/Creative Prompts will be published and sent by e-mail on Wednesdays and 2 Challenges/Creative Prompts will be published and sent by e-mail on Fridays
The Month of Challenges starts on the 1st of January 2025 and ends on the 31st of January 2025.
At the end of the challenge month, participants who have completed all 20 Challenges/Creative Prompts will be entered into a draw to win a ‘forever’ pass to access exclusive premium content and goodies here at Pixels, Paper and Paint - Life in Pictures by Lynn and Rachel.
Runners up and participants who didn’t manage to complete all of the 20 Challenges/Creative Prompts will be entered into a drawing to win spot prizes for passes with limited access to exclusive premium content and goodies here at Pixels, Paper and Paint - Life in Pictures by Lynn and Rachel.
In order to be eligible for the drawing for a chance to win exclusive premium content and goodies here at Pixels, Paper and Paint - Life in Pictures by Lynn and Rachel you will need to:
Ensure you are subscribed to this publication when the draw takes place in February.
Ensure that at least 75% of each finished page or project used digital art from either Rachel Jefferies Designs or Lynn Grieveson Designs. You can find our creative assets at The Lilypad and Oscraps.
Share your finished pages or projects within the designated ‘chat thread’ for each challenge. You’ll find the links for each thread where you can share your pages and projects posted with it’s associated challenge.
Please note that whilst our digital assets are available to purchase at the LilyPad and Oscraps, these Challenges and Creative Prompts are not associated or affiliated with either store, and so by sharing them in the designated threads here, we are able to efficiently keep track of your participation to validate your entry into the drawings at the end of the challenge month.You are very welcome to, and encouraged to share your pages and projects in our designer galleries at the LilyPad and/or Oscraps. Rachel and I will be checking into our galleries throughout January and awarding some spot prizes of coupons to spend in our shops! When posting your pages and projects in the galleries please note in the description box ‘Created for the ‘These Moments Matter’ Month of Challenges by Pixels, Paper and Paint - Life in Pictures by Lynn and Rachel.
Onto the challenges . . .
A GLIMMER (a challenge from Rachel)
‘A micro-moment that can help someone feel safe, connected, or present, triggering feelings of joy and safety.’
Isn’t that the sweetest thing?
To find glimmers you can set an intention to seek them out in your day. Maybe you’ll find them in your daily walk, your lunch break or the room you are sitting in.
Once you train yourself to be on the lookout for glimmers, these tiny moments will appear more and more!
Brief examples of glimmers can be a sunset, a cuddle, a friendly face, a soothing sound or comforting words.
My first challenge to you is to create a Page or Project themed around a glimmer you experienced recently.
I chose to highlight that warm and fuzzy feeling of safety and love I feel when I get that ‘look’ from my husband of twenty years. Whilst taking selfies with my husband I managed to capture a glimpse of him looking at me on camera and I used that photo for my page . . .
And here is a little glimmer of comfort Lynn experienced after a tough week when her youngest daughter was ill in another city. It doesn’t take much, just a little jokey, lowkey interaction in the family whatsapp chat to lighten the day and lessen her worries. That ‘micro-moment’ of interaction is often all that’s needed - and also worth recording.
She chose to crop in tight on the photo, and pulled the colours from that to add to her page:
MY GOLDEN HOUR (a challenge from Lynn)
We talk and joke about whether we are a morning person, or definitely NOT a morning person, but the truth is we all possess a unique ‘chronotype”, or internal biological clock, which regulates our sleep-wake cycles.
There are certain times of the day when we usually feel more productive and more positive.
Or perhaps there is a set routine in your life which means that there is a particular time of day when something you really enjoy happens?
My challenge to you is to think about what is your favourite time of the day and to create a page or project documenting why that time of the day is so special for you.
Make sure you include some writing about why it is so.
We recently moved to a new island home, and by accident fell in with a group of people who start their day - winter or summer - with an ocean swim. We call them the ‘dawn swim crew’, and heading down to the beach to meet them, and bob about in the ocean chatting, has become our favourite time of the day.
It is fascinating how every day is different - the sands shift and change according to the tides and the storms, the sunrise may be brilliantly golden or it may be grey and cloudy.
There may be just one faithful dog waiting by the water’s edge, or there may be a whole pack.
I again chose to very much pull the colours from the photo, and to emphasise the magical location with some beach-themed elements.
And here is Rachel’s ‘golden hour’:
Rachel has gone through iterations of school runs for Nursery, Infant and Junior School and her eldest will be off to High School soon . . .
Now, after all these years (and in retrospect) these school runs were never a ‘chore’. Sure, at times they were tiring, repetitive and challenging, as the school days are short, making running a creative business a challenge, but now Rachel reflects, these morning school runs were always her ‘golden hour’.
The one on one time with her littles early each morning, listening to what mattered most to them during their chats on the way to school, observing the nature in the park that they were lucky to pass through each day, and playing their cute little games ‘this and that’, ‘guess the ocean animal’ amongst singing, and playing phonetical and mathematical games!
The fresh coffee on the return trip of course always a bonus ;)
I love how her journaling became a design element, as well as her lovely photo treatment and the slightly unexpected use of colour.
Designated Chat Threads for today’s Challenges
Remember, in order to be eligible for the drawing for a chance to win exclusive premium content and goodies here at Pixels, Paper and Paint - Life in Pictures by Lynn and Rachel, you will need to share your finished pages or projects within the designated ‘chat threads’ for each challenge so that we can can keep track of them and validate your entries.
Share your pages for challenges 1 & 2 in the following chat threads:
To share your glimmer pages or projects post them in this thread here
To share your golden hour pages or projects post them in this thread here
For help with participating in Substacks Chat feature see here, and if you get lost and lose these links, you can find all of our chat threads here.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or difficulties you may have and look out for a bonus e-mail from us on Sunday with more inspiration from our talented creative team members that we hope will give you lots of page design ideas for this weeks challenge prompts.
We hope you enjoy the first two challenges and here’s to getting lots of pages or projects completed this month!
Yay ! It's finally begun !!!!! Let's have some fun :) !
Love this! This will be a wonderful month!!!