Explore the art of surface design and storytelling with fabric as your medium. Delve into a world of rich textures and techniques—painting, dyeing, printing, stitching, and more—to craft four distinctive sampler book structures. Jody Alexander, a renowned book and textile artist, showcases many bookmaking and fabric art techniques to help shape narratives using your unique style and mark making. With suggested sizes accommodating diverse structures, seamlessly transition from page creation to book assembly, embracing experimentation as inspiration for future creative endeavors.

Encaustic, an ancient artistic technique, involves painting with hot wax to create tremendous textural possibilities. Lisa Solomon, a multi-disciplinary artist and educator, guides you through an exploration of this unique medium. The wax, sometimes infused with colored pigments, is applied to surfaces, typically wooden panels, and manipulated using various tools. During the process, experiment with techniques such as embedding, mark making, layering, carving, and incorporating natural and 3D elements. The resulting encaustic paintings often exhibit a lustrous and translucent quality, providing a means for creative expression through the fusion of wax, pigments, and heat. 

Paper quilling, or paper filigree, is a centuries-old art form popular during the Renaissance. You use a quilling tool - which was probably once made with a feather - to coil long, thin paper strips and bend and pinch those small coils into many different shapes. Then combine these shapes to create astonishingly intricate and mesmerizing pieces of art. Nikki Furlong is the artist behind Simply Quilled Designs, and she is passionate about sharing this little-known craft with you. In this daily practice, Nikki teaches you the basics of paper quilling: how to use a quilling tool, how to make shapes such as teardrops, petals, marquise, and scrolls, as well as her favorite gluing methods. Each little piece you make throughout the month will be part of a final project: a beautiful and colorful flower mandala. Plus, you'll get to make some smaller bonus projects with your extra shapes. Quilling is extremely versatile - all you really need is a tiny tool like a pin or paper clip, glue, and paper.

Use a sketchbook as your muse to gather captivating imagery that ignites your imagination. Rebecca Ringquist of Dropcloth Samplers, celebrated for her embroidery and intricate stitched drawings, empowers you to explore your unique artistic style through fearless experimentation, free from the constraints of perfection or productivity. Over the course of a month, embark on an expressive journey dedicated to spontaneous mark-making and playful collaging in the first half, then respond to those textures and images in the second, culminating in exquisitely layered, visually intricate pages. When you're done, you'll have a place to begin.

For more of Rebecca's sketchbook work, check out her other class, Magpie Sketchbook: Collecting a Resource of Imagery.

The allure of traditional watercolor painting is undeniable but sometimes you need a creative change or simply cannot wait for paint to dry. This is where the digital watercolor painting process becomes invaluable. Sanae Ishida, an artist of many talents, has seamlessly integrated Procreate into her repertoire and developed a deep fondness for its capabilities. With her expert guidance, delve into the world of digital watercolor art, moving/resizing/erasing, employing clipping masks for precise painting within boundaries, and harnessing the power of layers to bypass the drying time. Additionally, she has designed a collection of distinctive brushes and templates for this Daily Practice, meticulously crafted to authentically replicate the watercolor aesthetic. 

There's no need to visit a museum or fancy gallery to find beautiful art when there's a whole world of inspiring illustrations to be found inside children's picture books. This daily practice from artist, educator, and children's book illustrator Constance Moore pulls from these different facets of her life to bring you a unique art class for all ages. Each day, Constance shares a children's book, including a few she has illustrated herself, with a creative prompt inspired by the art in each book. Explore the elements of line, shape, and color while focusing on using accessible tools and materials found in most classrooms. Try playing with watercolor, tempera paint, oil pastels, or whatever materials inspire you. This class includes drawing, painting, collage, and even a three-dimensional piece. With years of experience teaching art to children, Constance embraces the joy of getting back to the basics, allowing you to discover and free your own creative spirit.

A pattern a day keeps boredom away! Join Austin, Texas based marbling artist Mercedez Rex and immerse yourself in the captivating world of marbling, mastering techniques that adorn paper with mesmerizing patterns. Throughout your month-long journey, delve into four distinct pattern categories: Stone, Gel-Git, Nonpareil, and Chevron. Embrace the interplay of colors, gradually advancing to more intricate designs. Grow your creativity through marbling and experience the enchanting art of swirling colors, unveiling breathtaking designs that will ignite your imagination.
Need an introduction to marbling? Check out Mercedez' first class, Creativity Through Marbling: An Introduction

To share your work on social media use the hashtag #MZRXdailyPractice.

How you make marks on the page is completely unique to you and is an essential part of what makes up your visual vocabulary. Your visual vocabulary includes the amount of pressure you put on your pencil, your color palette, and the shapes and elements you use over and over that altogether create your artistic style. Join artist, illustrator, author, and longtime Creativebug instructor Lisa Congdon for this month-long mark making daily practice. You’ll explore the basics of mark making, build your own repertoire of marks, and learn how to use those marks to create drawings and collages in different media like colored pencil, watercolor, and collage. Lisa will guide you through drawing everything from leaves to birds to landscapes, as well as one large final project where you can combine and play with everything you learned in class as you continue to refine your drawing toolkit. Find Day 31’s recorded live conversation with Lisa HERE.

On the first day of Christmas, give yourself the gift of crafting a beautiful heirloom stocking. Constructed by cutting out and layering wool felt shapes, Portland-based artist Rebecca Ringquist brings to life a collection of charming little holiday motifs that add color and sparkle to your holiday gift giving. From candy canes to sugar cookies, infuse personal touches by adding embroidery, sequins and beads, and then top your stocking with a custom name tag and ribbon for hanging. Creating an heirloom is not a fast project but one you and your family will cherish for generations.

This year, don't miss this opportunity to bestow the gift of deliciousness upon your loved ones. Starting with quality ingredients and leveraging a few expert tips, Cobrina of Creativebug demystifies the creation of various costly items that can be effortlessly crafted within the comfort of your own kitchen. Fancy infused salts, decadent compound butters, and handmade candies are just a taste of what you'll learn, and as an added bonus, we have included a set of downloadable recipe cards and gift tags, enabling you to present your culinary creations with a polished and professional touch. Whether you desire a single exquisite item as a thoughtful host gift (or a treat for yourself) or a generous batch to distribute among friends and neighbors, these recipes are tailor-made for gifting and entertaining.

Shelf-life and suggested uses for every recipe are listed on the gift tags in the PDF.

Multi-media maker and author of Handmade Houseplants Corrie Beth Hogg finds magic in the cross-section of nature and art. She fell in love with working with paper because it's so versatile, unpretentious, and accessible. Join Corrie for a foliage-filled month of making four lifelike paper plants to decorate your home: Boston ivy, an oak branch, smooth sumac, and the begonia "fall fashion." These are a few of Corrie's favorite autumnal examples because of the striking, colorful display that the real varieties gift us in the fall. You'll work on one plant at a time and complete a simple step each day, starting with making your own cardboard templates with Corrie's PDFs. Then, learn how to transform paper into leaves with painting, cutting, folding, and hand-drawn details. To turn your leaves into branches, Corrie teaches you how to use floral wire and floral tape.  You'll be able to apply these techniques to just about any plant you love, in any colorway, and for any season. Creating paper plants is a beautiful and meditative way to capture a seasonal moment that can be so fleeting and to keep it for as long as paper lasts.  

Illustrator and art/literary agent Lilla Rogers has coached thousands of artists and writers through the process of creating children’s books. In this month-long class, use the Magic Writing card deck and follow writing prompts paired with an “oddity” or found object to inspire your writing. Whether you’re looking to learn new writing techniques for your journal, social media, or as the basis for a book idea, this class will introduce you to a plethora of techniques and genres to jumpstart your writing practice. Lilla also shares some agent tips throughout the month for how to pair your art and writing for opportunities to monetize your work, as well as examples of published books, decks and journals that effectively use writing and art together.  Grab a pen and a journal, cozy up in your favorite chair, and embark on a 30-day writing adventure.

To follow along on social media, please post your progress using the tag #LoveLetterQAL

Learn more about Heidi's inspirations behind the Love Letter Quilt pattern and her history of incorporating love into quilts in this live presentation, originally aired August 9, 2023.

See a beautiful compilation of quilts made in this class on our blog.

This is the class that started it all: our years-long fascination with Daily Practice classes. Featuring updated material and additional content, this is the perfect class to discover the transformative power of undertaking a big creative challenge. Every single day for a month, we challenge you to draw along with Lisa Congdon. Lisa has hand-picked 31 objects to draw, and demonstrates several ways to render each object using just your imagination. This creative exercise is designed to help you embrace wonkiness and imperfections, all while learning to see everything around you—be it bird or bikini—as artistic fodder.
 

Artists of all ages: gather your empty cereal and cracker boxes and get ready for a joyful month of sketching, painting, and play with illustrator, toy maker, and storyteller Suzy Ultman. In this daily practice, you'll turn cardboard from food packaging into a cute and colorful set of painted alphabet letters. Each day, you'll create a new letter, starting with cutting out your shapes using Suzy's PDF templates. If you prefer not to cut cardboard, you can also use the templates as coloring pages. Suzy will guide you through painting specific designs for each letter, but she'll also talk about different ways to imagine your own letters and make them unique. The most important tool here is your imagination, and you can also work with craft paint, paint pens, markers, colored pencils, pom poms, googly eyes, and all your favorite materials. Use your finished letters as flash cards, personalized tags for gifts, banners that spell words or names, and so much more.

Every single day since 2018, writer and gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner has been on continuous quest for natural color. Encouraging you to pick up a brush and pay attention, she shares her personal daily practice of painting a grid in watercolor inspired by collections of natural elements such as flowers, shells, and rocks, as outlined in her beautiful book, Color In and Out of the Garden. Each day this month you will chase color and create gorgeous watercolor studies as you begin to see color more clearly and deeply. Lorene's unique painting process offers a chance to see the ordinary with fresh eyes and look closely with great heart.

Whether you have an established sketchbook practice or are looking for a creative jumpstart, making art in a book is an exciting and intriguing source of artful exploration. Join artists Courtney Cerruti and Faith Hale as they revisit their favorite Creativebug collaboration: the Altered Book Daily Challenge, in this jam-packed “sequel”. And if you haven’t seen their first class, have no fear- Courtney and Faith cover the basics, while giving you 30+ brand new prompts.

Join designer, author, and modern quilter Blair Stocker of Wise Craft Handmade for a month of exploring the art of chicken scratch embroidery. Chicken scratch is a charming form of cross stitch that is worked on gingham fabric and creates an optical illusion of a beautiful lace overlay. Blair teaches you the foundations of chicken scratch, such as selecting your gingham fabric and using a paper template to mark your fabric, plus essential stitches like the smyrna cross and the snowflake stitch. Throughout the month, play with different designs, various combinations of stitches, and multiple colors. As you stitch inside your gingham squares, discover how much freedom you have to get creative. At the end of month, Blair shows you how to sew together your chicken scratch fabric pages and assemble a sample book that you can use as a record of all the new techniques you learned as well as a reference for future projects like aprons, tea towels, quilts, pillows, and whatever else you can imagine.

If you're looking for the perfect gift for a teacher, artist, office worker, or student, you'll surely earn an A+ with this cute and cuddly crocheted pencil. Crochet designer Vincent Green-Hite of Knot Bad teaches you the foundations of making a three dimensional doll, which is a Japanese artform called amigurumi. Learn the the magic ring, how to work in the round, how to increase and decrease stitches to form shapes, how to change yarn colors, and how to properly stuff a crocheted toy. With just a basic single crochet stitch and all the skills you'll practice in this class, you'll have the freedom create a whole world of happy amigurumi characters.

Celebrate the magic of the holiday season with artist, author, and teacher Maria Carluccio while she guides you through her colorful and whimsical world of watercolor. Each prompt you paint will feel like opening a new gift each day. In this daily practice, Maria helps build your confidence with watercolor and reminds you that painting is like a conversation that you and your watercolor have with each other. Learn how to a create complete compositions with very simple shapes, use your sketch as a reference rather than painting directly on top of it, add details with ink and colored pencil, and imagine traditional holiday themes in charming and unexpected ways. Sled down a giant book, hang twinkle lights on an elephant, and find out who has been stealing all the candy canes.

If you're an avid sewist, your sewing table and floor are likely littered with little bits of fabric and thread. Artist and crafter extraordinaire Courtney Cerruti shows you how to use those tiny trimmings to create a new sheet of "scrap fabric" that can be turned into patchwork-like ornaments for any celebration. Ideal for a holiday tree, a tablescape, or adorning a package, these ornaments are a charming way to use up every last bit your very favorite fabric.

If you can trace an image, you can make a blotted line monoprint. Artist Extraordinaire Courtney Cerruti has spent years incorporating this technique into her art practice and shows you everything she’s learned in this daily practice class series. First made popular by Andy Warhol, this technique utilizes just a few unique materials that create inky outlines that can then be colored in and embellished. In addition to perfecting your monoprinting technique, learn how to make composite images, work on black paper, and paint with metallics. Inkblots and turn-of-the-century ghost signatures round out the month. Whether you color (or paint) in the lines or outside of them, you’ll be inspired by Courtney’s eclectic influences and thoughtful instruction.

Join illustrator and printmaker Mariko Jesse in committing to make a small sketch every day. You only need a few moments, and you can do it anywhere - from your living room to your local park to a vacation in a far-off location. Mariko shows you how she works in three different kinds of sketchbooks - "everyday," "work," and "observational" - depending on where she is and how much time she has to draw. Throughout the month, Mariko switches between pen, colored pencil, ink, and watercolor, and you’ll learn to adapt to using what you happen to have on hand or in your pockets at the time of your sketches. Consider sketching while you're watching TV at home, eating a snack at a cafe, or even chatting in a Zoom meeting for work. There’s no need to worry about style or getting it precisely right. Instead, Mariko encourages you to enjoy the process of drawing, looking at the world in different ways, honing your skills, sketching in public, and the importance of practice. Your sketchbooks are just for you, and will quickly contain sparks of inspiration for future great ideas. 

When asked whether Milwaukee-based artist and quilter Heidi Parks travels with her sewing machine, she answers “yes” and holds up a sewing needle.  Using simply a needle, scraps of fabric, and colorful thread, this daily practice in hand-stitching has something for artists of all mediums. Learn techniques and artistic concepts that relate to a story-telling quilt and sew a quilt top through stitching, appliqué, patchwork, and other hand-piecing methods. This is a wonderful way to use sentimental fabric scraps, work organically to keep creativity flowing, and find beauty in imperfection. The daily prompts of this quilt design are a bit of a scavenger hunt encouraging you to show up curious. And since our hands are our most valuable tool, Heidi - who is also a yoga therapist - shares some hand yoga stretches to give you the self-care your practice deserves.

To follow along on social media, please post your progress using the tag #DailyPracticeQAL 
 

Picasso said, "Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist." This month, artist, author and educator, Cleo Papanikolas teachs the old-school tracing and transferring techniques used by designers before computers to create analog surface design patterns that can be used to print fabric, wallpaper, tiles, puzzles, and more. In the final three days, she shows us how to digitize the work with Photoshop and Procreate, and how to upload to Spoonflower to make all your artistic designs a reality.

Blank books are deceptively simple vessels of creativity. In this month, bookmaker Faith Hale demonstrates a new structure, variation, or technique every day. From traditional bidings like a three-hole pamphlet to innovative structures like the blizzard book, you’ll glue, fold, and stitch your way to a library of possibilities. Whether your style is precise or playful, in this class learn fundamentals of bookbinding and find a structure that ignites your imagination.

Learning through play is artist and educator Joy Ting's favorite way to discover new techniques. Join Joy in this fun-filled class as she demonstrates how to be loose and expressive while exploring the fun of oil pastels and colored pencils. In this daily practice, you’ll be inspired by the natural world around you in order to make drawings in a variety of sizes and colors. Beginning with a simple sketch and fall down a rabbit-hole of creative play, discovering a style that is all your own. 

San Francisco based, multi-media artist extraordinaire Risa Iwasaki Culbertson is here to undo all your fears about taking your art digital. This class introduces digital-curious artists to Procreate by building skills with individual images and then bringing them together to create a full scene. Utilizing an underwater theme full of sea creatures to get you more comfortable with the program, you will explore useful tools as the lessons build on each other, resulting in familiarity with layers, masks, brushes, blurs, blooms, and so much more. Risa then shows you the way to bring your digital work to life, both in Procreate and in the real world.

We've met so many artists who say that working every single day is key to staying inspired and active in their practice, which is why we developed the Daily Practice series. Whether you draw or sew, paint or print, work collaboratively or by yourself, you’ll find classes that spark your imagination and challenge your creativity. With five years of daily practices to choose from, you’ll have everything you need to start your year with a burst of creativity. 

From abstract shapes to identifiable icons, making your own stamps allows you to play with your own custom designs. Using erasers and carving blocks, mixed-media artist Lisa Solomon leads you through the carving of an array of stamps to create your own stamp collection. Print with stamp pad ink, brayer and printmaking ink, and create patterns and images on a variety of surfaces including various color papers and fabric. Make this kit for play, correspondence, or gifts, knowing that you'll be ready to go with versatile hand cut stamps whenever you need.

Challenging us to get playful and messy within the supposed neatness of embroidery, Rebecca Ringquist, a Portland, Oregon based artist, designer, educator, and author, returns with an all-new embroidery design. In her fourth sampler class, Rebecca shares some of the history of embroidery as we stitch along on her Schoolhouse Sampler. She begins by teaching seven basic stitches, showing variations on stitches from previous classes and new stitches done in pattern squares, borders, letters and numbers. Choose your own adventure in color and pattern making this Schoolhouse Sampler as messy or as tidy as you please.

Learning through play is Joy’s favorite way to discover new techniques.  Artist and instructor Joy Ting teaches you how to be loose and expressive as you create paintings using oil pastels and colored pencils. Jump in with Joy as she takes you on a month-long daily practice journey where you create oil pastel pieces inspired by nature and discover a style that is all your own.

Come make artwork for radiant souls. In this daily practice, Berkeley artist Lily Sol invites you to tap into feminine energy in all its forms. Over the month together, use mixed media to channel four goddesses inspired by the power and beauty of nature. In your journal, you’ll adorn your goddesses in flower crowns, jewels, and hues that make your heart sing. Lily’s playful energy makes it easy to stay present and soft-hearted, so join us for a daily dose of  blossoming.

Making an artful image doesn't have to be difficult. With just a few unique materials, you can create a beautiful illustration without any drawing experience at all. Artist Extraordinaire Courntey Cerruti is excited to expand one of her most popular Creativebug classes into a daily practice exploring monoprinting. First made popular by Andy Warhol, these monoprints use a blotted line technique made by using a process that combines tracing with basic printmaking. The result is dotted, broken, and delicate lines that can then be colored in. There is a lot of freedom inherent in this technique - the quality of your line expresses your own style - with each inking and impression of the original image producing a unique illustration.

Be dazzled while you stitch along with Justin of Keaton Quilts and make a 12 block quilt top, featuring a rainbow palette of star shapes. Sewist, author, and educator Justin Stafford walks you through the Lucky Star quilt, using rulers and a rotary cutter to make an array of traditional blocks. While the quilt top is designed for intermediate quilters, once beginners have mastered the half square triangle they’ll find the video instructions thorough enough to rapidly advance their skills. Use a muted palette for a traditional throw or replicate Justin’s scheme for a vibrant stunner.

Easy to acquire and simple to use, fine-point markers are a wonderfully accessible tool. Illustrator Sasha Prood loves their bold colors and ability to make intricate patterns, and she shares her patient enthusiasm in this daily practice class. She walks you through swatching, making patterns, and building compositions, all while emphasizing experimentation and play. Finally, take your doodling to the next level by learning strategies for sketching a subject before inking your art

A picture is worth a thousand words but words themselves are priceless. In this unique daily practice, multimedia artist and educator e bond explores the various ways that reading and writing can intersect with visual art and how one medium can inform the other. She’ll share some of her favorite fiction, non-fiction, poetry and music to generate interest points from which to play and experiment. See how these sparks can fuel visual art through collage, mark-making, and doodling, and how these visual observations alter your perception of the page.

Using the running stitch as a base, mixed media artist Lisa Solomon shows you 30 designs in the Japanese tradition of sashiko stitching. This beautiful and functional embroidery we enjoy today can be traced back to the thriftiness of 17th century Japanese peasant women. You will learn their traditional patterns which you can then use to make decorative pieces or mend and patch garments. No matter the method you choose, you’ll find that sashiko is a great way to slow down and stitch with intention, creating beauty from simplicity.

If you are a lover of color and a little wild at heart, this daily practice is just for you. Oakland artist, educator, and muralist Sharon Virtue finds inspiration in Matisse and O'Keefe, but most of all, in the exquisite beauty of flowers, leaves, and plants. On this month-long painting and drawing journey, gain confidence in your drawing abilities, explore value by working in black and white, and choose colors and styles that let your unique expression shine. With Sharon's encouraging guidance, find confidence and freedom to creating magic in your imagination and in your sketchbook.

Gouache can be an elusive medium. How do you pronounce it? How do you use it? Painter, educator, author and illustrator Cleo Papanikolas of Cleomade will teach you everything you need to know about gouache, how to paint with it, and how to find your own painting style. Her latest book, The Opposite is Also True, explores how trying to find the “best way” or the “right way” to do something in art can result in discovering that the opposite way is also good. Art rules are very slippery and contradictory, so it’s all about figuring out what is best for you right now. On each day of this daily practice, we'll ask one question about gouache - like "What is the difference between acryla gouache and regular gouache?" or "Do I paint light-to-dark or dark-to-light?" - and then paint out experiments to find the answers. Cleo helps build your confidence in your skills and develop the independence to be able to ask new questions and figure out the solutions on your own.

Artist, printmaker, and educator Sarah Matthews demonstrates her vibrant signature style of layering stamps to create graphic prints. Throughout each week of this daily practice, you’ll design, carve, and print your own stamps. Then, you’ll bind the resulting prints into four different book structures. The month is rounded out with additional techniques that you can use in any book art project. Sarah’s playful, low-pressure style and dynamic approach to color creates deceptively complex designs that radiate energy.

The luminous quality of watercolor gives you so much opportunity to play with color, light, and texture, yet oftentimes the paint can have a mind of its own. Artist and illustrator Sasha Prood shares her impressive tool kit of tips and techniques to give you more control of your watercolor painting while also embracing the stroke of each brush. Begin with the basics, like wet-on-dry vs. wet-on-wet, flat washes and color gradients, and then experiment further with lifting, masking, and layering using an array of mixed media. Throughout the month, you'll alternate between learning one technique at a time and creating a small composition that highlights each new technique. Sasha will also talk you through her process of developing a piece of art, from research, to sketch, to final painting. Whether you're just starting to explore watercolor or are eager to expand what you already know, Sasha will help you unlock a treasure trove of new skills and fresh inspiration.

So many of us are on a quest to incorporate creativity into our lives, but short on time and resources, we’re not sure how to begin. For inspiration and sage advice, we turn to artist and explorer, Courtney Cerruti, who incorporates art into everything she does and finds beauty in even the most mundane moments. This series is perfect for aspiring artists, crafters who are in a rut, and anyone who suspects that a creative habit would be good for their soul - your eyes will be opened to new creative possibilities that are easy to practice every day. No matter your skill level, we hope you’ll show up, bring a playful attitude and a willingness to try new things.

Professional designer and self-taught illustrator George McCalman writes and illustrates a monthly column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Called “Observed,” the column features sketches and illustrations of the people and personalities he meets on his adventures around the city. Drawing from this experience, George leads you through a month of drawing people by layering colored pencil, pens and paint. Use your own source material and capture the essence of your model’s personality by focusing on gesture, texture, and personality while playfully over-emphasizing features. Be inspired by George’s relentless curiosity and joyful presence as he encourages you to illustrate friends, family, and strangers alike, and reveals his sources for unlikely models and where to find them.

In this fun and energetic 10-day course, Lilla Rogers shows you how to find your authentic artistic style by making a multitude of tiny and huge discernments. From playful exercises to mark-making experiments, Lilla encourages you to approach art with an open mind and tune into what makes your heart beat faster. As an agent, author, and artist with decades in the illustration licensing business, Lilla knows how to sniff out style. At the end of this 10-day journey, you’ll have a better understanding of who you are as an artist and how you want to be seen by the world.
 

Master embroiderer and fine artist, Rebecca Ringuist, shares 31 days of stitches in our first ever Daily Embroidery Challenge. Using her “Drawing Stitches” sampler as a basis, Rebecca’s embroidery style is vibrant, original, and simple enough for all skill levels to follow along. You’ll start with basic stitches, then move on to groups of stitches that create textural effects, like confetti, fancy chains, zigzags, flowers, and filling stitches. Each day, you’ll expand your knowledge of embroidery and build on techniques to combine elements that look complex but are easy to execute. Best of all, at the end of the month not only will you have learned loads of new techniques, but you’ll also have a finished sampler!

Join professional doodler, Dawn DeVries Sokol, for a month of art journaling inspiration. Every day for 31 days, Dawn provides prompts to get you making art that is fun, intuitive and totally you. Learn how to create backgrounds, respond to prompts, and add embellishments, lettering and collage along the way. Stay loose and respond to whatever strikes you in the moment without the pressure of having to create a “finished” piece of art.

The team at Creativebug is surrounded by inspiration every day, but even the most prolific amongst us needs a jumpstart now and then. We asked members of our staff to share their go-to tips for finding creativity when the well has run dry. Their answers are as versatile as the artists themselves. Each day this month, members of our staff will be sharing their favorite ways to stoke the creative fires. Join us for a month of painting, drawing, journaling, organizing, upcycling, beautifying, and so much more.
 

Creativebug is excited to release our first-ever Daily Quilting Challenge. Designer and quilter Anna Maria Horner created “Dear Diary” to help you build skills as you move through the month, resulting in the perfect modern sampler quilt. Beginning with traditional blocks and techniques updated with contemporary color choices and block arrangements, this quilt top serves as a record of your patchwork journey. Use half-square triangles in different ways to create new motifs, play with scale as you move through the various blocks, and learn how to appliqué on feature blocks. Best of all, the robust PDF includes cutting and assembly guides as well as a color map so you can substitute in an of your favorite solids and prints to make this quilt your very own.

Before beginning each day, please be sure to work from the most updated version of the class PDF.
 

Learn how to paint a new flower every day with help from acclaimed watercolor artist, Yao Cheng. Known for her flowing, elegant style, Yao shares her technique for capturing the feeling of flowers rather than trying to paint them realistically. In each part of this 31-day challenge, she explores the ideal brush strokes needed to paint the petals and leaves of popular flowers like dahlias, poppies, peonies and hydrangeas. Through these daily lessons, you will hone your brush skills, discover new color combinations, and learn how to capture light, energy, and movement in your own floral interpretations. Be sure to share your paintings in the class gallery and on Instagram with #cbdrawaday !

Artist and illustrator Lindsay Stripling has made a career of her whimsical and thoughtful work. In this daily practice she demonstrates the process she utilizes- from concept to final spread – to bring her creations to life. Each week you’ll explore a new medium including pencil, ink, colored pencil and oil-based crayons. You’ll add words and details to bring balance to the page and finish up the month with techniques to turn your sketchbook spreads into even more artistic projects and paintings.

Artist, illustrator and educator Jon Stich encourages you to see everyday objects in a new light in this daily practice class. You’ll sketch using gouache, brush pens, and graphite pencils. After establishing a familiarity with the tools, color-mixing, and finding shadows, you’ll progress to illustrating objects from your day-to-day life. Jon Stich’s technical guidance will help you to identify value and compositional elements, and by working daily you will establish a routine that is both reflective and exploratory.

Artist and author Courtney Cerruti provides an in-depth look into her tool kit for capturing the essence of a place and your personal impressions of everything you see around you. From a five-minute blind contour drawing to mixing a color palette of your surroundings, find opportunities to draw, make marks, and paint while you are on the move or in your own home. Courtney will share her favorite ways to use colored pencil, watercolor, and brush marker pens to create evocative sketches. Even if you only have five minutes, she encourages you to seize the moment for making art every single day.

Join multi-disciplinary visual artist Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh and draw inspiration every day from different contemporary artists from all across the globe. You'll explore an exciting range of artistic styles, perspectives, and mediums, like geometric abstraction in gouache, visual storytelling in fabric collage, still-life photography, and surrealist sculptures made from household items. Beginners will find the techniques and materials in this class fun and accessible, while more experienced artists will be delighted by out-of-the-box daily prompts like translating a song into painting. Modern art has no boundaries, and Dawline-Jane encourages you to let loose and experiment with a multitude of ways to create.

Feeling creatively blocked can be so frustrating. You know you want to create something, but what? Or you have an idea of what you want to do but your hands are just not cooperating with your head. When you’re in a block, it feels like you’ll never find your way out, but you can, and you will. Danielle Krysa, a.k.a. The Jealous Curator, walks you through a multitude of processes and techniques that will help you become creatively unstuck. Each day includes jump-starts to get you headed in the masterpiece direction, and helps build skills towards overcoming any creative obstacle.

Fiber artist Lauren of Lark Rising Embroidery designed this delightful ABC wall hanging with her own children in mind. Join her in this month-long, nature-inspired embroidery practice that gradually builds your stitching skills, resulting in a treasured heirloom that will bring love and art to any room or nursery. Lauren covers a wide range of embroidery techniques, from line stitches such as stem stitch and split stitch, to fill stitches like satin stitch and French knots. Each day, you'll learn how to embroider a different picture from the alphabet. When your ABC's are complete, see how to turn your finished embroidery into a wall hanging to adorn the home of a loved one.

Even experienced artists need help getting into the creative flow sometimes. Drawing from her own practice as an artist and printmaker, Risa Iwasaki Culbertson designed this daily series to encourage artistic exploration by employing a playful, multimedia approach. With exuberance and irreverent style, Risa leads you through sets of three artistic mediums - illustration, paper, and paint - applied to ten perspective-shifting topics and prompts.  No matter your skill level, you’ll build a toolbox for combatting creative block, trusting your creative instincts, and developing your unique artistic voice.

Most of us have dabbled with colored pencils as youngsters, but they are far more versatile and sophisticated than you might think. Join Brooklyn-based illustrator and graphic designer Sasha Prood as she teaches the extensive range of one of her favorite mediums. Using colored pencil, you’ll explore the range between bright, bold designs, to soft, transparent imagery. Layer colors like you would with watercolor and define edges like you would with a marker. Sasha walks you through the ins and outs of graphite, colored pencils, and watercolor pencils. Day by day, you'll alternate between learning a new pencil technique in a practice swatch and then drawing a small composition using that technique, steadily building your skills from making marks like hatching and stippling to layering colors and creating gradients. This is your chance to play, experiment, and push pencils to the next level.

Whether this is the month you finally learn to crochet, or it’s time for you to add new stitches to your arsenal, expert crocheter Twinkie Chan will show you how. Begin with learning basic crochet stitches and their written abbreviations, then work toward crocheting small, friendly swatches with more decorative stitches. Once you’ve spent the month immersed in Twinkie’s wonderful world of crochet, you’ll end up with a beautiful collection of square swatches that you can use as coasters or seam up to make a super cute and colorful stitch sampler to hang on the wall. Build the skills - and the confidence - to crochet almost anything with just yarn and a hook.

Use items from nature, treasured trinkets and even office supplies as inspiration as you sketch, draw, and paint during this Daily Practice. Designer and Faber-Castell creative Mou Saha walks you through observing a common object before sketching, painting, and finishing your illustration with hand-lettering. Mou's gentle guidance supports creative exploration and her thoughtful attention to detail builds both confidence and skill.

Tapping into creativity is a form of self-care and helps you stay calm and in the moment. Even though we may not be together as a group, it is so important that we stay creative and connected. You don’t need to go far. There is a whole world of inspiration and art materials right inside the walls you live in. Join Courtney, Faith, and Twinkie in their own homes as they share 31 fun and accessible projects for all ages that the whole family can enjoy together. From watercolor to cardboard to even a slice of bread, we’ll help you discover the art and magic that you can create with what you already have.

Begin a daily painting practice on an unconventional canvas: a bound book. Accomplished painter Missy Dunaway takes you through a month-long series of classes progressing from simple exercises to advanced paintings. Working with acrylic inks, you'll begin by breaking down compositions into simple steps, learning how to block out your image, apply acrylic ink in layers, and gradually add detail and complexity to render colorful and expressive images. Whether you're new to painting or have an established practice, Missy's prompts encourage you to explore materiality and record places - both familiar and foreign - in an artful, visual diary.

Artist and designer Kristy Rice gives you insight into her signature style which cleverly combines actual fragments of flowers and greenery with watercolor embellishments. Whether your blossoms are fanciful or hyper-realistic, you'll be delighted to see how the addition of actual plants makes the composition pop - literally! - off the page.

You might think of maps as diagrams of physical places, but the irrepressibly creative e bond will show you how to re-imagine a map as a visual journey through your artistic and emotional places. In this 31-day class, you’ll use maps and mapping, their functions and characteristics, as a process tool for generating abstract compositions with mark-making, collage, doodling, and other visual experiments. Map-making will be your conceptual point of departure as you fill up your sketchbook with paint, photographs, leaves, ephemera, and pieces of actual maps to create vibrant, mixed-media spreads. 

Lettering artist Jess Park shares her techniques for creating colorful watercolor script. You'll learn the basics of pen and brush lettering first, then pluck away at painting plants, stems, and flowers to create wreaths and laurels. From there, you’ll expand your skills, learning how to create illustrations that live inside of a letter or word. By the end of the class, you’ll have all the skills you need to fill your sentence with a sunset or your monogram with a luscious bowl of fruit.    

Learn basic and advanced card making techniques with longtime Hero Arts educator, Libby Hickson. Over the course of a month, learn how to stamp, emboss, die cut, and embellish like a pro. Make a project every day, beginning with Holiday cards that use methods and materials that can be adapted to cards for every occasion. Libby will guide you through common troubleshooting tips, innovative ways to use materials, and a variety of artistic effects to use on cards and paper projects. All of this inspiration and instruction will give you a jumpstart on making cards for the whole year.

Make gratitude a part of your daily art practice with artist and Faber Castell creative Mou Saha. Each day this month she’ll share a prompt and technique focusing on the moments, people, and themes of her life for which she is the most thankful. You’ll use ink and paint to make drawings, paintings, and hand-lettering to complete your spreads. Learning to take a moment out of your every day to visually express gratitude takes a bit of practice but after a full month will become second nature, and you’ll be amazed by how your perception shifts.

Deck your home, hearth and table for the holidays with 30 days of Cricut projects taught by Amber of Damask Love. The possibilities of Cricut machines are nearly endless, making this month-long series an inspirational jumping off point for cutting-machine enthusiasts. Learn from the ever-fabulous Amber who introduces you to a new material and project every single day this month. This class covers the basics of cutting on a Cricut machine, swapping out blades, customizing projects, adhering materials with the Cricut Easy Press, plus instructions on assembling each project. While Amber uses a Cricut Maker in the demonstrations for this class, most of the projects can be done on a Cricut Explore and provide ample inspiration for year ‘round crafting.

For this daily challenge, fine artist, illustrator and author Lisa Congdon embraces all things ink-y! Whether you like to create detailed drawings with Micron pens or paint lush washes with India inks, Lisa shows you how to explore a variety of themes and mediums every day for a whole month. Lisa’s teaching style will help you simplify shapes and objects, distilling their most graphic elements with your unique marks and strokes. As you work your way through the challenge, Lisa provides fun daily prompts, focusing on nature, silhouettes, flowers and faces, building more techniques. Be sure to post your creations on social media using #creativebug #CBinktober and #inktober!

Join artist and illustrator, Charlotte Hamilton, in a month of exploring portraiture. Starting with quick sketches, you’ll learn the proportions of the face and create portraits in just a few minutes. As you move through the month, you’ll build observational skills while working from photos and discover how to use markers and colored pencils to create fun layers of color. Charlotte dives deeper into painted portraits later in the month, using colorful inks and paints to bring faces to life. By the end of this comprehensive series, you’ll understand how combine all of your skills to create master portraits of friends and family.

Artist, educator, and A Field Guide to Color author Lisa Solomon shares her unfettered enthusiasm for color in this daily practice series. You’ll experiment with color theory, patterns, and layering as you move through a variety of watercolor prompts. You’ll also work with masking fluid, gesso, gouache and other materials as you alternate between painting and revealing color. Be prepared to fully engage in color exploration and cultivate mindfulness. After a month of observation, your perception of the tones and shades of your world will be attuned in a new way.

Dive into a month of art journal prompts with Lauren and Caylee, the enigmatic founders of Get Messy Art Journal. In this 30-day challenge, they'll lead you through a series of prompts to inspire your creativity and help you get your thoughts, feelings and art onto the page. Learn their favorite techniques for creating vibrant pages full of textures, layers and lettering, and discover the magic of journaling about the ups and downs of everyday life. With daily prompts from Caylee and Lauren, you'll learn how to make your art journal a place to play, experiment, and be yourself – every single day.

Remember to use the hashtag #creativebuggetsmessy on social media to share your work with the Get Messy and Creativebug community.
 

If you’ve ever considered printmaking but were daunted by the wide array of materials available, this thorough primer is essential viewing. In this Daily Challenge, artist and printmaker Katharine Watson introduces the basic tools and techniques needed to create prints at home. Beginning with the basics of safety and mark-making, you’ll learn the full process of designing, transferring, carving, and printing an image.  Once you’ve mastered the basics, learn how to make repeat prints on a single page and how to print on fabric. Katharine encourages play and experimentation while giving you her time-tested methods, and demonstrates how easy it can be to develop a fine art practice even with a simple home setup. 

Invigorate your art practice by joining designer and Faber-Castell creative Mou Saha for a month of mixed media exploration. Each day, Mou shares her favorite techniques for adding textures, creating layers, playing with color, and transforming trash into treasure. This series is a skill-building powerhouse that will enhance your mixed media work and open your eyes to new possibilities in your art journal. With enthusiasm and ingenuity, Mou makes it fun and exciting to use familiar materials in new ways and introduces you to a whole host of materials you may have never considered.

Painting abstractly and working with a partner both require taking a leap of faith. In the years that Pam Garrison and Jennifer Mercede have been collaborating, they’ve learned when to take that leap and when a subtler approach is necessary. Explore making multi-media abstract art with gentle prompts from Pam and Jen, who switch off regularly in this daily painting challenge. Whether you have a partner to paint with or are working by yourself, they encourage losing preciousness, experimenting, playing and growing. You’ll begin by working on up to four canvases. After you’ve spent weeks adding and removing layers, playing with different mark-making techniques and honing in on a color palette, you’ll spend the final days refining your style and will finish with two completed paintings.

Are you ready to take the leap into becoming a professional artist? In this four-hour long course, author, artist and educator, Lisa Solomon, teaches you how to present yourself as an artist in the world. Commonly referred to as a “Professional Practices” college-level course, Lisa shares her decades of practical know-how in 15 bite-sized lessons. These classes will help you learn how to create your portfolio, make connections, exhibit, apply for shows, attend residencies, copyright your work, market yourself and so much more. Lisa tells it like is it with cautionary tales from the art and gallery world as well as inspiring stories from her own experience. The accompanying 80-page downloadable PDF is full of rich resources to set you on your path, including helpful samples and web references.

This class is not only a starting point for anyone who is ready to call themselves an artist, but also for working artists who could use some structure and guidance in growing their practice. By the end of this series, you will learn how to take yourself more seriously and see your business dreams come to life.

Daily painter Erika Lee Sears shares her love of oil paints and the tips and tricks she’s picked up after five years – and counting – of painting every single day. Learn brush handling, how to mix the perfect “black,” and how to work with oil paints in a no-fuss, carefree way. Painting these simple sketches for an entire month enables good working habits and develops a familiarity and comfort with often-daunting oil paint. You’ll work from included reference photos and will learn how to enhance their colors to create vibrant little paintings in your sketchbook.

Whether you’re a casual artist or a seasoned painter, everyone can benefit from a daily painting practice. Artist extraordinaire Courtney Cerruti takes you on a 28-day journey of painting the world around you – from fruits, vegetables, and objects, to complex portraits – all using acrylic craft paints and basic brushes. Learn fundamental skills for working with this versatile medium, including how to add shadows, depth and dimension. No matter your skill level, Courtney’s gentle instruction and daily guidance will invigorate your practice.

Part collage, part book art, part mixed media exploration, the Altered Books Daily Challenge uses simple skills like cutting, gluing, inking and painting to transform old texts into new and extraordinary works of art. Creativebug staff instructors Courtney Cerruti and Faith Hale are book lovers and paper fanatics. In this 28-part series, they share their favorite techniques for altering found books to create unique pieces of art. Once you learn how to choose a book for altering, where to source your ideal ephemera, and how to prepare pages, you’ll follow a daily prompt or technique to spark your imagination. After the month is over, you’ll never look at an old book the same way again.

Jennifer Orkin Lewis (also known as August Wren on Instagram) is a champion of daily painting practice, devoting half an hour each day to creating the loose and colorful paintings for which she’s known. In this month-long series, Jennifer applies her signature style to one of her favorite subjects: animals! Working from photo references (included in a PDF with the class), Jennifer shows how to simplify and stylize your animal paintings to make them your own. Each day, Jennifer shows her approach to painting critters of all shapes and sizes – from farm animals to deep sea creatures – providing opportunity for all skill levels to practice.

Join artist and illustrator Carolyn Gavin for a month of exploring color. Using both gouache and watercolor, Carolyn will demonstrate how she works from reference and imagination to create her paintings. She begins the daily challenge with her signature florals, then works through the month using fruits, veggies, and household objects as subjects. You’ll experiment with shape and color and learn how to let inspiration guide you along your painting journey. Finish your paintings by adding detail with pen and ink to create a month of beautifully rich paintings. 
 

Join us for a month-long creative journey with artist and illustrator, Lisa Congdon. In this 31-day painting challenge, Lisa shares her love of designing colorful patterns and painting with gouache. Each day you will learn how to paint a new pattern, including traditional designs, botanicals, geometric shapes and motifs made from everyday objects. Challenge yourself to draw inspiration from the world around you, working alongside Lisa as you hone your daily painting practice. Be sure to share your paintings in the student gallery and post them on Instagram #cbpatternaday.

Deck your halls with a season’s worth of festive baubles. Inspired by the holiday decorations they treasured most from childhood, Creativebug artists Liana Allday, Courtney Cerruti and Faith Hale show you how to make 25 ornaments and garlands. In the last day of the challenge, Courtney demonstrates a metallic feathered décor piece perfect for topping the tree. Using simple craft materials, most projects can be completed in less than 10 minutes and at the end of the month your tree will be gloriously adorned. ’Tis the season for crafting!

Living a More Thankful Life is about much more than saying thanks. In this 30-day creativity series, the staff at Creativebug shares favorite ways of expressing gratitude, helping our community, loving our neighbors, and honoring past, present and future family traditions – all through crafting! Each day, we’ll provide you with a new project idea or exercise that is easy, fast, fun, and will leave those around you feeling warm and fuzzy. Leave inspiring messages on Post-It notes for strangers to find, knit afghan squares for the homeless, stitch cozy beds for shelter animals, and so much more. These are our favorite ways to use creativity to shine a positive light in the world – we hope these ideas inspire you to make something for the power of good and shine your own light.

 

Take your lettering to the next level in this super-creative daily lettering challenge, taught by artist and art journaler Pam Garrison. Every day for 31 days, you’ll learn a new way to fearlessly approach lettering. From doodled monograms to a Sumi ink alphabet, Pam will guide you through each prompt with easy-to-follow instruction and inspiring ideas for further exploration. Great for card making, journaling, and illustration, this class will help you grow your lettering skills and stretch your idea of what words can look like.

What is book art? It is a way to merge art and bookbinding techniques to make a one-of a-kind handmade book. With a Master’s degree in book art and creative writing, Creativebug staffer Faith Hale shares her passion by demonstrating a technique, structure, or prompt every day for an entire month. Working alongside Faith, you will create a totally unique book page by page, building skills and techniques as you go. You’ll learn how to cut flaps, create pop ups and moving pieces, discover inspiration, cull language from found sources, and use text in new and inspiring ways. These pages come together to create a sampler of techniques, and at the end of the month, you will learn how to create a text block, add hard board covers, and bind your book.
 

Want to learn how to letter like a pro? Hone your skills by starting a daily practice with Michaela Yee of Sakura. Michaela is a lettering artist and pen guru, and in this inventive daily challenge, she expertly demonstrates how to use a variety of Sakura pens and paints – including favorites like Microns, Koi Brush Pens and Gelly Rolls. Throughout the month, Michaela shares several styles of brush-lettered and block alphabets, perfect for making custom cards, frame-worthy quotes, and more. You’ll also learn which pens are best to use on glass, metal, wood and other unconventional surfaces. Each day, you’ll gradually build your skills, inspiring you to keep lettering even when the month is over. 

Jumpstart your creative practice with a 31-day drawing challenge, taught by artist and professional doodler Pam Garrison. In this draw-along, Pam shares her playful, encouraging style, providing prompts and colorful demonstrations every single day for a month. Not only will you learn how to draw ordinary objects and add splashes of color, but you’ll also learn how to strengthen your creative muscles and develop a new habit. You’ll be amazed at how much your skills will grow in just one month. Be sure to post your drawings on Instagram using #cbdrawaday 
 

For this month-long daily drawing challenge, we’ve added a twist. Artist and educator Lisa Solomon shows how to use overhead light and everyday objects to cast interesting shadows onto paper, then draw around the shadows to create outlines. What you do within the outlines is where the real fun begins. Each day, Lisa shares a new idea filling outlined shapes with color and texture, using everything from pens and graphite to watercolors and highlighters. This technique is a great way to experiment with composition and keep your drawing practice loose. Simply start with a shadow and allow yourself to play within the lines. 
 

Due to popular demand, we are thrilled to present another Daily Drawing Challenge. For 29 days, we will release bite-sized drawing classes taken from the Creativebug archives. Taught by expert drawing instructors Molly Hatch and Heather Ross, you'll learn classic techniques for rendering everyday objects as well as opportunities to practice your blind contour skills. To see the full classes from which our Daily February Challenge originated, check out Heather Ross's Drawing and Illustration course and Molly Hatch's Introduction to Drawing course--both are a great place for beginners to start and offer excellent guidance.

Be sure to share what you draw on Instagram #cbdrawaday!

Master of package presentation, Courtney Cerruti, leads you through 25 days of gift wrap ideas and techniques. Beginning with more complex projects and ending with quick fixes to common wrapping dilemmas, you’ll use simple craft materials to wrap, adorn and decorate your holiday gifts. Whether you’re getting ready for the holiday season or preparing for a special gift-giving occasion, this class will give you ideas you'll use year round.

This holiday season, join us for a month of merry making (literally!). Every day for a whole month, Courtney Cerruti shows you how to make handmade cards, gift tags, and creatively wrap gifts. This challenge is both practical and fun, giving you a reason to gather up your paper crafting supplies and find holiday inspiration every day. 

Go beyond drawing individual objects with our daily pattern motif drawing challenge. In this 31-part class, Courtney Cerruti shares easy ideas for approaching surface design, opening new avenues of imagination and creativity. To keep things simple, Courtney works exclusively on index cards using brush markers. From foods to animals to abstract geometric shapes, you’ll explore fun, loose variations on a different pattern motif every day for a month. When you’re all done, the index cards are the perfect size to mail to friends (or us!).

In this 30-day painting challenge, Jennifer Orkin Lewis (known as @Augustwren on Instagram) draws inspiration from objects found in real life and imagination. Using gouache and watercolor, she demonstrates her approach to painting without fear and reminds us that it’s never too late to start painting. Jennifer started her daily painting practice three years ago, painting for just thirty minutes every day. In that time, she has cultivated the loose, colorful style that she’s known for, inspiring thousands of people along the way.

Become endlessly inspired with avid art journaler, painter, and artistic explorer, Pam Garrison. On this month-long journey into botanicals, Pam dances from one medium to another via daily prompts that will keep you on your toes. Working at different scales on a wide variety of surfaces, Pam explores the many technique one can use to express a flower. Along the way, Pam shares her passion for painting and drawing flowers, encouraging you to play with pens, markers, watercolor, acrylics and whatever you have on hand to create and capture magnificent blooms.

Be sure to share what you make in our class gallery and on Instagram #cbdrawaday