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Welcome to Cloudgazing Creatives! We’re so happy you’re here.

This is a place for exploring how to feed and grow your creativity. We’re not going to teach you how to draw, or make things, or write things, rather we’re going to explore how to think about doing those things in a more creative way, to discover new possibilities and new endings by exploring the world around us and using those experiences to create a habit of creative thinking and practice.

Cloudgazing Creatives is founded and run by sisters Emily Duberville & Jess McEwen. Born out of numerous discussions on the nature of creativity, this is a meeting place where you will learn how to let go of perfection, plug into your natural innate creativity through creative play and build new pathways of thinking about the world around you.

How do we help with that exactly? Well, through our blog & instagram feed we are sharing how we feed our creativity, showing you the exploration habits we’ve grown up with and how we merge them into our daily lives to keep ourselves creative in our work and play.

We also dive deep into the process via our podcast chats, and interview creatives about their process and all the messy parts of creativity and making.

Coming soon, Cloudgazing online courses, which will add even more support and mentoring to your creative journey.

Take a look around and join us as we explore our messy creative world!

Blog

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Words in the Country

Emily lives in rural Eastern Ontario, and finds words hold a huge place in her creative life. I grew up surrounded by words, hearing the deep melodious voice of my Dad as he played Badger or Toad reading Wind in the Willows at storytime, hearing stories of knights, romans, Saxons and peoples from prehistory. We …

Continue reading “Words in the Country”

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Nature in the Country

Emily shares her experiences with nature in it’s more obvious place It seems mildly oxymoronic to call this post “nature in the country’ doesn’t it? But all too often we forget that the natural world is right outside, even when we live in the country. Growing up in rural South West England, Jess and I …

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Nature in the city

Jess tells us how she integrates Nature into her creative living in a city: Living in the heart of a large city, I often have to work at making time to interact and explore nature. I grew up in the countryside, think fields and valleys with forests and streams all around, so as a child …

Continue reading “Nature in the city”

Podcast

Season one Episode seven

The psychology of creativity

Listen here

see notes for this episode here

Season one- Episode six

Taking part in creative challenges on social media

Listen here

see show notes for this episode here

Season one- Episode five

The importance of play

listen here

see show notes for this episode here

Season one- Episode four

Art, craft AND creativity.

Listen to episode four here

See show notes for this episode here

Season one- Episode three

Collaborative creativity- the sketchbook project

Listen to episode three here

See show notes for this episode here

Season one-Episode two:

creativity in lockdown

listen to episode two here

see show notes for this episode here

Season one-Episode one: defining creativity & creative thinking

listen to episode one here

See show notes for this episode here

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Series 1 coming soon!

Pre season teaser

Listen to our teaser here!

The #oneminuteofplayaday challenge

Play has a vital role in creativity but is something we as adults tend to shy away from. Cloudgazing Creatives is on a mission to change that, to help you reap the creative benefits of play as a grownup! We challenge you to build in time everyday to let your brain have some fun, and see the effect this has on your creativity and creative thinking ( not to mention the many other positive life benefits!)

How it works:

It’s simple, just take a minute a day to play! Remember, play isn’t about an end result, this isn’t about “making something” that you will sell or even necessarily show to others, it’s about doing something just for the fun of it. Try to remember when you were a child and the things you used to do for fun and build on that. You will quite likely feel foolish at first, but don’t let that stop you- push through any embarrassment and remember, you don’t need to share what you are doing if you don’t want to so the only person that might be judging you is you! Let it go!

We’d love to follow your progress with this challenge- use the hashtag #oneminuteofplayaday on instagram and tag us @cloudgazingcreatives and we’ll be cheering you on, and sharing the most fun playful ideas with others in our feed to help give some inspiration!

Feeling stuck? Here are some ideas to get you started!

Get ideas on how to create your own #oneminuteofplayaday toolkit here

About us

This is a place for exploring your creativity. We’re not so much going to teach you how to draw, or make things, or write things, rather we’re going to explore how to think about doing those things in a more creative way, to discover new possibilities and new endings. Cloudgazing Creatives is founded and run by sisters Emily Duberville & Jess McEwen. Born out of numerous discussions on the nature of creativity and how creative thinking is so often underrated and ignored, this is a meeting place where you will learn how to let go of perfection, plug into your natural innate creativity through creative play and build new pathways of thinking about everything you do.

Emily Duberville is an accomplished multi creative who works as a child educator. Emily has written and produced a historical play that was performed in her home town, sings in a choir, paints, draws, makes jewelry and has an always inquisitive mind. She brings her decades of knowledge and on the job experience of using play to create opportunities for imaginative growth to the Cloudgazing Creatives community.

Jess McEwen is a florist and owner of Periwinkle Flowers in Toronto. Jess enjoys making messy art, sewing and knitting clothes and has an insatiable love of colour and all things joyful. Jess brings her decades of on the spot creative problem solving and an abiding interest in art, creativity and the process of making.

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