This review was written by Lisa Toffoletti with course access provided by Carla va Laar, as part of the Mixed Media Art Design Team 2022.

Foundations of Creative Wellbeing is an online course developed by Creative Arts Therapist, Dr Carla van Laar. The course is a hands-on experiential journey with videos that guide you through 15 mindful creative activities designed to help you access and cultivate your own creativity for self-care and wellbeing.
 
Carla draws on her Doctoral research to engage you in arts-based processes and creative reflective journaling as you:

• practice paying attention to the here and now through relaxation, breath and your senses
• tune in to your environment and create spaces that support your wellness
• use arts-based activities to make conscious choices that illuminate your personal values
• connect with parts of yourself that want to be nurtured and developed through creativity
• find out how sharing your creative works with others can deepen and strengthen relationship
• understand the big picture of your life and imagine your way to creative wellbeing.

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Course review by Lisa

I have just undertaken the online course Foundations of Creative Wellbeing with Dr Carla Van Laar, a course that is guided but allows freedom to express your creative thoughts through mixed media using mindfulness activities. I found the course to be a positive personal creative journey – one I really enjoyed.

The course is made up of a range of activities split into 5 modules. Each activity provides an opportunity to create and includes writing a reflective journal entry. I am a visual and tactile learner. Each activity was different, engaging and well presented with a clear description of what was required.

To begin give yourself time to undertake the course, it involves meditation exercises, getting outside and creating artwork. Throughout the creative journey I used a sketchbook with medium weight paper (decide if you want to do your journaling entries in a separate book or in the sketchbook), a grey lead pencil, my phone, water colour pencils, coloured pencils, paint, ephemera, gel medium, inks and fine liners. The course is designed so that you can use any medium you’re comfortable with.

The website is easy to navigate the course. After each video it marks the activity as complete, when you log back in you can pick up where you left off.

The course modules are designed to progress through from one to five. The activities are to be done from your own personal creative expression. I took the approach to be guided through and craft along with the lessons but you can easily watch the lesson then do the activity however the reflective journal entries are essential, even if you make a few notes, because it’s used in an activity later.

The highlights of the course for me were connecting with your inner creativity and bringing it out onto paper. It was at times challenging yet rewarding; the meditation brought a sense of calm, drawing your breath on a paper was an unusual but interesting activity. Viewing and responding to a piece of artwork was my favourite activity and an activity to use a box as a metaphor for ourselves, initially was challenging to find things for the box but once I started sorting through my magazines and ephemera the task was a lot of fun.

There is no correct or incorrect in this course, it’s a personal creative journey to explore how you feel and what inspires you as a person and for that, getting to the end and having completed each activity has given me another place to draw my inspiration from when I craft.

I would recommend the course for crafters looking for inspiration and for anyone who wants to reflect on their life to gain a more informed perspective of where they are in life. There is freedom to create your thoughts using your desired medium and engage in mindfulness exercises, it’s flexible and inviting.

Thank you Dr Carla – it was a creative journey indeed.

For more information and to sign up – click here: Foundations of Creative Wellbeing

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Lisa Toffoletti has always dedicated a space in her life for art and craft, from a child making greeting cards using pressed flowers to art in many forms including small papercraft projects, scrap booking and card making, to create things that have a purpose and are useful.

Lisa is married with three children, whilst raising the children as a stay-at home-mum she worked for the family upholstery business and lives in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. She many other interests and hobbies including gardening, reading, photography, tracing her family tree and spending time with family.
To view Lisa’s creations, log onto Facebook at Handmade Greeting cards by Lisa T