Instagram story viewer> @gracegetscreative> Posts

Grace Gets Creative

@gracegetscreative

426

followers

429

following

Created to Create | Photography + Design
A digital scrapbook of my creative work
Personal: @graceleensimpson

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

This is Day 4 of rummaging through my old artwork to rediscover my creative self to try and get myself out of a rut after having my 2 kids and getting back into corporate life. ✨

I’m a total cliché example of the whole trying to find myself after being in the trenches of early motherhood the past 3 years 🤣 I’ve never been much of a content creator to begin with, even with all the aspirations I had when creating this IG account in the first place 10 years ago. However, today is a good a day as any to show my work, as I have always done physically, but now share it digitally as a portfolio piece for my creative practice.

Follow along as I peel back the layers of my creative practice to see how I, as a young high school art nerd, became a graphic designer. I will share some of my current work that I have never shared anywhere on the Internet, along with exploring the things of my past that influenced my creative practice today.

This series will look at the following:

🏠 My childhood environment and how it nurtured my creative self through 35mm film photos and 8mm home videos

📚 My large appetite for reading books and how it started from a very young age and fueled the imagination for every piece of creative work I’ve ever made

🌎 How global travel to Europe, missions trips to Mexico and Africa, family camping trips, and just living in Beautiful British Columbia influences how I see the world through a creative lens

🎶 My music background playing piano, flute, ukulele, and singing as the Music Ministry leader for my church

✝️ How my personal faith and beliefs as a Christian ultimately shapes my worldview and how I approach creative work as someone who was created to create

And more!

This whole series is inspired by @creativepeptalkpodcast by @andyjpizza and his discussion with @austinkleon on Episode 559 - Make Before Thinking, Sales Mode, Get Weird With It, The Opposite of Depression and MORE with Austin Kleon. Along with other creative masters like @made.by.james, @stefankunz, @ianbarnard, @willpat, @pandrdesignco, @ellenlupton, @goodtype, @houseindustries and many more who have influenced and inspired me to pursue creative work as a career.

Join me a by @gracegetscreative

10

3

2 months ago

Today’s creative stack: @paper_republic GVXL in Natural (2.5 year patina 😍) and @jakeweidmann “The Heart of the Maker”

I may have only gotten through 2 pages of the book and 1 page of journaling that consisted of successfully placing 3 stickers in it before a toddler climbed into my lap, but it’s progress nonetheless 🙌

—

#mypaperrepublic #theheartofthemaker by @gracegetscreative

5

1

11 days ago

So cool seeing how much my @paper_republic GVXL in Natural has changed in 2.5 years. I love how the patina, the marks, coffee and ink stains all reflect bits and pieces of my creative practice. It’s truly a work of art all on its own.

—

#mypaperrepublic #paperrepublic #journalinspiration #journaling #creativepractice by @gracegetscreative

47

10

a month ago

It has been 84 years since I’ve last did some Bible journaling. 😭😭😭 oh how I’ve missed it. In the chaos of career and motherhood, I’ve sacrificed my own personal time with the Lord.

Paul reminds me in Philippians 1:12-20 that our circumstances should never be an excuse to stop proclaiming the truth of the gospel. That because of his chains in Christ, others have become confident in the Lord and have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear (Phil 1:14 LSB). May I learn from Paul’s example and persevere to proclaim the truth of the gospel regardless of my circumstances.

I may not be physically imprisoned or persecuted, but even I can slip into the habit of thinking I already know all there is to know about the gospel, and still fail to practice it in my own life. Recounting the gospel, reading the Word, and spending intentional time with God is a way of preaching the gospel of Christ to myself.

—

#biblejournaling #journaling #meditation #handlettering #biblelettering by @gracegetscreative

1

0

a month ago

Been looking forward to holding this in my hands all day 😍 happy release day @jakeweidmann! I can’t wait to dive in. by @gracegetscreative

4

1

a month ago

My next creative ramble is live on Substack! L!nk is in my b!o 💕 In it I ramble on about becoming a wife and a mother and how it has impacted my creative practice, both the struggles and eventual and desired outcomes from those struggles. by @gracegetscreative

4

0

a month ago

Still in love with my @paper_republic XL journal 2 years later. One day I’ll do an actual flip through 😅 I use it for everything — my 9-5 corporate job as a graphic designer, my bullet journal for personal life, my brainstorming collaging scrapbook of memories. It’s basically a smorgasbord explosion of my creative work that looks like pages and pages of notes, scribbles, doodles, wireframes, sketches, etc. This journal has truly been an integral part of my creative practice.

Do y’all still brainstorm and sketch on paper? Or are you all in on tech? 👀 I’d love to learn more about how other creatives ideate!

—

#creativepractice #mypaperrepublic #journaling #productivity #chunkyjournal by @gracegetscreative

30

5

a month ago

A bit late, but Happy World Photography Day! My first experience with photography was actually during my high school trip to Europe in 2008 when I was in the 9th grade. I had the privilege of bringing the family digital camera on that trip, a 3mp Sony Cybershot Camera. I need to dig through my hard drives to find those photos 😅 I officially fell in love with photography during my grad year in high school. 2011 was the year I got my first DSLR camera, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Since then I’ve traveled the world to Europe, Israel, Africa, Philippines and the USA; documented many family milestones from pregnancies, baby photos, engagements, weddings, reunions, anniversaries, birthdays; explored the rivers, mountains, lakes, flower fields, pumpkin patches of this beautiful province of British Columbia I live in. I love being able to document these memories and freeze these fleeting moments of time onto a frame. In a world that can feel so fast-paced, photography is my way of slowing down and appreciating the beauty of the world around me. by @gracegetscreative

14

0

2 months ago

6

1

2 months ago

Day 3 of showing my old work as a love letter to my past self. Seeing where I came from gives me a better perspective on how and why I am the creative I am today. I’ve always been someone who showed my work, it’s how I was trained since elementary school and heavily enforced while I was in university for design.

In today’s design-accessible world where something near polished can be generated from a simple prompt by anyone, the practice of showing the work has been pushed aside in favour of efficiency. I am told that I can save so much time offloading my creative process to a machine so that I can spend more time creating stuff. But that’s the thing — the creative process IS creating stuff. Most of the time I don’t even know what the end goal of my work is, but I figure that out along the way WHILE doing the work. It looks like sketches upon sketches upon sketches of pencil on paper, colour swatch testing to see what colours work best for the project I’m working on, brainstorming key words and looking up a thesaurus for similar words to find the key phrase that makes me go “Aha!” — all of this and more before creating stuff that I love (and even stuff I don’t love but keep anyways to improve on later).

—

@tombowusa Tombow Dual Brush Pens, lettering artist, modern calligraphy, human made by @gracegetscreative

6

0

2 months ago

Day 2 of rediscovering my creative self postpartum raising 2 little boys and trying to survive a corporate 9-5 🥲 How we doing creative mamas?

Here’s a little peek at my creative process from 8+ years ago before corporate sucked the life out of me (jk, I love my job! 👀). Multiple notebooks and sketchbooks filled with doodles and lettering, not one of them completely full 🤣

—

Postpartum, working mom, marketing, corporate life, created to create, creative process, making stuff, hand lettering, lettering design, modern calligraphy, human made by @gracegetscreative

11

0

2 months ago

POV: It’s been 8 years since you last picked up a pen for fun since getting a corporate job and figured it’s about time you bring back that traditional artist side of you to the forefront of your creative work.

Hi, my name is Graceleen and I’m a Christian wifey and mum of two little boys (survived 2 under 2 💪) who believes she was created to create by the one and only Creator, who also works a corporate 9-5 in marketing and is finally shaking off the dusty chambers of this social media account to start showing more of my personal creative work.

I debated putting together a polished carousel of before and afters, but the thought of putting it together in the first place made me cringe inside. But I felt that I had to post something immediately so I kept putting it off. So this post is it! An old video from my video archives of a letter piece I did in 2018.

I’ve been listening to @creativepeptalkpodcast on my 40 minute commute to and from work the past 3 weeks since coming back to corporate life after essentially being on maternity/parental leave the past 3 years. And I felt inspired to play again. Get my hands busy making stuff I used to do 8 years ago.

So here’s to day 1 of showing my work from 8 years ago in the hopes that I can prove to myself that I’ve still got it and show my current work as a love letter to my creative soul 🙌

—

Hand lettering, lettering design, modern calligraphy, traditional artist, humans creating things for humans, human made by @gracegetscreative

8

4

2 months ago