Behind the scenes: Creating the 14-Day Creative Return Journal

There is something incredibly exciting about watching an idea that has lived in your head slowly become something you can actually hold in your hands.

That’s where I am right now with the 14-Day Creative Return Journal.

For a while, this was simply an idea - a journal for women who feel like they’ve lost touch with their creativity somewhere along the way. Maybe life got busy. Maybe motherhood, work, caregiving, or simply taking care of everyone else slowly pushed creativity to the bottom of the list.

I know what that feels like.

And I wanted to create something that made coming back to creativity feel possible.

Not overwhelming.

Not another thing you have to be good at.

Just a gentle place to begin again.

What I’m Creating

The Creative Return is becoming much more than a collection of journal prompts.

I’m building it as a complete 14-day creative journey.

Each day has its own theme and is designed to help you reconnect with creativity, journal prompts, creative exercises, affirmations, and space to notice what is changing along the way.

I’m also creating a set of 14 illustrated Creative Return cards to accompany the journal.

Each card has its own meaning, message, affirmation, symbol, and connection to that jay’s journal experience.

The cards have names like The Stillness, The Wildflower, The Open Door, The Lantern, The Moon, The Sparrow, The River, The Meadow, The Nest,The Bloom, The Artist, The Heart, The Path, and The Return.

I want opening the journal and choosing a card to feel like a small creative ritual-something that gives you permission to slow down for a few minutes and listen to yourself again.

It’s Taking Longer Than I Expected

One thing I didn’t completely understand when I started was how much time goes into creating something like this.

There are the obvious things: writing the journal, creating the artwork, designing the cards, choosing fonts and colors, and putting the pages together.

But then there are hundreds of tiny decisions.

Does this page need more space to write?

Does this prompt actually help someone move forward?

Does the artwork feel like Moon & Meadow?

Are the pages beautiful without being distracting?

Does Dan 7 naturally lead into Day 8?

Does the journal feel cohesive from beginning to end?

I’ll Finish something, look at it again the next day, and relize it needs another adjustment. Sometimes I change a sentence. Sometimes I move an illustration. Sometimes I rethink an entire page. And occasionally I pend far too long deciding where one tiny botanical drawing belongs.

But I’m learning that this is part of creating something meaningful. I don’t want to rush it just so I can say it’s finished.

I want to show how hard I have worked and how important it is for me to help others.

Watching it Come Together

This has probably been my favorite part.

the journal is beginning to look less like scattered ideas, notes, sketches, and Canva pages-and more like a real product.

My Product.

Something that started as a thought is becoming a journal with artwork, cards, exercises, rituals, trackers, reflections, and a complete journey from Day 1 to Day 14. And every time another section is finished , I get a little glimpse of what the final journal is going to be.

That is incredible exciting.

There are moments when I took at what I’ve created and think, I actually made this.

As a self-taught artist, that means a lot to me. There wan’t a perfect roadmap for creating this. I’ve been figuring it out as I go-writing, drawing, designing, changing things, learnig new things (thanks to YouTube), and sometimes starting over. Yesterday when I was writing I said to my daughter, I hate words, she looked at my journal I was writing in and said, you literally have a book filled with your words in front of you .

But page by page, it’s becoming what I imagined. Maybe even better.

Why 14 Days?

I didn’t want this to become another beautiful journal someone buys, writes in twice, and them leaves sitting on a shelf. Fourteen days feels doable.

Long enough to begin building a creative habit, but short enough that you can look at Day 1 and believe you can make it to Day 14. The goal isn’t to become an artist in two weeks. It isn’t even about making '“good” art. The goal is much simpler:

to begin creating again.

To pick up the pencil. Open the sketchbook. Notice something beautiful. Experiment without knowing how it will turn out.

Remember what you liked before everything became about being productive or useful. And hopefully, somewhere during those 14 days, begin wearing that creative part of yourself a little more clearly.

I’m Trying to Practice What I’m Creating

There’s a little irony in creating journal about letting go of perfectionism while simultaneously wanting every page of that journal to be perfect. I’ve caught myself doing it more than once. And I’ve had to remind myself of the same thing I’m asking the women who eventually use this journal to remember:

Creating doesn’t require perfection. It requires showing up.

So that’s what I’m doing. Showing up. Making the next page. Drawing the next Illustration. Writing the next prompt. Changing what isn’t working. Keeping what feels right. And trusting that eventually all those small pieces will become the finished journal.

Getting Closer

There is still work to do. Pages to finish. Artwork to create. Details to check. Cards to finalize. And probably more little changes that I haven’t even discovered yet.

But for the first time, I can really see the finished creative Return Journal taking shape.

And I am so excited!

Not only because I want to release it into the world, but because finishing this journal represents something for me too.

It’s proof that creativity can come back. Even after years of putting other things first. Even when you aren’t sure where to begin. Even when you’re figuring things out as you go.

You just have to start somewhere.

And then keep returning. One page. One drawing. One small creative moment at a time.

That’s what The Creative Return is rally about.

And I can’t wait to share the finished journal with you.

—Christy

Moon & Meadow Media