A Custom Mood Theme in a Year

Special: Mood Theme in a Hurry

2026-04-25T22:34:49Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

For of Three Weeks For Dreamwidth, the annual celebration of Dreamwidth's founding, I've made up two super-quick Mood Theme calendars! Anyone who wants to make a mood theme in a real hurry, but still wants a schedule and prompts, can use either the Minimum or Medium calendars to make it happen:

Since twenty-one days doesn't map perfectly to the eighteen and thirty-four moods of the Minimum and Medium Mood Tracks respectively, I've left the last few days of the calendars as "free days": Days you can use to relax, to refine your mood theme, or to catch up on any days you may have missed.

As a reminder, if you complete either of these mood theme calendars, be sure to check in with me for free Dreamwidth points! (If you go for the Medium Mood Theme and want more than one month's worth of paid time, you will need to add another two moods, but they can be any moods. Check the community schedule for a complete list of moods, but if that overwhelms you, I personally like "Blank" and "Creative".)

Thanks for tuning in, and happy birthday to Dreamwidth!

comments

Part 3, Week 3

2026-04-24T01:08:48Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Jumping right in here...

This week's Minimum and Medium moods are: Enthralled, Happy, Indescribable

This week's Maximum moods are: Infuriated, Irate, Irritated

And here we are with Infuriated, the "How exactly do I differentiate this?" companion to last week's Enraged! Not helping things at all are the other two moods, Irate and Irritated.

If I had to differentiate between Irate and Irritated, I would suggest that Irritated is more likely to have something actively happening than Irate is, whereas Irate can have more of a "got up on the wrong side of the bed" quality; you can just be Irate for almost no reason, but if you're Irritated, something caused it, and may even still be causing it, even if that thing is no bigger than a mosquito.

What are your thoughts on this week's moods? Any ideas jumping immediately to mind, or do you need to work at them some more? Maybe you have a backup idea from Enraged you can recycle for Infuriated, or you've got a tossup between Irate and Irritated you'd like some input on? Or maybe you're coasting right along? However it's going, let's talk about it!

comments

Part 3, Week 2

2026-04-17T01:50:58Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

This week's Minimum and Medium moods are: Determined, Devious, Energetic

This week's Maximum moods are: Enraged, Frustrated, Grumpy

Differentiating Enraged from the upcoming Infuriated has always been a bit difficult for me; they're both pretty extreme forms of anger, but which one is more, and how do I express that? I've tended to aim for more subtle differences when I make big enough mood themes, with Enraged in my Fancy Rats being a mirror of Infuriated with a flaming background, and I'm planning something similar for my pigeon mood theme. The cloud mood theme, meanwhile, has a tornado for Enraged and a flaming tornado for Infuriated!

Frustrated, on the other hand, I feel has some pretty easy-to-grasp energy. If you're working with a fandom mood theme, there's probably at least one scene you can think of where your characters are frustrated by something! Finding something to pull for an original theme can be a bit trickier, but there's options out there. Frustrated is one of the few moods I skipped for the clouds, but the Frustrated fancy rat is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and the Frustrated pigeon is dealing with anti-bird spikes!

Finally, we've got Grumpy, another one with last week's Cranky that reminds me of uninterrupted naps. I keep on wishing it were Grouchy, so I could make Oscar the Grouch references 😂 That said, as with Annoyed feeling more "active" than Aggravated, Grouchy feels a little bit more mature than Cranky for me, or at least a little bit older and better able to use words.

Still, those are only my thoughts and impressions! What do these moods make you think of, and how do you plan to approach them with your own mood themes? Do you have an approach in mind for them? And what do you think the differences are between some of the more similar moods we've had these past few weeks? Let's talk about it!

comments

Part 3, Week 1

2026-04-10T01:15:37Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

It's the beginning of Part 3, and I'm behind on so many things, but so help me, updating this community will not be one of them!

This week's Minimum and Medium moods are: Angry, Awake, Confused

This week's Maximum moods are: Bitchy, Cranky, Cynical

And we're off with more derivatives of Angry! I tend to rely on word bubbles with cartoon symbols and other methods of expressing "This entity is complaining loudly" for Bitchy. Cranky, meanwhile, reminds me of toddlers who didn't get their afternoon nap 😅 So heavy bags under frowny eyes works pretty well for me! Cynical, I think, is probably the hardest to depict of this particular trio. For my fancy rats, I made it a companion to Optimistic and Pessimistic, with the rat pushing over the half full/half empty glass; my pigeon is rolling its eyes. My cloud, meanwhile, has an expression of just being Done With Everything. So those are some potential options for you, and if none of them fit, hopefully one sparks some inspiration for you!

What about you? How do you think you'll approach this week's moods? Are ideas coming easily to you, or do you need a bit more help? Some of each? And did you have a good break week? Let's talk about it!

comments

Mixed series Digimon & Ojamajo Doremi season 1 mood themes - part 2

2026-04-07T01:56:23Z

Posted by: majoukoufu

Here's the second part of two mood themes - an Ojamajo Doremi theme I'm making as I go, and a Digimon theme I’m (heavily) polishing that I worked on for the last couple months of 2025. Both have borders, are 94x72, and have a few alternate mood image options apiece.

The Ojamajo Doremi theme:
- only features screencaps from the first season/series/51 episodes
- is going to be made for Doremi fans in general, trying to give as many characters an appearance as possible and not favour anyone too much except in the sense of the main characters naturally showing up more than other characters

The Digimon theme:
- will feature images from 02 (+ Hurricane Touchdown + The Beginning), Tamers (+ Runaway Locomon), Frontier, and Appmon, also featuring some-but-less Adventure and Ghost Game - mostly screencaps, but also album and video covers, and maybe the occasional trading card or promo art
- was made for me and focuses on characters I like
- occasionally involves Wormmon, aka a cartoon bug. Just in case? (He does not show up in part 2 at all)

Both these themes:
- should be assumed to contain spoilers through endgame for all involved canon material
- can be used by anyone! Just please link back to any of my posts in this community in your profile or sticky post or some other public location. I’ll also edit in a compilation post (for each) link with all the images posted in one place on my journal at the end of the year

( Ojamajo Doremi mood theme part 2 )

( Digimon mood theme part 2 )

Other parts: Part 1
Digimon part 1 got three additional images edited in under the alternates while I was working on part 2

comments

Second Break

2026-04-03T01:15:12Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

ZOMG it's Break Week!

As usual, Break Week is a good time for any of the following:

Catching up on moods you missed

Getting ahead on moods for the next Part, or in general

Revisiting moods you're not quite happy with

Taking up fishing

Updating an old WIP you haven't touched in five years or more

Looking at pictures of cute animals

Sharing any complete moods

Part 3 starts next week, and with it, the next Minimum and Medium Track rounds. Maximum, meanwhile, will be peeling off from both of them, and won't match up with them again for the rest of the year. How exciting!

However you spend your break, I hope you have a good one!

comments

Part 2, Week 6

2026-03-27T01:53:03Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Aaaaaaahhh, we're in the last week of Part 2, aaaaaahhhh!

This week's Minimum moods are: Relaxed, Silly, Uncomfortable

This week's Medium and Maximum moods are: Tired, Aggravated, Annoyed

As a reminder, if you only want to do branching moods, the final higher-level mood here is Tired. After that, it's all bottom-level/leaf moods, so if you're aiming for a whole 36 moods to get some Dreamwidth points, you can go with Aggravated and Annoyed, as listed here, or you can pick any random two from the remaining moods in Parts 3 through 8! Next week will be a break week, and then Minimum and Medium moods will be synched up again for a while.

As far as this week's moods go, Tired is going to take care of most of the rest of the sleepy moods; but there's still one left to go if you find two images that would work perfectly and can't pick which one you'd rather use! Aggravated and Annoyed are bringing us solidly into the Angry derivatives with two we have to find subtle differences; I feel like Aggravated might be a bit more, hmm, active than Annoyed, myself? For me, Annoyed is something that can be passive, but Aggravated means that either something is being done on purpose, or something's about to be done on purpose. Does that make sense?

But maybe you feel otherwise! What are the differences between Aggravated and Annoyed to you? How do you plan to differentiate between them in your mood theme? Or are you fine on those two moods, and Tired is the one that's kicking your butt? Let's talk about it!

comments

Part 2, Week 5

2026-03-20T00:52:09Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Here we are at Week 5! Only one more week to go of our first full Medium Track run 👀

This week's Minimum moods are: Scared, Thoughtful, Working

This week's Medium and Maximum moods are: Exhausted, Sick, Content

Once again, for anyone looking for a stopping point, Working in the Minimum track and Sick in the Medium track both work: Working is the last mandatory mood, while Sick is the final tertiary mood. There are only two moods that branch off after Sick, and one of them is this week's Content, while the final branching mood is next week's Tired. After that, it's all minutiae.

As for this week's moods, what are your thoughts on them? Content seems like another one that's a little hard to get a bead on, especially when contrasting with last week's Satisfied. Sick and Exhausted should be at least a little easier to suss out, but not necessarily easier to find material for! What on earth are you going to do if your chosen media never had a "so-and-so gets sick" episode? Do you find something you think might work, or skip that mood entirely, since it's not mandatory? If you're going for the full Maximum track, then Nauseated down the line is what is inherited from Sick; do you wait and use the perfect image later, or do you use a more Nauseated mood for Sick and buy yourself time to find something better when Nauseated comes through the line naturally? Let's talk about it! (Though if you want to skip talking about either of those last two moods I've been going on about, I wouldn't blame you!)

comments

Part 2, Week 4

2026-03-13T02:13:04Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Ack, it's Thursday! Thank goodness I noticed only half an hour past when I usually try to post 🤦‍♀️

This week's Minimum moods are: Nerdy, Okay, Sad

This week's Medium and Maximum moods are: Satisfied, Mischievous, Exanimate

Exanimate is a weird one! Honestly, I think it's one of the weirder moods in the entire list. It basically means you're not (capable of?) moving anymore. Which, if you're doing an animated mood theme, might be the perfect time to pull a prank with a single non-animated mood 😂 It might be a little harder to work with otherwise! I like to go with my subjects playing dead for the most part, but I'm sure it's not the only option. Satisfied, on the other hand, seems extremely difficult to depict. If you're working with an established fandom, you can probably find something from context that works, but I feel like it can be a little trickier to nail down when you're making original art! Mischievous, on the other hand, seems like just plain fun. Time for your mood theme's subject to go torment another of your mood theme's subjects!

What do you think? Are your feelings on these moods the opposite of mine, or do you think you'll have the same problems? Do you need to brainstorm any at all? Let's talk about it!

comments

Part 2, Week 3

2026-03-06T02:13:03Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Time to get our moods on!

This week's Minimum moods are: Enthralled, Happy, Indescribable

This week's Medium and Maximum moods are: Discontent, Gloomy, Anxious

Gloomy is such a great mood for this, IMO! It has a very visual feeling to it, all overcast skies and melodrama. Discontent, on the other hand, is a little harder to narrow down. It's a bit of a cousin to Anxious here, shifting on its feet and frowning a bit, but not necessarily able to put a finger on it or vocalize why exactly. It's not quite uncomfortable, but it's not not uncomfortable, you know? Anxious, of course, is vibrating nervous energy, afraid to put a line out of place and worried about what's going on.

What are your thoughts on this week's moods? Do you have a different take on them? And do you think you'll have an easy time with them, or will they be more difficult? Some of each? Let's talk about it!

comments

Part 2, Week 2

2026-02-27T02:31:25Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

More moods for your themes!

This week's Minimum moods are: Determined, Devious, Energetic

This week's Medium and Maximum moods are: Refreshed, Surprised, Lazy

It would be a Refreshing Surprise if I could be Lazy today 😛

Okay, okay, I kid! (Well, sorta.) Back on topic, how do you feel about these moods? Surprised seems like a pretty easy grab compared to the other two; I've had a fair amount of trouble with Lazy and especially Refreshed in the past. So far with Lazy, I've made a rat laying on a block of cheese while eating it, a pigeon sitting in a seed tray, a jellyfish snoozing happily, and a very chilled out cloud. For Refreshed, the rat and the cloud both have "refreshing" sparkles, the jellyfish is sighing contentedly with its eyes closed, and the pigeon is splashing in a bird bath.

What are your plans for these moods? Do you have something in mind for them already, or do you need to work at it more? Need help brainstorming on any of them? Let's talk about it!

comments

Mood Themes and AI

2026-02-26T01:53:10Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

There's a new dw_dev post up about Dreamwidth's stance on "AI", for anyone who wants to know.

The reason I'm posting about it over here is because it clarifies something relevant to this community. Namely, any art that Dreamwidth uses officially, such as for mood themes, must be made by a human. You can still use AI to make a mood theme for yourself, but it will never be an official, site-supported Dreamwidth mood theme that anyone can use for free.

I'm also going to say that AI generated mood themes aren't eligible for the free Dreamwidth points offer through this community. I feel that AI generated mood themes defeat the spirit of this community and its goals of fostering creativity, innovation, and curiosity about the inner workings of Dreamwidth itself.

On a related note, an update to the requirements for a site-supported mood theme page is coming up, er, eventually. We do have a potential size limit for site-supported mood theme images, though: No more than 60 kb per image, and no more than 150 pixels wide by 100 pixels tall. The "preferred size" limit is also anticipated to go up to 50x50 pixels, up from the 30x30 listed.

I think that should be it for now; I hope everyone is having a good time with this community, whether you're participating or just following along, and I'll be back with more moods tomorrow!

comments

Part 2, Week 1

2026-02-20T02:39:59Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Welcome aboard for Part 2 of Mood Theme in a Year! I hope you had a good break, because we're about to break into some new moods 👍

Starting now, the Maximum and Medium Tracks diverge from the Minimum track; in Part 3, Medium and Minimum will be unified again, but Maximum will be striking out on its own for the rest of the year. Pretty exciting!

This week's Minimum moods are: Angry, Awake, Confused

This week's Medium and Maximum moods are: Stressed, Excited, Optimistic

And what a combination of moods we have to start out with here! Pretty neat that you can be Stressed, Excited, and Optimistic all at the same time. Or maybe I mean "exhausting" rather than neat 😅 Still, they're new moods to work with, and it can be fun to compare and contrast. If you're sticking around on the Maximum Track, it'll be good practice for when we get into runs of similar moods. How do Excited and Optimistic differ? How would you differentiate the two moods? How about Excited versus Stressed? Those both have the potential to be pretty high energy moods, even if they're on different ends of whether you're happy about something. Stressed and Optimistic? It doesn't really seem like they have a lot in common on the surface, but if you've been working really hard on something you still feel good about succeeding, you might just feel both of those at the same time.

What do you think? Are you ready to jump in on this week's moods, or do you wish the break had lasted a little longer? Do you expect to have any trouble with any of them, or need some inspiration? Let's talk about it!

comments

Full Mood Theme: Sabrina Carpenter

2026-02-18T21:42:29Z

Posted by: romantic_slash_creepy

PREVIEW:

Happy	Mischievous	Predatory	Awake	Morose

Artistic	Crushed	Working	Touched	Cold

» Full Preview ( UNDER HERE )

→ 132 unique moods, from the videos for "Because I Liked A Boy," "Nonsense," "Fast Times," "Feather," "Santa Doesn't Know You Like I Do," "Espresso," "Please Please Please," "Taste," "Please Please Please" feat. Dolly Parton, "Manchild," and "Tears." It is a little "Manchild"-heavy, but that video has about three million scenes in it, so it was gold for emotions.
→ All caps courtsey of sabrina-carpenter.com
→ 100x68px
→ Credit is appreciated if used.

DOWNLOAD HERE

comments

Mixed series Digimon & Ojamajo Doremi season 1 mood themes - part 1

2026-02-13T23:17:41Z

Posted by: majoukoufu

Here's first part of two mood themes - an Ojamajo Doremi theme I'm making as I go, and a Digimon theme I’m (heavily) polishing that I worked on for the last couple months of 2025. Both have borders, are 94x72, and have a few alternate mood image options apiece.

The Ojamajo Doremi theme:
- only features screencaps from the first season/series/51 episodes
- is going to be made for Doremi fans in general, trying to give as many characters an appearance as possible and not favour anyone too much except in the sense of the main characters naturally showing up more than other characters

The Digimon theme:
- will feature images from 02 (+ Hurricane Touchdown + The Beginning), Tamers (+ Runaway Locomon), Frontier, and Appmon, also featuring some-but-less Adventure and Ghost Game - mostly screencaps, but also album and video covers, and maybe the occasional trading card or promo art
- was made for me and focuses on characters I like
- occasionally involves Wormmon, aka a cartoon bug. Just in case? Here in part 1, he only shows up in the alternates (under an HTML-5 cut)

Both these themes:
- should be assumed to contain spoilers through endgame for all involved canon material
- can be used by anyone! Just please link back to any of my posts in this community in your profile or sticky post or some other public location. I’ll also edit in a compilation post (for each) link with all the images posted in one place on my journal at the end of the year

( Ojamajo Doremi mood theme part 1 )

( Digimon mood theme part 1 )

Other parts: Part 2

comments

First Break

2026-02-13T02:47:10Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

This is it, everyone; we've made it to our first break!

Anyone following the Minimum Track officially has enough graphics for a complete mood theme, plus three to really round out your image diversity 👌 That means that, if you have a paid account, you can start uploading your mood theme and use it right now if you want!

And speaking of paid accounts, anyone who has made 18 mood graphics so far is eligible for Dreamwidth Points! Do take some time to think about whether you want to cash those in now, or, if you're planning to make more mood graphics this year, if you'd prefer to wait a little bit. In terms of points savings, cashing in at 6 months or 12 months are the only options that offer any savings, but even then that's only a difference of 5 and 10 points respectively.

Anyone who's aiming to make a site supported mood theme, I'm so sorry, I'm still not ready for you 😢🤦‍♀️ It looks like premium paid time can only be purchased in 6 month increments anyway, so I'll need to update the "How to get Dreamwidth Points for making a custom mood theme" post regardless, but I'll do everything in my power to be ready by July—which, for anyone following the Maximum Track, will put you past the minimum 72 images for six months' worth of paid time.

I think that's it for the moment; however you spend the next week—be it relaxing, catching up on moods you missed or redoing moods you're not entirely happy with, trying to get ahead, or something else entirely—you have a fun time, and if you're continuing on, I'll see you here for Part 2!

comments

Part 1, Week 6

2026-02-06T02:32:07Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Here we are, the final week of Part 1!

This week's Minimum, Medium, and Maximum moods are: Relaxed, Silly, Uncomfortable

These three moods help diversify your mood theme; if you want maximum different images with the fewest possible graphics, these are good to include.

But what do you think about the moods themselves? Relaxed and Uncomfortable are almost polar opposites here! Hopefully, once you figure out the one, the other will come easily. Silly is always kinda fun, IMO, but if you're working with a serious character, you might have a bit of trouble with it. Do you put them in clown makeup, or a funny hat? Or maybe there's a scene where their drama is being crashed by a much more unserious character that you can draw from? Let's talk about it!

comments

ALKALOID - Part 1

2026-02-02T23:25:38Z

Posted by: setsuntamew

So I tried to do this back in 2024, didn't finish, and then sped through making a completely different mood theme in 2025 (in approx. 24 hours somehow????), and so!! Maybe third time's the charm for making a mood theme at a regular pace.

I'm making this one of the unit ALKALOID from Ensemble Stars! and it's going pretty damn well so far ;D I've got part one day~

( click click for all of part one! )

comments

Part 1, Week 5

2026-01-30T02:23:28Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Here come another three moods!

This week's Minimum, Medium, and Maximum moods are: Scared, Thoughtful, Working

Something important to note here is that Working is technically the final mandatory mood. If you've completed a graphic for all of the moods for the first five weeks, then congratulations! You technically have enough for a full mood theme!

That said, it doesn't count as enough for the free Dreamwidth points; you need to complete at least three more moods for that. I strongly suggest next week's moods for that, since they'll give you the greatest variety of mood graphics for your effort, but they can technically be any mood; if you want to plug all of the remaining moods into a random selector and get three out of that, those would work!

You may have guessed from reading the above that there's only one week left after this for Part 1! That's three moods this week and three moods next week. How have you been doing with the moods so far? Are you having any trouble with this week's moods? Need some help generating some ideas? Or have you already finished and want to show off? Let's talk about it!

comments

Part 1, Week 4

2026-01-23T03:51:37Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Another week down with three new moods!

This week's Minimum, Medium, and Maximum moods are: Nerdy, Okay, Sad

Some more straightforward moods after last week's Indescribable! (Belatedly, if you're still having trouble with that one—valid, TBH—taking a look at what site supported mood themes have done with it might be helpful; a lot of them look pretty similar to the later-occurring Blank, though the Jellyfish have also been turned upside-down in contrast.) Hopefully everyone here is already acquainted with Nerdy 😉 If you're doing your own art, slapping a pair of nerdy glasses on is a quick way to convey the mood, but my upcoming pigeon mood has the bird incubating some polyhedral dice! Okay can be a little difficult to contrast with Good, but Sad is pretty cut-and-dry (or cut-and-wet, if we're including tears).

What are your thoughts on this week's moods? Do you have ideas for some of them already, or do you need to do more thinking/searching? Want to discuss any of them to get a better idea of what to do? Let's talk about it!

(Side note, sorry for my lack of response last week! I think I may have just gotten a tiny bit overwhelmed by how many people are participating 💖 I'm going to try and catch up after my evening shows tonight.)

comments

Part 1, Week 3

2026-01-16T02:17:06Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Going strong with the third week of Part 1! This is the half-way point of the first Part, which also means it's half-way through the Minimum Mood Track; if you're only in the game to make something small but mighty, you could be half way there this week!

This week's Minimum, Medium, and Maximum moods are: Enthralled, Happy, Indescribable

Some nicer moods this week, along with one that's a little more difficult to depict. Enthralled and Happy are straightforward enough, but what do you do for Indescribable? Do you have any thoughts on the subject? If you've made a mood theme before, what have you used for this mood? Need any help brainstorming? Or maybe you're working from the worlds angstiest fandom and actually need help with Happy and/or Enthralled? Let's talk about it!

comments

Part 1, Week 2

2026-01-09T01:32:53Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Here we are at the second week of Part 1, with three new moods!

This week's Minimum, Medium, and Maximum moods are: Determined, Devious, Energetic

What are your thoughts on this week's moods? Do you think they'll come easily, or do you anticipate more of a struggle? Maybe you could stand to rubber duck it a bit with your fellow participants or any of our cheerleaders? Let's talk about it!

comments

Part 1, Week 1

2026-01-02T01:56:49Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

And we're back: Welcome to Mood Theme in a Year 2026! Whether you're here for the Maximum Track, the Medium Track, the Minimum Track, or just to watch and cheer along, I'm glad you're here ♥ I hope you have a good time!

This week's moods are: Angry, Awake, Confused

The next six weeks are the only ones where the moods are the same for all three tracks, so it's pretty special! I hope everyone has fun with it.

Anyway! What are you working on? Are you making a mood theme of any size, working on a different art project, or just here to follow the fun? What medium are you working in? Is there anything you're looking forward to? Let's talk about it!

comments

Year Complete!

2025-12-25T02:56:13Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Well, everyone, we did it again! We made it all the way through 132 mood themes to the end of the year. Or maybe fewer, or maybe more than one mood theme, or maybe you just watched. However you participated (and watching and cheerleading absolutely count), whether you've been here since the start, since January, or came in more recently, I hope you had a fantastic time here at Mood Theme in a Year, and that you'll stick around for 2026!

Next year, moods will go up on Thursdays; I hope to see you then!

- Mod soc_puppet

comments

Part 8, Week 2

2025-12-18T02:30:13Z

Posted by: soc_puppet

Here we are; we've finally made it: The last two moods in the Maximum Track mood theme!

This week's Maximum moods are: Creative, Productive

So, what do you think? Are you ready to knock this out of the park, or do you need a little encouragement to keep going? Are you still seeking inspiration, or do you have the perfect idea for both of them already? And what are you going to do with your time when this project is finally over? Let's talk about it!

comments