Hey lovelies! Today I wanted to stop in and talk about one of my favorite past times, art journaling! I feel like the idea of art journaling and smash books are becoming so popular lately, and with good reason, they’re super fun! If you’ve never heard of it before, art journaling is kinda like a cross between journaling and scrapbooking. Holding all of your thoughts, photos, doodles, paintings, and more.
I will confess though, it’s true, I may have become slightly obsessed with this hobby. Which may be evidenced by all the admittedly strange things it’s made me do… such as incessantly pinning art journaling ideas, racing to craft aisles to buy paint, stamps, washi tape, and lots of scrapbook paper. And maybe the strangest of all… collecting receipts, ticket stubs, magazine clippings, and even wrappers from Starbucks to use on my pages. Okay, so I’m fully aware that it may sound a little nutty … but trust me, it can be addicting!
I was first introduced to the idea of art journaling and mixed media arts from blogger/crafter extraordinaire and owner of Red Velvet boutique, Elsie Larson. When I first started following her blog, A Beautiful Mess a few years ago she would talk about art journaling and show pages that she had done, and I was always so intrigued by the creativity of it all.
I’ve always loved journaling and have boxes of journals and notebooks I’ve kept through out the years, so this idea totally struck a cord with me. Actually, looking back at my old journals from when I was younger, I sort of did dabble in art journaling. I of course wouldn’t have thought to call it that at the time, but I would sometimes add photos, magazine clippings, and ticket stubs to certain pages.
In January, after having wanted to do it for a long time, I signed up for Elsie’s Art Journaling All Year E-Course. It’s a collaboration between her and her long time friend and fellow Red Velvet girl, Rachel Denbow. They have both mentioned how art journaling was a shared hobby that they would do together when they first became friends years ago (this is one of the many e-courses they offer, so check out them all out here). It’s a series of prompts that you can do through out a years time. I really love it, there are so many creative and fun prompts to tackle. However, while I’ve done a lot of them, I don't do them as often as I used to.
To be honest, I just fell in love with the whole creative process of art journaling and started letting my imagination take over to make my own pages. There’s just something so freeing and so fun about sitting down with all your art supplies and a blank sheet of paper and going wild with it. Making it whatever you want it to be. It’s a really great form of self expression. I think one of my favorite things has to be putting on some good tunes, sipping on iced coffee, and spending a couple hours art journaling. It’s just really fun and relaxing to me; to cut, paste, paint, stamp, and write. To create something that’s beautiful and special to you.
So I thought I would share some photos of my art journal pages and supplies with you guys! Now, disclaimer, while I adore art journaling I’m not claiming to be great at it. I’m still very much an amateur. But I try very hard not to focus so much on things looking perfect because that just sucks the fun out of it. I just want to keep it about self expression and creativity. These are some pages that were fun to make and are special to me, so I hope you enjoy getting a peak at them!
My Art Journal ~
My jumbo journal that will now barely close, ha! I just embellished it with some scrapbook paper, doilies, and buttons. Not super fancy but I like it! :)
My Art Journaling Supplies ~
Cigar box filled with found papers and other ephemera to use in journaling, and a bowl filled some supplies.
A few photos of my growing collection of art journaling supplies… the beginners kit, if you will. Mod Podge, paint, sponge brushes, washi tape (I have a love affair with washi tape!! Need more!), scrapbook paper, stickers, stamps, buttons, pens, markers, paint chips, ect. All of this stuff is super cheap at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby. In fact, I got some of this stuff for 97 cents in the Wal-Mart craft section.
A couple folders filled with magazine clippings and printed papers to journal with.
My Pages ~
Some of these pages don’t have any writing on them yet as I sometimes just enjoy making the pages and filling them out later.
The page with the photo on it is of me, my cousin, and my sister. This is a page that I made to document a really fun and goofy “photo shoot” that we did one night in 2008, I believe. I mod podged the photo onto a paper I printed out that had that quote on it. Oh so fitting for us! I even pasted in a little picture of a flower my cousin drew a long time ago that I saved; I think it gives it a nice touch. :)
I made a cd of the songs I’m listening to this summer, pasted a cd sleeve into my journal, and slipped the cd in. That way I can always go back and listen to what songs were my summer 2012 soundtrack.
Iced Coffee & Good Tunes ~
Okay, so iced coffee is a must in the art journaling process… well, at least for me anyway. It just makes it so much more relaxing to me. Art journaling and iced coffee just go together in my book. I made this Caramel Macchiato by brewing two shots of espresso, filling a glass with 1 cup of milk (leaving room at the top for the espresso), 2 tbsp. Torani’s Caramel Syrup, 2 tbsp. Torani’s French Vanilla Syrup, and 2 packages of Splenda; stir and fill with ice. Then top it off with espresso, mix, and drink up! Trust me, this is delish!
And of course, I always need good tunes to listen to while art journaling! Milo Greene, The Civil Wars, and a couple summer mixed cds.
Hope you enjoyed looking around, and consider picking up art journaling yourself! I’m actually gong to be taking part in another art journaling class over at the blog, Everyday Is A Holiday. Blogger/designer, Jenny Holiday and her husband Aaron are avid art journalers (is that a word? …spell check doesn’t like it apparently) and will be giving the classes every week.
They also have a link up so everyone can show off their finished pages. So stay tuned as I will sharing my progress from these classes! And click here to take part in the fun!
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