Want to Make an Art Journal ??

I know I've been talking about Art Journaling a lot lately -- and well -- I just can't help it! I have been spending a lot of my time working in my own journal for my newest class, Mixed Media Workshop Two over at My Creative Classroom - and well, it's been on my mind a lot.

I think you can find a lot of reasons to art journal...from experimenting with new tools and techniques...to working through emotional upset... and even better; ways to work out and determine personal goals and how to become a better human being....and I am sure there are many more.

Art Journaling doesn't need to be expensive either -- you can turn an old cereal box and cardstock into a small book to carry with you for drawing, doodling and playing with text.

Take it a step further and use watercolor paper or bristol board for the inner pages and you can add wet mediums (image transfers, acrylic and watercolor paints, collage with gel medium or mod podge and so much MORE) and you have a journal that will stand up to the riggers of adding wet mediums to the pages! 

To get started, determine how many pages you want in your book -- thin or thick -- think about how you want to bind it, and prepare them by folding them all in half and create signatures by stacking the folded papers together (2 or 3 sheets per signature depending on the thickness of your paper). Prepare your cover by trimming down your box, folding it and getting it ready to stitch the pages to it; use a sewing machine to sew or hand-stitch them with wax thread to your cover.

Decorate the cover with papers, tapes and whatever else pleases you and Voila, your journal is ready for some fun art play!  You can see in the pages below that I've done a lot of different types of playing in my journal! There really is no rhyme or reason -- just do whatever you FEEL like doing whenever you feel like it and you will love art journaling as much as I do! For more detailed instructions, read the full post over at the Expert Blog on the Spotted Canary.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a GREAT week so far!