Hi, everyone! Ariel here with a short post about art journaling. If you spend any time at all with me you know I have an art journal (or four). I find having a designated place for creativity to be therapeutic; it’s a great way for me to recharge my batteries after spending time out in the world. I thought I would share a page I made recently in case anyone was curious about art journaling but wasn’t sure what was involved/how to start/what constitutes art journaling. I made a page in my journal about doing the Color Run with my husband and friend. I first gathered my supplies which were gesso and watercolors. Gesso is a primer for a page. You use it to make the page thicker and easier for things to stick to it, whether that’s paint or adhesive or what have you. It’s a little expensive but it’s worth the price if you have a journal with thin pages.  After painting on the gesso and allowing it to dry, I put blotches of watercolors at the top of the page and used a spray bottle filled with water to make the paint run down the page.

I sprayed water at the top of the page, letting the page dry between sprayings, until I was happy with the way everything looked. And to be totally honest, I didn’t like the top of the page with those big blotches of paint. That was okay, though, because the next thing I was going to do was put pictures from the Color Run on the page.

I placed the pictures on the page in such a way as to hide what I didn’t like about the paint, namely the top and bottom. You can still see the colors and the way the blended together and that’s really what I was going for. I used photo corners to attach the pictures to the page. The only thing left to do at this point was to add some journaling about the day.

Mostly I wrote that we had a great time and after the race we had an amazingly delicious breakfast at a local restaurant. And that’s it! There isn’t a whole lot going on with this page but I liked the way it turned out. It documented an experience that I will remember for a long time and allowed me to be creative.

Here’s a few links that I’ve found helpful in making an art journal:
A Beautiful Mess has an e-course that Caitlyn and I have used
Daisy Yellow has some good tips
Thistle Dew blog has monthly art journaling prompts

Also, PInterest has some really great art journaling images!

Have you ever kept an art journal?