Art Journaling Love: Week One...In the Beginning

 “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” 

― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

 Welcome to my Four Week art journaling class.."Art Journaling Love".

I am sooooo Happy you are HERE!

Over the next four weeks I hope you will be inspired to start

 your OWN art journal or keep up with the one you have.

Join me along with five other artists as we share with YOU our pages, favorite techniques, the reasons WHY we journal and more.

I am so proud to introduce these AMAZING ladies to you...

Jen Morris is a creative Life Coach, writer and journal artist from New Zealand.

You can find out more about Jen and see some of her work on her Facebook Page. 

So happy you will be joining us Jen!!!

Meet Leanne Wargowsky!! I hope she doesn't kill me for using this photo...but I LOVE it!! 

It showcases her absolutely FUN and CREATIVE Spirit!!

Here is her Creative Wing's FB page

Patty Radish is one of my FAVORITE art journalers. Her use of retro images is divine!!

You can see a sample of her work on her FB page.

Rae Missigman....oh my goodness still pinching myself that she will be sharing her AMAZING creativity with us!!

Be sure and check out her VERY Inspiring work and blog!!

And last but not least my friend Sherry Canino.

Sherry and I met a year and a half ago at Art Beach and connected INSTANTLY!!

 The minute I saw her at work in her journal I KNEW she was going places!! 

Join her on Tuesdays for her Stencil Crush Tuesdays video's. They are GREAT!

We will be hearing from each of these artists in the next four weeks!

Here's how Art Journaling Love is going to work....

*Each week I will be posting a minimum of THREE posts. 

*One with our Artist

*One with techniques from me

*One with various ideas, studio tour, random art journal pages, etc. 

*Each Monday I will post FIVE Words and FIVE Mantras/Affirmations to use as a starting point for your pages...These will also be in our FILES SECTION on our Mind.Body.Soul Facebook Group page so you will have them all together once the course ends.

*We will also have TWO shapes of the week...(i.e. starts, triangles, etc) to inspire your pages.

*If everything goes as planned I will have video's sprinkled throughout our four weeks showing you how I go from a blank to finished page.

*I HIGHLY encourage YOU to share your pages with us in our GROUP. If you are not a member of our group yet be sure and go here and send me a request! 

Ok....I think that's all the information out of the way!! Now let's BEGIN!

This was my VERY FIRST Art journal page...

 

  When I see this I cringe. I mean it's NOTHING like I would do today.

But that's the beauty of keeping a journal...to see our growth. Not only in our art but in ourselves.

This is in that same journal...look at the FEAR I had!! 

 Again this looks so kid-like to me...

but it's been interesting going back. 

This was my first journal...

a book I found on clearance at Barnes and Noble I think.

 Not really an art journal but rather a blank notebook. Back then I wasn't into using gesso, paints, scraping tools, modeling paste, etc so my pages could take it! HA!

If you are new to keeping a journal you may be wondering...

"What the heck kind of journal do I use anyway?? What size, what kind of pages?" 

There are hundreds more products now then there was six years. But really all you need are a few basic things to begin.

Obviously you need a journal. Here are just a few of MY journals.

 Through the years I have used spiral bound...

 Book bound

 

 Little ones like this Dylusions 5x7 journal from Ranger...

 or my preferred size...

 Just a bit bigger than 81/2x11.

I really like the spiral bound journals like these, too. The best part they are CHEAP and you can find them at Wal-Mart and other Big Box stores for around ten bucks. Be sure and get the ones that say MIXED MEDIA so your pages can withstand lots of layers!! 

We will be talking layers later in the week!

If you really don't want to spend a ton of money on your journals...

it is possible to use a plain old, one dollar composition book.

That's what this one is and honestly it's one of my all-time favorite journals!

The best way to use a notebook is to cover each page in gesso to create a sturdy page for paint, glue and anything else you want to add to your page. We will talking gesso this week!

Here is a page from my notebook'...

 A few more early pages....

  Oh my! I was trying here!!

And LOOK! My attempt at "mark-making"...lol. All those circles!!

 Enough of my early pages (for today anyway...HA!)

Along with a journal or notebook there are a few things you will want to gather this week...

*Your favorite pens (i use InkJoy)

*magazine image (especially images of women and words)

*a paintbrush or two

*scissors

*old scrapbooking supplies (die-cuts, pattern paper, stickers)

*acrylic paint (you can buy these at Wal-Mart for 50 cents a bottle)

*alphabet stamps

Again, as the weeks go on I will be sharing my favorites as well as where I purchase them.

Our Words for the Week...

*Whole

*Intuitive

*Joyous

*Go

*Able

Our Five mantras/affirmations...

*Today I will act out of Love

*Yes You Can

*I allow myself time to create 

*I will make choices that demonstrate the care I have for my body

*Today I am enough

Our TWO shapes to use in our journals this week are...

*Stars

and 

*circles

***Let these Words, Mantras and Shapes be inspiration for your journals this week!! Be sure and post your pages, comments, questions in our FB group.

Be sure and join me TOMORROW for my interview with myself.

I will be sharing my art journaling story along with how putting paint and pen to paper

 I was able to HEAL my Broken Heart.