Art Journaling

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun." Mary Lou Cook

Last summer I discovered Art Journaling.  It changed my life!  I had gone to America, with my Mum, to take a course in tribal bellydance.  There where several other people on the course, including a lovely lady called Tracy who we were car sharing with, and she was an art journaler.  She very kindly shared her journal, her work, with me.  It was beautiful.   I had never heard of art journaling before and was instantly interested in what it was.  I had made countless scrap books of holidays but they were quite basic and nothing exciting or expressive.  I learnt that art journaling is a way of expressing your self through your art.  It isn't about the end product, it doesn't matter if you make mistakes or how you use the products, it is about the process.  There are no rules, you make the rules! 

I began the hunt for art journaling materials, desperate to start my first journal straight away.  I bought a beautiful stamp and some papers as well as a gorgeous notebook and my first ever copy of Stampington's Art Journaling magazine.  What a magazine!  What inspiration I found within it's pages! 

When I got back I wanted to make a beautiful art journal of my trip and luckily had an old passport that I turned into my first ever art journal.  I was so pleased with it and will treasure it forever as a memory of my holiday!



As much as I love this journal, and it is a great reminder of my trip, it wasn't a reflective journal.  I wanted to explore this side of art journaling more.  I wanted to use it as a way of opening up my creative side and reflecting on, well, me.  I started a journal but soon gave up.  I loved preparing pages but found it difficult to write.  I just didn't know what to write about!  Also, the book was too big and a bit daunting.  I did some more research, got a book, got some older copies of Art Journaling magazine and searched the internet for ecourses and ideas.  From my research I made a list of journal prompts, joined a free ecourse on Creativity and started a much smaller A5 journal, adding my own pages to it when needed.  These have really helped me to open up my creativity and to write!

My most recent art journal began at the start of 2011.  I wanted to start the year with a new journal and chose a theme, a moto, for it 'Trust Yourself'.  Already my journal is getting quite thick as I use my prompts and ecourses as a way of opening up my creativity. 

My journaling has helped me to realise that I am a creative artist and I love it.



This page was inspired from Andrea
Schroeder's Creativity 101 ecourse. 





Creative Me!  This page was also inspired by Andrea
Schroeder's Creativity 101 course.