Hi Everyone!

One of the best ways I know to get my creative juices flowing is to have a dedicated book just for playing – an art journal. Art journals come in all shapes and sizes, and have all sorts of themes – many of you probably already have one (or many)! The one I’m currently using is loosely based on a theme – lists.

Sometimes the pieces I create in the book are about the theme, and sometimes I just use the pieces as a background for a list I want to create at the moment. Here are some ideas I’ve been playing with recently…

This color combination. I love how springy it is! I’m also really gravitating toward circles, splatter and glitter these days. This piece was a quick, fun little project to do, but things like this also help me to figure out what works for me, what my style is moving toward, etc.

I play around a bit with drawing, but I’m not very good at it. And if I’m honest with myself, I don’t really have the patience to become good at drawing. But the art journal helps me to realize things like that, too.

I’m definitely planning a layout with a painted black, background and a painted, white, handwritten title in the near future. I think it looks like a chalkboard!

I have all sorts of little bits of ephemera that I like to insert into the book. And sometimes they make their way onto my layouts, too!

I really have a huge thing for hand-cut, patterned paper circles these days. They turn up as a design motif on my layouts all the time. I stuck these down with Mod Podge, then sprinkled the top with glitter. I need to remember to use that idea on my layouts, too!

And this messy, hand-written writing style has turned up on a recent layout. I use my art journal as a testing ground for ideas. And when I like the results, I use them on layouts!

Those are just some of the ideas I’ve been playing with lately in my art journal. Playing with ideas is fun, and it helps me grow into new techniques and styles!

Do you guys keep art journals? And how do you use them? I’d love to hear, or even see pictures, of what you’re doing in yours!

Anja