Favorite Tools for Art Journaling

Most of my readers know that I have a love for art journaling. I only started art journaling about one year ago, but already I have tools that I deem favorites for the process. I am a marker girl. Love all different kinds of markers. Grace is actually the same but her coveted markers are Copics for her manga drawing and they cost 7.00 each. Most of mine come in sets. In the above pic are some of my colored Bic permanent markers. Sharpies are good as well but my personal preference is Bic.

Next on the list would be metallic gel pens. I use these for highlighting and sometimes writing. They do not work all that well to write on a background of watercolor. I should also mention that the tools are not in order of importance or love of item. Just stuff out of my art journaling bag that I love to use.

Again, metallic markers. This markers above are Liquid Metals by Sargent Art and I think they were purchased at one of my favorite haunts; Michaels, JoAnns, and Hobby Lobby.

This black pen is probably my all time favorite and it is a very inexpensive pen. I use this for outlining, sometimes writing, and so much more. This is a .7mm R-2 rollerball.

When I began art journaling my adhesive of choice was simply a glue stick, but I have evolved. I watched some youtube videos and saw them using the double sided tape and dispenser. Great, great addition to my tools.

My absolute favorite type of watercolors and they are super cheap. I know many, many art folks out there will turn their noses up to this set of watercolors, but truly they work wonders for what I need them to do. This is the generic set of watercolors that Michaels sales for like 5.00 or less. Most of my art journal pages have watercolor backgrounds.

The two above watercolor sets are mainly used for accents on top of the other watercolors set. The metallic set was picked up at a homeschool convention in Greenville from Miller Pads and Paper. The glitter watercolor was from Walmart.

Of course neo gel pens are the bomb. You can see the pack is missing one color and that would be white. Grace stole it for her highlights on her manga drawings.

I have used all types of paper and this is my newest purchase. I originally purchased this medium tone paper for chalk but after purchasing it realized that the paper is not textured and I didn't think that chalk would adhere very well to the paper. They were on sale for 5.00 each so we stocked up. Now it has become another art journaling pad.

My favorite pens are actually very fine pointed. I use these for writing and accents, highlighting, and sometimes borders. A fairly inexpensive set at 25.00. I think I used birthday money for the purchase last year.

Couldn't find the third pen that goes with this set. Copper, silver, and gold metallic sharpies. Love, love, love these pens - they are so rich in color and application. Again I use these mostly for highlighting and accents. 

Art Journaling Group

This summer I hosted a girl's art journaling group once a week. Some weeks we had as many as 10 girls in attendance and some weeks, like yesterday it was small with maybe 5. Yesterday was actually our last meeting for the summer. I noticed that some of the girls were having trouble actually creating a page and knowing creatively what to do. 

So this week we built two pages from the ground up step by step. One page was what I call a "Quote Page" and the other was kind of like a journal or diary page. We used watercolors, markers, stickers, and erasers. I will miss seeing these girls once a week. Who ever said that hanging around teenagers was hard simply hasn't really spent time around them. They are a complete joy.

Creating Your Own Opportunities

Have you ever wanted your child to take a class but discovered that the class you are interested in is full, too expensive, or doesn't even exist? Well, we live in a small community and that happens to us often. As many of my readers may know that is why last year me and a friend created a fine arts cooperative. We say a need and wanted something affordable for our children as well as others in the community. The cooperative has just blossomed into something so wonderful. Sixty kids participated last semester and it looks to be just as big for the upcoming semester. Anyway with that kind of thinking I also wanted to do something over the summer related to art journaling. You see I love to art journal but never make the time to do it. Also I knew some of the teen girls from the cooperative would love to see each other over the summer. So out of all those thought processes I decided to put together an art journaling group that would meet once a week to create art.

Yesterday was our first meeting and we had 8 girls show up to create. I have lots of supplies so I let the girls go to town with what I had available. I asked them to bring a bound sketch pad and if they had any extra markers, etc. that wanted to bring to work with. From the responses we will have anywhere between 6-12 girls each Thursday for a couple of hours to art journal. Most of the pages the girls did were about favorites and music lyrics. Next week we will be journaling about a special trip. 

Just because there is not a particular class or opportunity available in your area doesn't mean you cannot create it yourself. Take the plunge. Teens are so much fun to spend time with. You will truly be blessed by the experience.

What To Do With Birthday Cards

I will be the first to tell you that I do not like giving or receiving greeting cards. I always tell my husband do not get me a card for Valentines, Anniversary, etc. Greeting cards in most homes will be read once or twice then eventually thrown in the trash. It is such a waste of money especially with some cards costing as much as five dollars each. This past Christmas I even gave home made note cards to my family to use. Well, a week ago was my 46th birthday and of course I received some cards (please don't think that I am not appreciative of the cards...because I am). After a few days my problem arises. What do I do with the cards? I am not one of those folks that saves everything in a box. What I came up with is something many other people are already doing. I decided to keep a few of the special cards and make an art journal page out of it. Now it will be in my journal forever. 

 

Linking up with The Homestead Barn Hop. Take a hop over and see all the wonderful links.

Index Card Challenge

This week me and Grace only got 2 index cards each finished. I was plenty busy creating journal pages to use as examples for the kids class I will be teaching in August.

Grace - Prompt Rainbow

Grace - Prompt Ladybug

Me - Prompt Draw with a ruler

Me - Prompt Ocean

Two New Obsessions

Okay I have two new obsessions. I am little slow on jumping on the band wagon with this first:

Pinterest is my new best friend. Love looking at all the art journaling pages, homemade gift ideas, etc.  Next new obsession is art journaling.

Used watercolors and a template from Pinterest.

This is in colored pencils - a poem about caterpillars for the kids  in my art journaling class.



As far as art goes I am not very talented or creative. But when I agreed to teach an art class in the fall for 3rd - 6th grades I knew I need to step outside of my box and get to work. So each night me and Grace sit down and either do a journal page or an index card for the ICAD challenge. We have actually had alot of fun with it so far. Hoping I improve over time. In years gone by I did alot of scrapbooking which has prepared me a little for the art journaling process. I do want to learn more techniques to improve my pages. 

Index Card Challenge Week 5

Grace - Prompt - Butterfly

Grace - Prompt - Zebra Inspired

Grace - Prompt - Confetti

Grace - Prompt - Dramatic

Me - Prompt - Butterfly

Me - Prompt - Pink Collage

Me - Prompt - Thesaurus 

Me - Prompt - Zebra Inspired

This week Grace decided to join me with the index card challenge. As you can tell from the pictures, my work is mostly paper and collage while Grace's is drawing, because I can't draw. But I am practicing. Grace is so much more talented than myself, I hope she really takes it somewhere with her life.

Index Card Challenge Week 4

Prompt - Snowman

Prompt - Recipe

Prompt - Draw an Ice Cream Sundae

As you can see my drawing leaves something to be desired. Each week the challenge actually wants you to accomplish 7 index cards, but creativity is not my strong suit. So I get out as many as I can. This week only three materialized. But in my defense I was working on many other projects this week also.

Index Card Challenge Week

Prompt - Your Name

Prompt - Perfume

Prompt - Pocket

Prompt - Swirl

Index Card Challenge Week 2

I didn't do very well this week, only three cards out of five were accomplished. The prompts were black & white, chaos, and quilt.

Index Card a Day Week 1

In a previous post I mentioned I had joined the Index Card a Day Challenge. I actually joined this a little late so only have four cards to show instead of five. Each week we are given 10 prompts to choose from - this week I choose dragonfly, collage, doodling name, and yellow. Please be gentle. I am so not an artist. The main reason I joined the challenge was to learn beginning art journaling for a co-op I will be teaching to kids and teens next spring.