And now for something really different...

For the next several months, I’ll be blogging on a topic I care a lot about (drumroll, please): art journaling! 

If this term is new to you, the good news is it is pretty self-explanatory. Art journaling is the combination of art and, you guessed it, journaling. Typically this is done in a journal but other than that, the form the art and journaling take is completely up to the art journaler. In my art journaling, I tend use a lot of paint, collage, doodling, patterning, printed pictures, and ephemera. ​

A recent spread from my art journal

​I started art journaling in January 2016, so I’m fairly new to the game. If you want to know more about my beginnings with art journaling, you should check out my TEDxGeorgiaSouthern presentation. I’ve led art journaling workshops around Statesboro, co-hosted the July 2018 GlueBook Party (an instagram art meetup), and even incorporated art journaling practices into my first year composition course as brainstorming and organization tools.

Something that makes art journaling so easy and rewarding to share with others is that it is accessible to anyone with very basic supplies. Anyone with a pen and a notebook can do it! Add in some old magazines, a box of crayons, an old movie ticket stub, some stickers, well… you can see how easy it could be to get a lot of supplies without much investment. The most important supplies are creativity and a willingness to try. Because art journaling is personal, it’s not evaluated by any kind of rules or requirements. Anything you put on the page is good! As long as you are getting something from either the process or the product, the art journaling has served its purpose.

One thing I get from art journaling is a sense of community. I choose to share some of my art journaling pages online and through that I can connect with other art journalers. I have friends all over the world thanks to the art journaling community and I am regularly inspired and challenged by them. One thing going on right now that has inspired me is the Creative Bug and @getmessyartjournal collaboration: #creativebuggetsmessy. Here's their intro video. 

In case you weren’t sure what all the paint and excitement was about! Tell us your favorite thing about your creativity then sign up for a free trial to the 30 day challenge! Link in profile! My (@laurenlikesblog ) favorite thing about my creativity is how it connects me to the world. I love being able to translate the beauty around me into something new. It makes me feel like i am adding a little bit of magic to this place i Call home ? what about you? #creativebuggetsmessy #getmessyartjournal #creativebug

A post shared by Get Messy Art (@getmessyartjournal) on Sep 4, 2018 at 11:19am PDT

Throughout September, they'll provide daily prompts, instructional videos, and live instagram sessions. There’s even a free year of Get Messy membership to win, if you complete all the prompts! If you’re interested in checking out #creativebuggetsmessy, you can see membership info on their profiles. If you aren’t ready to pay, the instagram hashtag and live sessions are free of charge and allow you to create some art journaling pages along with the Get Messy folks. I watched a session tonight and it has me itching to get into my journal!

Now I’m curious about your experience. Have any of you tried art journaling? What about art or journaling separately? Let me know in the comments so I can get a sense of what you might like to read about as I go on.