With summer just around the corner, many of us are planning to get out more and take some trips. This is a perfect time to "get your feet wet" with art journaling.
I remember, as a little girl on road trips, my mother would give the kids notebooks and tell us to write and draw about what we were seeing.
I quickly learned it's near impossible to look out the side window and draw something you whizzed pass at 60 mph!
We had all the time in the world to draw the mountains on the horizon, though. We also discovered that our notebooks were great for playing hangman, tic tac toe and marking "dot-to-dot" picture drawing prompts. We challenged each other to poetry contests and listed the presidents and the state capitals, and asked our mom to give us spelling tests. Our mom was happy -- this process gave her a half-hour reprieve from "are we there yet?", and "he's touching me!" Little did we know that these notebooks of doodles and thoughts and pictures and games were a form of art journal or travel journal!
When I'm traveling, I still love to keep a notebook for thoughts and addresses and doodles and sketches, but I don't always have the space or weight allowance for a full sized notebook. I found these mini-composition notebooks at the drugstore last fall, and bought several. I keep an altered mini notebook for art journaling on the go and my husband keeps a plain mini journal to document things we talk about on our date nights.
To create your own altered notebook
Now that your background are prepped, your book is ready for journaling and sketching.
I made a little "non-stick" card for storing double-sided tape or washi tape -- for those times you want to adhere a ticket stub or a receipt or part of a brochure to a journal page.
To make the card, I cut a piece of cardstock, about twice the size of a business card. I scored it in the middle, added adhesive to half, and folded the card, wrong sides together.
Next, I "laminated" the card in clear packing tape.
That's all you need to have a card for keeping tapes when you're on the go. I've added double-sided tape to mine, but you may want to add bits of pretty washi tape.
I also cut pieces of cardstock slightly bigger than a notebook page to make barriers to keep paint of ink from staining the pages behind the ones I was working on. These were also wrapped in clear packing tape. The back were left white, so they can be used as impromptu palettes, if necessary.
I covered the mini-composition notebook in scrapbook paper to coordinate with the altered tin I shared about here.
Carry the notebook on it's own, to jot down thoughts and sketches, or carry it with art supplies, like this watercolor kit in an Altoids tin, I shared about here.
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Thanks for stopping by!
I remember, as a little girl on road trips, my mother would give the kids notebooks and tell us to write and draw about what we were seeing.
I quickly learned it's near impossible to look out the side window and draw something you whizzed pass at 60 mph!
We had all the time in the world to draw the mountains on the horizon, though. We also discovered that our notebooks were great for playing hangman, tic tac toe and marking "dot-to-dot" picture drawing prompts. We challenged each other to poetry contests and listed the presidents and the state capitals, and asked our mom to give us spelling tests. Our mom was happy -- this process gave her a half-hour reprieve from "are we there yet?", and "he's touching me!" Little did we know that these notebooks of doodles and thoughts and pictures and games were a form of art journal or travel journal!
When I'm traveling, I still love to keep a notebook for thoughts and addresses and doodles and sketches, but I don't always have the space or weight allowance for a full sized notebook. I found these mini-composition notebooks at the drugstore last fall, and bought several. I keep an altered mini notebook for art journaling on the go and my husband keeps a plain mini journal to document things we talk about on our date nights.
To create your own altered notebook
- Begin by carefully removing about one-quarter of the pages.
- Next, glue pairs of pages together to give the pages some strength and body.
- Grab scraps of scrapbook paper, or vintage book pages, or junk mail or whatever and adhere the scraps to some of your pages.
- Tear rectangles of watercolor paper and adhere to many of the pages.
- Add background inks or paints to many of the pages.
Now that your background are prepped, your book is ready for journaling and sketching.
I made a little "non-stick" card for storing double-sided tape or washi tape -- for those times you want to adhere a ticket stub or a receipt or part of a brochure to a journal page.
To make the card, I cut a piece of cardstock, about twice the size of a business card. I scored it in the middle, added adhesive to half, and folded the card, wrong sides together.
Next, I "laminated" the card in clear packing tape.
That's all you need to have a card for keeping tapes when you're on the go. I've added double-sided tape to mine, but you may want to add bits of pretty washi tape.
I also cut pieces of cardstock slightly bigger than a notebook page to make barriers to keep paint of ink from staining the pages behind the ones I was working on. These were also wrapped in clear packing tape. The back were left white, so they can be used as impromptu palettes, if necessary.
I covered the mini-composition notebook in scrapbook paper to coordinate with the altered tin I shared about here.
Carry the notebook on it's own, to jot down thoughts and sketches, or carry it with art supplies, like this watercolor kit in an Altoids tin, I shared about here.
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to House Revivals so you won't miss any of the great projects we have planned. Like and subscribe to us on Facebook, and find us on Instagram, too!
Thanks for stopping by!