Art Journal Inspiration

Art Journals! My inspiration for you today is coming from a lovely lady named Ingrid Dijkers, who's all about mixed media. Back in January I took a class from her on art journals, how to get started, what to use, what to do an art journal about, etc. It all came down to "anything goes"! The best part of class was looking at her books, and examples that students had brought. They were fabulous and they made me want to do this. It was different than scrapbooking but it incorporated so much of what we all already do. Do you doodle? Do you save random bits from your outings with family & friends? Do you love to tell stories? Do you want to just play regardless of where you are? Do you want to just get your story down and not worry about coordinating your pattern paper, cardstock and embellishments? If you answered yes to those questions or even some of those questions then I think you might just find that creating an art journal is what you've been missing. It is basically an illustrated journal, whether it be your daily personal journal or a journal you take with you when you travel. It's a collection of your thoughts, sketches, doodles, notes, magazine and newspaper clippings, photos, ephemera, etc. It can be used as your brainstorming outlet or a home for your thoughts. Before you know it you'll have a scrapbook of your hopes, dreams, wishes and daily musings! Like I said earlier, anything goes. You don't need much to get started, a notebook and pens- the more colors the better. You can add in paints, pastels, markers, pencil crayons and pretty much anything else you can get your sticky little hands on! I get my inspiration from a few sources but this link here to Ingrid's website is wonderful! From there you can find her blog and also find all sorts of other talented altered art and altered journal ladies! Most importantly, have fun, enjoy the process of making your journal and do not stress about what your page looks like. I promise that when it's done or full you will love it!
Here are a few page I started, I blended pastels to create the back grounds for these three pages and I will have you know that when I started I had no idea what I was doing, I just played and before I knew it I had a finished page!
Have Fun & Be inspired!