This section will include 10 step-by-step formulae for making art journal spreads to take the overwhelm out of art journaling.
Art Journal Catalysts
Collage
Lesson 4 – Layering Image Transfers
For this final lesson, I will demonstrate how you can create a really cool art journal spread by layering multiple image transfers on top of one another. This particular process does take time to complete, only because you have to wait until each transfer is completely dry before you add another transfer over it. But the outcome is so worth the time and wait.
Layers and Layers of Life with Cindy
In this Artist Date with Cindy, we will glue and paint and then gesso and then glue and then paint some more. And then maybe some more.
How to create layers with transparencies
Connections I love being inspired by what I learn from other artists. Over the past couple of years, I’ve learned so much from talented, and generous artists, and I’ve...
How to make an envelope journal
Connections Hey y'all! It's Katie here with my tutorial for the Season of Connections! Have you ever had a penpal? I used to have half a dozen of them when I was a...
How to make a prompt-producing DIY chatterbox game
Hi there everyone, Tanyalee here with a bit of a fun tutorial post. Today I am going to teach you to make an origami fortune teller/chatterbox that I have designed with art journaling...
Part 4 – Claiming the Female
Women’s lives and stories have been interpreted through the masculine lens for a long time. The idea of the witch came out of men being afraid of the knowledge that certain women had. They wanted to control women and so invented this idea of witchcraft as something to be afraid of and repress. And I would like this lesson to be about not being embarrassed to tap into that shared knowledge and history. To acknowledge that we are women and that we participate in society and matter just as much as anyone else. I want women to be proud of this and to be intentional in our art and lives.
Lesson 6 – Peace
Tthoughts about the idea of inner peace and how we seek it.
Creating a mixed media self portrait
Connections "A portrait affirms; it gives the gift of self to its subject. It says, 'Yes, you are worth spending this time over, your story deserves to be told, you should...
Imagining and creating fantastic creatures in your art journal
Fairy Tales Hello Messians, it's EmK again, and I am thrilled to be here for the season that I've been anticipating the most: Fairy Tales! I've always fancied myself a writer...
How to make and use your own colour catalogue
Colour Hello, hello! It's Ashley here. This season has been such a blast, so I wanted to round it out by sharing a simple color catalogue you can create and use for continuous...
Combining warm and cool colours to create contrast
Contrast This season has been a blast, and I can barely believe that there are only two more weeks left in this wonderful world of contrast! But, thankfully, I have prepared for...
How to combine contrasting media
Contrast Hi again messians!In this post, I will share with you quick tutorials on contrasting mediums. These are the tools and products you wouldn't necessarily think about...
Textured Backgrounds for Journal Pages
Hello again Get Messians, Tanyalee here with another tutorial post. This week I am going to show you how to use household items to create texture on your pages. I wouldn't normally use...
Adding words when you don’t like your handwriting
Hey there, it’s Kathleen here and today I want to share some ideas with you for how you can incorporate words and phrases in your art journal pages even when you don’t like your...
Flowers of Freedom with the Gelli Plate
Freedom Hello everyone! It’s TC here, with my final tutorial as part of the 2018 Creative Team. I can hardly tell you what a great year it’s been and how grateful I am to you for...
Let’s Get Fancy: Taking collage further with your Gelli Plate
Artist Julia Bethmann shows you use your gelli plate to get more out of your collage work.
Selfie Sketch: Creating a painted sketched self portrait of yourself
Tiffany shows you a different way to create a self portrait using a headshot photo of yourself.
The paintbrush of power: Using comics and cartoons to turn yourself into a superhero
When I read all our posts and conversations on the Facebook group or on the forums, I am continually blown away by the incredible human beings that make up this community. I see courage, creativity, friendliness, and love. I see artists making the world a better place each and every day. Lets play at being superheroes, celebrating these incredible qualities and bringing them to life in our art.
Spreading kindness: Using our art journals to leave kind words for others
Kindness Hello artists, Alicia here to share with you a special tutorial that is near and dear to me! When I lived in New York City, it became a habit of mine to take in all the...
How to make a folded accordion book about everyday details
Connections One of my most favorite ways to include my life in my journals is to make the mundane magical. I love taking the day’s routine and drawing it out with color and...
Art journal your spirit animal
Art 101 Hi guys, it’s Riet here. Today I want to show you my Raven Nest Journal. It’s about my spirit animal that I discovered last year. I dedicated a whole journal...
How to create a collage of hands
Hey Messians. It's Nina here with a fun and simple idea for your next art journal spread. Since we're in the season of Gifts I thought it only appropriate to make this piece about...
Creating depth and dimension without bulk
There are a ton of ways to get some gorgeous depth into your art journaling that doesn’t involve a lot of bulky doo-dads. I’m going to show you how you can use simple tools and...
5 elements to meaningful journal pages
This workshop gives you a run down of 5 simple things to strive to include in your journal pages to ensure you are filling them with meaning, purpose, story telling and emotion. How to successfully encapsulate the significance of a moment no matter how small it may be.
Using Commonplace Books as a Weapon Against Perfectionism
Failure The last time I counted back to see how long I’ve been keeping commonplace books, I thought it’d been about twelves years or so, but since then I’ve found...
Lesson 5 – Prompts
How I interpret prompts and how I utilise the techniques I have demonstrated so far to make my pages. The goal is to give you a starting point for using prompts in your own pages. It will include a run-through of my interpretation of four prompts, with hopefully four very different spreads at the end.
Lesson 2 – Intricate Backgrounds
In this lesson, I will show you how to create intricate backgrounds using paints, inks, and a series of image transfers. This is an easy way to make your pages pop and look like they took a great deal of work to create.
Lesson 4 – Interaction
How and why we should incorporate interaction into our journal pages.
Lesson 4 – Anger and Rage
Allowing yourself the space to feel anger, and finding a vent for it in your art journal.
Creating a Seasonal Mood Board
We all have favorite seasonal activities and traditions. By using old calendar pages, and creating a mood board, we are celebrating these unique parts of the current and upcoming seasons.
Scavenger Hunt: Get inspired by your neighborhood
Today I invite you to explore your neighborhood or maybe even a new city as a child would, curious about everything and wanting to find all the answers! Use the scavenger hunt guide to collect inspiration for your art journal and let your inner child play.
Everyday kindness: flaps which open to reveal inspiration for ordinary kindness
Kindness Hi everybody! This is TC, and I'm super happy to be with you today! I love this season and I'm looking forward to all the messes we're going to make together this year....
Self-love: How to create an origami love letter to yourself
Kindness Hi, it’s Moriah and I am so excited to share my tutorial with you today! For the season of kindness I wanted to find a way to express self love. Being kind to myself is...
Translating Music to Paper
Nature Hey friends. For todays post I wanted to show you something that I absolutely love doing in my journal. And that is, making playlists or working with lyrics of songs that...
Creating contrast by juxtaposing moods
Contrast Hi, lovely Messians. Elizabeth here with some wisdom from Victor Hugo. (And, hopefully, some workable inspiration for you and your art journaling). First,...
How to use lines expressively
Art 101 Hello Messians! I'm so excited to be back on the creative team this year and today I am sharing a very simple how-to guide for creating expressive lines in your pages....
Creating self portraits through blind drawing
Hello lovely Messians, Vanessa here for the last time in 2016. What a year it has been, no? For me it was a year of change, of adapting to new surroundings, of letting go of certain...
10 Songs 10 Minutes 10 Pages
When I’m staring at a blank sketchbook or art journal page, feeling the call to create but at a loss for where to start, I often turn to music. A good song can evoke so much. I draw from...
Using Envelopes In Your Art Journal
I love using envelopes when I art journal! It’s the perfect thing to tuck away some special writing or journaling, photos, letters, anything really.
Make a gorgeous mess with bleached paper
Hello creative people! It's Torrie here, and I am back with a super quick and satisfying tutorial on creating bleached papers. Bleached papers? It sounds messy, and it totally...
Creating and filling an accordion album
Hi everyone, Tanyalee here from the Creative Team. I'm going to give you an insight into my process for a journal page. Not just any journal page though, an accordion album using...
A look at Johanna’s pages – identifying the 5 elements
A look into some of my personal journal pages. We identify the elements I use together and look into the individual roles of each, what they bring to the page, how they bring it to the page and where they stem from.
Creating Everyday with Artist Trading Cards
Habit This lesson will take you through a week long creative habit that I like to do in my own art practice. For 6 days, we will set ourselves up to create an artist trading card...
Reuse the “meh”: Giving art a second life
Habit Art as a habit is great! But creating lots of art also means you'll create some you're not happy with. With these ideas, transform old art into something new & beautiful!...
Documenting the Roller Coaster
Documenting DEBBIE BAMBERGER Debbie is a sexual and reproductive health nurse practitioner in Berkeley, California. She began art journaling in 2016 with no prior art...
Re-start: Six practical ways to get back into journaling when you’ve taken a break
Starting Tanyalee Kahler Tanyalee Kahler is an Australian mum turned artist. She loves creating mixed media art journals, dabbling with watercolours, publishing magazines...
Lesson 3 – Image Transfers Over Collaged Backgrounds
In this lesson, I will show you how you can add image transfers over backgrounds of collaged tissue paper, napkins and patterned papers, to create dimensional spreads in your art journal.
Part 2 – Archetypes
Totems > Part 2 From Vocabulary.com: “In the psychology of Carl Jung, an archetype is an inherited pattern of thought derived from the past experience of the whole race...
Lesson 3 – Felt Tips + Magazines
In this lesson, we are using magazine pages instead of our art journal. Try and gather 5-6 different pages to try out these techniques. I always gravitate towards black and white imagery – or pages with a lot of blank space on them. This way, your felt tip marks are the star of the show with their bright colours and the images don’t steal focus.
Lesson 3 – Abstract Backgrounds
This lesson is broken up into three parts: acrylic backgrounds, watercolour backgrounds and collaged backgrounds. I will very quickly take you through a selection of techniques using each medium/technique. At the end of the lesson you will have a vast array of tricks up your sleeve to make fast, abstract backgrounds for your art journal spreads.
Lesson 3 – Symbolism
Three focus points we can utilize for a more meaningful and eclectic journal and incorporating symbolism into our journal pages.
Lesson 5 – Wonder and Surprise
Wonder isn’t something that necessarily springs to mind when we’re thinking about all the different emotions we experience, but it’s a unique one, and really worth spending some time with.
Bonus – Marks Imitate Art
In this bonus lesson, we will create an art journal page transforming a found image with marks! This is a great technique to practice creating marks but also makes for a really lovely art journal page!
Using a spinner to move through seasons of life
This tutorial introduces the use of a simple spinner element.
Archetypes enhance the power of story: using the hero’s journey in our art
Archetypes are used in stories to convey powerful meaning across culture and time. Explore the classic archetype of the Hero and the Hero’s Journey in our art journals using mixed media elements and a recurring Hero figure.
Using a Traveler’s Notebook to Tell Your Story
Use ephemera from your everyday life to create a story using Traveler’s Notebooks.
Collage and Create Alongside Katie
The collage queen invites you to make a paper mess alongside her.
Documenting Color with Sarah
Create color swatches to cut apart to make simple collage palettes and patterns with Sarah.
Use vintage photos and found words to tell a familiar or fictional story in your journal
Let’s explore ways to use vintage photos and papers in your art journal. Make a found word sentence or two to enhance you story, be it autobiographical or fictional.
Photographic Abstraction: Using Cropped Images to Focus on the Details
Create your own abstract images by zooming in and cropping your photos interesting ways and then use these photos to share the details of your stories.
2.1 Quiet Backgrounds
how to quieten a background with gesso
how to quieten a background with vellum
how to quieten a background with tissue paper
how to quieten a background with white out text
the glory of the blank page
inherently quiet backgrounds
Scar Tissue: creating collaged hands of forgiveness
Kindness Hey everyone. Tiffany here with my very first post on the Get Messy blog as a Creative Team member! I'm so excited to begin sharing with you all different ways to...
Healing Heart: Using painted paper and collage to encourage self love
Kindness Hi, Sarah here! I'm so excited to share this tutorial with you all! I love that we're starting a new year of Get Messy with the Season of Kindness. What a great way to...
Doodling for beginners
Nature Hey everyone, It's Katie here! You've probably heard of zentangles, right? It's a method of line drawing where you create repeating patterns and turn them into designs. I...
How to use the language of flowers in your art
Nature Hi creative peeps! It’s Riet here. I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of my time as creative team member. I feel quite nostalgic writing this as I can remember the...
Using thread and vintage elements to connect to the past
Connections Hello Messians, Vanessa here for the first tutorial of the Season of Connections. I don't know about you, but for me the idea of connection is definitely related...
How to make a pop up art journal
Fairy Tales Hello lovelies! It's Ashley here with a fresh new tutorial. As you know, fairy tales are full of ups and downs, twists and turns, trials and triumphs, much like...
Make your own printables for journaling
Fairy Tales Hey y'all, Katie here! I'm having so much fun with this Season of Fairytales. I'm actually a huge science fiction nerd, but fantasy is my my second favorite genre...
Including interactive elements in your art journal pages
Fairy Tales Hey messy artists! It’s Riet here, talking about my favorite art journal theme! Eek! If you know me you know every time is fairy tale time for me! This season is...
How to experiment with unfamiliar colours
Colour If you have been collaging or journalling for a long time and feel you have a distinctive style, it’s useful to notice your patterns and try to break out of them from time...
Expressing yourself through colour
Colour Welcome to the Season of Colour! Vanessa here to usher you in to this Season. As is always the case when we start a new theme, I need to find a way in. I need to figure...
How to use a gelli plate to create faces
Contrast I love to use the gelli plate to make lovely prints to add to my journal pages, they add colour and pattern as well as images which can be traced and printed using the...
How to use scale to create contrast
Contrast Hi, friends! It's Misty here to talk a bit about using size to create contrast and interest in your journals. I've got a short video to go over a few basics. I'll be...
Creating both tactile and visual textures
Art 101 Hi lovely artists! It’s Riet here from the Creative Team and today is all about textures. You know exactly what I’m talking about, right? Those wonderful...
Creating expressive pages without looking
Hello, Julia here again to share a new type of creative practice with you... This past year, I have started to create in a new way (for me, at least). It’s something I have started to...
Hiding your journaling on your pages
Hello! It's Anika Lacerte with some tips on hiding your journaling on your pages. Hidden journaling makes it possible to write your thoughts down without sharing them with others. For...
Creating pages inspired by cover art
Hello messy dearest. I have a really fun challenge for you today. This one hits me right in the (good) feels and I hope you’ll love it too.We’re gonna go way back and pick a favorite...
10 Minute Art Journal Pages
Hi there everyone, Tanyalee back with another tutorial. As it is the Season of Introspection, I thought it would be a fun idea to do a tutorial on making 10 minute art journal...
Using Ink Blots to Connect to Your Intuition
Hello lovely artists, Vanessa with you for this first tutorial of the Season. I am very much looking forward to where this Season of Introspection will take us, aren't you? Let's...
Xeroxing Photos To Use In Your Art Journal
Hi Get Messians, it’s Cait. I’m stoked to share... XEROXING PHOTOS ONTO EXCITING PAPERS! I think that xeroxing is underrated, magical, and surprisingly inspiring. Sometimes when my...
Using art journaling skills in memory keeping
Hey there, fellow Get Messians, Kathleen here. Today I’ll share some of my experiences I’ve had with scrapbooking and art journaling and tell you something about how these two forms of...
Make Your Own Paper Embellishments
Supplies old book paper ballpoint pen paintbrush acrylic paint sealant scissors 1. Draw shapes onto the paper Three simple ones for me, on two types of paper. The hearts and stars were on...
Creating colourful paper scraps for collage
For Valentine’s Day I made these colorful stitched papers which I used in my art journal for the Get Messy prompts and also for cards. I thought I’d share a quick tutorial on how I made...
Messy Mandalas
Reflection In this Artist Date, Clare will guide us on how to make a ‘Torus’ mandala base using a compass, along with a freeform method which needs no equipment apart from a...
Embodying the Fool: How to feel the fear and take the leap anyway
Starting can be difficult. The way ahead is obscure, we are afraid of failing or of getting lost on our journey. So how can we set off boldly, how can we be daring? We must embody the Fool. The Fool is an archetype that allows us to take a leap of faith, to go ahead even if we are fearful. When we are able to look ahead with enthusiasm and energy and when we know that whatever lies ahead is part of our journey and will support us, we are embodying the Fool archetype. This allows us to feel free as well as (perhaps paradoxically) in control of our own destiny. That is when we are happy to start. We will use water soluble media to create an inspiration wave to encourage us to start. Let’s gather this wave of positive energy and let’s be intentional in finding the mantras that carry us forward and let’s take that leap! Let’s start in this creative journey together.
Document a day with me
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Bonus – Clear Packing Tape Transfer
This is–in my opinion–the easiest image transfer technique to perform and great to add a little something different to your journals.
Part 3 – Elemental Magic
Humans are in and of this world, we interact with it; there is an exchange of energy. This is one of the first principles we learn in Anthropology and we sometimes forget this. We are the product of our environment, we are linked to it. Elemental magic encompasses those symbols, seen and unseen, that surround us.
Lesson 2 – Personalising the Cover and Preparing Insides
An introduction into the focus points we will be learning, and have a look at the worksheets and printables provided for the remainder of the course.
Lesson 5 – Real Life Pieces
Incorporating real life pieces into our journal pages – the things that accumulate in your life on their own accord; little mementos that come from events you attend, people you meet or places you visit.
Tags of Humanity: Creating Quilted Tags Out of Paper and Fabric Scraps
Ubuntu Happy Wednesday friends! Tiffany here again and sharing with you my take on Ubuntu. Since we’re working “tiny” this season, I’ve decided to work in a small tag book...
New Dynamics: Creating Diptychs to Explore Relationships
Ubuntu Hi everyone, it’s Sarah! Today were going to be exploring diptychs and how they are used to bring the connections between two seemingly unrelated subjects. Since the word...
Seasons of Collage
Four different collage techniques to represent the four seasons.
Getting Started with Collage: Tips & Journal Spread Process
Amanda gives you some tips for getting started with collage and creating a fun, uplifting journal spread.
Scrap Collage
All many of us need to do to create art journal pages is sweep up our art spaces and put those tiny discarded papers to serious work. In this class, instructor Zinia Redo starts simple and progresses through intermediate to advanced techniques that will help you use tiny pieces of leftover papers (or purposefully selected beauties!) for intricate and beautiful backgrounds. All you need for this class is scissors, your scrap paper stash, and glue to get your fingers snipping, arranging, and glueing. You can use this class to create art journal backgrounds, base pages, scrapbook pages, collages, mosaics, summer crafts with the kids, frame-worthy art, and more. If you follow all of the class techniques, you will have 92 art journal base pages ready and waiting for when inspiration strikes.
New do! Styling hair in your journal pages.
This tutorial will encourage you to use an altered book and encourage lots of play when you give your ‘model’ a new hair do. You don’t need a ton of supplies to get a really effective page in your art journal.
Roll the art dice: a creative art journaling game
Play Download the List Save this file to your computer, print it out, and keep it inside your journal to spark journal ideas. Hello artists, Alicia here to kick off the Season of...
2.3 Riet Poch – Depth in Backgrounds
In a minimalistic page you can’t have a busy background, a lot of writing and a lot of other elements. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to use more than one color or element, but before you start decide what your focus will be. The focus in this lesson will be on the background. With simple techniques we’ll create detailed bases for our message.