Fairy Tales Hi! Olivia here with a quick and easy art journal page. I’ve listed the supplies and basic project steps below, but watch the video to get the full tutorial....
Art Journal Catalysts
2. Grow
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...
Journaling in monochrome
Colour Hello all, it's EmK again, and I'm here to talk to you about using color! I know that you’re probably not surprised that I'm talking to you about color this season, but...
Colour symbolism around the world
Colour Hey, Messians! Misty here to talk about the cultural connotations and the symbolism of color from around the world.My interest in how colors are used in other cultures...
Masking and resist techniques
Contrast Hey Y’all, Katie here! For today's tutorial I wanted to share a few different techniques for doing watercolor resists and masking with with a variety of supplies....
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...
Drawing with pen and ink
Art 101 Hi, lovely Messians. It's Elizabeth here. I hope to serve as your personal creative cheerleader this season and throughout the year, chiming in with a "Just give it a...
Cataloguing and swatching your pens
Art 101 Hey Messians! EmK here for my first post, and I could not be more excited to be sharing these videos with you! You may have realized that this season is special! The...
Techniques for creating easy acrylic backgrounds
Art 101 Hey Y'all, Katie here for my first post as a part of the 2017 Creative Team! This week, Misty and I are featuring Acrylics here on the blog. Misty wrote up an amazing...
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 art inspired by double exposure photographs
Hey everyone, Katie here, your resident doodler, painter and galaxy-obsessed artist! Are you loving the Season of Dreams as much as I am? Dreams are so magical to me. Have you ever seen...
Creating distressed metallic elements in your art journal
Hello again Get Messians, it's Karen here with a super fun tutorial using shoe polish, tin foil and glue. Yes I know, the main staples of your art supplies I know! Stick with me though...
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...
Making and Using Gelli Print Backgrounds
Hey there Messians, Katie here with my first post as a part of the Get Messy Creative Team! I am super excited to be here and be able to share a peek into my art journaling with you....
How to staple large zines
This is one of those ‘a-HA’ moments. I could never figure out how to staple together pieces of paper that were too big for my stapler to reach. I saw this on the net somewhere a few...
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...
Messy Recipes
Sometimes, your creativity needs a catalyst, and Messy Recipes includes a bunch of catalysts for creating an endless amount of art journal pages. Get Messy Fairy Artmother Caylee Grey has designed 12 recipes that include a list of “ingredients” (or supplies), a method with step-by-step directions, and pictures for guidance and inspiration. Guests artists have shared their favourite recipes too. Following the recipes exactly or using them as a guide, you can create endless variations. Perfect for beginners and experienced artists alike, Messy Recipes provides the catalysts for creativity that you can return to again and again.
Lettering
Belonging#gmseasonofbelongingTurn your monoprinted pages into lettering with Mou's technique.Transcript (this transcript is automatically generated and is sure to contain...
Bonus – Working Creatively with Pen and Ink
A bunch of techniques using pen and ink to encourage exploration.
Lesson 11 – Creating Independently
For our final lesson, we will be creating freely! Take all that you have learned in this course and put your favourite techniques into one page. Be inspired by the pages I am sharing in this lesson as well as your own discoveries along the way. We all are drawn to different things so take stock of what you have been more drawn to throughout the course and think of how you can combine your favourite parts into one (or more!) art journal pages.
Lesson 7 – Mixing Ink Colours
Using what we have learned from our first two ink lessons, we will now start to mix our own colours. Most ink sets are quite basic which gives us lots of blending and mixing possibilities. You can blend either directly on your page or on a palette. Depending on how much pigment (ink) and how much water you mix, your colours can differ immensely. Mixing ink colours is different to paint, as you don’t have the option of adding any white. I like to think of water as the white when mixing with ink.
Lesson 6 – Ink + Different Brushes
Imagine your brush is your magic wand and different spells will create different outcomes. In this lesson, we will see how many spells you know and can create.
Lesson 5 – Ink + Water
In our first ink dedicated lesson, we are simply mixing it with water. Super simple, but really cool and a perfect example of stretching your supplies. When you begin altering your materials, it gives you artist status for sure!
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.
Lesson 1 – Acrylic Gel Medium Transfers
In this lesson I will go over the basic steps you’ll take to create an image transfer. These will be the exact same steps you’ll do for every single acrylic medium image transfer you’ll ever make. Once you’ve got this technique down, you’ll be able to incorporate it into your spreads with other mediums like paints, inks, and various papers.
Lesson 4 – Colouring In
For this lesson, we really are going back to kindergarten. Colouring in is one of life’s simplest joys. It is remarkable for calming your nerves as well as creating bold and fun pages.
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.
Lesson 5 – Simple Shapes
Often we see shapes as separate from the idea of mark making, but shapes are comprised of marks to create them. We use marks to build the shapes we want to see. Shapes can be used to portray all kinds of expression and emotion to a page.
Lesson 3 – Dots + Dashes
Creating organic patterns with dots and dashes, altering images, and sippling.
How to Start Art Journaling
What’s the secret to art journaling? Okay, here it is: it’s the starting, the making, and the keeping on making. In this free class, Fairy Artmother and Get Messy founder, Caylee Grey, archeologist and founder of Art Witch Academy, Vanessa Oliver-Llyod, and art therapist and mentor at Mindful Art Studio, Amy Maricle share their perspective on the starting and making part of art journaling. First, they share a peek inside their art journals to answer the question: what in the Frida Kahlo is art journaling? and gush over their favorite supplies. Then, they show you how art journal recipes and prompts can take the overthinking and overwhelm out of starting as they each tackle the same recipe and share their differing results. Finally, learn tips for translating inspiration into action and how to hold yourself accountable by making and connecting with art friends. If you are ready to kickstart your creative practice, then dive in with this class.
Colour Theory Basics: The Colour Wheel and Colour Harmony
Ubuntu KELLEE Kellee Wynne Conrad is the creator of Color Crush Creative, a thriving, internationally followed Instagram community of color loving artists and the online...
Nothing is Black and White: Using Charcoal and Gesso to Explore Justice
Ubuntu Hi, it’s Moriah again and today I want to show you a technique you can use to explore the concept of justice. When I first found out about Ubuntu, I immediately...
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...
Liven Up Your Creative Palette!
Seasons In this video, I explain three simple principles of color to liven up your creative palettes: color value, temperature and intensity. Use these tips to make your...
Seasons of Collage
Four different collage techniques to represent the four seasons.
Acrylic Painting Techniques Tutorial
Seasons In this video, I share three fun acrylic painting techniques to create painted patterns in your journal. We’ll walk through dry brush stripes, rose florals, and an ombre...
Word windows: adding text without affecting your images
For me, art journaling is as much about the story and the meaning as it is about the actual art work. I want to show you a way to combine words and images without having to draw on your art work.
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.
We love people who make art, and if you’re here then we love you too
How to start art journaling > WelcomeWe love people who make art. And if you're here then we love you too. Yay! We're so excited you're here. Who are we? Caylee, Amy, and Vanessa....
Lesson 1 – So what the Frida Kahlo is art journaling?
How to start art journaling > Lesson 1 So what the frida Kahlo is Art Journaling? Ah, the big question: What is art journaling? It's whatever you want it to be! Wait, saying...
Lesson 2 – It’s not about the tools, it’s about how you use them
How to start art journaling > Lesson 2 It's not about the tools, it's about how you use them This lesson has our favourite supplies list. Are you ready for them?Supplies whatever you...
Lesson 3 – The breakfast of art journaling
How to start art journaling > Lesson 3 The breakfast of art journaling (How to make your first art journal page)You may have already created art journal pages, and if you have, GO...
Lesson 4 – How to do the actionable inspiration thing
How to start art journaling > Lesson 4 Translating inspiration into art (How to do the actionable inspiration thing)All over the internet we have sites that promise inspiration,...
Lesson 5 – Prompts are real life art catalysts
How to start art journaling > Lesson 5 Prompts are real life art catalysts One of Get Messy's three main pillars is prompts. Oh man, how we love prompts. We believe they are the key...
Lesson 6 – Art friends are not like regular friends
How to start art journaling > Lesson 6 Art friends are not like regular friends Have you ever been in your art studio (fancy loft warehouse, kitchen table, or living room floor) and...
Procreate App Tutorial for Beginners
Using the iPad app Procreate to create in new ways.
Fun ways to create in an altered vintage book
Seven tips for making an altered book art journal.
Scribble Play: Creating a mixed media mosaic scribble
Have fun creating and filling in a giant scribble with all sorts of materials and mediums you don’t normally work with to create a quirky mixed media mosaic scribble.
Create 5 easy grunge backgrounds in your art journal
In this post I’ll be sharing 5 easy ways to create grungy, gritty and textured backgrounds in your art journals. A lot of my own art journal pages start out with these techniques, because I love that raw, messy texture they can create. These backgrounds techniques can...
9 ways to add text to your art journal
For many of us, images come most easily when we’re art journaling, and for others working with text feels more natural. Being a wordy, languagey, writer-type, I am definitely one of the latter. That being the case, I want to show you some of the different techniques I...
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.
Learning artistic techniques from cave painting
Nature Hey, this is Misty! Last spring Get Messian Divyam Bernstein and I got started chatting on Instagram about earth tones. She and I realized we often overlooked using them...
How to paint an acrylic greenhouse
Connections We're in awe of Julie and her magical art. Obviously her hand-painted floral necklaces speak directly to Caylee's soul. As does her new podcast about her studio...
Creating Rituals around your art journaling
Connections Hi GM BFFs, Elizabeth here. In this Season of Connection, I'd love to share of my favorite rituals for connecting with my art-making and deepening my art...
Techniques for using ink in your art journal
Connections Hey there, Messians! It's EmK once more, and I'm coming to you today to get you excited about the super fluid, super beautiful supply: bottled ink! I've been...
The benefits of creating an art journaling habit
Connections Hi Messians! Misty here in the Season of Connections. As I was looking through the prompts for the season, a prompt in week 3 really grabbed me at the heart of...
A guide to creating your ideal colour palette
Colour It's Elizabeth here with a stack of magazines, a bin full of paint, and a silent prayer that my youngest babe continues to nap while I walk you through creating your ideal...
Painting With Tissue Paper
Colour Hi!! Sarah here and I’m honored and super excited to share this tutorial with you. I love using tissue paper in my art journals. It’s great for layering and did you...
Paper marbling with Ink
Colour Hi guys! It's Riet here and I'm so excited to show you a very easy technique to marble paper! I love marbling so much that I always look for easy ways to achieve it! Until...
How to weave with paper
Contrast Hello lovelies! It's Ashley here, and I'm so excited to share a new technique for you to try in your art journals. When I was a child I loved all sorts of paper...
A comprehensive introduction to collage
Art 101 Hello beautiful Messians, it's Ashley here! Today I am sharing the basics of collage, including a few tips and tricks to try in your art journal. I enjoy collage because...
A comprehensive guide to acrylics
Art 101 There are a variety of styles, brands, and price points for acrylic paints. If you've never ventured into this medium before, welcome! If your experience has...
Using Stencils
Hello Get Messians, it's Karen here. I'm going to talk to you a little bit today about how I use stencils in my art journals and other projects. I think that stencils can often be...
Make an upcycled journal from gift wrapping supplies
Hi there everyone, it's Tanyalee here with my final tutorial post for the 2016 Get Messy Creative Team, I have loved every minute of my CT duties and look forward to what 2017 brings....
Art Journals from Found Materials
One of the best aspects of art journaling is that there are literally no rules. None at all. This applies even to your journals. Let me back up. I know most of us all started art...
Painting Water Colour Portraits
Hi Everyone, it's Tanyalee back with another tutorial for the Season of Music. This season I decided to show you all how I make water colour portraits. They aren't your standard...
Create an Inspiring Instagram Feed to Fuel those Creative Juices
Hi lovelies! It's Torrie again, and today I'm here to share how I use Instagram as inspiration for my art journaling pages.When I create my art journal pages I am constantly searching...
How to Paint a Watercolor Galaxy
Hey everyone, Katie here today with the long awaited galaxy tutorial! You may or may not know, but I'm basically obsessed with space related things, so I often paint moons of galaxies in...
Six fun watercolour techniques
Hey friends, it is Katie from the Creative Team here again! Watercolors are my favorite medium at the moment. I discovered them early last year and just fell in love with how they flow...
A guide to the transfer technique
Hey Get Messians 🙂 It’s Kathleen here and today I want to share a technique with you that you can use to incorporate photos or magazine clippings into your art journals. Here are two...
Make your metallic dreams come true with gold leaf
Hey Get Messians! It's Torrie here, and I am super excited to bring you a tutorial on a new technique that I am in love with, gold leaf. You read that right. Gold. Leaf. As in, making...
Monoprinting
Belonging#gmseasonofbelongingIn this workshop, Mou walks you through the supplies she uses for monoprinting, and guides you through her process for creating a monoprinted...
How to make a paper bag junk journal
Home Char DeRouin Char is an artist, designer and maker whose work is abstract, intuitive and organic in style, with a no-rules approach. She is influenced by experiences and...
Welcome
Welcome to the class!
Lesson 1 – Pamphlet Stitch
We are going to start with a simple, but versatile stitch that will enable you to quickly start creating your own beautiful, handmade art journals.
Lesson 2 – Long Stitch
The long stitch is a beautiful yet simple way to bind your signatures into a cover. You will be attaching the paper to the spine of your book. The width of the spine and its strength will determine how many signatures you can add into your book.
Lesson 3 – Coptic Stitch
The Coptic stitch is an open spine binding. This means that you only need covers, not a book with a spine.
Lesson 4 – French Link Stitch
This stitch is very decorative one and is at the top of our list for difficulty. Just like the Coptic stitch, it allows your journals to lie very flat. Because the open spine is so pretty to look at, I tend to bind thicker journals with this stitch.
Bonus – Three Hole Pamphlet Stitch
This is the easiest way to bind leftover paper scraps into a great little booklet that is incredible versatile.
Closing Thoughts
Further bookbinding resources
Loving Mama
When you have kids, you can become so absorbed in the daily work of caring for them that you become disconnected from your personal stories. In existing for others, you can lose yourself. This class is designed to help you take the stories of your mother-self, weave them into the self that existed before you became a mother, and move forward with both of them intertwined. You’ll record the process in a creative journal, and when it’s done, it will be a beautiful love letter to yourself that honours all the parts of who you are and tells the story of how you came to be the amazing woman you are right now. This class comes with the Camellia digital kit, extra journal cards, and a printable workbook to get you creating as quickly and easily as possible.
Lesson 3c – Collage
Collage is the best way to use those prints and backgrounds, and any other piece of paper or ephemera that you have in your stash.
Lesson 2 – Facial Features
Hey everyone, Welcome to lesson 2! In this lesson I will be showing y’all how I sketch different facial features, such as eyes, mouths, etc. The important features that will make up your characters!
Lesson 5 – Sketching a Face, Profile View
Okay, in this lesson I am going to teach y’all how to sketch a face from a profile / side view. I used to be pretty intimidated by drawing a profile and every time I did it it would look wayyy weird. Like my girls would have a big forehead, or tiny nose, etc. How did I get better? Practice. I was determined I wanted to learn how to draw a girl in profile, so I started sketching girls in profile… a LOT.
Lesson 3 – Sketching Hair
In this lesson I’m going to show you how to draw a variety of different hairstyles you can use on your faces! In the video I show some different ways to draw both straight and curly hair, and how to use the lesson printable.
Lesson 6 – Watercolouring a Face
It’s time for my absolute favorite lesson of this class! I really enjoy coloring in my sketched faces and I think it’s what really brings these drawings to life. So, in this lesson I’m spilling my watercolor secrets and I’m going to show you how I do it.
Lesson 4 – Sketching a Face, Front View
Guess what? In this lesson I’ll be showing you how to sketch a face from start to finish! You can sketch faces at many different angles, but the angle I’ve always found easiest was just a front view, which means the girl is facing directly towards you.
Lesson 2 – To Gesso or Not to Gesso
Gesso: A white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in artwork as a preparation for any number of substrates such as wood panels, canvas and sculpture as a base for paint and other materials that are applied over it.
Lesson 1 – Assembling the Book
How to assemble your own chosen papers into a simple art journal.
Lesson 3 – Watercolor Moon
What goes well with galaxies? The moon! I love anything that has the moon on it, If I see a collage with the moon, I will instantly love it, or if I see any sort of moon accessory- it’s mine!
Lesson 4 – Watercolor Milky Way
Yay, welcome to lesson four! In this lesson I am showing you how to paint your very own Milky Way galaxy with watercolors! My process for this is pretty much the same as lesson 1, the abstract galaxy, however I work off of a reference photo so that it ends up looking like the Milky Way!
Lesson 2 – Abstract Galaxy
In this lesson I am going to show you how to paint the easiest of watercolor galaxies! We won’t be using reference photos or anything, we’ll just be splashing watercolors around and experimenting to create a gorgeous, abstract starry scene.
Lesson 5 – Acrylic Galaxy
We’ve already made it to lesson 5 and in this lesson I am going to show you how I paint a galaxy using acrylic paint! This is a totally different medium than watercolors, and while watercolors are my personal favorite (I love how the flow and blend!), acrylics paint can make some really cool galaxies and they are often more vibrant and richer colors than watercolor paints
Lesson 2 – Scribbles
Ah, scribbles, the most instinctive of all the marks to make! I use scribbling heavily in my work because to me it’s an open ended expression and can easily be modified to reflect my emotions. You can use scribbles in so many ways to build backgrounds, create color blocks and add more expressive details.
Documenting Your Emotions in a Lunar Calendar
Using a lunar calendar, document your emotions throughout the season by following the phases and cycle of the moon.
1.2 Preparing the Journal
how to choose, and prepare paper for a handbound journal
1.3 Binding the Journal
how to bind the journal using threaded saddle stitch