What's new

Art journaling...am I the only one?

StarryEyedDesigns

StarryEyedDesigns

My goal, is to make a goal
Joined
Dec 29, 2015
Messages
525
Who doesn't like it, or get it? I mean, I think it's pretty when other people do it. I just have no interest in it. I always feel like a bad person for that....lol
 
No you aren't alone at all. Again I quite like the ones I see other people do, but for me, I only ever do it when required for challenges and try to spend as little time on it as possible. On the other hand, occasionally I have enjoyed just 'playing' and not having any expectations of myself.
 
It's not my cup of tea either but then there are a lot of scrapping styles, techniques etc that aren't for me either. Some look like a hot mess to me even when done 'well'. Fantasy pages creep me out but there is a whole contingent of scrappers who excel in this. Unless I have to, you'll almost never see a button on my pages and having never been a paper scrapper, I don't care if my pages 'look' realistic.

You know the longer you scrap the more you find what suits you and what doesn't. Pretty much as in the rest of life!. If not liking a certain style or method of art made us a bad person, then we'd all have that label! To each her own...
 
I don't think I totally get it either. I think that's because I don't scrap primarily for the creativity or art. I scrap primarily for recording my life. It's more about the photos and journaling for me. But it's fun to throw together an art journal page occasionally. I did that challenge yesterday. I usually receive comments on my layouts within hours of posting them but haven't on this one yet, so I guess it is more of a mess than art journaling! :giggle
 
I wrote an article recently about Art Journaling styles… because it doesn't all have to look like a hot mess! You can incorporate art journal supplies to your traditional, clean-line pages. I also started this thread in hopes of dissipating some pre-conceived notions of what art journaling is confined to.

The definition of an art journal is as follows: An art diary, art journal or visual journal is a daily journal kept by artists, often containing both words and sketches, and occasionally including mixed media elements such as collages.

The array of styles that can be used to express your art is quite wide. If you look through my gallery, you'll find that my own pages contain a lot of paint and artsy touches, but they are structured in a clean, graphic style with clusters of elements. By the way, almost ALL my pages were done using art journaling supplies. This is no less a form of art journaling than a more abstract page. In fact, you'll find art journaling supplies in almost every kit in the shop! Every time you use paint on your page, you are incorporating art to your visual journal.

Seeing that my own designs are geared to art journaling, my hope is that you will explore the many possibilities this art form has to offer and find ways to use art journaling products within your own interests.
 
Last edited:
I have come to really like AJ, and the creativity it expresses.

I think my issue was that I had a mind-set of what art journaling was, and that what I considered art journaling for me wasn't really art journaling. Lynn-Marie had another thread that helped me, and also gave me the "okay" to be okay with my own particular AJ style. (it's more on the clean and simple side, lol) While it doesn't come out often, that is just because it isn't my preferred way to scrap. I don't think you need to "get it," only because it is fully up to you how you want to embrace the style. As for liking it, that would be up to you to decide. :)

I wish I could find that thread that she posted in awhile back. It really helped me. It was similar to the So Many Art Journaling Style to Explore....

I think that for me the less structure of AJ, actually stumps me. :giggle I need parameters, and knowing that AJ is whatever you want puts a road block in my scrapping. Once I get over that road block and get started, I am good to go. When MOC had us do the AJ page for a challenge... that page became a favorite because of the meaning behind it and how it turned out.

Remember, scrapping is for you. Where your creativity flows is how you page is created. Go with the flow.
 
long ago....I would look at the AJ pages and go wow, that is purty. not for me. I have too many photos I need to get into books, and I am happy happy with my memories.

then I met Tangie Baxter in a chat. her enthusiasm and joy of art journaling in her everyday life was amazing. I took the plunge that Christmas and bought a year long journey of Art Journaling.
She pulled things out of me, that to this day I am astounded. I started journaling more with words on my everyday memory pages, and it was fun!
I was lucky enough to then become her Girl Friday (assistant) for a few years. I actually didn't scrap any memory pages during that time, heck I don't think I art journaled, I was so busy. But what I take from art journaling is.

it isn't always the end result of a page...
it is the journey creating it.

my memory pages are all neatly printed in chronological order. They are looked at often, by friends and family.
I have only printed a handful of the 100s of art journal pages I have made. The process I went thru making them was the part that I loved really.
Fast forward many years, and now I feel that my memory pages have merged a bit with the AJ ones, in that I want more emotions of the why and what was happening during that particular memory.

I think many people think they have to look like someone else's. OUr dear Julie @mrs2a50 has a challenge this month about art journaling. She is a clean and very minimal (and her pages rock) scrapper, yet she dabbled beautifully with some paints and gesso for the challenge and it is HER style with a twist of AJ!.

The journaling challenge this month is a good place to start, if you want to delve into AJ also. NO photo, but a memory non the less. Just make a page just to try new techniques, get digitally messy hands, and stop in the middle of the process and see if you are having fun!
 
I invite you to try out this challenge for our M3 birthday celebration! You have 4 more days to participate. All participants will receive this set of word art. The challenge is to use Mixed Media / Art Journal type products on a clean and simple page. I think you'll like that!

lynnemarie_m3friendswordart_ppv-jpg.169652
 
I like to use the artsy supplies on what I would class as traditional storytelling scrapbook pages.

I think for me, scrapbooking is an outlet to focus on the happy in my life (this has helped me during my many years suffering from depression) and I tend to equate art journaling with angst and being introspective which is what I don't like to do as that takes me down a really deep dark hole!
 
cookingmylife said:
It's not my cup of tea either but then there are a lot of scrapping styles, techniques etc that aren't for me either. Some look like a hot mess to me even when done 'well'. Fantasy pages creep me out but there is a whole contingent of scrappers who excel in this. Unless I have to, you'll almost never see a button on my pages and having never been a paper scrapper, I don't care if my pages 'look' realistic.

You know the longer you scrap the more you find what suits you and what doesn't. Pretty much as in the rest of life!. If not liking a certain style or method of art made us a bad person, then we'd all have that label! To each her own...
Click to expand...
I get it and it is my cup of tea, but the rest of what you said... WELL SAID. I cringe when I have to do a pocket page for a challenge... (and fantasy pages definitely creep me out.)
 
fruitysuet said:
I like to use the artsy supplies on what I would class as traditional storytelling scrapbook pages.

I think for me, scrapbooking is an outlet to focus on the happy in my life (this has helped me during my many years suffering from depression) and I tend to equate art journaling with angst and being introspective which is what I don't like to do as that takes me down a really deep dark hole!
Click to expand...

Interesting!! I suffer from depression for many years now. I create traditional style pages too , clean and simple too.. and many other styles that involve photos. I am single and I don't have kids. So I scrapped for my friends because the photos of their kids makes me happy and seeing my friends with their kids on a photo heals part of my broken childhood.. I enjoy scrapping for them.. Then I venture into AJ because I get to vent and embrace my dark, twisted, broken self .. my AJ pages has shifted a lot.. from angst, dark and twisted .. now it's all about my creative journey as an artist .. I embrace all that I have gone through and that I am currently going through.

There is nothing wrong with you and you really don't have to 'get it'. One day, you might change your mind and create an AJ page which is filled with positivity, happiness etc.. Here are a few of my AJ pages with photos that makes me happy :


No harm trying!! :) If you need any help , PM me I can help :)
 
I think of art journaling in the same way as art -- I don't care for many of the modern styles. Or wouldn't enjoy making it. Art journaling can be very personal. Most of my pages don't get put in the gallery. It's putting on the page what you are feeling or working through and it's not always pleasant but the experience of putting it out there and getting it all out is great. But I am also a Journal person. It's what the page says to you when it's done and no one can really understand that.
You're not weird or anything. Different styles fit different people. And maybe in a few years art journaling will fit.
Try a couple challenges if you have a kit or two. You have some exciting news you could celebrate or maybe worries, to do lists etc that you could work with.
 
I have always been a 'documentary' scrapper and I think that will always be my main kind of scrapping. But I have been drawn more and more towards the joy of just creating. Not necessarily art journaling (I am a bit too English about committing too much to paper LOL!) but mixed-media type art done digitally. I am currently on the hunt for a square digital scrapbook frame so I can display the pieces on rotation along with fav scrapbook pages and the plan for next year is to create packs geared to digital art creation .. because it is such fun :-)
 
Last edited:
To each their own. But, art journaling turned out to be easier than traditional scrapbooking for me to talk about my grandfather's death.

If you are just a tiny bit interested, try making an ATC (artist trading card). It's the same, but different. Because they're so small, I find I kinda get a cleaner emotion/message through with them.
 
@StarryEyedDesigns I think everyone has different things that appeal to them . . . and especially here at TLP . . . I've noticed that there is such a variety of styles. It's OK not to be into a particular style, and there's no need for you to feel like a bad person. LOL I know what you are saying, though . . . .

I think you are more an art journalist who is realistic (check out @Lynne-Marie 's post that she shared). I popped into your gallery, and you're not as full page as me, but you use a lot of the same things . . . what I consider art journal . . . mixed media elements (most paint and gesso). And Lynne-Marie is right ~ art journaling pieces/elements are in most products in the store! You can run, but you can't hide! mwahahahahaha

Here, you used paint . . . in fact, you have quite a few with paint (but I'll just share this one):



And you ROCKED your art journal page for the MOC challenge this year!



It might not be your go-to style, but you definitely have the creativity to do it!
 
I do art journal layouts from time to time (not as much as I used to), but now I'd consider myself more of a collage or realism art journaler. Here are a few layouts from the last month where I've used paper patterns that are heavy mixed media (took all the hard work of painting right out for me LOL), ephemera, word art, clip art, etc.:

Lots of mixed media paper, cut out title from ephemera, clip art feather, paint, textures (from doilies and lace):



Mostly paint on this one, but there is a piece of ephemera (the laundry ticket):


This one is very clean compared to the others, but it has what looks like (to me) stamped hearts on the background and pencil markings around the circles:



Again with the paint and some stitching:



Gesso, stamping (the paw prints, stars and bracket), and the clip art/cut out of the whimsical cat:



I hope this helps encourage you that while we all have different styles and it's OK to have our main style that we love and go back to time and again . . . but that pieces of lots of different styles bleed over and can certainly make for more interesting pages if we want to try them . . . but ahhh, the beauty, you don't have to! Do what makes you happy when you look at your memory books!

And now, the big challenge for me is to make a pocket page. Hmmmm, maybe a pocket page art journal style. LOL
 
Lynne-Marie said:
I wrote an article recently about Art Journaling styles… because it doesn't all have to look like a hot mess! You can incorporate art journal supplies to your traditional, clean-line pages. I also started this thread in hopes of dissipating some pre-conceived notions of what art journaling is confined to.

The definition of an art journal is as follows: An art diary, art journal or visual journal is a daily journal kept by artists, often containing both words and sketches, and occasionally including mixed media elements such as collages.

The array of styles that can be used to express your art is quite wide. If you look through my gallery, you'll find that my own pages contain a lot of paint and artsy touches, but they are structured in a clean, graphic style with clusters of elements. By the way, almost ALL my pages were done using art journaling supplies. This is no less a form of art journaling than a more abstract page. In fact, you'll find art journaling supplies in almost every kit in the shop! Every time you use paint on your page, you are incorporating art to your visual journal.

Seeing that my own designs are geared to art journaling, my hope is that you will explore the many possibilities this art form has to offer and find ways to use art journaling products within your own interests.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this - I'm looking forward to reading it all. I'm not an art-journaler, either. Maybe I'll learn something!
 
LynnG said:
I am currently on the hunt for a square digital scrapbook frame so I can display the pieces on rotation along with fav scrapbook pages and the plan for next year is to create packs geared to digital art creation .. because it is such fun :-)
Click to expand...

Long ago, Creative Memories had these great square magnetic framed boards. They were made to hang and display a traditional scrapbook page or page print. I have 2 of them in my house that I rotate prints on. It would be fun to make more things to display. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

p.s. found one on Amazon. There might be some more out there somewhere.
 
Back
Top