Google "art journaling" and you will find 16,400,000 results in 52 seconds. Trust me, I just googled it! On the search bar in Pinterest "art journaling" will populate so many pins I don't know that you could ever scroll long enough to see the end!

So, what is art journaling? When you google that question you will find no shortage of answers, but the FPRs (first page results) will mostly be geared to artists. Art journaling, however is for ANYONE! For an artist it is a way to put creative ideas in a journal to be worked out in detail later.

Art journaling for anyone else - the definition is simple:

A way to express yourself with visuals and or words. There is no wrong way to create an art journal! It is for YOU! Much like a diary, it can be a very private journal you never share with anyone else. Or you can share with anyone else. (See the no wrong way theory at work here?) Whatever you decide to do with your art journal is YOUR decision.

Why do I care about art journaling? You may not, but if you are slightly intrigued then stick with me here! Art journaling is a great way to EXPRESS YOURSELF (as mentioned above).

​There may be times when you don't want to just write endlessly to get your thoughts out of your head or to process what you are feeling, or not feeling. Maybe you just need to splatter a page in RED because your frustration has now moved to boiling anger! Maybe you want to run some cool blue watercolor across a page because you just feel, well - blue!

My favorite part of art journaling is - THERE ARE NO RULES! By nature, I hate rules so art journaling suits my free-spirit very well! There's also no pressure to get it right. If you don't have rules, then what's "right," right?

No rules, no pressure! Just a simple journal of blank pages you will fill with colors and doodles and words and glue and glitter and whatever your heart desires!

My art journals and I have been through good times and bad. We've had fun, we've shed tears, we've been mad at each other, we've created casts of unknown characters, we've spilled and cracked, blossomed and lacked. I have dozens of art journals and each one is a part of me!

​Check out the images below to see a variety of my own art journal pages. (You can also check out my other posts on this blog and see more of my art journaling) There is no rhyme or reason. Some of my pages are decent, some look like I may have created them when I was in the 1st grade. No wrong, no right, no shame - just a great way to express myself!

Happy new year! 2018.  Seems hard to fathom that we are in the year 2018. My youngest child was born in 2000.  My baby turns 18 this year.  It's the year for me to start looking at the road ahead.  A road that will not include raising kids.  That's a pretty big difference for me.  My middle child is 27 and my oldest is 32 years old as of this past October so by the time my baby turns 18 I will have been raising kids for almost 33 years!  

I can think of no better time for me than right now to get serious about focusing on my Word of the Year.  After much thought, prayer and writing I've chosen the word DIRECTION for my word this year.  Only two weeks into the year this word has already changed and shaped how I start every day.  

In December I led a private Vision Board workshop and in January I will be leading the 2nd part of that workshop.  I've taken many vision board workshops, read lots of blog posts and free e-Books on vision boards, but I have yet to do my own vision board! Leading this private vision board workshop has really helped me focus on how important a vision board is, the best way FOR ME to create a vision board and how to make it more than a piece of inexpensive collage art!  

​I'm ready for 2018!! Are you? 

New Year's Resolutions have never helped me do anything other than waste money on unused gym memberships and feel guilty for the remainder of the year. Not one year, not one resolution ever made me thinner, richer, healthier or happier.

A few years ago I invested in myself taking Christine Kane's Uplevel YOU™ program which included her fabulous brainchild - Word of the Year.  Talk about a paradigm shift! This big little tool enabled me to forgot those stupid New Year's Resolutions F-O-R-E-V-E-R!

I began choosing my word year after year and focusing on that one word. Okay, truthfully the first year I chose 4 words and decided I would focus on 1 each quarter and as I'm sure you've guessed that didn't work so well.  I'm always the rebel without a cause.  Live and learn.  One year, one word! I dug in and did it. I would journal about it, write goals around it, etc.  

This year I added my own personal twist to my Word of the Year ritual - an art journal! Now I'm sharing this idea and process with others as I begin a new journey in teaching my One Word Art Journal Workshop.  My first workshop is Saturday, April 23rd at Sparks Studio Art in Arlington, Texas. My amazing and incredibly talented sister, Jill Welch will be gracing the art studio with her live music! And bonus - after the workshop she'll also be playing a two hour show across the street from the studio at Old School Pizza and Suds.  

Please check out my Workshops page here for all the details!  

​Christine Kane's Word of the Year
Get One Word
Jill Welch Songs
SparksStudioArt