Back to some Art Journaling, shall we girls? :-)

Journal SpillingIn Diana Trout’s new book Journal Spilling you will find months worth of inspiration for your Art Journal! I like her approach to journaling, probably because it is similar to my own and what I preach here in my blog. It’s all about the process and not about the outcome. If you’re happy when you make it it?s worth creating!

In Journal Spilling there are many fun techniques like transfers, ink writing with objects other than pens, carving your own stamps, easy bookbinding, painting your own background papers and Diana?s favorite play: to make resists with different materials like Sakura pens and crayons!

This book contains many how-to-photos and easy to follow instructions. I like that for most techniques you can use cheap materials that you already have at home, and are not encouraged to go out shopping for lots of new art stuff. Some books and articles lists too many new materials (and specific brands etc) that you are told to get. Diana uses lots of gesso, a glue stick and ordinary crayons for many of her suggestions. Some of the tutorials are on how to make a whole page from start to finish complete with spill writing idea and embellishing. Inspirational, simple and also easy to break down and do what ever you like with them.

I have journaled for a few years now, and have tried most of the ideas in the book at some time or other – but as I read through the book I am really inspired by the way they are presented here. And some stuff is new to me which is great fun! I want to jump up and start spilling my heart out! I like the book title, the cover and the design of the pages too. Mmm.

New to me are the Japanese painting methods suminagashi and orizomegami (!), and I’m putting them on my list of experiments to try with soon. Diana Trout?s book also inspires me to start thinking and planning new projects. How about making paper dolls, free write more into my pages and maybe get out some pom-poms (and other fabrics) to print with ? that looks very cool!

Spread from Journal Spilling (Photo by iHanna - Hanna Andersson)

If you?re new to art journaling I would absolutely recommend this book, and even experienced journal folks will find lots of juicy stuff in this book! I think this is one of the best books on the market for the beginner Art Journaler, because it’s full to the brim with tips and advice! Yes, I must say I really like it. Concluding the essence of this book (and also my own thoughts on art journaling) mine and Diana?s list of advice would probably look like this:

    1. Anything is allowed in your Art Journal. Any material, any color, any style, any papers.
    2. Experimenting is a way of finding your own style, yourself and your favorite methods.
    3. Trying others prompts can be fun but it’?s You who got to show up on the page.
    4. Let it be a bit haphazard! Shabby, grungy and torn is good, as well as spilling paint, random collage and no-plan writing – or all of it mixed together!
    5. A little goes a long way, try to make space (and time!) for your spilling!

At least this is the feelings I get when I read through Journal Spilling. and by looking at Diana’s own pages, full of wild writing and spilled colors, you will get the feeling that anything is allowed and what ever you create is beautiful if it comes from you.

Spread from Journal Spilling (Photo by iHanna - Hanna Andersson)

♥ Diana Trout is a blog friend and she was kind enough to sent me her new book, maybe she knew it was on my wish list of new cool mixed media books! Because I really like it I thought I’d share my thoughts about it with you here. Below you will find some great interviews with Diana that you can listen to while you make your amazon order or spill on your next journal page!

Journal Spilling inspiration

Spread from Journal Spilling (Photo by iHanna - Hanna Andersson)
Spread from Diana Trout’s book Journal Spilling. Yummy right?

Note to self: look for a water sprayer, eye droppers or pipettes, bottles of fun colored inks, Golden’s “flow release” (?), masking fluid for watercolors and rubbing alcohol (?). Oh, and I really want a calligraphy brush too.