I made a Zine about Art Journaling

Every man’s work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.
Samuel Butler

I have wanted to do a zine of my own for a few years now. It’s been a longing in my chest that could not be silenced, that shouldn’t have to be silenced. Its not a big dream to make a small homemade publication, right? Everyone who loves to publish should have a go, at least once, that’s what I thought. I’ve hesitated to post about it for a while, but now its time. I have made a zine! Big news!

I wanted it to be mostly filled with my own writing and also a bit of professional layout. I am a writer at heart after all – among many things. I chose a subject that I?m passionate about, Art Journaling, and opened a document and started writing. Just wrote, and then wrote some more. I’ve already noticed on my blog that when I start to write about this subject I’ve got a lot to say!

My zine is very personal. It has a very distinct iHanna tone and it’s about how I got started with Art Journaling, a bit about my process of filling a page and what it has come to mean to me. Me me me, yes it’s true. It?s my personal Art Journaling Story so to speak, and I realize I could?ve done this zine in many ways, but my story is as good as any and it?s the one I know best. Start where you are, and right now I?m here. With a huge love for mixed media art created inside a bound book, and a willingness to share that love with you and the rest of the world. So why not publish a zine?

Set your goals

I read a lot about setting goals and how important it is to your success. In Lisa Sonora Beam’s book The Creative Entrepreneur she talks about being SMART about your goals. That means your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. I think that is so smart! My goal while making a zine were simple but huge (and oh, I never set time boundaries and that is a big problem, but anyway…):

1) to write extensively about a topic that I?m passionate about (the first issue is about my love for visual journaling, next issue if there is one might be about something else)

2) to experiment with desktop publishing and layout (I made my first zine using Adobe InDesign)

3) to make a interesting & fun little publication that you would want to save and maybe even keep & re-read (zines are such a cool art form)

and

4) to give the reader a lot of information and ideas away from the computer (oh, yummy text), something that inspires (including prompts, ideas, images and words, but still keep it b/w and simple)!

Illustration close up.

I must say I’m both excited and proud about my first zine. Inspired by zine-sisters (like Sister Diane who makes a Christmas Digest, a zine for her friends each December, and by Alma Stoller who crafts her beautiful Odd Ball Charm among a few others) I?ve longed to make a zine of my own for years! I know many of you have this dream too. For me the time to make one was now. Participating and signing up for the zine swap at iheartzines.com helped push me to get going and to finish a zine. Plus, I got mail art zines and other cool zines about art in the mail which was a big bonus!

A bonus in each zine is always fun. In my zine you’ll get some fun papers to play with, each zine will be slightly different and you might get pages from Swedish interior design magazines, pieces of wall paper, vintage labels, prints, or some other bits and pieces from my (too large) stash of papers. I hope they will evoke you to do some collage play in your own Art Journal.

A peak inside. This is the table of content on the right and the Editor’s (thats me!) Letter! :-)

Please note that the zine I made for the swap was printed at home but the copies I’m selling will be photocopies in black and white print only! Although when printing it again I couldn’t resist using colored papers here and there… hehe. Just for fun.

I will write more about the process of making this zine next week! For now, feel free to order your copy in my Etsy Shop, I just added it this week. :-)

More spreads from the zine:

SuziBlu inspired portrait

My favorite things

You can write about anything in your journal!

Last spread in the zine.