#AtoZChallenge, A is for Art Journal

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first day of the A-Z Blogging Challenge! As promised in my last post, my theme for the 2016 A-Z will be art journaling, with a new entry for every day of the challenge.

My plan is to base each of my journal pages on a letter of the alphabet, giving myself about 30 minutes a day to put together a visual page (the part I'll be sharing) from the easiest and cheapest materials available, and another half hour to freewrite about what I find in the images. All along the way I'll also be providing tips and ideas for you to create an art journal of your own.

But before we begin: If you're a first-time art-journaler, please don't think you need to go out and buy tons of supplies. One main point I want to demonstrate over the month is how little you need in both materials and time: an hour at the most broken up into several 15- or 20- minute segments, a journal or notebook, some glue sticks, a pair of scissors, some junk mail/every-day ephemera ("The Moon" is torn from the bottom of a sheet of postage stamps), old magazines, some colored pencils, felt tip markers or watercolors, and optional decorative papers which can range from gift wrap to plain papers you paint and decorate yourself. Chances are you probably have everything at home already; even if you don't have a journal, you can just use individual sheets of paper and staple, sew, or tie them together at a later date.

So what have I got here for this first entry? Scraps! For instance, the green piece of paper in the background up there is a leftover from cutting out some star-shapes for another journal project. I kept it because I liked the unintentional design and also because I'm a great fan of "waste not, want not." The little colored pencil piece I glued in beneath it is a practice drawing on vellum from last year that seemed to fit the overall design in both shape and color--especially as I could then title the piece "A is for Apricot"! And that, along with "Reach for the Moon" is going to be my writing prompt for the day. 

Hint: Apricots always remind me of my childhood in California's San Fernando Valley. A great way to start off your art journal, especially if you're feeling a bit stuck or uninspired is to begin with those wonderful words: "I remember. . . "

Tip of the Day: Did you know cabbage leaves, kale, and collards make excellent journal pages? Oh, okay--April Fools!! See you tomorrow with the letter B.