creating with a kid- art journal play dates

As many of you know, an art journal is one of my favorite places for me to practice, explore, brainstorm and play with all kinds of mixed media techniques. But did you know that art journaling is also one of my favorite ways to create with kids? It is such a fun accessible way for kids to experiment, journal, doodle and play. With summer in full swing, art journaling can be a really fun activity for all ages. Here are a few of my favorite ways to incorporate art journaling with kids.

Art journaling is great activity for variety of ages (and skill levels) working at the same time with the same supplies together!

Let that art journal be the place where all that art happens! While I love to plan and orchestrate all kinds of art projects, it can be a lot of work to pull out different supplies. I love that Lucy's art journal is a really small easy place to get creative when we are limited with time and the ability to access lots of supplies.

While we love binding our own art journals, you can use just about any pad of paper for an art journal- a watercolor pad, a mixed media pad of paper, a sketchbook or even a composition notebook are all great things to use.

Prompts are a wonderful way to kickstart ideas with kids (or any age) and can be helpful when you are staring at a blank page. I like to have a handful of prompts (typically organized by season, or things we are talking about or learning about) ready to go. Having prompts on hand adds a little bit of guidance/direction for an art journaling session.

I like to select 2-3 different techniques at a time and I always limit the rules (typically there are no rules) and let them interpret the techniques and run with them!

As tempting as it can be to discourage kids from making mud by mixing all of the colors, I always give them the freedom to figure it out on there own. And you know what? They always do!

Embrace the mess! Giving kids (or anyone) the permission to make a mess is often all we need in order to stop overthinking and just get creative!

Art journaling is a really great family, friend, playdate activity and getting adults inviolved with the kids is another fun way to socialize and bond!

Looking for more or projects or inspiration for creating with kiddos? Head on over to my creating with a kid series of posts HERE

my favorite art journaling supplies

I spend a lot of time creating in my art journals- it is where I work out my ideas, where I experiment, journal and document memories. While I will use anything and everything to create, I thought I would share a handful of my "must have items" for art journals! They are simple but really important in my process. There are all kinds of at journaling supplies but these are what I tend to use most:

1. While I am not picky about the sketchbooks or journals the I use, I really enjoy making my own art journal. This enables me to use a variety of my favorite paper and paint it before I bind it all together.

My favorite paper to use in these journals is Blick Studio Watercolor Paper by Fabriano. I love this paper because it works well with a variety of wet media.

I also use a Zutter Bind It All to punch my paper and bind it into a journal.

2. I prefer to use matte acrylic paint when I am painting in an art journal because the pages, once closed, won't stick together.

3. I always keep a glue stick around so I can quickly glue collage ephemera or photos to pages of my art journal. 

4. I spend a lot of time drawing and doodling over the top of my painted journal pages so I always have a good collection of permanent pens and markers on hand. 

5. When I am creating painted backgrounds in my art journal I tend to reach for my brayer before a paint brush- I love the look of messy color rolled all over the surface of a page.

6. I use watercolors all the time and even though I use a lot of acrylic paint in my art journal pages, I also like to use watercolors to add color to doodles and drawings.

7. I will use any kind of tape (washi tape, masking tape, scotch tape, etc) to attached photos and collage ephemera to my pages. Often my art journal becomes a place to store ideas which means a lot of pages have little notes, ideas, pieces of doodles and photos attached to the surface.

8. And of course I can't live without my white Uni-ball Signo pen for drawings or doodling over the top of my darker layers.

mess making in the studio

a peek inside my process: layers of watercolor and pen

a peek inside my art journal

NEW summer class! the nature journal

There is nothing in this world that inspires me more than nature! From color, pattern, texture and sound, nature is my favorite place to seek and find inspiration. In this class we will be using an art journal to explore all kinds of prompts, mixed media techniques and exercises that revolve around the natural world.

With nature as our muse we will work through 1 lesson a day for 30 days. I will be sharing all kinds of drawing, mixed media and painting exercises- from drawing the wind to capturing texture to recording weather to finger painting landscapes, expressive drawing, collecting and documenting treasure and so much more- my hope is the inspiration to grab that art journal and go explore that big beautiful world!

The Nature Journal
Early Bird SALE $20.00 $30.00
Class launches July 1st

more information or register HERE

happy weekend!

creating with Jules- concrete mosaic hearts

It’s spring time for Alisa, but Autumn (or Fall) over here in Australia, and we’re still having some lovely sunny days which makes it nice to get out into the garden. Not a lot of colour going on here with flowers (pretty much all I have is grouped together in these photos!) so I thought some mosaic hearts would brighten things up.. But if it IS spring where you are, add some more colour, because we all know you can never have enough!

You will need:

Cement

Cement additive (optional- I use Bondcrete)

Sand, fine & coarse

Silicone heart molds

Various mosaic tiles

Outdoor tile adhesive

White grout

Other useful items: tile snips, eye protection, small spatula, disposable gloves, soft scrubbing brush

First, mix up your cement. For a nice strong mix I like to use 1 part grey cement, 2 parts fine sand, and 1 one part coarse sand and my cement additive to packet instructions. Using this ratio, guesstimate how much concrete mix you will need to fill your heart molds to approx 3/4 full.

Pour your mix into the heart molds, and gently tap and vibrate them to dislodge any air bubbles. I like to leave my concrete crafts for at least 3 days covered up and kept moist to cure.

Once cured & dry, pop them out of their moulds, and mix up some outdoor tile adhesive and batter it on. Mosaics is so similar to cake decorating it’s not funny. The great thing about them though is they last forever, unlike cakes!

You can use tile snips to make your chosen tiles smaller if you wish (using eye protection here), and place them into the tile adhesive. I found sticking to one colour per heart a nice way to decorate some of my hearts. Or my daughter made the rainbow one which is a nice effect too.

Leave to dry as per instructions on your adhesive pack, but before fully hardened, use a sharp tool to scrape away any adhesive that is bulging out a bit too much between tiles to give a nice finish for when you grout.

Mix up some grout and use a little spatula or your gloved hands to push the grout between all of the tiles, not forgetting the edges. I then use a soft scrubbing brush or old stiff paintbrush to brush away the excess grout on top of the tiles, before polishing with a soft rag. 

Leave to dry for 24 hours before exposing to the elements and use them outdoors to brighten up little corners.

I’ve also found this is a great project to do with little ones. It’s just enough of a project to make them feel creative without it being too big for them to lose motivation. You can make up the cement hearts for them so they’re ready to stick tiles onto when you’re ready. My daughters helped me make some of these hearts, as they’re always inviting themselves into projects I might be making.

Enjoy!

Jules :)

You can find more of Jules here:

Blog http://julesmadden.blogspot.com.au

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/julesmadden/

Shop https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/artbyjulesmadden