Express Yourself! Intro to Creative Journaling

1. Introduction: Hi, guys. Welcome to today's class on creative journaling. I'm crystal and I've been journaling since 2002. I've used different types of notebooks for different purposes. Such a spawning, reflecting glass, aging and lettering. General ing has been a very rewarding process for me, and I started sharing photos of my journal pages on instagram Process videos on YouTube. And today I'm excited to share with you about how to get started with creative journaling for my own experiences. Creative journaling is the expression off your imagination or ideas onto a journal in any form that you like. A journal is a safe space for you to freely express yourself to explore who you are or to document life in any form that you feel comfortable with such a striding lettering drawing orca lodging. I encourage you to experiment with different tools and techniques to explore what you like and to develop your own journaling style in today's class will be looking into four aspects of creative journaling. First, we will look at some tools and supplies that you can use for generally. I will also show you how to create and personalize your own notebook. Next we will talk about different ideas for the content of your journal. Finally, we will learn some tips and techniques that we can experiment with to create a visually pleasing layout. At the end of this class, we will create a journal entry by applying what we have learned. If you click on the projects and resource is tab, a worksheet is available for download to guide you through the process of creative journaling. I have also provided a decorative page that you can print out if you'd like to have additional materials for your journal. 2. Tools and Supplies: in this lesson, I'll be showing you the basic tools and stationery that you can use for journaling. I will also be showing you some decorative supplies that you can experiment with to get started with creative journaling. All you really need is a pen and paper or a notebook. Over the years, I've used different types of notebooks for journaling, and I'll be sharing some of the pros and cons of each notebook system from my experience so that you can choose a system that's right for you. A regular notebook, which we're familiar with, can be bounded by different methods. Such a sewing gluing our stapling regular notebooks are easy to use with many sizes and designs to choose from. However, because the notebook is founder, the specific types of papers you're unable to customize it to your personal needs. For looseleaf notebooks on bounded hunch, sheets of papers are organized in a binder. It's a flexible system that allows you to easily add, remove or return to papers to the binder. It's easy to stay organized as you can add dividers to separate different sections for use accessories. Such a super pouches to keep your journaling supplies It may also be more economical as it can replace the papers and reuse the binder. However, new sleeve papers may get ruined over time due to wear and tear of the punched holes. While journaling on ago, it may be more difficult to write on the opposite side of your hand preference with the rings in the way I've been using to regular size travelers notebook since 2016. It's basically a leather cover with elastic bands to hold multiple notebooks together. I like it because I can keep a few regular notebooks together in one system and a size distress right for my journaling style. I can also add different accessories, like file folders or zipper pouches, to keep any ephemera that I'll be using to journal later. Some stationery is that a useful in journaling includes a stapler, colorful staples, the complement of color scheme of your layout, a ruler glue, different types of tape or tape winner scissors clips and Brad's. I'll be showing you other decorative supplies that have accumulated over the years to give you an idea of some supplies that you can experiment with, be creative and make use of the supplies that you already have at hand. Or if you'd like to make a purchase, choose items that are versatile and fit your style. I love writing, so I've accumulated different types of pens to practice and experiment with I use depends to practice calligraphy, ballpoint pen or Joe Penn to journal or hen letter permanent markers to draw or to write on certain paper textures. Various types of bush pens for brush lettering. Ah, quash water Bush pens to letter or draw and markers for drawing to Kal Aaj. Different types of paper can be used as the background over layout or two layer in a cluster of elements. I use paper paths with different designs and patterns. Blacks papers that are semi translucent origami papers, journal cards, oil lease and sticky notes with various designs. Washy tapes, which are decorative adhesive tapes. A great for journaling or any craft projects. Washy tapes can be used on different surfaces and can be easily removed without causing damage. He can use washing tapes with basic colors or patterns. Lace, vintage, floral or cute designs to complement. Your layout can also use twine, burlap, lace or ribbon in your journal. Besides, writing or drawing in your journal a quick way off. Adding text or art is by using clear stamps or rubber stamps. I love adding wax seals in my journal. To make a back seal, you will need a wax your stamp, a melting spoon and wax that is available in different forms such as wax beads and back sticks. Sticker is another way of adding visual interest to your page. You can use alphabet stickers to draw attention to your title or use other decorative stickers like Floro stickers for special occasions, themed cute basic shapes or postage stamps stickers to beautify your page. You can also use functional stickers like metal frames or decorative Brad's stickers with words or phrases, reinforcement stickers, fine stone stickers or labels in your journal. Similarly, acetate or people die. Cuts and tags can be used to decorate your pages if you don't have any decorative supplies with you up cycle ephemera such as packaging with different designs, flyers or magazines. Brochures are maps, dried flowers or other items like tickets or postal stamps. In this example, on the left, I used a subway rapper for my background and kept my flight ticket and exits time to layer with my lettering. Storm dates on tracing paper, washi tape and doily. On the other page, I layered a printed photo of the hotel with the hotel key card holder and note pad. In the example on the right, I kept a brochure and cut automatic prince to make a pocket to hold ephemera. I also kept a business card with the same print and used it to layer beneath a printed photo from the trip. If you like to use photos to document a memory, print them out and used a photo as the focal point of your layout. You can print photos at home using AH, home printer or portable photo printer. Or you can get a professionally printed while journaling. You can add photo frames to draw attention to the photo or use photo corners to stick to photos to your notebook to add decorative details to your page. You can use nouveau jobs to create a three D embellishment or use glitter glue to add some sparkles to your page. You can also use embossing powder within bossing pens or in pads to get different effects on your lettering and stamped image. You can also use different punches or paper M Balcer to get different effects, such as founded corners, different shapes and designs for borders. Now refer to the worksheet and list down the tools and supplies that you will be using to create a journal entry. 3. Create and Personalize a Notebook: In this lesson, I'll be showing you how to create and personalize a notebook in the size of a regular Travellers notebook. The materials that will be using include one cut stock paper in a four size for the cover. 14 a four size papers in different colors, designs and textures for the pages. A ruler to foot the papers, two clips to hold the papers in place, a paper trimmer to trim it to size on a long time stay player to bind the notebook to create a notebook. The first step is to select a thicker card stock paper as a cover and a variety of a four papers in different colors, designs and textures for your pages. Each paper folded in half will create four cages of the notebook. I selected 14 papers to give me 56 pages. Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of pages as you wish. You can choose different types of paper according to your style or needs. If you like to write with a fountain. Pen shoes. Smoother peepers that are found, some pen friendly. If you like to paint with watercolors or draw with markers, choose thicker papers so that it doesn't believe through the page. I will show you some examples of the types of paper that you can use for your notebook. Neutral colors like craft black and white papers work well with mostly out. You can also use color construction papers for your notebook. If you have old book pages or a crossword puzzles lying around in your house up, cycle them to create more visual interests in your notebook. If you like to collage, using decorative papers with various designs and patterns as the base layer is a quick way of getting started, tracing papers are my favorite. You can use different types of tracing papers to layer your pages or cluster of elements. When journaling. You can also age papers by staining it with coffee or tea, then at some variety by burning or distressing the edges of the paper. After selecting the papers for your notebook, the next step is to put it together. Place your peepers in a sequence that you prefer alternating between different paper designs and textures. Fold all of the papers in half using a ruler, then a line all papers and used to large clips to hold the papers in place, you can find a notebook using different methods such a sewing, gluing or stapling. Here, I'm using a long arm stapler to staple in the middle of the notebook at the bottom of the notebook and at the top. Next, trim the notebook to the size of a regular Travellers notebook, which is 11 times 21 centimeters. The height of your notebook is already at 21 cm for the with. I like to give a bit of leeway in case I make a mistake, so I'm trimming it. A bid wider at 11.5 cm. I'm using a paper trimmer to trim to size, but you can use a pair of scissors, craft knife or whichever tool you prefer. Once I'm done, I'll save the off cuts to reuse within the notebook, as he was. See in the next section in this section, I'll be showing you simple ways of personalizing your notebook, so materials that I'll be using include around corner punch off cuts from the notebook, washi tape envelope, photo frame postcard, dried flowers and a wax use damp. These are just some ideas to get you started, but few free to improvise and use the materials that you have at hand. I personally love notebooks with rounded corners because they're less likely to get ruined when I'm carrying them around. Rounded corners also give the notebook a more finish look, so I always like to use my round corner punch to trim the square edges of all my pages. To add variations to a page, you can create an extended page by folding the paper into three equal parts. Then cheap 1/3 of the paper onto a page using washi tape and folder remaining 2/3 of the paper over the next page. You can also add visual interest to a page A combining different people textures. Here I'm caring about 1/4 of my page to get thes tourney edges. And on the other side of the page, I'll tape on tracing paper. That is, from the off cuts. Another simple way of decorating a page is by adding lace or washing to the edges off a page. Here, I'm using a washy with lace design to add some visual interest to a page, choose different people, textures from the off cuts to create a flag. I love the look of the branch coffee stain keeper. So I'll be using that so layer on top of tracing paper, I'm cutting down the with of the coffee stain paper so that it's not as wide as the tracing paper. I also love the look of thorn edges, so I'm doing that to both ends of the tracing paper for the other side of the coffee stain paper. I'm folding it in half and cutting a triangle to make a swallowtail shape. I then fold both papers and half and stapled hm onto a page. Envelopes are a great addition to a notebook, as you can use them to hold ephemera as or materials that you'll like to use for journaling later, I'm simply taping to envelope to to cover and adding a sticker to complement the red background. If you like to include photos in your journal that your photos stand out by adding a photo frame, I'm decorating the photo frame with a penguin shape note card and adding a label off a key word as the caption for the photo. If there's something important that I like to remind myself off, I like to write it down in a postcard and tape it into my notebook so that I can refer to it whenever I like. He can letter and inspiring quote to encourage yourself or jot down your goals to motivate yourself to fulfill your dreams For this page, I'm picking some dried flowers and placing it down in my notebook with a wax used up. I'm picking out some golden brown wax speeds and placing them in a melting spoon over a candle. Once the wax is melted, I'll pour it onto the stem of the dried flower and press the seal into the century off the wax. Leave it for a few seconds before lifting the seal. I have a really simple set up for my Travelers notebook. I usually keep a journal to document the highlights of each year and another one to document my travels here. I'm putting my 2020 journal between the elastic band and the cover. Then I'm taking another elastic band to pass through my travel journal on my 2020 journal. And there you have it. That's my simple set up for my Travelers notebook 4. Ideas for Content: How do we have the tools we need for journaling? Let's think about the content of the journal. Do you enjoy writing down your thoughts, painting your feelings, documenting events and photos, drawing places that you have been to? Or maybe you'd like to bring storm new ideas or improve on a new skill. My journaling style and content have changed over the years. When I first started journaling, I wrote to express my feelings and to discover myself. When I was in university, I started using my journal to plan and to take notes of things I've learned. When I picked up brush lettering. My journal became a space for me to explore creativity. While documenting memories are reflecting on experiences, a personal journal is an ideal environment in which to become. It's a perfect place for you to think if you discover, expand, remember and dream. This quote by Brad Wilcox sums up the different types of journaling really well. So in this lesson, I will be showing you some examples of what you can journal about. Based on the six categories, I think you can journal to document thoughts that you have about an experience brainstorm ideas that you'd like to carry out. Express gratitude for practice mindfulness. In this example, I'm documenting my friends visit and reflecting on our 18 years of friendship, feel you can also capture emotions in writing or photos. I saw this photo of an elderly couple strolling in a park, and it reminded me off her heartwarming, sane, often elderly couple poor regulars in a Japanese bakery I used to work for there would always walk into the bakery hand in hand and ordered two cups of decaf before sitting at a corner off the bar. Their joy and love for each other was so contagious that I wanted to remember that feeling by journaling about it. Discover journaling is a great way to discover who you are as an individual. To gain a new perspective of what's happening in your life or to explore creativity are practicing drawing or lettering quotes that inspire you. In this example, I joined the challenge of 30 days of Bible letter writing. One verse every day for a month allowed me to participate. Lettering consistently expand. You can also journal to improve yourself by taking notes and reflecting on things that you've learned or by developing new skills here. I'm reviewing the notes that I took on my iPad and lettering, the important points in my journal. Remember, if there's an important event that you like to remember documented in your journal. In this example, I documented a birthday celebration and movies that I watched. I also like to document my travels by jotting down the highlights of my trip, the places that I visited for quotes that remind me of what I've learned or experienced during the trip. The's air. Some journal entries from my travel journal. Most of finally outs are inspired but ephemeral that I gathered from my trip. I like to include a family, my layout, because looking back at each element will remind me of a specific memory from the trip dream. Finally, we can journal to dream about your future. We can set goals that you want to achieve, create a bucket list or write about your hopes for the future. In the first few pages of my journal, I highlighted a few things that I like to focus on in this new year, such as being pine mindful and healthy, and this year I wanted to be more open to new experiences. So I decided to revisit my bucket list and listed a few things that I like to experience. I would also journal to reflect about the past year and write about my hopes for the new year. I hope that this lesson has given you some ideas for the content of your journal. Now refer to do what she and jot down a few ideas off what you would like to journal about . 5. Tips and Techniques: Next, we will be working on the layout of your journal. Be creative and experiment with different methods to develop your own style of generally. In this lesson, I will be sharing some tips and techniques to create a visually appealing layout for your journal before starting a journal entry. Think about unity in terms of the theme and color scheme off your layout. You can choose the theme of your layout based on the event that you're journaling about, or the theme may be inspired by a decorative material you have. After deciding on a main theme. Look for complementing decorative materials in the same color scheme so that the details of the layout would come together to create a complete picture. In this example, the theme of my journal entry is Chinese New Year. I up cycled red packets as the focal point off my layout. The main colors of the red packets are red and gold, so I chose complimenting materials such as a red washy red ribbon and a goat doily to create a cohesive layout. In this example, I'm inspired by the right page of the notebook, which is an age tracing paper with lettering for display out, I will be working on a postal theme with a brown color scheme. I gathered a torrent piece of book page, a golden wide Journal card, a doily, a postal theme bookmark and a tiny envelope to create a cluster on the left page. Choosing decorative materials that complement the postal theme and brown color scheme created a sense of unity for this layout. Repeating certain elements, such as colors or shapes, can also create a sense of cohesiveness. Harbor repeating the exact same element over and over again, can be dull. So try to add some variety to the repeated element, like an example on the left circles. Air repeated in different sizes and forms the shape of the sticky notes, the sun, the pattern of four circles and a watercolor stains in the example into right. The mechanical graphics and labels are repeated in the decorative papers and stamped images . Here, I'm working on a layout for Harvest Festival. I'll be using a sticker of a girl as the focal point on the right page. The sticker has hints of Fred and Yellow, so I'll be repeating this colors to create a pattern as the background on the left page. One way to capture the viewer's attention is to choose an emphasis or a focal point for your layout. In this example, I chose the pink unicorn and the Japanese lady to be the emphasis of thesis layouts to emphasize a focal point in your layout. The first step is to gather all the materials that you'll be using, then arranged elements according to the level of importance. Find the most important element of your layout, then arrange other elements around it. To emphasize the focal point. Use the rule of thirds to draw the viewers attention to the focal point. According to the rule of thirds, the I is naturally drawn to the intersecting points of a tick tack toe grid to create a visually appealing layout. First, divide a page into nine equal parts, then place the focal point off your layout in one off the four intersecting points and place the other elements close to the focal point. On this page, the emphasis is the sticker off a girl, followed by the title, then the decorative details. All elements in your layout carry visual. Wait to balance the elements in your page you can use symmetrical balance by mirroring elements on two pages. You can also use asymmetrical balance by choosing elements of different visual weights that balance each other. In this example, I used asymmetrical balance by choosing a large element on the left page on a cluster off smaller elements on the right page. In summary for this harvest festival layout, I use reputation by creating a pattern for the background on the left page. On the right page, I placed my emphasis, which is the stick of a girl in one of the four intersecting points off the tick tack toe grid. Finally, I balanced the elements in my layout by placing a large element on the left and a cluster off smaller elements on the right. Another technique that you can try is to add variety in the details of a layout. You can layer different elements to add dimension to a page or create interactive elements such as a pocket to keep your ephemera or journal cards that you can flip to reveal a message for the cover off my 2020 journal I will layer decorated materials of different textures and varied attacks using a typewriter label maker and stickers here I'm typing out a quote by Theodore Roosevelt to remind myself to keep dreaming and to continue pursuing those dreams. Then I'm using a label maker to type out the words fulfilling dreams to decorate the cover . I gather different materials in the same color scheme as the cover page. Here I'm cutting out some mesh fabric for layering. In addition to my type, quote and label, I will also be using wax paper doily, a tag chasing paper place, press leave and stickers to complete the cover. Here is the final look off the cover off my 2020 journal adding interactive elements. It's a fun way to connect with your journal. In this example, I'm using a Brad to keep a bookmark and papers of different textures together. In this lesson, reconsidered unity in terms of the theme and color scheme. Repetition, emphasis and balance in the layout and variety in the details of a page, refer to the worksheet and choose one technique that you'd like to experiment with. 6. Summary and Project: in today's class, we learned about how to get started with creative journaling by identifying the tools and supplies you need, creating a personalized notebook, thinking about the content of your journal and learning some tips and techniques for your layout. Be sure to explore and experiment with different tools and techniques, and you will be able to develop your own style of journaling with practice. Now let's apply what we have learned in this class for this project. I encourage you to create a journal entry using one technique that we have learned. Click on the projects and resource is top to download the worksheet, which will guide you through the process of creative journaling to help you get started. I have also included a decorative page that you can use in your journal. Share your projects so that we can be inspired by each other's work. Upload photos of your journal page on skill share and share your project with me on Instagram by tagging me at creating sparks. If you like to watch more process videos, visit my YouTube channel, I creating sparks. I can't wait to see what you've created. See you soon