Stock up on your Journal Supplies at Altered Pages!

With the New Year just started January is the perfect time to start keeping a journal or to restock your art journal supplies at Altered Pages.

With everything from Journals, Paint and Color, Mark Making Tools, Stencils, Collage Images, Stamps, Writing Implements and Miscellaneous supplies such as Papers and Glue it is definitely worth browsing through all the different product categories on the Altered Pages website.

If you want a journal to record more about your life, goals, the everyday stuff, gratitude etc than something along the lines of a smash journal may be the perfect place to start your journal journey. I have started working on one this past week.  I've been preparing a few pages that I can then come back and add to later.  Using Paper Collections are always great for this type of journal as they often come with inspirational quotes and journal tags and with all the papers coordinating you can cut and use in a variety of ways.

For mine I have chosen to use the wonderful Glitz Color Me Happy Paper Collection.  A quick and simple way I love to add color to the background is by simply scribbling color onto the page with my Gelatos and then blending with a baby wipe.

There are so many different ways to journal and express your thoughts, your feelings and simply your creativity.  I dabble in a mix of them and have a number of different journals on hand.  I have a small and large Dylusions Art Journal which I keep to simply try stuff out in, these are messy just for play while others I have made myself for specific purposes.

The above picture is the cover of one of my handmade watercolor paper journals. The cover combines papers, stamps, with die cuts and embellishments along with one of my own sketches which has been colored with Gelatos and Water Color Pencils.  I made this for the recent Woman Unleashed Online Retreat for both creating some art and taking notes. 

Watercolor Pencils my go to for all my drawings in my journal.

MY MUST HAVE SUPPLIES:  Watercolor Pencils, Water brushes and a Black Marker/Journaling Pen.

The fire comes to life with a stenciled face.

Add to this a few color makers and stencils.

Layers of color and texture combine to give this hand drawn feather a backdrop.

And for messier play sessions Gesso, Paper, Paint, Ink Sprays go great together.

3 TIPS FOR YOUR JOURNAL JOURNEY:

• Think about what techniques and supplies you might want to be using in your journal and whether the journal you are about to buy is containing pages/papers that you know will hold up to the task.  For extra sturdiness you may like to add masking tape along the spine of each opening, glue a few pages together and/or add a coat of gesso.  The Dylusions Art Journals are good for Mixed Media Play.
• Not all Pens/Markers are the same, you may need to again think about the surface you wish to write on, but this time it's the surface after you have layered all your arty goodness, some pens don't like to write on top of paint, Gelatos etc.  I find Paint Markers, and the White Signo Gel Pen are good choices.
• When it comes to inks, similar to pens you have to think about the surface you are stamping on and also if you wish for it to be archival etc particularly if you are wanting to add more over the top of your ink layers.