I'm delighted that so many people are planning to join in on the art orgy of Art Journal Every Day! If you haven't seen the list of January participants, it's up to seventy-eight! Wow! That's a lot of artful blog hopping!

In case you're still on the fence, I thought I'd show you a whole bunch of examples of what an art journal is (as it turns out, there's very little that an art journal isn't). I visited every single one of the seventy-eight participants' links and I stole some art journal pages along the way to share with you. Take a peek at what I found:

Amy Tangerine



This is part of Amy's "December Daily Album." What's the difference between a mini album and an art journal? Well as far as I can tell there isn't any. It's just what you choose to call it! This is a very cool art journal! Love the stitched title!

Angela Churchill



Two things: (1) love that she went with a spiral bound book and (2) less really is more!

bonnierose



Bonnierose is a girl after my own heart! Love all the color and the use of punchinella (sequin waste). And that is a wicked alphabet stamp set! Love that font!

Cuchy



On her blog Cuchy shows the image that inspired this wonderful candy colored art journal layout! I love the dimension on it. I wonder what kind of paint she used?

effie



Hooray for magazine silhouettes! I've got a video tutorial here.

Gina Tyggereye



Gina's page is entirely digital! How cool is that? With all the awesome tablets and programs and digital images available, digital art journal pages are easy to do (and leave your hands clean)!

Heli



I love the freedom and abandon here. Just love it!

iHanna



Working in a tiny moleskine -- something you can slip in your pocket or purse -- she has created such a cool grid collage. Love the security envelope! Love the label sticker used for her journaling!

Jeanette [Maisy] House



An art journal page does not have to have actual words. Picasso said, "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary." Love this painting!

Joanne Sharpe



Ditto for this one! Love the colors! Love the flowers! Love the whole darn thing! I want to climb inside this page!

Julie Frokjer



I'm not sure, but it looks like she did the whole page with charcoal (or a pencil) and a pen. And it's awesome! You don't need a lot of supplies to make an art journal work for you!

Lay Hoon



This is one of my favorite kinds of art journal entries -- a practical one. This is all stuff she found on her desk! Giggle. And I love that painty curved rainbow too!

Liette



On her blog Liette indicated that this was a new technique she discovered (art journals are a great place to experiment!) and was planning to use it as a background in her art journal. It's super gorgeous. I scoured her blog, but I couldn't find the "how" of how she put this together. Maybe she'll be nice enough to share a tutorial? Hint! Hint!

lori vliegen



Just as an art journal page doesn't need words, it doesn't need pictures either! How gorgeous is Lori's lettering by the way? (Visit her etsy shop and you can steal her handwriting in the form of stamps she's made.)

marsha



Beautiful use of a simple repeated motif, punchinella, and some cool looking texture. And again, a page without words still communicates.

Michelle Remy

I adore the phrase, "Live Intensely." And it shows that just a tiny bit of text can be more than enough!

Michelle Rydell



On her blog Michelle said that this one of her favorite scrapbook layouts from the year. I think it's amazing. I also think there's no difference between this scrapbook layout and an art journal page -- other than the fact that this isn't in a bound book. I love using photos in my art journal and I often use the same design principles in my art journal that I use when I'm scrapbooking. I think it's so weird the way people separate scrapbooking and art journaling, but that's a diatribe for another day!

P.S. Check out her post on how she organizes her many, many journals!

Nelly Eisenhower



I gotta' totally agree with the sentiment on this page. And on her blog Nelly tells the story of the page and how she fought against her inner critic to fix the page when some ink seeped through the seam. I have found that my daily art journal habit has cured me of a lot of fear of failure. Because I fail nine out of ten days when I'm working on it. But that tenth day, I make something that is so amazing that I want to show it off to strangers on the street!

Roberta



Gorgeous colors and i love the rub-ons that she has used on this page! They give such a fantastic seamless, almost drawn on look!

As a side note, Roberta is using the same kind of art journal that I use a lot -- the watercolor moleskine. On the one hand I love it. It's sturdy, has a pocket in the back, has great quality watercolor pages, it's affordable, and it's easy to find. But I hate the landscape shape. I don't know, what do you think? Do you love your watercolor moleskine?

Rosie Rowe



I'm a fan of layers. And I love the way Rosie is working the text -- half hidden, half showing. And the mixture of stamps and paint is so great!

Sandra van der Geest





Sandra's talent for creating mixed up magazine people is just stunning! Love how "clean" her page is, you know? And so full of wicked imagination! I want to live under the sea on a chaise lounge with a pet sea turtle and have yellow eyes!

Sasha Holloway



Another great example of a page that doesn't need any images -- just words! And I love her message too. "Find so much peace in yourself."

Serena Lewis



On Serena's blog she mentioned that she made this amazing journal page while waiting for her husband! Portable art journaling is a lot better than sitting there bored, don't you think?! And I love that her page is a direct memory of a moment, complete with a picture of what she ate!

Sherri Pelletier



Sherri has been doing an amazing project all year long. Every week she has made a list. This list is of her pet peeves. They made me giggle. You don't need anything fancy to art journal -- just a desire to get something inside your head out.

Steph Block





I *heart* this page wicked bad! Love the images she found. They're so perfect for the subject. Love her big chunky writing! It reminds me a little of when teachers would make you write "I will not gossip" or something like that on the blackboard a thousand times. Why not use your art journal as a sort of way to reinforce your own personal resolutions?

Terri K



It seems fitting to end with this page. (Love the white pen work on the black image! Love!) Just look at the sentiment: "A Moment in Time." Exactly. An art journal is a great way to capture a moment in time. Feeling angry? Spend ten minutes distressing a piece of leather with a hammer. Feeling sad? Write some morbid poetry for your eyes only. Feeling too busy to work in your art journal? Honor that feeling by recording it. Grab a ballpoint pen and scribble: "Too busy for this."

There are so many ways to art journal.

This is an image from my daily art journal.



For me, my daily art journal is a workbook above all things. (I do have other art journals that are more single-theme, single sitting based) It is part of my daily life and meant to be used as a tool for learning, exploration, experimentation, and to get me out of a creative rut. I build each page up bit by bit each day.



There's no "right" way art journal. So what do you think? Are you psyched? Are you feeling like yes, you could do this?

I know you might be worried that you start too many things and never finish them. Let's just say I totally get where you're coming from.

But I'm asking you to stop being so hard on yourself.

Let's say that you decide to do this for January and miss twenty days. That's one day short of three weeks. Okay, so you missed twenty days. BUT, you art journaled on eleven days! Congratulations! That's like exercising an average of three times a week. I don't know about you, but I definitely don't exercise three times a week. And I'm impressed with people who do! I don't look at them and say, "You only exercised three times a week? You suck."

So what do you say? Why not give Art Journal Every Day a try? You have nothing to lose and only a wonderful new habit to gain!

Sign up for January here.

Thanks for stopping by!