Journal Sparks

I have been journaling for many years now so when I saw this book I knew I had to have it to add to my collection. It's a fairly short book but chalked full of interesting ideas and prompts for both the seasoned and beginner journaler.

It has a very cool mixed media feel to it. With hand drawn graphics, and different fonts that make it very pleasing to the eye. It starts out with an introduction from the author. Along with some suggestions for different types of journals (notebook, steno pad, sketchbook, art pad.) Then the book is broken up into seven different chapters (OBSERVATION, INVENTION, COLLECTION, COLOR & CONSTRUCTION, WORDSMITH, JOURNAL CHALLENGES, JOURNAL MAKING & HACKING.)

Under each of those chapters, you are given a plethora of different ideas and prompts to help you along with your journaling. Ideas for different things to journal about. (draw all of the parts of a favorite meal, journal what you want to be doing 10 years from now, quotes, stories you've heard from other people.) Suggestions for journaling materials (newspapers, paints, magazine clippings, masking tape, watercolors, pastels, pens, brushes, cotton embroidery floss, stamps and stamp pads, vintage scraps etc.) Tips and Ideas on how to get those creative juices flowing (find a time of day that works best, group journal with friends.)
Project ideas (paint the sky, zoom in on something, color your mood, wonder walk.) Journal Hacks ideas (make a store-bought journal more personal, turn a plain spiral notebook into a woven beauty with yarn, make a paper bag journal.)



Along with the above here are a few more project ideas and challenges you will find in the book..,

– An example of how to make you own stamps.– Merge pieces of photographs and pictures with your own drawings to create a unique hybrid creation.– Make your own comic strips.– Journal about things you collect and even add them to your journal (leaves, flowers, feathers, seashells, bark.)– Use the alphabet to compile a list of interesting things.– Use your journal to keep an ongoing collection of words– Make your own colors by mixing and matching.–Paper Quilting (Make tiny paper quilts for your journal pages.)– Experiment with colorful tape.– Create a small pocket that can be fixed onto a journal page or on the inside of the back or front cover.– Create visual poetry (freestyle your way to happiness. Jagged or smooth, loopy or straight, bubbly or narrow.)– Create your own Mandalas– Experiment with fonts– Challenge yourself to journal about a different topic every day (meals, squares, buildings, lines, horizon etc.)– Challenge yourself to draw the same thing differently every day for a week.

As a seasoned journaler, this one gets a two thumbs up from me and a must have for anyone thinking of getting into journaling.