Art Journals With Kids
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Today I invite you to join me in art journaling, sharing this creative experience with your kids to promote self-expression and communication.
I began to explore art journaling after realizing how much joy I find in creating. Before kids, I used my music and dance to channel my creativity.
Recently, I’ve been exploring art journaling to tap into the creative self. And, I’ve invited my kids along for the journey as well. (AJ is 9 and JJ is 6.)
Originally published: 12/6/11
Updated: 6/13/24
What is Art Journaling?
My definition of art journaling is simple: Art journaling is creating a journal with a combination of words and visuals, or mixed-media art. It’s communication and self-expression.
Beginnings of Art Journaling
While in the mountains, we used our blank books, colored pencils, Doodle Diary: Art Journaling for Girls, and wrote in our journals daily. Yes, I did this with the girls, too – a very important piece of getting kids to do anything!  Mostly, I introduced some new ideas I noticed in the Doodle Diary book like:
- borders
- lines
- swirls
This is the cover page AJ made after we played with making swirls.
Here’s a page about a play we saw on our trip.
Art Journal Journals and Kits
We used Art Journal Kits from Strathmore. You can buy a mixed media journal like the ones we used here. I LOVE how thick the pages are.
The Strathmore kit isn’t currently available, but there are other art journaling kits for kids you can try.
Pick a Medium (or Two)
Looking at the ideas in the kit, we started with two art ideas: watercolor and collage.
Then the girl painted a watercolor background on their pages.
After that, they added pictures and words. (Remember when I wrote about word collections? You can use words from your word collection jars!)
There is no right way to art journal. It’s all about creating and being creative.
Here’s a page from JJ’s journal using collage and watercolor.
As we continue on our art journal exploration, here are 4 art journal prompts you can also try to start!
Art Journal Books I’m Reading
Raw Art Journaling by Quinn McDonald
The Art Journal Workshop by Tracy Bunkers
Creative Journaling by Renee Day
Create Your Life Book by Tamara Laporte
KEEP READING
Beginning Art Journaling Guest Post
Beginning Drawing Ideas for Kids
What a great creative outlet! My daughter would love these, especially since she’s now bogged down by boring, worksheet oriented homework at her new school.
Thanks for the opportunity & happy holidays!
I would so love to do this with my son! He’s not “writing” yet but pretends to…. so I think this is a lovely way to preserve all of his creative drawings and explorations! He loves to glue things…. even if it is just glue! and he is very into watercolors and paints…. a very expressive and artistic kid…. this would be wonderful! keeping my fingers crossed that we win one! it would be great a s a christmas or birthday gift for him! Thank you for posting this 🙂
Would love these for my twins!
I just gave my 1st grade son a journal and he’s already art-journaling! Love it!!
Such a wonderful combination of art and literacy! I would love to do this with both of my daughters – one considers herself an artist and the other a writer. This would be great to show them how the two worlds can intermingle so beautifully on a page:)