Art Journal About Family
Embrace Family Through Dedicated Page Spreads in Art Project
Parents and grandparents, in particular, will enjoy this art journal prompt. Show your admiration, appreciation, gratitude, and love for your family in your art journal.
Family is the one constant in everyone’s life that can be counted on. These do not necessarily have to be blood relatives. Family can be comprised of a group of very close friends, as well. However your family has grown, embrace them through pages in your art journal.
Because the idea is to focus on more than one family member, it might be a good idea to spread this art journal prompt over the course of several sessions. That way, your creativity will not feel stifled by time limitations. Consider scheduling this prompt in with your next artist date as well.
For this mixed media art journal prompt, you will need the following materials:
- Art journal
- Waxed paper
- Acrylic or watercolor paint, assorted colors
- Chalks and applicator
- Distress ink (walnut or complimentary color)
- Paint or sponge brushes
- Heavy-duty glue stick
- Reproduced photographs of family member
- Black ultra-fine sharpie
- Embellishments themed toward the family member or events captured on page spread
- Cardstock or decorative themed papers
- Scissors or paper cutter
- Eyelets or brads
- Eyelet punch and setter
- Straight edge ruler
- Pencil
Follow these simple instructions to complete this mixed media art journal prompt:
- Open your art journal to the first blank page spread and place a piece of waxed paper beneath each page to protect the rest of your book.
- Apply a color wash using one or many colors complimenting the design you intend to create on the page spread. Allow the paint to dry completely. Speed drying time through use of a heat gun or hair dryer.
- While the paint is drying, measure pieces of cardstock or decorative papers to create a half-inch border around each photograph. Cut the papers out, and affix the photographs to the center using the heavy-duty glue stick. Chalk around the edges of the finished piece.
- Hammer in eyelets or attach brads to each corner of the pictures you just set on to the papers. (This will give the page spread some extra sparkle, interest, and dimension.)
- Affix the framed photographs to the page spread in a random fashion using the glue stick. If there is not proper adhesion, consider using decoupage or gel medium as an alternative.
- Using the black ultra-fine sharpie, write out thoughts, admirations, dedications, and journal entries about this family member. Write these thoughts out on the painted areas of the page spread. Do not worry about how neat your penmanship is or if your grammar is incorrect.
- Embellish the entire page spread using the themed materials gathered for this mixed media art journal prompt. Layer directly over the photographs, next to text, and on painted areas of the page where there is no text. Create patterns or be random, whatever you want to do. There are no rules!
- Distress the edges of the page spread using the distress inkpad to finish off the look of the pages.
That is all there is to completing this mixed media art journal prompt. As noted above, you may wish to consider spreading this prompt over several sessions. Encourage friends, family members, and children to create these page spreads with you as well. This is also a great project for those looking for an interesting twist to handmade greeting cards.
