Hi crafty friends! In honor of Mental Health Awareness month, I am sharing some fun art journaling techniques as well as some lovely designs created by myself & my sister to help encourage a positive mindset. These designs coordinate with our largest die cut in the Card Sentiments Die Set & are completely FREE! Below I have a full process video sharing how my page came to life. 

Art Journaling is such a great activity for your mind. It allows more creative freedom because there is no pressure with gifting & you can experiment with new products & techniques maybe you haven't before. You can use scraps, ribbon, paper, paint - you name it! It's such a fun & flexible concept that I just love for my own mental health. I decided to use an "I am" statement from our 10 FREE sayings. This one reads "I am enough" and one I designed with my favorite color in mind. Purple! 

Layering is the name of the game with art journaling. There's definitely no "right" or "wrong" way to do it, but you can start out with collaging on your background first, as many layers & papers as you wish, and go from there! The one I created today is really quite simple, but I enjoyed the process & the result. 

I started with my Dina Wakley Kraft Art Journal & also some of her Flying Things collage paper. I love this paper, and if you want to cover up the brown of your kraft journal (if you have one), this is a great way to start! A kraft journal is great for mixed medias such as collaging, paint & texture pastes because it can hold up to those thicker mediums. I have the large Kraft Journal that measures 7.75 inches x 10.25 inches (the cover) & the pages measure 7.25 inches x 10 inches.

Not only does Art Journaling allow for more creative freedom, but also practice! I have many pages in this journal where I either tried out new products, or new techniques. It's a great way to practice something if you aren't quite ready to throw it onto a project you'd like to give away. 

But overall, art journaling can be therapeutic and allow you to spend some time to yourself and use your hands to create something. I also wanted to give you something free you could use as either prompts or just encouragement -- and as I said above, these coordinate perfectly with the largest die in our Card Sentiments Die Set, so you can get a unique stitched edging on the sayings (if you choose). Feel free to just cut out and place in spots where you can read them to yourself as well. There are 10 sayings in total, 5 vertical and 5 horizontal, and half were created by my extremely talented sister, Erin.