my favorite art journaling supplies

I spend a lot of time creating in my art journals- it is where I work out my ideas, where I experiment, journal and document memories. While I will use anything and everything to create, I thought I would share a handful of my “must have items” for art journals! They are simple but really important in my process. There are all kinds of at journaling supplies but these are what I tend to use most:

1. While I am not picky about the sketchbooks or journals the I use, I really enjoy making my own art journal. This enables me to use a variety of my favorite paper and paint it before I bind it all together.

My favorite paper to use in these journals is Blick Studio Watercolor Paper by Fabriano. I love this paper because it works well with a variety of wet media.

I also use a Zutter Bind It All to punch my paper and bind it into a journal.

2. I prefer to use matte acrylic paint when I am painting in an art journal because the pages, once closed, won’t stick together.

3. I always keep a glue stick around so I can quickly glue collage ephemera or photos to pages of my art journal.

4. I spend a lot of time drawing and doodling over the top of my painted journal pages so I always have a good collection of permanent pens and markers on hand.

5. When I am creating painted backgrounds in my art journal I tend to reach for my brayer before a paint brush- I love the look of messy color rolled all over the surface of a page.

6. I use watercolors all the time and even though I use a lot of acrylic paint in my art journal pages, I also like to use watercolors to add color to doodles and drawings.

7. I will use any kind of tape (washi tape, masking tape, scotch tape, etc) to attached photos and collage ephemera to my pages. Often my art journal becomes a place to store ideas which means a lot of pages have little notes, ideas, pieces of doodles and photos attached to the surface.

8. And of course I can’t live without my white Uni-ball Signo pen for drawings or doodling over the top of my darker layers.