Art Journals and Journaling Supplies

You only need a few basics to get started. Begin with a journal of your preference. Dina Wakley MEdia and Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley offer many creative journal options from the size and style to the internal pages such as pre-printed backgrounds, different colors, and different types of paper. Add a few paints or ink sprays, a stamp or stencil, a collage medium for layering, collage elements, and a black journaling pen for writing and details.

With just those supplies, you can start experimenting with color, texture, and layering right away.

Art journaling focuses on creating artwork directly on journal pages using paint, ink, stamps, stencils, and layered techniques.

Junk journaling is more about collecting and arranging materials like vintage papers, tags, envelopes, photos, and fabric scraps, then decorating them with inks, stamps, and other embellishments.

Many people combine both styles, using paints and inks along with found papers and ephemera.

Wet media works best on heavier weight papers. Both Dina Wakley MEdia journals and Dylusions Creative Journals are designed with surfaces that handle paint, sprays, collage medium, and layered techniques without buckling.

Not even a little. Art journaling is about mark-making, layering and playing with color and texture, not drawing skill. Some of the best pages come from smearing paint with a palette knife, stamping a pattern or writing over a messy background. Give yourself permission to make a "bad" page. That's usually where the good ideas show up.

Journal bands are the elastic straps that wrap around your journal to keep bulky, paint-heavy pages shut and hold loose bits, like ephemera or a pen, in place. You don't need them to start journaling, but once your pages start bulking up with paint and collage, they earn their keep fast. Storage solutions and pen cases help keep the rest of your supplies corralled so you're not hunting for your favorite ink pad every time you sit down.

Heavier weight paper, like what's in Dina Wakley MEdia and Dylusions Creative Journals, resists buckling far better than standard journal paper. Even so, letting each layer dry fully before adding the next one goes a long way. If a page does warp, tucking it under something flat and heavy overnight (a stack of books works fine) usually flattens it back out.