Create Each Day: A Found Words Art Journal

A guest post by Nichole Rae

“Create Each Day.” These three words I carry with me. I have been creative as long as I can remember though I have gaps along my journey where making beautiful creative messes are no where to be found. When these gaps happen I know it is time, time to begin again, slowly.

Along our journey we all have things that come up that fill our days, our moments faster than we can count. After relocating to Nova Scotia a month ago, I find myself in a new area, living in a cottage on a two lane highway near the sea. It is beautiful here and I can feel my creative energy wanting to create a beautiful mess here. Where do I begin? A question I still have after moving 15 times in 9 years. Here is what I have given a try.

Over the last month I have started small art journaling projects that allow me to inspire and nurture my creative spirit. I am preparing myself for a larger book project by first starting small. These projects I work on in the morning while enjoying a cup of coffee. Depending how much time I have, I may work on it for 10 minutes, creating 1 page or if I have more time I will work on it longer. One of my favorite projects is working in books (fiction, nonfiction, self- growth themed books) and finding words within the text to journal with. I have been working on this for 20 days now, creating one 2-page spread each morning. Day-by-day I am creating as I go along.

Here is how to start your own.

To Create Your Own Found Words Art Journal You’ll Need:

old book {that you want to use for words, inspirational/self-growth books work well, also fiction or non-fiction.)
blank paper or journal pages {to cover the front and back of book}
black ink pen
masking tape
oil pastels, crayons, colored pencils {to use to highlight text}
little bits of blank paper {color of your choice}

I have a love for the supplies above and found that this project allows me to be creative while enjoying my morning cup of coffee. Waking up to creating has been a great way to start my day.

First start with the book you have chosen to be your “journal” that you will use to create in. Then, using blank pages from a journal you have or blank paper in a color of your choice, cover the book’s front and back to be able to create your own custom cover. I used masking tape and taped around the edge of the book adhering the blank page to the cover.

Below you can see the how I folded over the masking tape around the cover. I also added my own custom title to my journal.

Then I used masking tape to cover the books binding that I then could add my own title using a black permanent ink pen. Allow a few minutes for the ink to dry on the tape.

After creating my custom front and back and binding of my book I am ready to start creating on the pages inside.

Starting with the inside cover, I decided to customize my own title using parts of the books original title. Note: If you make a mistake while writing you can use masking tape to cover over and write on top of it.

After completing the front inside page I then will create on pages throughout the book. I will flip through the book and stop on whatever page I feel resonates with me. I will use my black ink pen and begin to box in words on the page that I want to use for my “journaling.”

I will also then add my own text in. I will let the found words or the pages theme inspire this text. I also date each page.

The beautiful thing about working in a book is that the words can often inspire your creativity. You can also cover the pages layout to then add your own text in. I find that when I have something existing to work with I can overcome that blank canvas feeling.

After adding my own text I will then use oil pastels to highlight my boxed in words, adding color to the page. You can also used colored pens instead of a black pen to highlight your found words by boxing it in.

If you do not have oil pastels you can also use colored pencils or crayons to highlight the word.

Once I have completed this, I finish the page by adding a paper tab to the side. This then marks the pages I have completed and I can find them easily among the others.

Here you will need little pieces of blank paper, masking tape and a pen.

Begin by tearing a small piece of paper into a rectangular shape. The size is about a 1/2 inch wide. You will need to have space to write your page’s title and space for the masking tape to adhere the edge to the page. Then tear a small piece of masking tape off ( thinner than the full-width piece) and adhere the edge of the tab to the side of page where you would like. You can see in the above image that will stagger them as I create them to add variation.

For the page’s title I will chose a word or phrase from the page and have that be my title for that page. See images below for an example.

Once I add the tab the page is complete.

I have been enjoying setting the words “create each day” into motion with this art journaling project. I am learning to begin small to inspire my creativity. Page-by-page, day-by-day we create our lives and live our journeys. Keep creating as you go! I would love to connect with you, find me at nicholeraedesign.com and connect with me via facebook or instagram.

Nichole Rae is a mixed-media artist who has a passion for documenting her life through books arts, photography, writing and typography design. She resides both in Minnesota and Nova Scotia and is the author of the upcoming book Art Journal Art Journey: Collage and Storytelling for Honoring Your Creative Process available July 2014. Visit her website nicholeraedesign.com.