How to Host an Art Journal play day....

Today's Art Journal Mixed Media Page...so much fun creating with friends!

 Sooooo, you may ask...how do you go about hosting an "Art Journal Play day"? Well, step one is to give a shout out to your friends whom you think would be interested in having some creative fun. Then figure out a day and time that works best for all of you. (Probably the hardest part). Once this is all set, decide on the food. Our group met @ 10am-2. So knowing some people may not have had breakfast....and it would also overlap lunch....I opted for a little bit of both. 

I had available some yummy pastries for the breakfast skippers....along with some fruit cheese and crackers.....A variety of drinks were also provided. However, I must say, the COOLEST part of the spread, was the chalkboard name tag stickers I made for the cups! I KNOW, right! 
( I took a sheet of my chalkboard cardstock, punched them out with my stampin up punches, then ran them thru the zyron. Voila! name tag stickers for the cups. I had a cup of gel pens ready for each person to decorate- they looooved them!)
 In addition, but not shown was the lunch spread of tuna salad and croissants, a make your own salad with chicken, strawberries, almonds, blue and feta cheese and dressings, baked asparagus wrapped in ham and swiss cheese. Yummy!

Once food was prepped and ready to go, I set up the work tables in my dinning room. I made sure the tables were covered with a plastic table cloth to prevent any damage to my table underneath. 
Next, I provided each participant with a piece of watercolor paper as a place mat/ wipe up page, a paper towel, a water container and brush. The center of the table had a variety of materials they could use, such as: water soluble crayons and oil pastels, acrylic paints, old gift cards/cardboard to scrape with, make up sponges, dylusion sprays,and water brushes filled with dylusions. On a separate table for later, I also provided stencils, book text, old sheets of music, and various other papers for collage. 

As you can see, lots of yummy layers were being created. Newbies were treated to many ideas and tips by some of us with more experience. All of us enjoyed trying new techniques and supplies.

Getting together in such a way is a great treat! Carving out time just for yourself, creating with friends, chatting and giggling is just so much fun! I highly recommend it! 

But truly, the BEST part of the day is knowing that something that started out as a "complete mess"  can now make you smile and be so very proud of what you created!