Creative Family Connections: Journaling
We are always trying to find ways to be creative as a family. Sometimes we  just sit down at our creative table together and work on our own little projects. Sometimes we team up and create something. I’ve been searching for a way that we can create something together that will double as a keepsake. When Artterro Eco Art Kits proposed we work together I was thrilled! I started looking through the incredibly unique creative products they offer and was immediately drawn to their Art Journal Kits.
When we were kids my Mom started a family happiness journal. A special place for us to write in little happy moments or memories. The idea was so simple and yet such an incredibly creative way for our family to connect. (Plus it’s really fun to look back at now that we’re all grown and see what silly things made us smile back then).
The memory of a family journal and all of the beautiful journals at Artterro inspired a family art project I hope to have for years and years to come.
Creative Family Connections: Journaling Together
First things first. We have a notebook lover. I knew she would grab the journal and run… so I counted out the pages and figured out how many each of us would get in our “section”. I intentionally left four pages at the front empty. My plan is to go back and decorate those together, with each of use leaving our unique mark.
We passed the journal around creating on the first page of our sections. I love how differently we each approached our spaces. Big M loved the fancy paper that comes at the beginning of the Artterro Journal Kit and used it to create a scene. Hubby sketched with pencil first and then colored in. Little M loves to write. Her pages are filling up quickly with words and little doodles. I chose watercolor and words.
This is how I found her first thing this morning. I’m pretty sure she’ll have her section complete before next week. Maybe I should send a note to Santa… I think he’d score big points if she found her very own Artterro Journal Kit on Christmas morning.
I have placed our Creative Family Journal on the mantel in hopes that it will be grabbed from time to time and filled with whatever is moving us at the moment.
About the Artterro Journal Kit.Â
We’ve had journals before, but this one is so different. There are plenty of high quality white pages in the spiral bound book, but also 5 pages of  handmade paper with gorgeous patterns and 6 solid colored papers. There are inspiring pages full of project ideas and examples. My favorite part is they recommend collecting your own materials to use in the journaling process.
Ready to get your own Artterro Eco Art Kit? Well you’re in luck! This week we’ll be giving away 2 kits. One winner will receive an Artterro Journal Kit and one reader will receive an Artterro Creativity Kit (we have one of those too, check out Facebook later this week to see what creativity it inspired!)
Creativity 🙂 Oh, my kids aren’t really ‘artists’, but more creative in their building ways. My son is huge in legos and has a specific vision of what he wants to build, very detailed. But most recently, with Halloween, we got creative creating our costumes!
My boys love to create with Legos, but we are novices with artistic journals! What a neat way to be inspired on paper!!
My almost five yr old daughter and I do a shared gratitude art journal together. One night a week we each draw a picture in our shared book of something we’re thankful for.
My kids and I spend a lot of time together coloring and making cards.
My kids and I love to draw together and do arts and crafts projects together. I love the look on their faces when I drag out “mommy’s art supplies” and let them create with them like they see me do!
This year was we homeschool I bought sketch books for the kids school notebooks. They draw much of their work. My daughter will spend hours drawing.. and learning!
My sister LOVES to draw and write… There’s always a picture or note for someone around the house.
Most recently we were painting with water colors. We also have fun drawing and making collages.
I love this journaling idea. My almost-5 year old daughter loves to draw and is quickly becoming more confident with her spelling, so this would be a great project for us!!
She and I love to collaborate on creative projects. This morning we made bracelets and necklaces out of pasta and beads. We dyed the pasta last week using purple cabbage (inspired by the Phoenicians whom we studied about last week in history – alas, they used snails!).
We’re also currently working on making a dinosaur egg piñata for her birthday party that’s coming up soon.
Another fun project was turning a big cardboard box into a barn style doggie house for our Schnauzer’s to tuck away into when they need some space. She was thrilled when they actually went in and took a nap!! We sculpted a chimney and roof then painted it all over. What fun!!
Thanks for all the great ideas! Love following your blog!!
We make chalk creations outside and always go to the chalk It up festival where a whole street is chalked up by the city together
We’ve recently added drawing to our bed time routine (along with reading books). I love seeing the crazy things my 5 year old will draw. Truly wonderful 🙂
We love to have cooking contests to see who can come up with the most creative (and yummy sounding!) dinner plan based only on items we currently have in the house!
I remember watching my dad keep a journal. He drew and painted and wrote in it. When I saw him making an entry, I’d run into my room to dig out my journal and do something in it too. I love this idea of a family journal though!
We spend time coloring and drawing. Building with Legos is also a hit with us.
We had a great time recently carving jack’o’lanterns.
when I was young I used to make tissue flowers,,my kids did it and now my grandkids also do it!!
My kids and I are currently making felt Christmas ornaments! My mom taught me how when i was a kid, they’re so simple yet adorable! We started our projects on November 1st and we’re hoping to hand out ornaments to family on thanksgiving!
Hmmm…..pretty much anything that we can make a mess with 🙂 We love playdough and paints. Sometimes he’s hard on himself and says I’m not very good at this or that. Happily I overheard him the other day saying there aren’t mistakes in art. If it doesn’t work, make it something else. So nice that he hears some of the things that I say.
We have 14 grandchildren, so we’ve had several opportunities in recent years to “disguise the turkey”, as a family project for school. Our latest, done just this week was disguised as a glittery present. Past years he was disguised as a cow, a sheep, a preacher (like Papa!) & a myriad of other things. We love to work on projects together.
So neat, would make great gift!
My kids and I love to draw whenever we get the chance. Last year my daughter was in Kindergarten and everyday she would write a book..lol I had wondered how they were able to keep up with her daily book writing and all that paper =)
we homeschool so we do a project each week usually, like making a volcano, or slime!
We like to make homemade cards at Christmas time and donate them to a cards for Soldiers project.
My son just likes drawing and just made a bracelet out of paracord. He loves the stuff.
We made a fall sun catcher with leaves from our maple tree last week. Had fun catching leaves as they fell and it looks pretty in the afternoon sunlight.
My two older boys love to draw, and are working on writing a comic book series together.
our family was in charge of the nature walk at a recent church camp out. Never one to leave things simple, I put together a Bible verse treasure hunt and put the kids with parents, grandparents or other adults. Off we went excitedly collecting our treasures. When we got back we showed our collection and then pressed them into stepping stones. They turned out Great!
we like to do crafts at least twice a week! our last was Halloween spiders with our hands and ghosts with our feet 🙂
We do a lot of creating! My daughter knits, I sew, and we do lots of crafts in our homeschooling.
We love painting on big canvases
we love arts and crafts. we painted in the snow last year with spraybottles
We scrapbook together as a family! It’s fun to do with the kids!
As a family we have made masks together, really great fun!
My little guy is still young, but he already loves making art. We have a “coloring table” where I’ve used double sided tape to paste down drawing paper. It’s just the right size for him to stand at. Give him a crayon in either hand and he has a blast! He and Daddy have art time together. Daddy works on a painting or another project, and our little guy has a blast with his crayons.
We made our own primitive christmas tree decorations. It was so much fun because we worked on them every night then strung popcorn for a finishing touch.
My 6-yr-old is always telling stories-and he runs around while he’s doing it. In an effort to record some of the stories and also get him to slow down and focus, I’ve started dictating what he’s saying. Then I have him draw a picture of the story, print out the narrative, and glue it to the back so we will always have it to remember.
True is I struggle to be creative. We tend to be our most creative with food. Trying new recipes and tweeking old ones. I am really trying to expand my and my kid’s creativity.
Wow in all my years of my own journalling, I never once thought to make a collaborated effort … Thank you SOO much for opening my eyes to this profound creative activity !