Start a Summer Art Journal with Your Child

A monsoon rain welcomed us into our first official day of summer, and my youngest child woke up at her normal 6 a.m., so what's a mom to do? I'm trying to make a conscious effort to avoid turning on the T.V. every "bored" moment this summer, so I tempted her with my favorite past time...art. So far this has been her favorite thing to do this summer! We have had so much fun together-great quality time, plus we are creating a memory book that we can enjoy for years to come.

I challenge you to start one with your child this summer. It's really simple and I will be posting our ideas on Facebook (follow me on Sleepyhead Designs Studios) weekly, so you can steal from us! We started out with a Visual Journal from Hobby Lobby. Any type of notebook will do, but I like this one because the pages are thick and will accept all kinds of medium.

We wrote our "rules" on the first page. They are:

1) Can only draw in journal together, at the same time.

2) Can't copy each other, but can steal ideas-Same, but different.

3) Can't say, "Yours is better" or "Mine is terrible". Can say, "Next time I'll try it this way or that way"-learn from our mistakes.

We did the first day with a hot glue gun and water colors paints. My daughter picked the subject.

We accented with sharpie and learned about how God cares for us. Luke 12:24-25 and Matthew 6:26.

My girl picked this activity out-she wanted to draw fruit people. She drew a Pear Woman and I did Grampy Grapes.

Well...daughter #2 got a little envious of all my creating time with daughter #3, so we started journal #2 :) One of our favorite things to do together is to take turns drawing a person, and being surprised at the results. One person draws the head, other person draws the eyes...you get the idea?

When we are finished, we name the person, describe some things about them and color them in. Always a fun activity that gets some giggles. You can even do "creatures".

Here's a simple collage created with Mod Podge and scrapbook papers.

I promise you don't have to be an "art person" to start one of these. Your child will love your creativity, and love whatever you draw together. If writing is more your thing you could even write stories or poems together. It's great bonding time and creates memories that you can treasure forever. I hope this gives you enough ideas to get you started. I also have a board on Pintrest titled "Art Journals" that has some great ideas. Remember to follow me on Facebook and I will post a weekly idea that we've done together. I'd love to see some of the ideas you come up with.