A white letter "C" centered on a square background with horizontal shades of red, ranging from dark at the bottom to light at the top.Using creativity to express feelings and thoughts is such a great way to release stress, especially during this pandemic, where we should document our observations, feelings and thoughts to paper for the next generation. Personally, I have never been much of a person to write in a journal. However, I partially changed my mind on it after viewing some classes on Creativebug. Creativebug is a great creative resource the library currently offers. It has a variety of art-related courses, ranging from sewing to painting and more.

One class that really struck me was a Meditative Art Journal class. The class goes through how to create a mini journal out of paper, thread and a needle. It then goes into showing you ways to incorporate artistic elements into everyday journaling. The class as a whole is less than twenty minutes, and it’s reproducible in whatever creative materials you may have at home.

After viewing the whole class, I was interested in putting together a mini journal out of paper like they did in the video. I didn’t have a needle and thread to put the pages together, but I did have a mostly blank journal that I hardly used. (I tried to use this journal to collect recipes, but that didn’t turn out as well as I hoped.) So I tested out some watercolor paint on the paper to see how it would hold with this type of paint. It wasn’t the best, but it would do!

A set of colored pens, a watercolor palette, a paint-stained paper towel, and a closed brown notebook are arranged on a dark surface.

A hand holds open a notebook displaying the phrases "things will be okay" and "positive thoughts" written in cursive.

As you may have realized from my previous posts, I love inspirational mantras. I come across them every day on Instagram, and I figured this project was a great way of collecting them and adding a personal creative touch to each of the mantras.

I went through my photos and started writing down some of the mantras I wanted to highlight in my journal. I also grabbed the art utensils I wanted to use for this project, such as my calligraphy pens, gel pens and watercolor paint. Then I got started!

As you may notice from the pictures below, I started with the writing first, using my calligraphy pens, then I moved on to adding watercolor paint. This is such an expressive way of writing that I didn’t really pay attention to how it looked. I focused more on what it felt like to write these mantras down on paper, especially how inspired I was to keep moving forward during the pandemic.

A hand holds open a notebook displaying the handwritten phrase “this isn’t forever” with small pink heart accents, next to a pen and a laptop keyboard.

A watercolor paint set, markers, and a sketchbook displaying the words "choose happy" with floral designs are arranged on a dark table.

I really enjoyed this class on Creativebug, and there is a lot to choose from at your fingertips. I hope this has inspired you to put together your own mediative journal and keep it as a token of the times we are experiencing.

A hand with red nail polish rests on an open sketchbook with the words "this is not forever" and leaf drawings, surrounded by colored pens and a watercolor palette.