I took the idea of Journals for no reason to my workplace where we work with dementia residents. It was a hit, and everyone loved creating them. S thank you very much for sharing this wonderful video.
I'm so behind... I've been binge watching you and Cat Hand for weeks and I think I'm ready to go nuts and just do it! Thanks for the fabulous ideas and inspiration!
Thank you so much for making this video! This video really made me think. I met a girl in or sometime around 2007 who loved to cut images and words and all kinds of stuff out of magazines and make collages. I loved her idea, so I took it and ran with it. I ran into a major problem, though. I have a very obsessive nature, and when I start doing something, I go all out. I became obsessed with the whole thing, and started by gathering magazines. I posted ads on Craig's List asking anyone with magazines who didn't want anymore to please e-mail me and I would come pick them up. I said in the ad that I used them for artistic purposes so they would be put to good use, and I was interested in all types of magazines - men's, women's, motorcycles, quilting. You would not believe how many people responded and basically said, "I was about to recycle/trash these, but you can have them if you'll come get them by tomorrow afternoon." I lived on the outskirts of Oklahoma City at that time and drove all over the place gathering all types of magazines - Woman's Day, Men's Health, OK!, Star, Redbook, Cosmo, Home & Garden, etc. I even scored a box of some kind of old magazines about electronics (Popular Electronics, maybe?). I took everything I could get my hands on [for free]. I did pay a few bucks here and there for a box of really good stuff, but I got boxes and boxes of magazines for free! I also scoured the magazines and stuff at Goodwill and found a few treasures there, but my biggest and best scores were the boxes and bags of free magazines as a result of my Craig's List ad. [Side note: I always took a male friend with me when I went anywhere to pickup magazines from people I didn't know, and I never went inside their home. Many times they would leave the boxes/bags on their porch for me, and I would pick them up there without seeing a soul. Of course, this was before CZcams exploded into what it is today, and I had never heard of Smashbooking at that time, so nobody else in my area was really looking for used magazines at the time I was collecting them. I also cheated and succumbed to subscribing to a few magazines over time when I could get 2 years for $5 or something like that, which still happens at discountmags.com sometimes. I subscribe to a mailing list from dealseekingmom.com, and she usually announces any sales on magazines (and TONS of other cheap and free stuff) on that website or anywhere else in her newsletters and on her blog. At the time I was collecting the magazines, I was also grabbing 12"x12" scrapbook albums at Michaels, using the weekly 40% off coupons. They included 50 pages that were like posterboard, and each page slid down into a plastic page protector - kinda like a photo album. I would pull a page out, make my collage on it, let everything dry and slide it back down into the clear page protector. I thought it was a great way to store and protect my work. Even though it had been around since the 1960s, I had never heard of Mod Podge or Decoupage before a year or two ago. Over the years, I've gone through the magazines and cut out stuff I liked and thought I would use in a collage at some point - pictures, words, just whatever caught my eye - and I stored my cut-outs in little plastic boxes. Sometimes I kept whole pages, too, which I just shoved in gallon ziplock bags and manilla folders. I had no real organization to any of it, and it has actually become a little overwhelming. When I decide on a theme sometimes, I dig through the little plastic storage boxes, sorting through all of my little cut-outs, unable to find exactly what I was looking for. I eventually just get frustrated and quit. I've come close to throwing it all away to start fresh sometimes, but I never have. I eventually stopped going through the magazines and cutting/pulling stuff out, too, because I got so overwhelmed and frustrated at the lack of organization and inability to find the right thing at the right time. I *still* have boxes and boxes of magazines I haven't even gone through yet, along with the unused scrapbooks, too. Unorganization and frustration just stopped me in my tracks a little while back, though, which sucks because finding cool stuff in magazines, cutting/pulling it out and creating collages with it really made me happy. "Don't judge!" Hehe :) Anyway, the point of this ridiculously, absurdly long comment is to thank you so much for making and posting this video as well as a few others I've seen so far. I wanted to let you know that you have inspired me to just start using up the stuff I already have cut out (and pulled out) instead of throwing it away. I think I'm going to break out my unused scrapbooks, open my plastic boxes of all the stuff I cut out - and the baggies and folders of pages I've pulled out - and start my own use-it-up project and run with it! :) I have always been a perfectionist, and unconsciously [and unfortunately for the most part] I tend to put something off until the perfect time - until I decide on a theme and dig through all my cutouts to use with that theme. Until the mood strikes. Until, until, until. But I'm learning that life is too short for "until." If I keep waiting for the perfect time, it'll never get done. Since I obviously like the stuff I cut out and kept... And since every piece - big and small - obviously spoke to me in some way at some time, I think a "Use It Up" journal/scrapbook is just the ticket! I'm also hoping to figure out a better system for sorting and storing magazine pages and cut-outs from now on. If you've made a video on that topic, I'll watch it soon as I'm still going through and watching your videos. If you haven't done a video like that, do you have any good ideas on how to store stuff like pages you tear out of magazines and/or stuff you cut out? I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't cut out smaller stuff until I'm ready to use it and just rip out and keep the pages the little stuff is on. I noticed you had smaller things you had cut out of magazines as well as full magazine pages in your "Use It Up" journal. I am really looking forward to see how you organize and store your material. Thank you again for your videos, your ideas and inspiration! I first stumbled upon your video on finding ephemera in books and magazines at places like Goodwill and then the video on Minidoris made out of tp rolls. I really enjoyed both those videos, too! Great ideas! I love the Minidori and plan to make some as soon as I round up a little paint! :) What I love most about the videos of yours that I've seen so far is that your projects are doable, even for people like me who are not very artistic and don't have a lot of expensive art supplies but still want to do something artistic and fun. Amyway, I subscribed to your channel and really look forward to watching more of your videos! Thanks again!
I watched this and thought...ah, just what I needed...a lesson in simplicity. I just loved it!! I often feel so inhibited in doing my journals because I feel like they don't "measure up"..I didn't do enough layers, I need more stamps or paints or whatever, I should use a bigger variety of medias on my pages, my journals never look as amazing as all those journals people show on You Tube. So thank you very much for clamping the mouth shut on my inner critic!!!!! I'm going to go buy a journal or cheap notebook or something tomorrow and just start gluing stuff in it!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
***** Yay!!! I'm doing a happy dance in my mind!! My inner critic tells me the very same thing so I believe that sometimes we just need to punch that girl in the throat! It's for her own good, really. ;)
I like your Journals for no reason, I do NOT want to journal, but being a scrapbooker for 16 years and having been caught up for over a year, I am looking for something to do using my scrapping supplies. I showed my 16 yr old daughter a couple of your videos and she came up with the idea of putting all of her childhood art into a journal. We actually ended putting all of into decorated pages in 8 1/2 x 11 pages in 2 very large binders, over 200 pages. So you actually inspired my daughter and we had a great time.
im totally with you. sometimes i sit down and want to play but have No idea what im doing but just want to play. its nice to know im just normal like you((!!!)))
I just discovered your channel in 2024 but this video from 9 years ago is still so helpful! I love your sense of humor! Thank you for normalizing crazy craft hoarding but more importantly thank you for encouraging us to use it up!! I’m going to start my own use it up journal too! ❤
I would call these "just for me " journals. They contain images, colors, and textures that make sense to you and their only real purpose is to make you happy (in the creation process and when you revisit them). Thanks for sharing your happiness with us.
Love your journals! It's fabulous that you have been able to just play and do whatever you want in your journals, without any thought of the end product! I think I need to do this.
I can't tell you how much i love this Journal!! as it is my style of journaling My pages are what ever i am feeling at that moment and sticking stuff in it just because i love it!!
Love your journals for no reason. I am now going to get a journal to start using for wiping my brushes and stencils and see where it goes from there. Thanks for the inspiration! Love your sense of humor.
Can there ever be a better reason to create art than "to colour with no expectations" I love this kind of play, and keeping pages for no other reason than they make you happy is wonderful. I loved that you shared this, I am going through a phase of making little journals out of Matalan catalogues. I stick two pages together, thinly gesso them and go mad with spray inks, and water colours, and whatever else is to hand.
thanks Shannon. love them. you have totally made me just relax and yes, I love happy pages. pages that make one happy. I have so many images cut out and just get blogged trying get to create a lovely page...yet I find your pages beautiful and I will do this and also try Journaling in 5s. thanks Shannon.
Simona Michel I"m so glad to hear that Simona! The frustration of trying to come up with a beautiful, well-designed, perfectly balanced themed art journal page is what lead me to do this as well as JB5. I'm now MUCH happier in my art room and I have more ideas than I have time to try them all! I hope you have the same freeing experience.
What fabulous ideas! I have a ton of collage stuff that's been hanging around for a long time and I need to go through it all, so your 'no reason' journal is a great way to use up some of that and make some room. I have 5 signatures of junk mail pieces with some of my painted papers, etc., that are waiting for me to bind them into something. I think this will be the perfect way to use up some of my stash. I'm excited. lol And your other journal is also something I want to start doing. I'm usually just clean up a lot of the paint by making up backgrounds on various types of paper but I'm getting way too big of a selection and need to pare down. This would be great for that plus keeping it handy for clean up, playing with stencils, etc. You are so smart!!!!
I love this whole concept of Journaling for no reason. I love doing the Journaling by 5! I love cutting magazine images and this is a great way to just use all those images. just throwing them on a page and go. Love it!! Next project! Shannon you are inspirational. Love your channel
Shannon, i needed to hear this and see this so bad tonight! You know the things i have been wrestling with lately With my creativity so yeah i needed this one! I love both of these journal because they showcase your free spirit. They weren't planned or thought out. You just sort of let them happen and it was a beautiful thing!! So looking forward to another year with you and seeing where you take us next! Keep those juices flowing!!! Xxx Chetta
Chauchetta Green Facing a blank art journal can be intimidating and stifling but facing a blank journal for no reason is fun! Taking the word "art" out of art can be liberating.
You made me giggle every time you made yourself laugh. That is so me. I find myself very entertaining. I enjoyed watching this and I am totally using your idea! These are such great ways to use up random notebooks laying around! Thank you for sharing!
Love this approach. I am using ICAD's in a similar way to wipe paint from my craft sheet and just trying stuff out without a big commitment of supplies.Love that one where you went in with the black watercolor. I would love that as a canvas!
All of these journals for no reasons really speak to me. And what you said about not wanting to make SOMETHING. I'm totally at that point right now but I do want to be creative every day. I just don't feel great if I don't do something every day. So really enjoy coming here. I painted some magazine pages today. 35 of them 😂😂 and I have about 30 more to go hahahha. Figured okay. Journal for no reason. I just want to play. Lol. And used some of the "watercolored book edges" papers and am binding a book out of those. Why? Yeah I don't know. Just because. Hahaha. Thanks for all the inspiration.
+Amber Jerome Oooohhh I'm so happy to hear that. And it's really strange...some day you will accidentally find a use for this stuff you're making for no reason. :)
Shannon your videos are such an inspiration! Thanks for sharing. I'm loosing fear to do things just because. Honestly, you are helping me be a little happier with my life. Love and blessings for you and all your beloved ones. Happy 2015!!
Play time! Not making anything in particular, just playing with color. That's right up my alley!! I use my watercolors for bright color. Even pastels shades can be bright and deep with color. Love your collection of clips. Great idea to just do clip play, too. The color/background ones are good for doodling, too. Happy New Year, Shannon! :)
Hello Shannon, found this simply because of the title. I have wanted to do one (or two, or three...)! of these for ages, years perhaps, as I have hundreds of images that I have acquired just like you! The best coffee table book you can have, I for one would love to flick through those images for hours! I am sure I have said this before, but just in case, you have the BEST YT Channel ever!! Love and best wishes from across the Pond......and June x
I love ...."Journal for No Reason".... I'm working on something similar.... makes me wish I hadn't dumped a bunch of my old papers that I loved... TFS... hugs cj
Oh wow! Those are SO frikkin great!!! I'm also in love with images and colorful papers that I've hoarded but don't have anything specific in mind for, so I'll follow your lead and have some fun making journals for no reason. Thanks for the wonderful idea! :)
I really really really love your cut and paste journal !!! I love collecting images and papers, adverts, etc and yes, it's a genius idea !! Actually, i did this when i was a kid, with pictures of people i loved (actors, singers, etc) and why not doing it again now ?? Thank you for the idea !! TFS, hugs Sabine
Really interesting. I love the Panda page in the first book. I had to back up and put it on pause to get a good look and say ahhhh! I love all the colours in the second book. Lovely for backgrounds and no waste. TFS x
I so love your journals. Especially the second one. What a wonderful idea. Thank you so much for sharing. You've inspire me to dig out my paints. Today is the day as it's very cold out ( -25 C ) and I do not plan to go anywhere. Thank you again.
I really like what you did here. And you just said "therapudic". I didnt just like your style, but I like that it was done "without expectations" You just said the magic words. I always want to things look perfect, even doodles! I just needed to hear those words. Thank you. It was encouraging, a lot, to hear those words. I am not going to beshy about my "art" anymore.
Melanoma... that was hilarious. And yes it does. I think these are just another extension of your creative genius. Do you know the difference between genius and crazy? a very fine line....lol. I love the no reason book. Its beautiful on its own. hugs mona
Oma's Thoughts Sometimes art is easier to do if you don't call it art. Playing in your 'journal for no reason' is much less intimidating than playing in your art journal even though they're really the same thing!
Thank you so much for this flip through video. This answers the question I've had: What do I do with all this stuff? As of yesterday I started something similar: I'm saving the pictures grandkids drew for me, images that I thought I might use in journals, but didn't, and other images I've been saving, had nothing in mind for but couldn't get rid of. I'm excited about this!
Hi Shannon You know the tolit paper spoke to me sometimes I forget to be thankful for those kind of things I need to make a happy journal too... I understand why yours makes you happy.. I love your pastel paper towel page. I hope you have happy crafty new year hugs barb
What a wonderful video. You have called yourself crazy, but I think you are definitely my kind of crazy. You are quite an artist. I truly enjoy your easy and relaxing attitude in sharing your art in your videos. These 2 journals are a fabulous way to enjoy color, and design. Yes, I think they are just the thing to help a person relax through the use of art without stress. Thank you. Happy New year!
Shannon Green Double ditto! I watched several videos of your last night and it just made me laugh out loud and feel good. You are such a natural teacher and you always inspire me. I am really excited for you and your video work. I would love to talk sometime or I need to write you. I have just been busy. I start working my new job next Monday and I am actually going to be more a visual arts teacher than a photo teacher.. which brings me a lot of joy that I learned a lot in this last year. You were pivotal and you are pivotal in my education so, I have to thank you so much for coming into my life. I really mean that. I feel ya'!! I have some stuff to tell you that is pretty crazy and it deserves a PM. You are in my heart tonight as we pass from one year to the next. xoxo
What a great idea with the images. I have a ton of pictures of eyes and body parts because I was going to become the next Teesha Moore. lol Now I can put them in a journal and be done with it. :)
Thank you so much for making a image journal Im so onto that :} I also love collaging with no rhyme or reason in fact you just helped me to decide what Im going to do with a particular journal I'm stalled on right now thanks :} probably won't show it to anybody but then again maybe i will but i think if i do some creating without anyone in mind I would really like that.. Love the "Don't Judge Me" Shannon
Love, love, love your journals! I really like the idea of making a journal for no reason other than just wanting to make it! No rhyme or reason sounds like fun playtime to me! Thanks so much, Shannon! (Melanoma...... Bwahahahahaha!) :D
Melanoma looks to me like an ultrasound. 😛 The colors in both these journals are great. You have a good eye for finding the right combination. I usually end up with mud.
I would like to thank you Shannon for having so many wonderful videos and for coming up with the Journaling by 5's! I have not been a youtube watcher but I have watched many of your videos (some of them many times) and you have not only inspired me to start crafting again but to also make some videos of my own with some share of things I have done in the past and things you have inspired me to start. I attempted to do the journaling by 5's, and have a video of what I did. I mentioned you quite a bit in my gluebook video ( czcams.com/video/v00l1rqCmoA/video.html ) because you have brought me back to crafting which I had enjoyed in the past but got away from doing other things. I just wanted you to know how much you have inspired me and in a way encouraged me to make some videos of my own!! I'm not very good at it yet and need lots of practice, and I'm not sure how to do a lot of things but hopefully I will figure it out! cause it's makin me HAPPY!!!
+Kagedfish I am thoroughly enjoying your videos and you're doing a great job on them! Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm just thrilled that you've come back to crafting...where you clearly belong! ;)
thanks so much!! I see that called your glue book the wrong thing in my video, oops! I will update my gluebook video when it's finished and correct my mistake. your Use it Up journal is what inspired me!
Wow, I seriously need to just take a day-or so-and do this! What a stupendous idea, you are a genius. =) I really like the idea of a test journal, again - genius!
Your "Melanoma" has, at the top of it, the face of a bearded man. I need to make one of these, I keep running out of paper and this is a great idea. I have a day planner somewhere that I never use and would be perfect for this. Thank you.
A bit of trivia = I've just come off a 30-Day Coloring challenge by Kathy Racoosin and one of the articles she found online was a bit about coloring books, which your play book seems to be, is that coloring lowers the blood pressure. Did you loose yourself in your color world when you watercolored the pages?
I'm getting into the junk journal phenomenon and I would wonder, does it have to have a theme? I have magazine pages and certain words and statements cut out and stashed away, I know exactly what to do with it now that I've watched your video. Thanks.
Themes are great and I've done a few with various themes but they're not necessary. My Journals for No Reason are just that...no themes, no reason, make no sense, and I LOVE them!!
I took the idea of Journals for no reason to my workplace where we work with dementia residents. It was a hit, and everyone loved creating them. S thank you very much for sharing this wonderful video.
Oh I'm so glad to hear that!
I'm so behind... I've been binge watching you and Cat Hand for weeks and I think I'm ready to go nuts and just do it! Thanks for the fabulous ideas and inspiration!
Thank you so much for making this video! This video really made me think. I met a girl in or sometime around 2007 who loved to cut images and words and all kinds of stuff out of magazines and make collages.
I loved her idea, so I took it and ran with it. I ran into a major problem, though. I have a very obsessive nature, and when I start doing something, I go all out. I became obsessed with the whole thing, and started by gathering magazines. I posted ads on Craig's List asking anyone with magazines who didn't want anymore to please e-mail me and I would come pick them up. I said in the ad that I used them for artistic purposes so they would be put to good use, and I was interested in all types of magazines - men's, women's, motorcycles, quilting. You would not believe how many people responded and basically said, "I was about to recycle/trash these, but you can have them if you'll come get them by tomorrow afternoon."
I lived on the outskirts of Oklahoma City at that time and drove all over the place gathering all types of magazines - Woman's Day, Men's Health, OK!, Star, Redbook, Cosmo, Home & Garden, etc. I even scored a box of some kind of old magazines about electronics (Popular Electronics, maybe?). I took everything I could get my hands on [for free]. I did pay a few bucks here and there for a box of really good stuff, but I got boxes and boxes of magazines for free! I also scoured the magazines and stuff at Goodwill and found a few treasures there, but my biggest and best scores were the boxes and bags of free magazines as a result of my Craig's List ad. [Side note: I always took a male friend with me when I went anywhere to pickup magazines from people I didn't know, and I never went inside their home. Many times they would leave the boxes/bags on their porch for me, and I would pick them up there without seeing a soul. Of course, this was before CZcams exploded into what it is today, and I had never heard of Smashbooking at that time, so nobody else in my area was really looking for used magazines at the time I was collecting them.
I also cheated and succumbed to subscribing to a few magazines over time when I could get 2 years for $5 or something like that, which still happens at discountmags.com sometimes. I subscribe to a mailing list from dealseekingmom.com, and she usually announces any sales on magazines (and TONS of other cheap and free stuff) on that website or anywhere else in her newsletters and on her blog.
At the time I was collecting the magazines, I was also grabbing 12"x12" scrapbook albums at Michaels, using the weekly 40% off coupons. They included 50 pages that were like posterboard, and each page slid down into a plastic page protector - kinda like a photo album. I would pull a page out, make my collage on it, let everything dry and slide it back down into the clear page protector. I thought it was a great way to store and protect my work. Even though it had been around since the 1960s, I had never heard of Mod Podge or Decoupage before a year or two ago.
Over the years, I've gone through the magazines and cut out stuff I liked and thought I would use in a collage at some point - pictures, words, just whatever caught my eye - and I stored my cut-outs in little plastic boxes. Sometimes I kept whole pages, too, which I just shoved in gallon ziplock bags and manilla folders. I had no real organization to any of it, and it has actually become a little overwhelming. When I decide on a theme sometimes, I dig through the little plastic storage boxes, sorting through all of my little cut-outs, unable to find exactly what I was looking for. I eventually just get frustrated and quit. I've come close to throwing it all away to start fresh sometimes, but I never have. I eventually stopped going through the magazines and cutting/pulling stuff out, too, because I got so overwhelmed and frustrated at the lack of organization and inability to find the right thing at the right time.
I *still* have boxes and boxes of magazines I haven't even gone through yet, along with the unused scrapbooks, too. Unorganization and frustration just stopped me in my tracks a little while back, though, which sucks because finding cool stuff in magazines, cutting/pulling it out and creating collages with it really made me happy. "Don't judge!" Hehe :)
Anyway, the point of this ridiculously, absurdly long comment is to thank you so much for making and posting this video as well as a few others I've seen so far. I wanted to let you know that you have inspired me to just start using up the stuff I already have cut out (and pulled out) instead of throwing it away.
I think I'm going to break out my unused scrapbooks, open my plastic boxes of all the stuff I cut out - and the baggies and folders of pages I've pulled out - and start my own use-it-up project and run with it! :)
I have always been a perfectionist, and unconsciously [and unfortunately for the most part] I tend to put something off until the perfect time - until I decide on a theme and dig through all my cutouts to use with that theme. Until the mood strikes. Until, until, until. But I'm learning that life is too short for "until." If I keep waiting for the perfect time, it'll never get done. Since I obviously like the stuff I cut out and kept... And since every piece - big and small - obviously spoke to me in some way at some time, I think a "Use It Up" journal/scrapbook is just the ticket!
I'm also hoping to figure out a better system for sorting and storing magazine pages and cut-outs from now on. If you've made a video on that topic, I'll watch it soon as I'm still going through and watching your videos. If you haven't done a video like that, do you have any good ideas on how to store stuff like pages you tear out of magazines and/or stuff you cut out? I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't cut out smaller stuff until I'm ready to use it and just rip out and keep the pages the little stuff is on. I noticed you had smaller things you had cut out of magazines as well as full magazine pages in your "Use It Up" journal. I am really looking forward to see how you organize and store your material.
Thank you again for your videos, your ideas and inspiration! I first stumbled upon your video on finding ephemera in books and magazines at places like Goodwill and then the video on Minidoris made out of tp rolls. I really enjoyed both those videos, too! Great ideas! I love the Minidori and plan to make some as soon as I round up a little paint! :) What I love most about the videos of yours that I've seen so far is that your projects are doable, even for people like me who are not very artistic and don't have a lot of expensive art supplies but still want to do something artistic and fun.
Amyway, I subscribed to your channel and really look forward to watching more of your videos! Thanks again!
***** Thanks so much for subscribing! I have to give myself limits for collecting stuff, otherwise it would take over my house!
Did you make something? I really want to know and watch it
I watched this and thought...ah, just what I needed...a lesson in simplicity. I just loved it!! I often feel so inhibited in doing my journals because I feel like they don't "measure up"..I didn't do enough layers, I need more stamps or paints or whatever, I should use a bigger variety of medias on my pages, my journals never look as amazing as all those journals people show on You Tube. So thank you very much for clamping the mouth shut on my inner critic!!!!! I'm going to go buy a journal or cheap notebook or something tomorrow and just start gluing stuff in it!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
***** Yay!!! I'm doing a happy dance in my mind!! My inner critic tells me the very same thing so I believe that sometimes we just need to punch that girl in the throat! It's for her own good, really. ;)
totally agree!!!!!!!
Goosshhhhhh! !! Are we that crazy😉😉😉😉😉? I've been feeling so lonely until now there are more like me around.....😂😂😂😂. Thank you for sharing.💖
+Laura Orta LOL Yes we are THAT crazy!! But we're in good company :)
I to am learning there are more of my own species. We are the crazy tribe and I love meeting each and every one.
I like your Journals for no reason, I do NOT want to journal, but being a scrapbooker for 16 years and having been caught up for over a year, I am looking for something to do using my scrapping supplies. I showed my 16 yr old daughter a couple of your videos and she came up with the idea of putting all of her childhood art into a journal. We actually ended putting all of into decorated pages in 8 1/2 x 11 pages in 2 very large binders, over 200 pages. So you actually inspired my daughter and we had a great time.
Oh my gosh that is AWESOME!! What a treasure y'all created and I'm so honored to have been a little part of it :)
im totally with you. sometimes i sit down and want to play but have No idea what im doing but just want to play. its nice to know im just normal like you((!!!)))
I just discovered your channel in 2024 but this video from 9 years ago is still so helpful! I love your sense of humor! Thank you for normalizing crazy craft hoarding but more importantly thank you for encouraging us to use it up!! I’m going to start my own use it up journal too! ❤
You are so very welcome and thank YOU for tuning in!
There's so much pressure to have themed journ toals. This is more what I think journals are. Thank you for sharing.
I would call these "just for me " journals. They contain images, colors, and textures that make sense to you and their only real purpose is to make you happy (in the creation process and when you revisit them). Thanks for sharing your happiness with us.
Dianne Blake Thank YOU for watching!
Love these ideas for journals brings back a lot of memories as a kid I used to do a lot of cut and paste Id forgotten. Will have to do it again
Anne Hayward Cutting and pasting is one of my favorite things to do :)
Yes!! We'd create silly stories with cut out pics.
Such a good idea. Flip through & take out a page if it fits in another journal.
Much better than in a container❣️📚📦
Love your journals! It's fabulous that you have been able to just play and do whatever you want in your journals, without any thought of the end product! I think I need to do this.
lynjeaful It's so darn liberating!
I can't tell you how much i love this Journal!! as it is my style of journaling My pages are what ever i am feeling at that moment and sticking stuff in it just because i love it!!
Spring Flower Those are the best kinds of journals!
Love your journals for no reason. I am now going to get a journal to start using for wiping my brushes and stencils and see where it goes from there. Thanks for the inspiration! Love your sense of humor.
Melanie Herndon THanks so much for watching!
Can there ever be a better reason to create art than "to colour with no expectations" I love this kind of play, and keeping pages for no other reason than they make you happy is wonderful. I loved that you shared this, I am going through a phase of making little journals out of Matalan catalogues. I stick two pages together, thinly gesso them and go mad with spray inks, and water colours, and whatever else is to hand.
That sounds fabulous!
“A book full of happiness”. That’s what I need! I love it! 🌸🌸🙂💕
Thank you!
thanks Shannon. love them. you have totally made me just relax and yes, I love happy pages. pages that make one happy. I have so many images cut out and just get blogged trying get to create a lovely page...yet I find your pages beautiful and I will do this and also try Journaling in 5s. thanks Shannon.
Simona Michel I"m so glad to hear that Simona! The frustration of trying to come up with a beautiful, well-designed, perfectly balanced themed art journal page is what lead me to do this as well as JB5. I'm now MUCH happier in my art room and I have more ideas than I have time to try them all! I hope you have the same freeing experience.
What fabulous ideas! I have a ton of collage stuff that's been hanging around for a long time and I need to go through it all, so your 'no reason' journal is a great way to use up some of that and make some room. I have 5 signatures of junk mail pieces with some of my painted papers, etc., that are waiting for me to bind them into something. I think this will be the perfect way to use up some of my stash. I'm excited. lol
And your other journal is also something I want to start doing. I'm usually just clean up a lot of the paint by making up backgrounds on various types of paper but I'm getting way too big of a selection and need to pare down. This would be great for that plus keeping it handy for clean up, playing with stencils, etc. You are so smart!!!!
Susan Leslie I'm so glad you picked up some useful ideas, Susan, Thanks for watching!
I love this whole concept of Journaling for no reason. I love doing the Journaling by 5! I love cutting magazine images and this is a great way to just use all those images. just throwing them on a page and go. Love it!! Next project! Shannon you are inspirational. Love your channel
+Maria Rosales Oh I love that you love it!! THanks so much for watching :)
Just rewatched this. I love your second book.
Oh me too!
I love it when you say.... This makes me happy!! Also when you actually talk to the pieces of emphera (?). You are so special.
Oh my Lord! I laughed soooo hard at "melanoma"!! I missed everything you said after that! 😂
LOL That's okay, that was the most interesting thing I said!!
Watching this again, I wish I could give it another thumbs up! It is such fun. TFS.
+Helen Fraser LOL I appreciate that!
Shannon, i needed to hear this and see this so bad tonight! You know the things i have been wrestling with lately
With my creativity so yeah i needed this one! I love both of these journal because they showcase your free spirit. They weren't planned or thought out.
You just sort of let them happen and it was a beautiful thing!! So looking forward to another year with you and seeing where you take us next!
Keep those juices flowing!!!
Xxx
Chetta
Chauchetta Green Facing a blank art journal can be intimidating and stifling but facing a blank journal for no reason is fun! Taking the word "art" out of art can be liberating.
You made me giggle every time you made yourself laugh. That is so me. I find myself very entertaining. I enjoyed watching this and I am totally using your idea! These are such great ways to use up random notebooks laying around! Thank you for sharing!
+Katie Byrd Thank so much for watching!
Love this approach. I am using ICAD's in a similar way to wipe paint from my craft sheet and just trying stuff out without a big commitment of supplies.Love that one where you went in with the black watercolor. I would love that as a canvas!
Carmen Hays Thanks so much Carmen!
I have a glue book too! Love to glue down images I love! Great journal Shannon!
artzology Thanks so much Deb!
Use it up journal, love it, a happy book!
I agree it is a happy, happy book. Thank you for sharing.
Ros Jones Thank YOU for watching!
You have ideas for journals no one thot up that no one has come up with- thanks for shareing.
All of these journals for no reasons really speak to me. And what you said about not wanting to make SOMETHING. I'm totally at that point right now but I do want to be creative every day. I just don't feel great if I don't do something every day.
So really enjoy coming here. I painted some magazine pages today. 35 of them 😂😂 and I have about 30 more to go hahahha. Figured okay. Journal for no reason. I just want to play. Lol. And used some of the "watercolored book edges" papers and am binding a book out of those. Why? Yeah I don't know. Just because. Hahaha.
Thanks for all the inspiration.
+Amber Jerome Oooohhh I'm so happy to hear that. And it's really strange...some day you will accidentally find a use for this stuff you're making for no reason. :)
Shannon your videos are such an inspiration! Thanks for sharing. I'm loosing fear to do things just because. Honestly, you are helping me be a little happier with my life. Love and blessings for you and all your beloved ones. Happy 2015!!
Marissa PR Ooohh that makes me so happy that you're happier!
I think I love your journals for no reason.
Claudia Rossi I think I love that you love them.
Play time! Not making anything in particular, just playing with color. That's right up my alley!! I use my watercolors for bright color. Even pastels shades can be bright and deep with color. Love your collection of clips. Great idea to just do clip play, too. The color/background ones are good for doodling, too. Happy New Year, Shannon! :)
soulcomfort1 Happy New Year to you and yours as well!
Hello Shannon, found this simply because of the title. I have wanted to do one (or two, or three...)! of these for ages, years perhaps, as I have hundreds of images that I have acquired just like you! The best coffee table book you can have, I for one would love to flick through those images for hours! I am sure I have said this before, but just in case, you have the BEST YT Channel ever!!
Love and best wishes from across the Pond......and June x
June AngelPews That is so sweet of you to say, June, thank you very much!!
wow I need to make one of those. And love the inspiration of the butterfly with a head on it!!! FUN
+Crafting Vicky Thanks for watching Vicky!
I literally thought I was the only one who made these things for an embarrassingly long time..... lol..., ☺☺☺...awesome journal btw 👌 😎
Best example of do what makes you feel happy. So awesome! TFS
Dawn Connelly Thanks for watching, Dawn!
I have a book I started to do the same thing. I started it but didnt get it finished. A project for 2015. Best wishes for the new year. S
Lesley Foster An unfinished project is much better than no project at all!! Happy New Year to you as well!
I feel so normal now, lol. I can relate to everything you said. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
I love ...."Journal for No Reason".... I'm working on something similar.... makes me wish I hadn't dumped a bunch of my old papers that I loved... TFS... hugs cj
mzscarlett12345 No regrets...you'll accumulate more in no time!
I so love it just playing with paint it is relaxing thank you for sharing 🌼
Thank you for watching!
I love you. You make my face hurt from smiling!! Thank you.
LOL I'm so glad!
Oh wow! Those are SO frikkin great!!! I'm also in love with images and colorful papers that I've hoarded but don't have anything specific in mind for, so I'll follow your lead and have some fun making journals for no reason. Thanks for the wonderful idea! :)
Lujean Martin I'm so glad it was helpful! I just loving doing stuff for no reason ;)
I really really really love your cut and paste journal !!! I love collecting images and papers, adverts, etc and yes, it's a genius idea !! Actually, i did this when i was a kid, with pictures of people i loved (actors, singers, etc) and why not doing it again now ?? Thank you for the idea !!
TFS, hugs
Sabine
mamiejeanne1 Go for it!
This is awesome and you're awesome! Love it!
7papaya2 Thank you!
Love your style, you rock shannon
Frances Lynch Thank you Frances!
Really interesting. I love the Panda page in the first book. I had to back up and put it on pause to get a good look and say ahhhh!
I love all the colours in the second book. Lovely for backgrounds and no waste. TFS x
elkeartsandcrafts Elaine Jones Thanks so much for watching, Elaine!
Your so talented, please continue doing videos like this!
Wonderful idea and lovely execution! Each page is so pretty!
Thank you Debbie!
I so love your journals. Especially the second one. What a wonderful idea. Thank you so much for sharing. You've inspire me to dig out my paints. Today is the day as it's very cold out ( -25 C ) and I do not plan to go anywhere. Thank you again.
Darlene Bromberger Sounds like a great day to play in some paint!
I really like what you did here. And you just said "therapudic". I didnt just like your style, but I like that it was done "without expectations" You just said the magic words. I always want to things look perfect, even doodles! I just needed to hear those words. Thank you. It was encouraging, a lot, to hear those words. I am not going to beshy about my "art" anymore.
Barbara Horovitz I'm so glad to hear that! Thank you for watching!
aawwww there is a reason...to enjoy! luv ur work!
Darlene Ferree Thank you Darlene!
Melanoma... that was hilarious. And yes it does. I think these are just another extension of your creative genius. Do you know the difference between genius and crazy? a very fine line....lol. I love the no reason book. Its beautiful on its own. hugs mona
63sonotech Thank you Mona!
Love this idea I'm just starting in painting and this idea is much less intimidating and I think it will feel freeing. Thank you
Oma's Thoughts Sometimes art is easier to do if you don't call it art. Playing in your 'journal for no reason' is much less intimidating than playing in your art journal even though they're really the same thing!
I love both books! ! Thanks for showing them. Now i know what i can do with all my saved up pictures!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!! ~Dana
ScrappinForSarah Happy New Year to you too!
I'm so with you on these . Love you
THanks for watching!
Thank you so much for this flip through video. This answers the question I've had: What do I do with all this stuff? As of yesterday I started something similar: I'm saving the pictures grandkids drew for me, images that I thought I might use in journals, but didn't, and other images I've been saving, had nothing in mind for but couldn't get rid of. I'm excited about this!
Woo hoo!!
You are so fun! So happy I am not alone!
Laura K We crazies gotta stick together ;)
love your videos. experimental book of happiness. you make me laugh and enjoy the whole process. thank you.
I love your personality! so much fun to watch and listen
Thanks so much for watching!
Hi Shannon You know the tolit paper spoke to me sometimes I forget to be thankful for those kind of things I need to make a happy journal too... I understand why yours makes you happy.. I love your pastel paper towel page. I hope you have happy crafty new year hugs barb
Barbara Alexander Thank you so very much Barb!
What a wonderful video. You have called yourself crazy, but I think you are definitely my kind of crazy. You are quite an artist. I truly enjoy your easy and relaxing attitude in sharing your art in your videos. These 2 journals are a fabulous way to enjoy color, and design. Yes, I think they are just the thing to help a person relax through the use of art without stress. Thank you. Happy New year!
Bernice Seigel Art should be fun and easy and stress-free! Thanks for watching!
I love watching these videos so much in inspiration
I'm so glad!
Great journals Shannon!
I love your videos and your ideas! Thank you so much for sharing. It helps me out in what I would like to do!
Thanks for always inspiring me! I miss you sweetie!!
Juliana Beasley I miss you too and think about you often!
Shannon Green
Double ditto! I watched several videos of your last night and it just made me laugh out loud and feel good. You are such a natural teacher and you always inspire me. I am really excited for you and your video work. I would love to talk sometime or I need to write you. I have just been busy. I start working my new job next Monday and I am actually going to be more a visual arts teacher than a photo teacher.. which brings me a lot of joy that I learned a lot in this last year. You were pivotal and you are pivotal in my education so, I have to thank you so much for coming into my life. I really mean that. I feel ya'!! I have some stuff to tell you that is pretty crazy and it deserves a PM. You are in my heart tonight as we pass from one year to the next. xoxo
We've both been busy lately but that's a good thing! I'll PM you, maybe later tonight, so we can get caught up. Take care my friend!
Hi Shannon. I totally enjoyed the journal flips. Thanks for sharing them
TheMeriAtelier Thank YOU for watching them!
Love watches too. I have like a shoebox of watches... Images not real ones😜😎
+Simona Michel It seems like lots of people like watches and clock faces...it must be a 'thing'.
Ok...first one looked loads of fun....second one made my mouth water and my eyes pop open.
And I really need some of those water brushes
LittleWillie1000 So glad you liked them!
Shannon Green You really do. I have a couple of "nice" ones but most are the really cheap kind and they work just fine.
I love this video!!!!!
Thanks for watching!
What a cool idea! This is great.
DeNease Moore Thanks DeNease!
I gotta do this! You have inspired me!
Go for it!!
What a great idea with the images. I have a ton of pictures of eyes and body parts because I was going to become the next Teesha Moore. lol Now I can put them in a journal and be done with it. :)
***** Ooohhhh, I went through a Teesha Moore phase too! Lots of Zetti collage sheets ended up in that first journal. They're happy there. :)
awesome...thanks so much for sharing
Thank you for watching!
"Why, because you're crazy that's why!" I totally, totally get it! And I just love you!
dlignell LOL I'm so glad!!
I think you may have shown the first one before, it looked awfully familiar. But then again, maybe not. Love your journal flips :)
Erika Grasmick Yes, I mentioned in the video that I've shown it before but it's fabulous enough for a second look!
I agree!
I'm naming my next journal.... NO EXPECTATIONS !!! 😎
YES!!! I love it!!
beautiful journal, have to say that :)
and i finaly i found something i can do with my old stuff too^^
Thanks for watching!
Magdalen
I judge you to be inspiring. Happy New Year
Irvienne Goldson If I have to be judged, I'll take that kind! Thank you!!
I've started using an old book to wipe brushes. The pages are heavy and glossy. I'm hoping that eventually it will look something like yours.
Cathy Rose Creations It will. And it will be fabulous and make you very very happy :)
Thank you so much for making a image journal Im so onto that :} I also love collaging with no rhyme or reason in fact you just helped me to decide what Im going to do with a particular journal I'm stalled on right now thanks :} probably won't show it to anybody but then again maybe i will but i think if i do some creating without anyone in mind I would really like that.. Love the "Don't Judge Me" Shannon
Art Junkie Thanks so much for watching!
Call me crazy then lol. I have stuff I've held onto for 10-14 years and just know I will eventually find a special project for them! :D
+Alyse Anderson High five sista!
Love, love, love your journals! I really like the idea of making a journal for no reason other than just wanting to make it! No rhyme or reason sounds like fun playtime to me! Thanks so much, Shannon! (Melanoma...... Bwahahahahaha!) :D
Cat Hand I'm going to be doing a lot more of these types of journals...no planning or expectations, just doing!
Hooray! I can't wait!! I may just try it myself! I also have a file of images I love but didn't know what to do with. But I do now! :)
I love this, tfs Shannon
Thank you Maggie!
Love your ideas. And your artwork. Esp the wipe off book for no reason you upgraded it. Just saw this and thought I'd seen all your vids.
I feel like there’s probably some that *I* haven’t seen! 😆
So funny 😂
Use it up journal is what I need to do before my craft room explodes. :)
Ha! I hear ya :)
I love your videos, and your reasons for journaling are inspiring! Thank you :)
Owl Biscuits Thank YOU for watching!
Melanoma looks to me like an ultrasound. 😛 The colors in both these journals are great. You have a good eye for finding the right combination. I usually end up with mud.
Cathy Rose Creations LOL It does have a fetus look to it now that you mention it!
LOL....that is exactly what I thought...looks like an unborn baby on a sonogram!!!! Wow...
I would like to thank you Shannon for having so many wonderful videos and for coming up with the Journaling by 5's! I have not been a youtube watcher but I have watched many of your videos (some of them many times) and you have not only inspired me to start crafting again but to also make some videos of my own with some share of things I have done in the past and things you have inspired me to start. I attempted to do the journaling by 5's, and have a video of what I did. I mentioned you quite a bit in my gluebook video ( czcams.com/video/v00l1rqCmoA/video.html ) because you have brought me back to crafting which I had enjoyed in the past but got away from doing other things. I just wanted you to know how much you have inspired me and in a way encouraged me to make some videos of my own!! I'm not very good at it yet and need lots of practice, and I'm not sure how to do a lot of things but hopefully I will figure it out! cause it's makin me HAPPY!!!
+Kagedfish I am thoroughly enjoying your videos and you're doing a great job on them! Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm just thrilled that you've come back to crafting...where you clearly belong! ;)
thanks so much!! I see that called your glue book the wrong thing in my video, oops! I will update my gluebook video when it's finished and correct my mistake. your Use it Up journal is what inspired me!
I knew exactly which one you were talking about and it doesn't matter to me what you call it :)
Wow, I seriously need to just take a day-or so-and do this! What a stupendous idea, you are a genius. =) I really like the idea of a test journal, again - genius!
+Linda DeChow I enjoyed these so much they were part of what inspired this year's En Masse Collection Journal. I highly recommend something like this!
Your "Melanoma" has, at the top of it, the face of a bearded man. I need to make one of these, I keep running out of paper and this is a great idea. I have a day planner somewhere that I never use and would be perfect for this. Thank you.
I sure appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment!
you're welcome.
Fabulous, every page is so interesting :) tfs
Amused Muse Thanks for watching!
LOVE this!! :)
Cali Black Thanks bunches!
cool tfs
A bit of trivia = I've just come off a 30-Day Coloring challenge by Kathy Racoosin and one of the articles she found online was a bit about coloring books, which your play book seems to be, is that coloring lowers the blood pressure. Did you loose yourself in your color world when you watercolored the pages?
+Dolores J. Rush I do love to color and find it very relaxing...but I still have to take my blood pressure pills! heh :)
Inspired! 👍👍👍
christierella so glad! Thanks for watching!
That is so cool....
Thanks Denise!
I'm getting into the junk journal phenomenon and I would wonder, does it have to have a theme?
I have magazine pages and certain words and statements cut out and stashed away, I know exactly what to do with it now that I've watched your video. Thanks.
Themes are great and I've done a few with various themes but they're not necessary. My Journals for No Reason are just that...no themes, no reason, make no sense, and I LOVE them!!