Amelia and I were discussing the whole art journal thing, and I told her about a "traveling" art journal that I had read about once upon a time. I can't even remember now where I heard about it, but I loved the concept. After a little brainstorming, we thought it might be fun to start a traveling art journal for kids (parents can play too! :)) and pass it around to some of the homeschooling blogosphere.
It would work something like this:
- Anyone interested in participating would privately email me their name and mailing address.
- We would start an art journal and "do" the first page.
- We would then send the journal to the first name on the list along with the name and address of who they were to mail it to.
- When it reached that 3rd person, (there would be instructions written in the front of the book) they would simply email me for the next name and address, and so on. I could simply include a list of all the names and addresses with the book, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with sending everyone's address to everyone. Also, this way any late-comers could still join in even after the book is in circulation.
- A book the size of Amelia's current art journal (5" x 8") would cost about $4.50 to ship first class and even less for media mail. (With a Priority Mail Flat Rate envelope, the cost is $4.60 no matter the weight.)
- When the book is full, it would simply be shipped back to us and someone else could start another one! ;-)
The sky is the limit as to what your pages can look like! Use any media you or your kids like! Just make sure that you sign and date your contribution, and the location would be nice too. When Amelia and I talked about this, her eyes were wide with amazement at the thought of a small book traveling all over the country and then coming back to her with art from so many different kids!
There are many great books out there for inspiration, such as any of Gwen Diehn's works (delicious idea food!). You can use collage, watercolors, pencils, crayons, stickers, stamps, pockets, fold-outs, cut-outs or all of the above! Your pages can be done by one person or a family-team effort! It can one page or two facing pages for a full spread! If the book gets big and fat and does not close properly, wonderful! The point is to have fun and get creative and it would be really cool if you
bloggy mom's would do a little post when it gets to you. I would love to put a list of links in my sidebar of where the journal has been!
So. If you are interested, drop me a note and I will get that list started. I guess we need to get that journal started, too! :-)
**UPDATE** The list is full! Thanks!!
