Not your average librarian...

Last night at the library I had the pleasure of teaching a mixed media journal class for teens. I made the journal above during the class to show some techniques. I was really excited about teaching this and brought tons of my own supplies to play with. I talked about all different types and styles of journals and showed this and this as examples along with a plethora of my favorite books. I talked about blogging as a form of journaling and showed my Artful Blogging article. It was at this time that one of the mothers piped up and said, "You sure aren't your average libriaran!" hehe!! I explained that I loved blogging so much because I'm definitely a "get your hands dirty" kind of art journaler, so I make my art, then photograph it and post it on my blog. It's the best of both hands-on and digital art!Three girls showed up (it was a hot summer evening) and they had some journaling experience so they dove right in. It was so much fun. I showed them some new, very simple techniques like painting onto bubble wrap and then stamping it down for making backgrounds. Their creativity took off and they made some pretty fun books, as you see here.We stuffed the inside of the books with lots of different types of paper and envelopes. They had some great ideas for themes. One of them was going to use the journal to chronicle her school year. Another was going to use it for doodling and writing notes.

Don't you agree that they turned out fabulous!?! This got me very excited for teaching in Cape Cod at JustBe...Connected in October. The girls loved the class and gave me big hugs at the end:) The mothers encouraged me to teach more of these classes and they wanted to participate themselves. What a fun experience to teach something that I'm so passionate about myself and see all of the amazing creations that others make. I love my job!