Dear Wonderful Creative You:

I frequently get questions about what to give creative people and art journalists. Most artists I know get pretty darn excited about supplies, and I like to make it easy for their loved ones to wow them  with inspiring goodies in a little holiday gift guide. If you aren’t sure you feel comfortable giving a wish list of supplies, let me tell you my rationale about why I share mine.

I’m a big fan of letting folks know what I want. I love surprises to be sure, but I also really appreciate the holidays as a chance to let others take care of me a bit, just as I do for them. Who wouldn’t like a little creative self-care when it’s cold outside? It’s a great time to let folks know that, hey, I’m really wishing I could buy those new watercolors, or, I’d like to take that class, but haven’t had the means to treat myself.

 

Here’s my holiday gift guide for art journalists in 2016:

 

1. Moleskine Art Plus Pocket Sketchbook 3.5 x 5.5  These pocket sized notebooks are great because their pages are thick enough to take some paint, but it’s a light little notebook that fits easily in my purse. Art on the go!

2. Loew Cornell Brush Set I have high quality acrylic brushes that I use on canvas, but for the work I’m doing in journals, where I’m scratching the page doing messy backgrounds, switching between paint and gel medium, these brushes do the job nicely.

3. Golden High Flow Liquid Acrylics I have been having a love affair with these paints over the last year or so. They do such amazing little tricks and help me get into the FLOW and get creative!

4.  EK Tools Circle Punch 1.5 Inch As a part of my focus on working small this year, I’ve been punching tiny circles and squares out of mixed media paper and working on those. Talk about portable art! It’s very satisfying to work on a one or two inch square. You can cover a lot of ground in little time.

5. C’aran d’Ache Neocolor Water-Soluble Pastels I’ve been making simple patterns and backgrounds with these crayons. You can see some samples on my Instagram feed.

6. Koi Watercolor Brush This brush is always in my portable art pouch. It’s a brush that holds its own reservoir of water = AH-MAY-ZING!

7. Liquitex Matte Gel Medium While gel medium was initially created for thickening paint, it’s proven to be an excellent adhesive for paper, string, and cloth in mixed media art. Apply it with a brush and stick down those beautiful collage pieces. To see how this works, watch this video on adding imaginative illustrations to your pages.

8. Higgins India Ink  If you’ve taken my classes, you know I’m a huge fan of ink and all the playful possibilities it offers on the page. The simplicity and contrast of black and white is BOLD.

9. Sanford Uniball Gold Gel Pen A gold pen – who wouldn’t love that for adding fun details and lettering?

10. The Artist’s Way I can never say enough about how much this book changed my life and helped me recognize the artist within and what she needed. This is a must-read.

11. Studio Bucks Gift Card If an art journaling class has been on your wish list, or you are looking to spread the creative love, I’m offering gift cards for my classes. Now you can elbow your significant other virtually with your wish list. Maybe forward the link to the Studio Bucks gift card with the subject line: “Hint, hint?”

12. Liquitex Gesso Gesso has a lot of jobs in my journal. I use it to smudge and blend Neocolor crayons and watercolor paint. I also use it in place of white paint as this helps prevent the pages from sticking together.

13. Micron Pens Whether you are doing lettering or drawing on the page or over paint, these are quality, permanent markers that will not bleed and are archival quality.

14. Blue Q Pretty Bird Zipper Pouch A portable art pouch is empowering. Art is available any time. In the car. Out to dinner. In the doctor’s waiting room. On the plane. It’s about carving out time for art.

15. Strathmore Mixed Media Paper When I do work on paper – it’s nice to use a mixed media paper because of it’s heft. This paper accepts paint without any curling. Most importantly, I can use my hole punches to create teeny art journals with it. They are so precious and the paper is strong enough to make it work. I also make my own accordion fold journals with this paper.

16. Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pens If I had nothing else to make art right now, I’d want liquid acrylics and white gel pens. Dots, patterns, lettering, and line drawings on dark paper – I seem to never tire of this beautiful white ink appearing on the page.

[bctt tweet=”Check out my holiday gift guide for art journalists! #giftguide2016 #carveouttimeforart” username=”amymaricle”]

Drop some not so subtle hints about your art wish list:

For a lot of people, gift giving is hard. Those folks will love you for making their holiday easier. Those who already have a gift or an idea will likely stick to it. When using a direct approach and letting family know what’s on my wish list, I like including things in a range of prices too, that way I’m not suggesting they spend too much.

Share it on Facebook or Twitter: Say something like: WOW – These art supplies look SO FUN. (Your friends will get the idea! 😉

Forward the link to this post in an email with the subject: “Most amazing spouse ever wows partner with holiday art supply haul.”

Or, you might think of a more subtle, direct, or funny way to let folks know if they are looking for ideas you’ve got some. Let us know in the comments what methods you use and how it goes, as well as what else is on your wish list. Art books? Juicy watercolors? A gelli plate? Tell us about it in the comments.

 

 

 

 

The product links in this post are affiliate links. That means that, at no extra cost to you, if you choose to click and purchase something, you will support the work of Mindful Art Studio to empower the artist in all of us.  Thanks!