Playing with 'found words'

Using words from all over the place on digital layouts, using the "Discover" project kit (gifted to premium subscribers this month)

I think most of us would struggle to create an art journaling piece, or a scrapbook page, without words.

Words are the foundation that Rachel and I build our collections on. The word - in this month’s case “Discover” - comes first, and we use other words as essential building blocks both in adding to the collection and in making our own pages.

We include lots of text snippets, text fragment brushes and phrase tags in our collections, and many of these are sourced from the piles of vintage newspapers and magazines we have in our workspaces.

Some of these we cut out, some are embellished with watercolour paint, and some are turned into brushes. (For example, the black tag under my photo in the page above was made by turning some text from a 1960s magazine into a brush, then stamping in white onto a tag).

I love using these ‘found’ words and phrases. Sometimes I will have barely any other journaling on an art journaling page, because the random words and phrases convey so much to me and it feels less awkward, confronting or revealing than a block of text detailing all the whats, whys and wherefores. Of course, the random words may convey slightly different meanings to an observer of my page - and that is absolutely fine!

To my mind, there are three types of “found words” we can use to create with.