Ever find yourself staring at a blank page and feeling completely stuck? You’re not alone! Whether you’re new to art journaling or a seasoned journaler looking for some fresh inspiration or ideas, these fun and creative art journal prompts are here to help!
Think of this list as a yummy bag of mixed candy, bursting with fun, silly, and sometimes introspective prompts created just for you! 💕 Pick and choose the ones you like, because there’s a flavor for everyone. Whether you’re looking for something quick & easy to create on a 10-minute break or you’re in the mood for some deep, dreamy, and aesthetic journal prompts, I’ve got you.
These are perfect for mixed media art journaling, bullet journaling, or just any kind of creative or visual journaling that you love. You can even use them for a self-care relaxation session with some watercolor paints and a cup of tea, or to jot down your feelings in a classic old-school journaling style.
And want to know the best part? These prompts aren’t meant to be taken too seriously. There’s no right or wrong way to use them, and you don’t need any fancy supplies. Just grab a journal, your favorite pens or markers, maybe a glue stick, and let your imagination run wild!
These prompts are here to help you reconnect with your inner child – the one who used to CREATE without worrying about what others thought. Each prompt is intentionally simple and playful, designed to remind you how great it feels to make art just for fun.
And if you’re a total beginner to art journaling and feel a bit clueless about where to start, you can check out this post first –
This is one of the most fun self-care activities for adults that I’ve come across. It might sound a bit odd, but it’s like giving your grown-up mind a break by letting your inner kid have some fun!
Use these prompts as a cozy mental playground, where creativity flows freely, mistakes are totally okay, and every page turns into a fun little adventure.
There are NO rules!
☕ Use whatever is handy and makes you happy
🎨 Mess is encouraged
✨ Perfection is overrated
🌿 Deep breath in and out…. enjoy!
Oh, and if you want a printable PDF with a list of all these art journaling prompts, just enter your details below and I’ll email it right to you –
• Cozy & Nostalgic Art Journaling Prompts
1. The Ultimate Comfort List
Make a collage or list everything that makes you feel warm and cozy (hot cocoa, fairy lights, rainy days).
2. Your Happy Place
Use colors, textures, or words to capture a place where you feel most at peace.
3. Saturday Morning Cartoons
Doodle or collage things that remind you of your favorite childhood shows.
4. The Coziest Day Ever
Illustrate or describe your perfect lazy day – what would you wear, eat, and do?
5. Smells Like Home
Capture scents that bring you comfort (freshly baked cookies, grandma’s perfume) using colors, doodles, and words.
6. Rainy Day Vibes
Tear out magazine clippings or paint a page that feels like a dreamy, cozy rainy afternoon.
7. Your Blanket Fort Blueprint
Sketch or collage what your childhood dream fort would look like!
8. First Big Dream
Create a journaling spread that reminds you of the first “big dream” or who you wanted to be when you grew up.
9. Your Favorite Childhood Snack
Draw, create a collage or describe a snack you loved as a kid (bonus points if you recreate it IRL!).
• Fun, Cute & Silly Art Journaling Prompts
1. Color Outside the Lines
Play with negative space – draw an object and color outside it, instead of the inside. Scribble wildly, and break all the ‘rules’ on purpose!
2. Doodle Your Dream Ice Cream
Invent a fantasy ice cream flavor with your own toppings, and create a page inspired by it
3. If I Were a Fairytale Character…
Would you be a woodland witch, a cozy cottage dweller, or an adventurous pirate? Draw or create a collage that your character would fit in
4. Make a Sticker Page
Create an art journaling spread using all the stickers you’ve been hoarding! (or draw and cut out your own!).
5. Messy, But Make It Fun
Be messy – try finger painting , scribbles, or smudge something on the page without overthinking it.
6. Create a Secret Code
Invent a personal alphabet, symbols, or doodles only you understand. Write a secret message to yourself!
7. Draw With Your Non-Dominant Hand
Pick a simple shape (like a leaf or a cup) and try to draw it imperfectly with your non-dominant hand!
• Self Care, Self Love & Mindful Prompts
1. Things I’m Proud Of (Big & Small)
Document your victories – whether they’re as big as winning an award or as small as being able to wash your hair today! You can use polaroid frames or trophy doodles to make it visual.
2. Breathe in, Breathe Out
Take a deep breath in and then slowly breathe out – draw wavy lines, spirals, or patterns to mimic this pattern of your breath.
3. What’s In Your Heart Today?
Use colors and abstract shapes to express your emotions. Are you feeling bold & vibrant, dark & heavy or light & playful?
4. Affirmation Doodle
Pick a kind phrase (e.g., “I am enough”) and decorate the words in fun lettering.
5. Your Cozy Ritual
Illustrate, make a collage, or list the small things that help you feel relaxed (morning coffee, stretching, reading).
6. Paint to Music
Play a song that soothes you – use that as inspiration to create your journal spread. What colors does the song remind you of? Create a collage, add doodles, or write the lyrics – let your pen, or brush, move with the rhythm of the song.
7. Tiny Joys
Fill a page with little things that made you smile this week (a cute dog, a funny text, a good meal).
8. A Hug in Colors
Pick the colors that feel like a warm hug and fill the page with them. Try using multiple different mediums like watercolors, crayons, colored pencils or acrylics.
• Travel & Adventure Art Journaling Prompts
1. Dream Travel Mood Board
Collage or sketch places you’d love to visit – where would you go? What would you eat? What would you wear?
2. Postcard from Your Future Self
Write and decorate a ‘postcard’ that your future self would send from a dream destination.
3. If I Had a Tiny Cottage…
Design the coziest little home for yourself in whichever place you would love to call home – in a city, in the woods, by the sea, or on a mountain.
4. Cafe Hopping
Illustrate or create your dream coffee shop and what’s on the menu. Where is this cafe located? How is the ambience, the people, and the food?
5. Magic Suitcase
What five items would you take if you were whisked away to a secret adventure on an island? Doodle, sketch or collage it.
6. Around the World in Snacks
Find and collage/doodle snacks from different countries that you’d love to visit in person one day.
7. Train Window Daydream
Paint or collage a ‘view’ from a train window in a dream city
• Monthly Art Journaling Prompts
⭐ January journaling prompts
(Fresh Starts & Cozy Hibernation)
1. Things I’m Leaving Behind
Draw a suitcase filled with habits, fears, or thoughts you’re letting go of.
2. My Word of the Year
Decorate the word with symbols and motifs that represent your focus.
3. How I Want to Feel This Year
Create a vision board with textures, colors & doodles that remind you of the feelings you want to attract into your life this year.
4. Bright Intentions
Paint your intentions like they are New Year’s fireworks – messy, sparkly, and a little chaotic.
💖 February journaling prompts
(Self-Love & Soft Romance)
1. A Letter to My Future Self
Paint a letter on the page and fill it with words of encouragement.
2. Romanticize Your Life
Illustrate dreamy versions of mundane routines like making tea/coffee, reading, or walking.
3. My Love Language in Art
What is your love language? How would you express it visually using colors, shapes, and symbols?
4. My Favorite Things
Doodle or create a collage inspired by 5 things you love this month (can be anything from food to your fuzzy socks!)
🌷 March journaling prompts
(New Growth & Inner Spring)
1. What’s Blooming in Me?
Create a spread inspired by plants or flowers where each petal or leaf holds a goal, dream, habits, traits, or something you’re working on.
2. I’m Unlearning…
Use torn-paper effects through paints, sketches, or collages to visually represent outdated beliefs or habits that you’re letting go of.
3. Spring Mood Board
Paste cut-outs, add cute doodles, or create sketches inspired by seasonal colors, smells, and textures.
4. My Spring Blooms
Let your journal bloom – create your own dream garden with a floral-inspired page full of colorful flowers and leaves.
🌿 April journaling prompts
(Fresh Starts & Gentle Rain)
1. April Reset Page
Create a layout inspired by mini raindrops, each holding a tiny goal or mantra.
2. A Rainy Day
Create a spread inspired by what your ideal rainy day looks like. Is it something simple like watching the rain through a cozy window? Or something imaginative like frogs in boots?
3. A Gorgeous Green Garden
Turn a page into a garden using scraps, paint, and a whole lot of green in any way you want – paper, actual leaves, finger painting, etc.
4. What Lies Beneath the Surface?
Create a spread inspired by what lies beneath the surface of your heart & mind. What are the parts of you that aren’t easily visible at first glance? Create layers of soil or roots to represent inner growth & strength.
🌸 May journaling prompts
(Bloom & Belonging)
1. Things That Make Me Bloom
Fill flower petals with words, doodles or images of people, things, routines, scenes or habits that help you grow into a better person and help you bloom.
2. Map of the Neighborhood
Make a colorful map of your neighborhood – what does it look like in May? What colors and changes do you see in the trees, the sky, the ground?
3. A Love Letter to the Sun
Create a yellow-themed page and capture your favorite things about summer and the sunshine – add doodles, photos, stickers or ephemera.
4. Lazy Afternoon Page
Journal your dream “do nothing” afternoon or illustrate a cozy scene that makes you feel happy and safe — whether it’s real or imagined.
☀️ June journaling prompts
(Sunshine & Joyful Energy)
1. Summer Bucket List
Create a spread inspired by everything you want to do this summer – do you want to go on picnics? On hikes? To the beach? Add doodles, create mood boards or a watercolor spread.
2. The Color of My Joy
Create a page bursting with your personal joy color and what it represents.
3. Self-Care in the Heat
Create a spread about how you take care of yourself in the summer. What is in your summer essentials starter pack? How are you keeping yourself cool, mentally and physically?
4. June in a Snapshot
Draw a Polaroid grid or film strip filled with tiny, happy moments of one perfect summer day – real or imaginary
🏖️ July journaling prompts
(Relax & Recharge)
1. My Dream Vacation
Create a page inspired by your dream vacation destination – even if it’s lounging on your couch with the AC on! Add doodles, photos, or you can even create your own ticket stubs.
2. Favorite Summer Food
Create a journaling spread inspired by your favorite summer food – can be a picnic basket, a charcuterie board or just random foods spread out on the page.
3. The Smell of Summer
Create a journaling spread inspired by the smells that remind you of summer – what scents define the season for you?
4. Childhood Summer Nostalgia
What reminds you of childhood summers? Think of childhood candy, old summer games, etc. Try using old vacation photos, prints, or ephemera.
🌻 August journaling prompts
(Play & Pause)
1. Lazy Days, Dreamy Page
Fill a spread with soft clouds, hammock doodles, or sleepy end-of-summer things.
2. If I Could Bottle This Moment…
Draw a series of jars and “bottle” feelings, sights, and scents from the month. What are your favorite memories that you want to capture in this journal spread?
3. Favorite Summer Soundtrack
Create a page inspired by an album or playlist that reminds you of August – write lyrics, add doodles or polaroid photos, and just let the music guide you.
4. End of Summer
Create a page that screams “end-of-summer chaos”. Layer warm colors, textures, and vacation-vibes ephemera (melty popsicles welcome!).
🍂 September journaling prompts
(Transition & Reflection)
1. Transition Mood Board
Create a “transition mood board” that can show your routine, energy, or mindset shifts from summer to fall.
2. My Dream Fall Wardrobe
Create a spread inspired by your fashion choices for the new season – collage or draw cozy clothing, or just create a journal background that is inspired by fall colors.
3. Blankets & Books
What are your favorite fall comforts? Create a spread showcasing all of your favorite things about Septembers.
4. Colors of Fall
Draw falling leaves and write something that you’re ready to release on each leaf. You can also create a harvest basket filled with your recent small victories.
🎃 October journaling prompts
(Magic & Mystery)
1. My Magic Potion
Create a journal spread inspired by a potion recipe filled with your strengths and quirks. You can show a potion bottle or a cauldron – add doodles, collages, or magical ephemera.
2. Halloween Candy
Make a spooky or silly Halloween-themed page with candy wrapper art – you can use actual wrappers, draw your own candy or create it through a collage.
3. My Villain Origin Story
Create a spread inspired by what would be your personal villain origin story!
4. Shadows & Light
Make a spread that plays with contrast – literally or metaphorically. You can also use layered paper or hidden flaps to journal your private thoughts or show the shadows & light in your own life.
🍁 November journaling prompts
(Gratitude & Grounding)
1. My Year of Gratitude
Create a spread showing the things you were grateful for this year. Use photos, create a collage, or add doodles.
2. My Cozy Comforts Recipe
Create a recipe for comfort (ingredients can include flannel and naps!) You can show a recipe card in your spread, or doodle the ingredients, or add photos.
3. Things I Forgot to Celebrate
Create a journaling spread to celebrate all the little things you forgot to celebrate this year – add party decorations, add a cake, show fireworks – go crazy, these are your wins!
4. My Grounding Rituals
Create a list, collage, or drawing of small rituals that help you feel grounded – things that give you emotional and mental stability. Is it meditation? Listening to soft music? Moving your body?
❄️ December journaling prompts
(Rest & Reflection)
1. My Year in 12 Snapshots
Draw Polaroid photos or create a film strip with your best memories for each month of this year.
2. Wintering, My Way
Fill your page with blankets, stars, and quiet thoughts about slowing down using a cozy color palette for winter.
3. Holiday Wishlist
Create a winter-themed art spread inspired by your holiday or New Year wish list.
4. Hopes, Not Resolutions
Write soft, wishful intentions on floating snowflakes drifting in the breeze.
• Seasonal Art Journaling Prompts
🌸 Spring journaling prompts
(Awakening & Possibility)
1. A Visual Spring Cleaning
Create a journal spread inspired by all the things you need to clean out of your life – maybe draw a trash bag and fill it with things you’re mentally decluttering.
2. Signs of Life
Sketch tiny sprouts, blooms, or metaphorical signs of inner revival. Journal what you’re growing this season, literally or emotionally.
3. Chasing Light
Create a page that feels like “new beginnings”. Maybe use soft yellows and glowing imagery to capture what’s energizing you, or use greens & pastels to create a page that looks like hope.
4. Spring Joy List
Create a journal spread inspired by everything you love about spring. Draw out a list, or doodle your favorites, or create a collage using photos and pressed leaves & flowers.
☀️ Summer journaling prompts
(Joy & Radiance)
1. Things That Feel Like Sunshine
Create a journal spread showcasing things that remind you of summertime joy – like beach days, laughter, cold fruit, lemonade.
2. Let’s Romanticize Summer
Paint or design your “ideal” summer as if it were a movie scene. Create a collage using photos & summer ephemera, or doodle things that remind you of summer.
3. Sunkissed Selfies (But Make It Art)
Create a journal spread using playful self-portraits or abstract depictions of your summer self.
4. My Summer Soundtrack
Create a journal spread showcasing your summer soundtrack with music-inspired doodles, collages, or photos.
🍁 Fall/Autumn journaling prompts
(Shift & Stillness)
1. Cozy Chaos vs. Peaceful Stillness
Split the page to explore both your buzzing thoughts and your quiet rituals – think about the things that are heavy on your mind and the things that help you calm down.
2. Falling for This
Create a spread to illustrate your autumn essentials, highlighting the things you’re obsessed with right now. What are your must-haves for this cozy season?
3. Pumpkin Spiced….?
Design your own pumpkin spice product (PSL candle-scented socks??). And if you hate anything pumpkin spice related then let your imagination go wild and create your own fall-special flavor.
4. Autumn Affirmations
Create a leaf or flannel-style background. You can then hand-letter cozy, grounding mantras over it that can be guiding words for the new season.
❄️ Winter journaling prompts
(Rest & Inner Glow)
1. The Warmth I Carry Inside
Create a spread inspired by soft candlelight or glowing orbs with comforting thoughts inside – these are the warm thoughts & feelings you want to carry inside your heart in this new season of life.
2. A Quiet Celebration
Create a cozy journal spread inspired by a warm winter scene with only you present, doing something meaningful – maybe a solo date doing something you absolutely enjoy!
3. Hibernate & Heal
Create a journal spread inspired by a dreamy cave or blanket fort scene that reflects your inner sanctuary – your safe space. Make a “hibernation plan” showing what your soul needs right now.
4. Holiday Mood Board
Create a collage or art spread to show what joy this season brings to you. Maybe journal about your cozy essentials or beautiful memories: draw them, list them, collage them.
• Quick & Random Prompts
- Favorite Things Bingo – Make a bingo card filled with tiny drawings of your favorite things.
- Doodle a Tiny Town – Fill a page with quirky little houses, shops, and cafes.
- What If the Sky Wasn’t Blue? – Paint or color the sky in unexpected colors.
- Your Life as a Movie Poster – Make up a title and design the cover!
- Silly Fashion Challenge – Design the weirdest, most fun outfit imaginable.
- Color Your Mood – Fill the page with whatever colors match your mood today.
- If I Were a Plant… – Draw yourself as a plant or flower and describe why it suits you.
- Make a Mini Comic – A four-panel comic about a random funny or cozy moment.
- Mishmash Collage – Close your eyes, grab 5 random papers or stickers, and make them into art.
- Doodle a Recipe – Illustrate how to make your favorite meal in the simplest drawings possible.
- A Letter to Your Inner Child – Write a short note to 10-year-old you and decorate it with doodles.
- Create Your Own Holiday – What would it celebrate? What’s the tradition
- Your Dream Pet – Real or imaginary, sketch or describe the pet you’d love to have.
- Tiny Treasures – Draw tiny objects that bring you joy (a lucky penny, a seashell, a ring).
- Make Up a Constellation – Connect random dots to invent a new star pattern.
- Recreate a Favorite Childhood Game – Hopscotch? Paper fortune tellers? Tic-tac-toe?
- Morning vs. Night – Split the page in half and illustrate your morning vs. evening vibes.
- Your Favorite Book in One Page – Summarize it with doodles, quotes, or colors.
- Draw Your Own Tarot Card – Invent a fun, positive tarot card (e.g., “The Cozy Nap”).
- Fill a Page With Stars – Any style, any color, just stars everywhere.
- The Best Part of Today – No matter how small, document something good that happened.
- Collage Your Dream Week – What would your perfect week look like in pictures and words?
Art journaling isn’t about being perfect, polished, or even productive. It’s about feeling – the cozy moments, creative sparks, little bursts of joy or nostalgia, all poured onto the page. Whether you’re flipping through prompts on a rainy afternoon, collaging with snacks by your side, or scribbling half-asleep in bed, every page is a tiny act of self-care.
I hope this list of journal prompts has given you a nudge (or a playful shove!) into your next art journaling session. Bookmark this post, revisit it when you need a creative boost, or print out your favorite art journaling prompts to keep them close. And remember: your journal doesn’t need to make sense, it just needs to feel like you.
Now go make some cozy chaos. Your art journal’s waiting!
