Wreck this journal page 1

Book Synopsis

"Not gonna lie, this is probably the coolest journal you'll ever see. . . . Wreck This Journal is here to inspire you." --Buzzfeed

The internationally bestselling phenomenon with more than 10 million copies sold--and an excellent holiday gift! Paint, poke, create, destroy, and wreck--to create a journal as unique as you are

For anyone who's ever had trouble starting, keeping, or finishing a journal or sketchbook comes this expanded edition of Wreck This Journal, a subversive illustrated book that challenges readers to muster up their best mistake- and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book--or destroy them.

Through a series of creative and quirky prompts, acclaimed guerilla artist Keri Smith encourages journalers to engage in destructive acts--poking holes through pages, adding photos and defacing them, painting pages with coffee, coloring outside the lines, and more--in order to experience the true creative process. With Smith's unique sensibility, readers are introduced to a new way of art- and journal-making, discovering novel ways to escape the fear of the blank page and fully engage in the creative process.

To create is to destroy. Happy wrecking!

Review Quotes

"Not gonna lie, this is probably the coolest journal you'll ever see. . . . Wreck This Journal is here to inspire you." --Buzzfeed

"Wreck This Journal encourages you to stop fretting about quality and start relishing the artistic process." --Oprah.com

"Smith's journal is about destruction, asking readers to poke through pages, submerge them, attach photos and then deface them, and essentially revel in our 'mistakes.' The finished product--crumpled pages and sometimes doubled in size--is itself a masterpiece." --BuzzFeed, Journals That Will Give Your Brain A Workout

"I love this book and the playful way that Keri Smith teaches people the act of creating by putting you right on the spot. Wreck This Journal is a fun, interactive book that you will want to work in every day. To create is to destroy, and this book delivers." --D*I*Y Planner

"No matter where you start or where you end, there's always something interesting to do. . . . The book is an exploration into creativity." --Buffalo News

"The ideal gift for artistic minded people, or not, for that matter, as what I love about this book is that there is no right or wrong. Neat, messy, colorful, dark, you can wreck however you want." --Hawwa, etc.

"I've kept journals before, but have never written in them as frequently as I write in my Wreck This Journal. It is great for inspiration; it gives you tasks that are thought-provoking rather than pages of endless blank lines. It is a great way to pass the time and a great gift for anyone, no matter how young or old." --Teen Ink

"Wreck this Journal makes a great gift for someone who's going through a stressful time, needs a form of release, or anyone who could use a few minutes of fun." --Jactionary

"Wreck This Journal encourages you to experiment and have fun. . . . Flip to any page in the book and you will find a prompt: fun prompts, destructive prompts, creative prompts to help your creative juices flow." --Craft Critique

"Calling all bookworms and creative doodlers, Wreck This Journal is the perfect book to spruce up your summer. . . . It's a wonderful stress reliever and brings out the inner childish behavior we are so often told to get over. You won't be disappointed." --Kristine Marie Babauta, Marianas Variety

Praise for Keri Smith

"Keri Smith may well be the self-help guru this DIY generation deserves." --The Believer

"A conceptual artist and author luring kids into questioning the world and appreciating every smell, texture and mystery in it." --TIME Magazine

About The Author

My Journey With Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal 

Wreck this Journal - The front cover's changes over time. Check out how wrinkly it gets and that doodle in pink paint pen that slowly fades away.

Wreck This Journal - The Title Page. This page is weird and kind of shrunken down because of all the times I've had to tape/glue/sew the binding back shut.

Here is my Wreck this Journal table of contents page. I had to make my own, since it isn't provided with one to begin with. I think creating a table of contents is an excellent way to keep your journal more "organized." I can't tell you how many times I had an idea or an item to put in my journal but had to spend five minutes flipping through it to find that specific page... the table of contents is a total game changer in that sense. And besides, you already numbered the pages, it's just begging you to make a table of contents somewhere! Also, check out how many crossed out pages there are... all the ones that I can say are 100% finished to my best ability! Almost every page has something on it already, but not all of them were followed through completely. More on that later, though.

The instructions page, personally one of my favorite illustrations I've done in this book. The yellow is bleeding through from the next page, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked with the drawing's composition already! I think that's one of Wreck this Journal's themes - unexpectedly beautiful results.

Materials and Add your Own Numbers pages. I took the materials page literally and found or used pretty much everything mentioned in the list. Except for combs, because they're evil and I hate them. Watch out for combs.

Crack the Spine and Leave This Page Blank.... When my mom saw my doodle of the journal getting its spine broken, she thought it was a rooster. If you went to high school with me you will recognize the hideous creature on the right as a "Boobybutt" since it is made out of a butt and a pair of boobs at the same time :D

Stand here and wipe your feet - This page is kind of cute because I got my cousins to help me when they were still really little. Their tiny feet fit perfectly on the page! They aren't so little anymore now though... time flies.

Pour coffee on this page- The coffee doesn't appear to be faded at all.

Poke Holes in this page using a pencil - This is a classic Wreck this Journal page because it's one of the first tasks that Keri Smith asks you to accomplish and it really helps push you out of your comfort zone. I love seeing the many different interpretations of this page in particular. Most people finish this page in some way.

Eat your enemies - wait, that doesn't have anything do with wrecking my journal!

Gross... glad to see the dirty handprints page hasn't changed much at all, either.

Wreck This Journal - Color this entire page

Wreck This Journal- Throw something dipped in paint

Wreck this Journal - Press Flowers Here

Scratch using a sharp oject - I can't even remember what the object was. A safety pen I think. And then I scratched it with a fork, because why not?

Do rubbings with a pencil- I waited too long to do this page and as a result, no amount of coloring or pencil shading could make any rubbing outlines appear - the paper was too worn and soft by then. So, I pulled the artist's equivalent of an Ashlee Simpson on SNL and completely phoned it in by drawing a king skull and a big fat fly head over everything.

Tear strips, rip it up / Tape or stable these pages together - This works out because I was able to keep the strips intact!

Fill this page with circles - I like making hinges on things. So I hinged together two beer coasters with tape.

I decided to document my (apparently evil) dessert instead of an entire meal. The guy wearing a hardhat and holding a microphone while standing on a cupcake is from a birthday card I made up for our office supervisor. He's short, works in construction, and likes to yell a lot - I can't believe I found the perfect clip art for that very specific description.

Chew On This - I think this page turned out pretty cool, if not a little bit gross. I'm just glad I did the chewing before I put all of that rotting food in my book (ice cream sandwiches, gushers, dirt, gum, mmmm tasty)

Make a paper airplane - well it is on paper, does that count?

Wrap   Keep something on this page - I decided to keep a pocket full of random clutter. Except for the special tiny book I made out of scrap paper.

"Please never stop what you're doing!" OK, I won't! There are a few other cute messages I wrote in this book, but this one is my favorite.

Tongue Painting- This page is a mess. The little dancing women figures on the left page were drawn on transparency paper and made into overlapping stickers. There used to be a little bit of a blue popsicle stain in the tongue painting part, but it has long since faded away.

Write one word over and over / Tear out and crumple - Um, well, this page is what it is. There are a few "break up pages" in my book, embarrassingly enough, but I do have to find it funny my Wreck This Journal survived longer more than one long term relationship.  While that all feels like a lifetime ago, my journal serves as a constant.

I tried to press flowers on this page, too, but unfortunately I was too aggressive in my wrecking and now all that is left of those pretty flowers are the sticks.

Wreck this Journal - Pick up the journal without using your (scissor) hands.

Do a really ugly drawing - Poop is so funny.

I kind of find the lack of decay in the Aisle of Gushers kind of fascinating. They've been stewing in here for a good three years now and they're still as "gushy" as the day I put them in there. There must be a lot of preservatives in those things! And we put this stuff in our bodies, and we give it to our children as a fun snack. Gushers are delicious though so I'm likely not to change my ways regardless. I'm just lucky my journal just didn't randomly turn into a giant anthropomorphic watermelon after adding these in (does anyone get that reference?)

As the great philosopher Zoolander once said: "This is how you get ants!"

Wreck this Journal - Pretend you are doodling on the back of an envelope

Add fruit stickers here / Make paper chains

Journal Golf - I don't think my journal could stand up on it's own like this anymore!

Wreck This Journal - Bring this book in the shower with you

Wreck This Journal - Rub here with dirt

Test page - This page actually ended up coming in super handy. I used it when I was cleaning out my marker bag. Many brave heroes were laid to rest that day.

Details of the stitches. I haven't had any trouble with my book since sewing it back together!

A place for your grocery Netflix list - Did you know that Netflix didn't add a "Watch Later" list to their service until 2013? Before that, you just had to remember what you wanted to watch.  Or, write it down in a WTJ for example. The list is way outdated now, and most of the stuff here isn't even in their library anymore! I continued to mark off items as I watched them, though. I'm actually kind of proud by how many I ended up watching. Sometimes by chance, sometimes because I actually referred back this list. Convenient!

Add stamps here - I managed to acquire all sorts of weird stamps! Lots of Canadian ones and some from the UK. Even a few from prison. I had to edit this photo a little bit to protect people's privacy.

Wreck this Journal- Cover this page with white things. I love how all these white things are discoloring at a different rate. Some turn gray, some turn yellow, and some haven't aged a day.

Wreck This Journal - Scribble Wildly Using Borrowed Pens

Make a mess and clean it up - For a while I used this page for a "bucket list" type list but after a while I just decided that the best way for me to clean up the "mess of my life" is to be satisfied with it just the way it is.

Doodle over top of this page- One of the more popular illustrations from my journal.  I swear, it's that rich blue color that draws everyone in. Fun fact! The blue pen I used to draw this was made out of  recycled waterbottles.

Wreck This Journal - Page of Good Thoughts. Pro life tip: Always thank someone for compliments instead of trying to down play it. What are you doing, calling them a liar?

Wreck this Journal - Write Carelessly Now

Wreck This Journal - Glue Random Items Here I liked Chewbacca before he was cool again.

Wreck this Journal - Cut through several layers

X-ACTO blade powers, activate!

Glue a page from a magazine - So, I got my hands on a magazine that was all about mushrooms. It's called Fungi Perfecti and they are the most adorably impassioned people in the world. They really love their mushrooms! Then I imagined what all the mushrooms would look like if they could emote and have faces. The results are pure perfecti.

I think these doodles came out so cute that I may do a series of them in the future.

Here's a detail of what is behind the mini pages. Giant Scooby Doo burger shroom!

Wreck this Journal - Color outside of the lines

Wreck this Journal - Connect the dots from memory

Invite people to draw here - I wish I would have collected more interesting doodles from people. There's still time though!

Draw with glue - I was "stuck" on this page for a while *rimshot* mainly because glue is kind of hard to get to show up on white paper as a design. So I just colored over it with a bunch of crayons, and then drew some hipster diamonds all over everything else.

Wreck this Journal - Trace Your Hand

Wreck this Journal - Create a drawing using a piece of your dog hair.

This is another "guest page" inspired by a person who I am no longer dating. They drew the weird creature on the left and I colored and over worked everything like I usually do. The little eyes are actually tabs that flip up and have rude blurbs underneath them.

Wreck This Journal - Page for four letter words

Document Time Passing - I can still remember how relieved I was to get home from that road trip. I documented the last 30 minutes of it and I felt every minute in its entirety.

Wreck This Journal - Scrub this Page. With a steel wool so it comes out spic and span!

Hide a secret message somewhere - There are actually many different secret messages written in this book. So many I couldn't even tell you what they are or where in the book they are!

Write a list of more ways to wreck this journal - This page is a weird scribbly mess! I tried my best to complete these tasks... "letting it go" will be a hard thing to do though.

Wreck This Journal - Sleep with the journal

Stain log? More like "PAIN LOG!" I'm going to add that in one day.

Doodle over top of this page and in the margins - I made a little robot with metallic paint chips!

Funny story about this page. One day I'm driving in my car and I start noticing all these sugar ants. Not a huge amount but enough for me to take note. Anyways I could NOT find where they were coming from, but luckily they eventually receded instead of infesting my entire car. A few weeks later I uncovered my Wreck this Journal from my car (IDK sometimes I take it with me) and I suddenly found out where those sugar ants were coming from. Apparently I had spilled a Wendy's frosty all over this page.... it was still kind of sticky, and peppered with sugar ants. Poor little guys didn't stand a chance. Anyways  I just smooshed the effected area back down and pretended it never happened. The Frosty kind of works as glue now.

We've finally made it to the back cover of my Wreck This Journal *closes book shut... sort of*

So those of you that watch my YouTube videos will know that I started an easy Wreck this Journal Ideas series “over there”. It is about week 4 of our journal wrecking and I have to confess that I(!) am really enjoying the process. I have been keeping the ideas relatively easy and simple in order to encourage the kids on my YouTube channel to feel inspired and join in. The problem with many Art Journal ideas these days, is that “really good” people do “really good” art journals. It can leave the rest of us feeling a bit intimidated and lacking the confidence to join in. It is easy to feel that “my art activities” are not as “good as someone else’s”. What I love about the Wreck this Journal Ideas series so far, is that it is all simple.. and encourages some journal experimentation.

Completing a Wreck this Journal during the Summer holidays, is  perfect Art Project for kids. Keeps the busy and that creative mind ticking!

What is a Wreck This Journal?

Don’t know what a Wreck this Journal is? There are many journal prompt books out there and Wreck this Journal is one of many currently popular art journal books for kids and grown ups alike. The principle of the book is simple – each page contains a prompt – usually very simple and often very silly. And you are challenged to just “have a go”. Whether it is wearing your journal as a shoe, or spilling (ahem spitting?!) some coffee on a page.. just join in. Have fun. And see where the prompt takes you. It encourages you to tear pages out. And stick them back in. To cover them in stickers or float them in some water. It is fun and it silly and it is crazy.

You can get copies of the version I am using here  US/ UK.

Though there are many new editions too!

What is Wreck this Journal With Me?

I am encouraging my YouTube viewers (and blog readers!!) two join in with wrecking a journal in two ways (though by the time you READ this, you are likely to be able to only do the first…. DO hop over to YouTube and check out the latest video and join in with “number 2”).

1. Join in. Whatever page I am working on. Work on it too. If you are reading this AFTER I have completed the series… just start with the first linked prompt below and work your way down!
2. If you are reading this whilst I am in the middle of the series.. hop over to YouTube now and watch my latest “Wreck this Journal” video – there I give you FOUR PAGE options to choose from – and YOU tell ME What I need to work on next.  The option with the most votes will be completed by me in the next video! And you guys seem to be in the habit of always picking the hardest ones.. I wonder why!!!

I don’t have a Wreck this Journal, but I still want to join in.

I have to say it, IS nice to have the “real book”.. so if you can get it onto your Birthday Wishlist or buy one second hand (which is what I did… I think it had one or two pages missing, but I don’t think it matters), that is great. You can find the Wreck This Journal on Amazon here – US/ UK.

If not.. then use ANY plain journal book – e.g. one like this (US/ UK)

OR why not have a go at making your OWN JOURNAL? I have two fabulous posts that shows you  two different ways of How to Make a Journal:

Affiliate links added for convenience

My Easy Wreck This Journal Ideas for Kids

I would like to  make this a kind of “landing page” for Wreck this Journal Ideas. Each week. I will add links to new pages that I have completed. So please do come back for more! So without further ado.. the pages I have worked on to date! Now remember.. the whole point about the Wreck this Journal prompts, is that we all interpret a prompt differently to each other. These are just MY interepretations in a point in time. Given a second go, I might complete it completely differently. However, sometimes, when your creative mind gets a little stuck, a prompt can be helpful, right? So take these ideas. See what I did and then have a ponder and think about the where the Wreck this Journal prompt will take YOU!  And remember, you are supposed to WRECK the journal so if a page “goes wrong” or is “not to your liking”, it REALLY doesn’t matter.. move onto the next one!

1. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Spill Coffee on this Page
2. Wreck this Journal Ideas forFloat this Page
3. Wreck this Journal Ideas forCover this Page in White Stuff
4. Wreck this Journal Ideas forHang this in a Public Place and invite People to Draw on it
5. Wreck this Journal Ideas forDraw or write with your Left Hand (this is a great process to follow)
6. Wreck this Journal Ideas forPoke Holes in this Page
7. Wreck this Journal Ideas forCover this page in lines (this almost ended in a disaster, but LOVED the process)
8. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Put Sticky Things on this page
9. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Trace Your Hand (how to draw a 3D Hand)
10. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Write One Word Over and Over (LOVE)
11. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Freeze this Page (Salt & Ice STEAM experiment, read more about it from The Artful Parent!)
12. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Stick Newspapers on This Page (Skyscraper Night Sky collage)
13. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Draw on Spine (we did this a bit late, recommend doing this one at the BEGINNING of the journal challenge!)
14. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Write Backwards
15. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Secret Message
16. Wreck this Journal Ideas for Add more Journal Ideas

Enjoy!!!!! And hope you Wreck this Journal with me!!! And that you like our Simple Wreck this Journal Ideas for kids.

Yesterday, I put on my lime green rainboots, ran around in the muddy backyard, and then stomped on an open book.  All in the name of creative recklessness.

You see, two Christmases ago, my sister gave me a book by Keri Smith called *Wreck This Journal.  It’s full of creative prompts, many of which invite you to pretty much destroy the book.  Here are a just a few of them:

• “Sew this page.”
• “Find a way to wear the journal.”
• “Tear this page out.  Put it in your pocket.  Put it through the wash.  Stick it back in.”

Now, those of you who are book-lovers (like me!) might be wondering,

“But why in the world would you want to destroy a book?”

Well, Keri’s introductory warning spells it out quite well:

It’s a book to help break perfectionists.  Like me.  To shake us of our quest for perfection, which can all too often plague us with creative paralysis.  After all, creativity is messy!  And we all need to be reminded to let that creativity “splish, splash, and spill.”  Especially me.

And so, on a rainy Tuesday, I seized the opportunity to dive into the rabble-rousing pages of Wreck This Journal.  And here are the fruits of the wrecking.

Wreck This Journal: Part I

1.  “This Book Belongs To…”  My favorite part of this page is the note at the very bottom; it almost makes me want to lose the book on purpose just to see what they would do.

I chopped up one of my business cards and glued the pieces onto the page using Glitter Mod Podge.  Because everything is better with Glitter Mod Podge.

The plain blank page to the left was just begging for some love…so I thumbed through a magazine until I found a most fitting “first page” to my journal:

Let yourself GO, it said.  Leap, it said.

And so…I did.

2.  “Instructions”  I haven’t played with soft pastels in I don’t know how long!  They’re often too messy for most craft projects because that chalky dust gets ev.ery.where.  But on the pages of a journal I’m supposed to mess up?  Bring it on!

I ended up with a rainbow on my fingertips, too!

3.  “Stand Here”  This is the first prompt that felt a bit risky…like the book police might pull into my driveway, sirens blaring, and lock me up for book vandalism.  I mean, I used to have my English students raise their right hand and solemnly swear to treat their books with love and respect, like they would their own children.  So, a prompt asking me to use the book as a doormat?  Well, it went against my every instinct.

But I know in the world of theatre, when you’re playing a new role, costume can really help you get into character.  And so, I put on my rain jacket, donned my lime green rainboots, and ran around the backyard in the rain.  And suddenly, I was seven-years-old again.

And seven-year-olds jump on books with muddy boots.  At least, they do if you tell them to.  If those are the instructions.  And so, I did just that.  I jumped around.  “Jump, jump, jump, jump….”

And I made a muddy mess.

And I’ve gotta confess: I had so much fun!

Also, I know I would have never gone out in the backyard in the rain if it hadn’t been for this prompt.  Which means I wouldn’t have splashed in the shallows of the lake.  And I wouldn’t have found this beautiful iridescent treasure of a shell.

4.  “Fling Your Coffee Here”  I painted swirls of my French Roast coffee onto the right-hand page using my pinky finger.  And then, I got a little more daring and actually took a sip of coffee and released small drips from my mouth onto the left-hand page.  I actually gave my facial muscles a workout with this one!

5.  “Add Your Own Page Numbers”  This was the final activity I took on yesterday.  After doing a doodle-collage of numbers, I decided to cut my book’s page numbers out of magazines…

…ransom-note style….

…which was a fantastic idea, except that I severely underestimated how many pages were in this book, as well as how long this would take.  So, I tapped out at page 65, not even halfway through the book.  This one is “to be continued.”

Before & After

And just for kicks, here’s a shot of the closed book before starting…

…and after my first “wrecking.”

I have a feeling it’s going to get a lot worse!  And by worse, I mean better: more messy.  More wrecked.  And I’m kind of excited about it.

Your Turn

Dear reader, what do you think about Wreck This Journal?  Do you think you could do it?  Jump on a book with muddy rainboots or spit coffee art onto its pages?  Or are you phoning this in to the book police?

And if you’re keen on seeing more, let me know!  If there’s enough interest, I’ll be sure to share more installments of my Wreck This Journal journey.  And if you’d like to see all my past journaling posts, click HERE.

Have a happy Wednesday, friends!

{I like to link up here.}

*Full Disclosure: Some links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase after clicking through, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.  Thanks for supporting this site!  Click here to read more of my site policies.

Keri Smith is an author/illustrator turned guerilla artist. She is the author of several bestselling books about creativity including How to be an Explorer of the World -the Portable Life/Art Museum,( 2008 Perigee), Wreck this Journal (2007 Perigee). Her newest book, This is Not a Book will be released fall 2009 by Penguin Books. She is the author of the popular weblog the Wish Jar which attracts over 10,000 readers daily, and writes on occasion for a variety of magazines (including How Magazine). Keri spends her days playing with her husband and son, and divides her time between upstate New York, and the countryside of Canada.

As a free lance illustrator she has worked for a wide variety of clientsworldwide. Most recently Random House, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ford Motor Co., the Boston Globe, Galison/Mudpuppy Press, and Hallmark. In the last few years she has given lectures and workshops on the topic of "living creatively" for the How Design Conference, the OntarioGraphic Artist's Assocation, UC Davis, and schools across North America.She has been featured in How, Step by Step, Print, Bust, Wired and many more.

Keri Smith is an author/illustrator turned guerilla artist. She is the author of several bestselling books about creativity including How to be an Explorer of the World -the Portable Life/Art Museum,( 2008 Perigee), Wreck this Journal (2007 Perigee). Her newest book, This is Not a Book will be released fall 2009 by Penguin Books. She is the author of the popular weblog the Wish Jar which attracts over 10,000 readers daily, and writes on occasion for a variety of magazines (including How Magazine). Keri spends her days playing with her husband and son, and divides her time between upstate New York, and the countryside of Canada.

As a free lance illustrator she has worked for a wide variety of clientsworldwide. Most recently Random House, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ford Motor Co., the Boston Globe, Galison/Mudpuppy Press, and Hallmark. In the last few years she has given lectures and workshops on the topic of "living creatively" for the How Design Conference, the OntarioGraphic Artist's Assocation, UC Davis, and schools across North America.She has been featured in How, Step by Step, Print, Bust, Wired and many more.