As Artificial Intelligence becomes more and more popular as we move into and beyond 2024, I wanted to take a moment to address how I personally use AI tools, like Midjourney and Adobe Firefly, to create many of my junk journal ephemera spreads and items. 

It is true that I often use AI generators.

I strive to do so with fully original prompts, while also using hand drawn image inputs to set the style, color palette, and overall feel of the image pack that I am generating. This allows me to take an image that I have created and quickly generate matching images or variations of that image to deliver an entire pack that adheres to the journaling aesthetic I am trying to achieve. By not hand drawing 100+ elements and manually combining them, I am able to deliver more bundles without charging for all of the hours it would take to create each one if I did not use technological advancements. 

Combined with templates that I have created and/or collaborated with my best artistic friends in the community to create, I finish these generated images in programs like Procreate and Photoshop to complete the finished product that is delivered to my customers and friends. I further combined enhanced AI images with original journal overlays, specialized filters, brushes, and other techniques to create a truly unique product with skills that I have developed as a graphic designer over the years. 

While AI tools help to speed up the creation and variation process so we can get back to having fun and using the products that are created in my shop, my customers never receive a product that is simply typing a few words into a program and taking the image directly and selling it! 

My images are created with a combination of initial sketches for inspiration, original prompts containing a combination of sketches and words to dictate colors, subject, and style, editing and upscaling, combining with original journaling aesthetic elements and templates, and much more!