Art Journaling... I think...

I've been seeing a lot of pictures of Art Journals around lately. Mostly on Pinterest. I'm always attracted to them, I think they can be quite beautiful. But I haven't quite drilled down to see what they're really all about. Are they meant to just look pretty, or is the idea that you actually record your thoughts and feelings? Of course I could quite easily find the answers to these questions if I could be bothered to do a bit of googling. But me being me, I decided to dive right in without having much of a bogs notion what it's all about....

Here are my first attempts -

A big mess or artistic genius? I'm veering toward the big mess side of the argument, and really, there isn't an original idea there either, but hopefully I'll gradually find my way. I'll keep you posted. (Sorry! :)