How I Make a Daily Journal Page

 

I frequently get asked questions about how I put my daily art journal pages together, so I thought I would walk you through the one I made yesterday. It doesn't take a lot of supplies and can be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be. 

I love my journals! This one is made using Bristol Illustration paper from Hahnemühle. I took one pad of the paper and cut each sheet in half widthwise. Then I used a Bind-It-All machine to punch the holes and bind the pages with a spiral. This particular book has 30 sheets of paper which gives me 60 work surfaces. 

To get started I used a leftover strip of pretty painted paper made by my friend Niki Green. It was a little long so I chopped off the leftover and adhered both pieces on my page. 

Next I started putting together items I might want to use on the page. Lately I have been making AI art using a program called Copilot and I have a few pieces I really like. This girl is one of them. I printed her out and knew she would be the focal piece. I also wanted to include some tangle art so I brought some pieces of those out. These pages are roughly 5.5" x 8" so there isn't a lot of room for many elements. 

I knew right away those tangled pieces were too large, so I brought out some two inch square pieces I drew when I was making Life in Tangles. One of these would be perfect!

Building my page was easy. The first thing that stood out and glared at me was this - I didn't trim my girl block out close enough. There was a thin white border at the top that I knew would make me crazy. So I took this pad of archival ink and inked around all four edges of the picture and covered it up. I did the same with the tangle block I decided to use. 

There is probably a quicker way to adhere paper to my page, but I really like this two-sided tape from Joggles. It is called Sticky Stuff! and it comes in a variety of sizes. 

Sticky Stuff! is easy to use. Just cut a strip the length you need and place it down on the back of your element. Smooth the tape in place and when you are ready to adhere your piece, just peel off the tape backing and place your item on the page. But be careful! Sticky Stuff! is pretty much a once and done kind of tape. Where you lay it is where it will remain. So pay attention. 

These were the only elements I went with. At this point I realized I should have inked the edges of my pretty painted paper strips with black ink also. But that's ok because I knew how to fix it. 

But first I added some sentiment strips from Art By Marlene. They come in sticker form so adding them is quick and easy. 

Those words needed a black edge also! I used a permanent black pen and drew around the edges of the words strips AND along the edges of my pink paper. I even added another word strip at the bottom, but something was missing still. 

If you have followed my daily journal pages for long you already know what was missing. I pretty much always use my dot pens to make some borders. And I try to remember to add some notes about what is on the page. I frequently use pieces of this or that from art friends on my pages and I like to give them credit. And there you have it. One easy daily journal page that I was able to put together in just a few minutes. And you can do the same thing. Think about the things you like and what art supplies you already have on hand. Don't let it overwhelm you and don't overthink it. Just jump right in with both feet and make a page! It is so much fun to do!