Making a Collaged Art Journal Page

 

This page in my art journal was a lot of fun to build! It incorporates watercolor, scrap paper, an old book page, gesso, fabric flowers, stamps, sticker sentiment, permanent pens and Posca paint pens. Grab one of everything and hang on tight! Because here we go! 

A couple years ago while we still lived in Maine, I was into making what we called Pretty Painted Papers. Robin Mead got me started with them. The thought was to get some pretty paint on a page that might be used later as collage or even as the main focus of your page. I always loved this piece but never had any way to repurpose it . . . until now. I cut the paper to fit my journal page, which was roughly in half. So I have another half of this pretty painted page I can use another time. Win/win! When I made this paper I used watercolors, a permanent black pen and white Posca Paint Pens.

The main feature I wanted to use on this page was the flower you see in the middle. I made this for a prompt in the group Express Your Artsy Soul (Facebook). Basically I took an old book page and covered it with white gesso. I drew the flower with an Aquarellable pencil, then went over the lines with a waterbrush to soften them up. I finished it with watercolor. The Paper Studio flowers came from Hobby Lobby. The rose piece was an old scrap from years and years ago. 

I hand tore the edges of the rose block and inked the edges with a soft green, then adhered it into place. I also hand tore the book page around the flower I drew. And worked with placement. 

Bur first I wanted my page to have more texture. This particular stamp set designed by Tracy Weinzapfel and carried by Dare2BArtzy is a great one for texture. Hahaha! Can you tell which stamp I use the most? When I use this one I do not worry about using a stamp block. I just wrap it in my fingers, ink it and roll the dots where I want them on my page. 

I also used an old stamp that has partial words on it and added a little in a couple corners. 

Almost done. I adhered the book page flower and some words from Art By Marlene. (What a great book from Marlene! So many pages and pages of sentiments!) But I really wanted those words to stand out more. 

The easiest way to make those words stand out is to sloppy outline them with a black pen. And trust me, I can do sloppy with the best of them! Hahahaha! Last was to add the two fabric flowers. And there you go - one more page finished in my art journal. And I should mention. I made this journal myself using a Bind-It-All machine and some Bristol Illustration paper from Hahnemühle. I went larger than necessary on the O-ring spiral so I could add things like these flowers to my pages. Fun! Why don't you try it for yourself? I would love to see what you do. <3