3 Art Journal Pages for Beginners

1. Introduction: Hello, I'm Helen Kohlberg from a journal with purpose and welcome to my latest Skillshare class. I'm an author, blogger, YouTuber, and online course creator, where I get to share my love for all things related to journaling. In this class. I'm going to be sharing with you three different pages that you can make in your art journal. I'd been asked many times to share some tips and techniques, so I thought we'd be the best idea to wrap it all up in one class. And I know some of the hesitations when you first get started because I felt them myself. You see all these beautiful pages and it's really hard to understand how each of these layers and textures built up. So my aim in this class is to go through step by step, how you can start adding some of those different layers and maybe use some of the products that you've bought but never really being confident to apply on your page. And I've recorded to the classes in a specific order. So there in the first one we really help to just build your confidence and get used to some of these tools and supplies. And then three, the next two pages we're gonna just be adding a little bit more each time and might be used aim at the end of this is that you feel confident to be able to go away and express yourself in your art journals. And I will be talking through the tools and supplies that I'm using. I'm also going to try and give you lots of alternatives wherever I can. Because I think that's another barrier with art journaling is everybody who watches going to use tons and tons of different supplies. And that can get really expensive. So I'm not going to use too many. And I always think that if you've got something else in your stash, try swap it over because she might actually learn something new and exciting from using your products in a different way. So I will share with you everything I'm using, but please don't feel you need to run out and get those things. I think art journaling is just such a wonderful way to be able to express ourselves. I often use a lot of writing on my pages, but there won't be as much in these. Sometimes you just want to get messy and expressional south through colors and textures and images. And that's what this class is going to be all about. So I really hope you just have lots of fun with you dive in and get your supplies are, and have lots of fun along the way. 2. Tools: I'm going to start off by talking E3, the sources supplies I'm likely to be using whilst creating these art journaling pages. But throughout each of the lessons, I will be trying to provide alternative. So if you look at all of this and think you don't have those things, please don't worry, perhaps have a quick look at the different lessons and see what else you already have that you might be able to substitute. So first off, I'm going to be using a journal. Now something like an art journal would be great for this. This isn't particularly on art journalists such, but it does have thick paper, almost like card in it. And this is a 160 GSM. If he didn't have something with paper this sticks and I would recommend perhaps either gluing some pages together or using some gesture on your page. And that will really help to toughen it up a bit. I'm going to be working in a dotted journal, but actually the underneath isn't going to show at all. So the dark certainly are essential. Anaconda journal, say as long as you can thicken up those pages. So I'll also be using some washi tape. I'm definitely going to be using acrylic paints. So I've got a big brush here on what is the pages are going to be using some black Indian ink and a dip pen. Again, definitely not essential. I've got a couple of Posca paint pens there, but if you've got thick markers or anything else to apply color, you should be fine. I've got two different types of glue, so I've got a glue stick and I've got some mod podge. I've got a palette knife there. And so I've mentioned the white gesso and I will be using that. I'll also be using CRM modelling or attached to paste. For applying some of the paint. I will be using a jelly plate and a brayer. But if you don't have those, if you've got a big paintbrush or some old makeup sponges to apply the paint in and out will be absolutely fine. I've got some stamps there for adding some different layers to my background. Any kinds of stamps will be absolutely fine. I think got some black. You were waterproof ink for what we're going to be doing. Plus, I've gots distress ink and a distress oxide versus and colored ink pads would be great. I think. A couple of stencils. I've got some stubby low colored pencils. I just love these for art journaling because they're so chunky. But if you've got any kinds of colored pencils, that will be great. And then finally, under here, I also have my set of watercolor paints. I won't be seeing all of these things on all of the spreads. So as I said, please, please do just look through what you've already got. I think it's one of the biggest mistakes sometimes when you first start out with art journaling is thinking you need every single supply. And I just have been built in mine up a little bit at a time. And I've always worked with trying to find alternatives. And you're just trying different things out by 100. That gives you a feel as to what kinds of things are going to be using. 3. Daisy Doodles: Stamping and Mark Making: On our first art journal pages, we're going to start off by adding some stamping and mark making on our pages. And we then going to be applying some paint using a jelly plate. If you have one. If not, if you've got a big paintbrush, you'll be absolutely fine. And we then going to add a few more layers by using some extent sling and doodling. So I hope you have loads of fun with this. So this is the first page that we're going to be creating together. I wanted to do all of the pages in advance. So you've got a feel of what we're going to be working towards is we build up the layers. But one of the things I love about art journaling is, is unpredictable and none of the pages ever turn out exactly the same. So this is what we work into an ongoing to guide you through step-by-step. How are we going to build up all of the different elements included in here? To get started. The first thing that I like to do is put some scrap pieces of paper underneath my pages to protect the other ones underneath. And I'm going to start off by using some stamps and my black stays on ink. And one of the things with pages like this is actually you've got no idea how much is going to be showing and how much is going to be hidden at the end. So for this, it doesn't matter if you've only got one stamp and use the same one over and over again, That's absolutely fine. Because they say you're probably fine. The only little elements are actually peeping through once we've added the other layers on top. And I'm doing at least two imprints from each of the stamping. Because again, it doesn't matter if it's not perfect at all. And all we want to do at this stage is try and cover as much as the page is we can. And what does the reasons I really like doing this is because once you have added the other layers, just being able to see these little details, peeping through and not quite been able to work out where they came from and in what order they were put in. I think it's really fun and it just adds a bit of an interesting dimension to your journal pages. So I'm just going to carry on now with each of these stamps and keep going until all of my page is covered. Now. So all of my page is covered in stamped images. I'm going to add some pencil marks underneath as well. Again, these are great for adding big bold marks, but any kind of colored pencils is fine. And again, the same with the stamping. Probably only little bits of it again to show through. And I know that I'm going to be using mainly blues and blacks in my journal spreads, so I'm going to stick to those colors. So if you have an idea in mind of what colors you'd like to use, perhaps sort of try sticking to those as well. And I'm just going to be adding some marks anywhere really on my journal pages. And it's always say bearing in mind that probably most of this isn't going to show through. But I looked at my sprite that I had completed in advance. I was quite interested to see which bits were showing through the paint. And because we'll be applying it the next stage using a breath, you tend to get a kind of more patchy effect with those. So again, you can't really predict what's going to be where with your paint, what kind of thickness of covering you're going to get some not going to add lots of these. Just adding some marks really wherever I fancy. And I'd say definitely don't overthink something like this. Just is kind of a listening up and play for type exercise. And now that we've got all of these marks, we've got our first layer completed. And we're now going to move on to getting out our acrylic paints. 4. Daisy Doodles: Gelli Plate Printing: I've moved my journal to one side just for a moment. And I've got the acrylic paints that I want to use. I'm going for two different shades of blue and also a white. And I'm going to be applying the paint to my journal page using a jelly plate and a brayer. If you don't have these tools, but you do have some acrylic paint. Then I would recommend perhaps squeezing them onto a saucer and applying with an old makeup sponge onto your page. And if you don't have acrylic paints, but you do have watercolor, then perhaps just a try applying that as a really concentrated layer onto your page. So you don't need lots for this. I'm going to add some squeezes of paint onto my jelly plate. But I'm not going to add loads on a nearly always seems to in this kind of square, I think it's because it helps to keep the colors a little bit separated from each other. And this is one of my favorite ways to add a nice quick layer of paint onto my journal page. And the results are different every single time. And that's something I really enjoy about it. And once we've got as much paint as we want on there, I'm going to use my brayer to start spreading it around. And I want to mix the colors, but not so much. So I only end up with one shade. So I keep picking up my brayer and moving it around. Hopefully, I've still got those two different shades of blue and also the, some lovely strong white coming through as well. I'm now going to get my journal back. And I'm not going to use the jelly plate to print onto my pages. So I'm going to just turn it over. Let it press down, and start moving that paint onto the journal page. And I love all the different textures you get from this. And if you're not happy when you've done it, you think you've got one color showing up more than another. You could always go back and learn some more paint onto your page using just one or two of the colors and then come back and add the Manchu journal. And so for now, I'm just moving my jelly play around, trying to get as much of the paint off as I can. And I would recommend with jelly place trying to clean them quite quickly after you've used them if you can. It just makes an awful lot easier to get that paint off. And what I'm also going to do is I've got lots of paint left on my brayer is used that to now come across and start adding it to the rest of my page. As you see, as I mentioned earlier, you still got some little bits of stamping showing thrill, where you've got a thinner layer of paint. And then in the thicker layers, you can hardly see any of the details at all. Uneasiness to try and get right into the center. But I don't mind if there's a little bit of a gap there, depending on what sort of journal you've got. If you've got a spiral bound journal, then you'll be quite used to having a gap there. One of the things I love with this is the different textures you can then see forming in the paint where it's being pulled off of the jelly plague. And then when you've rolled it on here. So that is very narrowly our next layer all done and my anion with these classes is to help build your confidence. So you've got a set of techniques that you can use time and time again on your journal pages. Say before we move on to the next stage, I'm just going to go and clean off my brain and my jelly play and get my next set of supplies ready. 5. Daisy Doodles: Stenciling: Before we move on to the next stage, you want to make sure that your pages are completely dry. And you could use either a heat tool or hairdryer to do that or just let them dry. And actually, and what you should end up with is some beautifully textured pages. So we've got kind of three layers there now with our stamping, our pencil marks and our paint. And the next thing I'm gonna do is add some stent selling. And I'm going to use distress oxide in broken China with an ink blending tool. Kraft decided to go for a complimentary color because I want this bit to be quite subtle. And you could decide that you want lots of contrast here if you prefer. But because I know I'm going to be adding a little bit of kind of doodled artwork on top. I want those to be the main things that stand out are what the rest of this really to just kind of be in the background, adding some interesting details without standing out too much. And I'm going to add this stem sling in three different places on my page. And that's something I nearly always do, is kind of work in odd numbers when I'm journaling. So I'll have the three sets of stencil in which helps to draw your eye around the page. So that's my first there. She can see it's visible, but it's not going to take away from anything that I put on the top. And I'm going to add a little bit coming down the center. And I find it so interesting, even now creating the same page that I showed you right at the beginning, the mix of colors is quite different. So the first one had much deeper blues in it's how you've used more white this time. And you just learn through kind of playing around, but also it's unpredictable. And I think with art journaling, That's actually really relaxing because you can't exactly go wrong. It's just that some things will look different on one day to how they do on another depending on how much of different things you use. Sank and then add my final row of stents killing coming off here of the right-hand page. And in the other pages that will be doing. What I'm aiming to do is kind of build on what we learn, create in this first lesson and add a little more, a little bit to it so that you just feel that you're confident ways this stage, you know how the supplies and can kind of work together and just keep adding to it. So take that off. So that is now the stencil in layer complete. 6. Daisy Doodles: Doodling: For this next stage, again, you want to make sure that the ink you've just applied is completely dry. And I'm going to be adding my doodle flowers. And for this, I'm going to be using a white and black paint pan. But if you don't have these, if you've got any kind of black marker, something like a sharpie that will be fine. And further white that I'm adding. You could definitely use white acrylic paint. I just find it easier when I'm working on smaller areas to use the paint pan. And I really like being able to add my own kind of doodles and artwork to my journal pages. So I'm going to start, I'm going to add three flowers. So again, I'm using that kind of rule of three of the odd numbers. And I'm just going to start off by drawing the kind of cone shape of the top of the flower. And you really don't need to worry about being precise with something like this. So I've got that shape there. And I'm going to draw a little line coming across. I'm going to have one coming up here, I think. And again, just draw a slightly rounded bottom with another line. And then I want one that's going to come across honor to this pay each. So I'm gonna draw this here. I use paint pens a lot in my art journals because I do find there just a nice quick way for being Arab or to add some details in various things like mark-making. So now I've got the position of my three flowers. I'm going to start adding the petals. And I'm just gonna do some nice long petals coming down it to a point. I'm going to then just keep bringing those all the way around the side of the flower. Really nice and simple part is that it can be so effective. And we're going to color in these petals in a moment. And just do as many is kind of looks right to you. And I love things like this as well with different seasons. Either kind of change the colors or depending on your need. And now that I've got my first flower that I'm going to just draw a nice wavy stalk coming all the way down to the bottom of my page. And I'm going to do exactly the same with the other two flowers. Need, you need to be just a little bit careful because the paint is, say, textured here. It's making my pen skip a little bit. Which that in itself isn't a problem, but it can cause you're kind of ink to splatter across your page. So I'm taking it nice and slowly so I can feel those ridges coming underneath the NADH and hopefully not create too many splatters. But with a page like this, to be honest, even if you do get a little bit of that, you'll probably never noticed. And you can always then stick something else on top and draw one more petal coming out of here. And again, draw a nice stalk going all the way up into the flower. And then my final one over here. So this is why I didn't want too much contrast in the standard slaying. Because I know I really want these flowers to stand out and that's what I'm going to add some white in a moment because that, again will help them stand out a little bit against that background. And flowers and leaves a kind of my favorite things to add to journal pages. I find them really nice and relaxing and you don't need to worry about things being too perfect or symmetrical. I don't think when it comes to taking your inspiration from nature and nearly all of my flowers and leaves a quiet kind of whimsical. So again, I'm not looking for anything too realistic here. I'm going to bring that stem across the page. She's quite a nice way of starting to combine them. Make sure these pages look like they belong with each other. So now that I've got those main bits done, I'm going to use my white paint pan to color in the band on the flower, or they go, I've got already got a nice big drip edge there. I'm actually going to leave that because one of the things I was going to add to my page was some circles and little dots. So that's already kind of happened for me. Not necessarily exactly where I'd want them. But what I will do is when notch dry, I'll just go over that black outline of the petal again and that will help that stand out. So I never worry too much about things like that. With paint pens, you can find that you get on a splotches come out. So I'm just trying to work my way around it at the moment to make sure that I don't smudge it. And I'm just going to add the details inside each of the petals. And that's really going to help now these flowers start to stand out on the page because we've got these lovely blocks of white. And then I'm also going to add some dots inside the actual flower head is well, so I'm now gonna do exactly the same thing with these other two flowers. And again, I'm going to add some more little dots by the side. And just go ahead and add in the rest of the white details. So now we're going to get back in and just tidy up this area a little bit. So I've made sure that the paint pen has entirely dried. I'm just going to draw the edge as those petals back m. And that will help those circles to then be absolutely fine. In fact, I like the way they're looking like they're just behind the petrol in real-time with some of these other little white dots that I've added as well. 7. Daisy Doodles: Quote and Finishing Touches: We're now moving on to the finishing stages of this journal page. And one of the things I want to do is add a quote. And I love to have a bowl of quotes that I've cut up just so that I can use them whenever I'm ready. And in the Project and Resources tab, links down below, you'll find a PDF of different quotes there, just some of my favorite ones but see, feel free to either print out often use one of those or Carter create one of your own to add to your journal. So honestly looking for something that I think will gaze well with how I'm feeling and the feeling of these journal pages. Actually, I really like that because I find bleeds nice calming colors. So today I will not stress over things I can't control. So I want that to come kind of quite high up here. I'm going to try the shoes and Pritt stick in the first instance if not or use either my mod podge or PVA glue. I often like to include journal writing as well on my pages, which I won't be on these ones. But you'll see how I add my journal writing to the other two pages will be creating. So sometimes I like to add writing, sometimes I'm just in the mood for creating and then adding a quote. So that's stuck down, fine. And now one of the things I start thinking about this stage is how to make the page feel complete. So one of the things for me is I've got three white things here, one here. So I've got four, which just doesn't feel quite right to me. So I'm going to use my white paint pen again. And I'm going to pick out the details of three of the leaves that I've sent soldiers down here, just so we've got another block of white. And I like to do this kind of at the finishing stage is just see what else. What could I add that might just make things, just feel that a little bit more complete as a page. So that's, one of the things I want to do is just do that for these three leaves. Also helps to draw your eye a little bit to that stent sling on the edge of the page because it helped to kind of recognize there's something there to look at. And I'm then going to use my black paint pen again. Because I want my quote to stand out on the page. And a really simple way of doing that is drawing a border around the outside of it. So I'm just going to draw for straight lines. And I always find it interesting just how little things that we do on our journal pages can actually make quite a big difference to just what your eyes drawn to when you next open your journal to look at it. So I'm going to draw a line either side as well. And it also helps the quote not to call it like it's just floating in midair but it belongs there. And then the very final thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to add a border all the way around the outside of my page. And again, I think this is something which really helps tie everything in together. And it kind of gives it that nice strong outline. So again, I'm still using my black paint pen, but something like a Sharpie would be fine. And I'm just going for a simple line, but you could do wiggly lines, zig-zags, stitched lines, anything you like by always think this makes such a difference. And also if you've got different things on your two pages. And this time we've managed to make the focal point kind of travel across the two. If you have your focal point just on one page, it can sometimes look like the two pages don't go together. So again, I think doing a border that runs all the way around shows that they were meant to be together. So it just helps kind of your eye when you're looking at it. So we're nearly there, but I hope this helps to just give you a little bit at confidence to get started. Dig through your supplies. If you've got some things perhaps in your stash that you bought, intending to use or were given but haven't, and find ways to incorporate them into your spreads. I think art journaling is just so joyous, is a lovely way to be able to express yourself and just kind of play creatively for a little while. You don't need to spend ages and ages to get some really lovely looking art journal pages. So that is our first page or complete. If you have had a go and you've been following along with me, please do you just take a quick picture and share it in the project section. I would love to see how you've got on with this. 8. Leafy Layers: Start with Paper: Now that hopefully you've graining confidence a little, we're going to add a few more layers this time. So we're going to start off with some old pieces of paper to really add some lovely texture to our page. And we then going to be adding some acrylic paint and some species and some water color. Then on top of that, I find this a really lovely way to work. And you're going to see some beautiful texture come out on your pages. For this next art journal page that we're going to be creating, there's going to be a few more layers and a couple of different techniques. So again, I'm going to guide you through each step of the process. Uneasy, the same journalist before and I've put my old pieces of paper underneath. And the first thing we're gonna do is glue down some scraps of paper. And we want you to cover most of the page. So I'm usings and things like old book pages. If you've got those, that would be perfect. If, nor if you've got things like pieces of nice paper or pages from magazines, as long as they're not too glossy because they're going to be adding some paint over the top. And it doesn't matter at all how you place these different pieces of paper. The paint layer that we're adding is going to be slightly thinner at this time. So quite a lot of it's going to be showing through, but we're also going to be adding other designs and gluing things on top. So some bits will be showing and some bits won't. And I like to have quite nice rough edges. So all torn when I'm gluing mine down. But again, it really doesn't matter for me. It just gives a slightly more natural look to them by saying, and I'm using print sticks, just a normal glue stick to on my page. And you really don't have to give too much. So I'm just doing smaller pieces so that if some of the colors or text does show through that, There's a bit of variety between the pieces that occludes next to each other. So I'm going to carry on and just cover my whole page with these pieces of paper. 9. Leafy Layers: Add Paint: So I've now got pieces of paper more or less covering my page. Some of them are overlapping slightly. There's also some blind carriers. All of that's absolutely fine. And what this will provide is some interesting texts coming through the paint, but also some really interesting textures as well. Especially if you've got some torn pieces and curled up pieces of paper. And the next thing I'm gonna do is add some acrylic paints to my page. And I'm going to be using the colors olive green, light, gold, yellow, and raw sienna. Any colors are absolutely fine. And I'm going to use an old saucer to put my paints onto. And then I'm just going to be using a really thick paint brush to apply the paint on my page. So I'm going to start off by squeezing all of the three colors out. I'm not putting loads that I can always come back for a little bit more if I need it later. Scientists going to start applying this in random places. And because it's where the brush is going to be quite thin, which is lovely because it means we can still see lots of that book paper coming through. But we will be adding quite a few more layers on top of this as well. So I'm just starting off with that one color first of all. And really don't worry about the placement of these. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm going to have quite a bit of both all through the colors across both of the pages. So I've got my first color down. And where I am going to do is leave some gaps because I'd quite like to add some watercolor on to my page as well. So I'm going to purposely leave a few gaps that I can come in and add the watercolor on. But as you can see, I'm just really loosely applying it so that we've got a lovely thin layer of this paint. I'm going to carry on with this now until I've got three colors on my page. That's now my layers of acrylic paint added. It's going to make sure that this is entirely dry before adding some water color in the gaps. So water color that I'm going to use is this kind of deeper, olive green. And the brand is Kerry tacky guns I Town Bay. I find these really lovely pigment it brand of watercolor. So great for using on kind of mixed media art journaling pages. And I'm mixing up quite a lot because I'm going to come back and use this paint for adding some leaves in a couple of stages time. If you don't have any watercolor, than if you've got some water-based can, felt tips or brush pens, you can actually cause scribble with those onto some plastic package in and then add some water. And you can use them as watercolors in that way. And that's something I often do if I've got a color that I really want to use there, I've got in a pen form. Then I'll just mix it up. I'm just going to add this paint into each of the gaps. This stage is optional. It's just, I like to get a bit of contrast between the kind of heaviness of acrylic paint and then the light washes of watercolor. But again, if you've got some acrylic paints, you could also really water those down as well and use that as a watercolor. And it's really just to add that little bit more of a variety. I really enjoy doing pages like this because it just feels nice to be getting some paint around in not worrying too much, about half in Turkey out of place things perfectly or worry about how it looks. Because again, this is only one of the layers and we're going to be adding more on top in just a moment. Okay, So that is that stage all done? And before we move on to the next stage, can we just want to make sure that this is completely dry? 10. Leafy Layers: Gesso with Brayer: Now that the colors are all added, the next hill want to do is soften the look a little bit because I want all of those colors on my page, but because this is going to be the background, it's quite bold at the moment and standing out. And one lovely way to do that is by using some white gesso and using a brayer. And if you haven't got any Jessup, if you've got some white acrylic paint, you could try watering that down. And you just want to add a little at a time. Because again, we can always come back and add some more sound is going to start spreading this around my page. And you really want to get this quite nice and thin because we don't want to lose everything that we've already added. But what we do want to do is just kinda send it to the background again so that we've got the colors. But we can say, we can then add other designs on top. You can see that little bit of Jessica has gone quite a long way. If I wanted to do a bit more. So I'm going to add some down here. And this is a really good thing to do if you're not entirely happy with something that you've added and you feel that it's just standing out too much. And you wanted to be part of your background rather than a focal point. If your page, using a thin layer of JSON library is a really great way of being able to just soften it. And it's great because you can still see all of those textures of the book paper coming through. You're not losing anything through this process. You're just adding, again a little bit more interest. So that's all done. As you can see, you've still got all of those same colors, just softened a lot, which is going to be really helpful for our next stage. 11. Leafy Layers: Watercolour Leaves: Now that we've softened the background with our layer of gestures, we should now be able to start adding some water color and other elements on top. Because that can be one of the problems with watercolor, is the on top of a mixed media acrylic paint background. It can be quite hard for the paint to stand out. But as you can see now, it's holding up beautifully on top of these layers. So I'm going to be adding some watercolor leaves. And I'm going to add three different sets of leaves on my page, again, using my kind of rule of numbers. And I'm going to do two stages with these leaves. I'm starting off with watercolor. If I want them to stand out even more so and then come back with some black ink in a moment once they've dried. But if you wanted, you could of course, actually color in these whole leaves. It's kind of a particular look that ongoing for with these. So I just want to do that outlines some keeping them really nice and simple. And I find that usually the way that I like to work, particularly on in an art journal page, because you're working on top of lots of different layers. Everything you do is graph quite unpredictable. So keeping it simple for me usually works best. And I'm just going to keep adding these leaves all the way around. So if you've got any bits that aren't standing out quite as much as you'd like. Don't worry about that because we'll be coming back with some ink in just a moment. And I don't want to cover the whole page with these because I want to also add a quote and some journal writing later on. But it would be really nice way to add some kind of personalized decoration around the outside. So that's my first stem that with my leaves on, are now going to add one here and then one coming down the top there. So I'm really happy with how they're looking. They've picked up some of the texture paint and paper underneath. I'm going to use some of the paint that I've got left to add some splashes around my page. And then I'm just going to quickly make sure that this pain is entirely dry before adding some black ink details on top. For adding my ink details, I'm going to use some black Indian ink and a dip pen. And that's really just because I love how bold this ink is. And using a dip pen is a little less easy to control. So it kind of adds a more sketchy feel to it. But if you don't have anything like this, you could try some cynic, a fountain pen or any kind of black pen, a gel pen or Bahrain would be absolutely fine. And I'm going to start off by tracing the details already here. And because it's thin, it means you still get to see that green paint. But it's actually also going to make it stand out more by having these black outlines on top. Visited pens. You can vary the pressure as well. If you want to get some thicker bits just by pressing down more firmly. And then any other detail I'm going to add is a number line inside each of the leaves. So what I've done at, for that leaf is the same I'm going to do for all of the others. Just keep tracing it around and then adding the details. And then at the end I'm going to use the same Indian ink to add some circles. An engine ink tends to show up really well on lots of different mediums. It's so bold. That has, I think, a really interesting look to it, especially so if you use it with a dip pen, because you're going to naturally can get that variety in the pressure that you're using. By love, I can still see the paint underneath. It's just adding an extra element to it. And some of these lines are lucky in a little bit shaky, and that's partly because of it's picking up some of the texture underneath. But that's exactly what I want on this or don't want anything that's going to look kind of two perfect. Oz is kind of the description of whimsical. But that's my favorite way to go with anything was an art journal because working on layers like this, I think tronic pay for anything precise would be really difficult. So I noticed going to carry on and do this to all of the leaves on my page. And now I've got my leaves. I'm gonna just add a few little circles. Just to add little bits of contrast, two different areas on my page. And the nib that I'm using is a Nikkei G nib. And it's one of my favorite nibs to use inside a dip pen. One really happy with how that's looking. We've got that beautiful, strong contrast now against the software background. And we're now going to add some extra touches to this page. 12. Leafy Layers: Extra Touches: I want to add a border to the outside of my pages, but I want it to be quite subtle this time and tie in with the colors on the page. So what I'm going to use is some distress ink in a vintage photo. And I'm going to use my ink blending tool to brush the ink all the way around the outside of the pages. And I think because we've already got browns on this page, this should really nicely tie in with a color palette that we've already used. Still provide some kind of feeling that there is a border around those pages. So I'm just LET gently rubbing it. And again, I've put some spare pieces of paper underneath just to make sure I don't get ink on the pages. And this is one of my favorite ways to kind of give a distressed look, but with still creating a nice border as well. It's much more subtle than what we did on the last page. But again, just helps to tie everything in together. So that's that border now added. If you don't have brown distressing, he could use something like brown watercolor around the outside or rubbing a pencil on there. Just anything to just kind of give that frame to the page. And the next thing I wanna do is add a writing spot down here. And that's why I've left this part of the page blank. And I'm going to use some paper that I've coffee dyed. If you don't have anything like this, if you've got something like a brown paper bag, work really well. Or again, add some water color to some white paper or distress being over paper or anything like that. And I think that should tie in really nicely Ricard with the feel of these pages. And we use some Pritt Stick to glue that down. I really like Fine trying to find ways to add some writing to my journal pages. A lot of my pages have a lot of writing Ireland. Sometimes I just want to play with colors and add quotes, but a lot of the time I do like to add some writing as well. So we've now got that there to be able to add our thoughts onto. I thought would be quite nice to have some gold on this spread. So I've got this really lovely gold washi tape here. And I'm going to add three pieces of this. I want it to be quite subtle, but just so that in a certain lie, I get these lovely speckles of gold, some tearing it along the middle. I'm going to add some of that piece of coffee dyed paper, and then just add a little over on this side of my page as well. And then for a little extra bit of gold, I've got some distress spray stain in tarnished brass. But if you've got anything like the metallic watercolors, anything like that would be gray. And I'm just going to add a few splashes on my paper. Such really nice and subtle. But in this right lie, I know that that goal is going to really catch my eye and I think just add something a little bit extra. 13. Leafy Layers: Quote and Journal Writing: For my coat, I'm going to use a brush pen and one of my favorites to use is the Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen with a firm nib. You certainly don't have to add a brush lettered quote E could use one of the ones that was included in the PDF in the resources section down below. Or if you're interested in learning a little bit more about brush lettering, I do have a Skillshare class on that that you could have a look at as well. I really like being able to add a hand lettered quotes to my journal pages. But it can be certainly trickier on this kind of page with all of the layers. Fitness CQI had. This one has got a firm nib and it tends to hold up actually pretty well to be able to write on quite a lot of different surfaces. So the coach that I want to add is live every day with intention. I'm just going to add some lines underneath each other there just to help it stand out. And I'm really pleased with how well that brush pen worked on top of those, all of that different texture of paint and the paper layers. So that's my coats now added. And the final thing I'm going to do is move on to my journal writing. And I'm just going to use this space to write about the things that are on my mind. And perhaps what this quote means to me, I think it's really nice to just be able to jot a few thoughts down. Size my general writing and these pages now all can play. I really hope you've enjoyed having a go and try out these different techniques. And if you have just completed a page, again, please just take a quick picture and share it in the projects. I would love to see your journal pages. 14. Layers Upon Layers: Messages of Self Love: We're now on to the third and final art journal page that we're going to be working on in this class. And we're going to start off by writing some words of self-love to ourself because I think that's just a beautiful way to start an art journal page. And we're going to be adding some layers in a different way this time. So we're gonna go back to using the jelly plate if you have one, and we're going to use it in a different way. And we're then also going to use CRM attached to paste, again, a bit more watercolor and really just start slowly building everything up. I'm hoping this will help to bring all of the kind of things that we've learned together in our final page. For these final journal pages, again began to be building up in layers. I'm going to be seeing a critic paint watercolor. And I'll be using my jelly plate again, but I'm going to show a slightly different way of using it. And the first thing I want to do with these journal pages is write some messages of self love. And any bits of this, again, to show through, just think it's such a lovely way to start an art journaling page. I'm going to use my Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen. But any pen, pencils, anything you like will be absolute defined for this, I'm just going to cover all of my page with lots of positive messages. Okay, so that's my positive messages. Now retina my page. I hope you've done the same and taking the time to offer yourself some really kind and encouraging words. 15. Layers Upon Layers: Gelli Plate Stamping: For this stage, I'm going to add some acrylic paint on it to my jelly plate. And the colors I'm going to use this time, our primary yellow Venetian rows and warm gray. Now I'm going to do things just slightly differently. So I'm going to start with one color initially and spread that out. So I'm not put locks on at this stage. And I thought a stamp here, and if you've got any stamps with bold patterns, It's really worth having a go with this. So making some marks in the paint and then transferring it to a, another part of the jelly plate. And I'm now going to add a little bit of pink. Now again to spread this out. And I'm not worried about cleaning my brayer in-between because everything's going to mix on the page. And I'm actually going to take some of that down over the yellow stamping. And we're just looking to create a little bit of pattern and interests. When we then transfer this paint onto our page. And you want to do this stage reasonably quickly because the paint will dry because it's only a thin layer. I never expect to get a perfect print one I'm on when it goes onto my page. But just adding these little marks can just add an extra bit of interest. And even if it only shows through on a little bit as the page, then I'm absolutely fine with that. Again, under scan, a little bit of stamping and move things around. They count are going to bring my journal back over. And I'm going to start stamping, pressing this down onto my page and seeing if we can pick up some of those patterns. You can see you've got these lovely textures starting to come through. And we are going to be adding other layers on top of this. That even if just a few bits are there, it's just going to add just something a little bit different. And that's all I'm going to add this stage where I've got some little white spots. I'm going to get some of this paint off the brake. So I'm really happy with that. As the next layer, you can see we've got some of these little stumping marks have come through in the painting, and we're now going to add another layer on top. 16. Layers Upon Layers: Transparent Paper Stamping: For this next layer, I'm going to be using some golden yellow, vivid white. And they're reusing the jelly plate again. And I've got a big sunflower stamp here. If you've got any kind of flowers, leaves, something like that would be lovely for this. And I'm going to be transferring that print onto tracing paper. See if you've got tracing paper, vellum, even baking paper from your kitchen, that could work really well. Or you could just do this honor, to kind of printer paper. So I'm going to cover most of my plate with these colors. And when you transfer pain onto tracing paper, it gives a really interesting kind of risk dreamy effect, I think. And it looks quite different to when you're just printing onto regular paper. And it also means that the white stands out nicely on that transparent background. So now we're going to move that around with the brain. I think it's always worth playing around with printing on different things because you can just get this interesting effects depending on what you're printing on. And add a little bit more of the gold yellow. And now move that around. And now I'm going to place the stamp into the center of my jelly plate and press it down nice and firmly. So now I've got my image on there. It's partly smashed, thus absolutely fine. And now I'm going to do is place my tracing paper onto the top and try and pick up as much of that paint and design as I can. And I'm using my fingers to gently press down onto the plate. I'm going to lift that up. And you can see I've got this beautiful image is now transferred onto the tracing paper. And I'm now going to go back and have a second print or ghost print. And again, just press it all down and try and pick up some of the rest of that excess paint. So you can see now I've got one quite strong image and one paler image. And I'm planning on using both of those on my art journal page. And I also then I'm gonna just print from the stamp itself and just see what marks we can get from that. In fact, it might even be that one I use. So it's always worth stamping and just seeing what you can create. What I do with any scraps I then don't use in my art journal is I cut up and I leave them then in my kind of tabs and I've got different things to be able to use. Well, if I want to add some colors to my pages. So I'm going to move that to one side for just a moment and bring my art journal back over. Because what we still got at the moment is lots of paint left on the brayer. And I want to add that to some other parts of my journal page. So again, we're just building some of those layers are another try and spread it out. So I've got a bit on each of the pages. Are now happy with that and I'm going to leave everything to dry and then come back and use those stamped images that we've made. 17. Layers Upon Layers: Using Stamped images: Now that everything's dried, I've cut up the pieces of tracing paper and just deciding which ones I want to include on my page. And I was going to use those two. I still might. I really like that image that's come off there. In fact, that's the one I think I'm going to use. And they just give such an interesting effect when they're layered on top of this printed background. But I also want to create some writing spots here. So I'm going to add just a tiny bit of gestures and Breyer it out because I didn't want to lose all of the detail, but I do want my writing to stand out on top. So I'm going to start with just a little bit and see how we get on. I always find this is a balanced for me between still being able to see everything behind. Because I do like being able to write on my journal pages, just creating a little bit of space for myself there as well. So I think that will be fine for the top left. That's great. I'm happy with that. So it's just again enabled that to disappear a little bit into the background. Can going to clear these onto my page next. And I'm definitely going to keep that one at, for using in a collage at a later date. And to glue it down, I'm going to use mod podge. And this kind of paper can be quite tricky to keep flat on your page because it wrinkles out ever so easily. But I do find that much poach tends to hold it down quite well. So I'm just gonna apply quite a lot of that onto my page. And then press this down as firmly as I can. And you can always push, put something on top of this if you want whilst it's holding. So I have found before that once you've actually got this properly glued onto your page, the mod podge will toughen up nicely and it will then hold it down. I'm now going to add the other piece in the top right-hand corner. And I really enjoy this because you still get that kind of hint of the background behind it because you've used transparent paper. And it kind of looks like it's almost floating on top. So this one here, I can even see some of those words poking out from underneath which I love. And I'm just gently, I'm curling that tracing paper and adding as much glue Can underneath the edge is the case. We've now got those layers on. I'm going to give that a quick dry to encourage the mod podge to SAT. And then we can add some more details to our page. 18. Layers Upon Layers: Adding Details: Once I get to this stage, I tend to look for any colors or details I want to bring onto my page of the perhaps been a little bit hidden. And one of the things I feel I'm missing is a little bit of pink coming through. I've got some touches of it. So I'm going to add two things. At this stage. I'm going to add find some pinks on my washy tape. So I've got some little bits here. And with this kind of washi tapes, One of the things I like is it's got a backing on it. So I can always eliminates waste is I will keep hold of these strips and then use them again at a later date. So now I've got three pieces that I want to use sine again to add them onto my page. And then the next thing I wanna do is add some modelling paste. And add some modelling paste across here and along in this direction. And when it's dried, are now going to be able to add some pink details on top of it. And it's a lovely way to be able to add some splashes of color if you want them and also just a little bit more texture to your page. They'll have to say already loving how these are kind of wrinkling up and just giving such a gorgeous look to them. So I'm gonna get it coming just to cross over the top of the tracing paper so that I've got some on the tracing paper and some on the journal page itself. I'm really happy with how I defined having a wide range stencils is really helpful because there's so many different ways that you can use them in your art journals. Especially some of these ones kind of you can just use with marks and lines on them to use just relax. So they're not the focal point, but you can use them in really interesting ways. So we're just going to wait now for that modelling paste to dry. 19. Layers Upon Layers: Watercolour Details: Whilst modelling paste was drying, I mixed up some that pink watercolor. And I'm now going to gently start adding this on top of some of the strands. And this is a quite a thin stencil. So I'm never gonna get it precise, but again, it doesn't matter because even if some of it drops back slightly around the texture paste, It's still going to pick up those lovely details. Because I'm filming. I have been drying each of these layers we've touched to paste. You need to be a bit careful if you're using a heat tool because if you get it too hot, it can kind of rise up and bubble. And if I'm working on art journal pages over the weekend, actually I don't tend to dry them much at all. One of the things I really like to do is add a layer and then leave it while I go off to do something else so that we can come back and look at it. We can have a fresh pair of eyes and decide what I want to add next. And I really like the way these little touches are now starting to make quantitative difference to the page. They're starting to bring a bit of a brighter color back. But without it being too overwhelming. So just a couple of strips of washi tape and a little bit of water color can really help to kind of pick out some of the colors in the background. And working quite gently on this texture paste because it's not hard, hard, it's not properly dried yet, so I'm just going really loosely on them. And now I've got those. I want to add some simple watercolor flowers down in the bottom right-hand corner. And again, this water colors, just picking up all of those textures in the paint underneath beautifully. Five petals. And keeping it nice and loose and simple. One over here. By watching these, it's giving you some different ideas and ways to usual supplies. I always think that when you do invest in things, it's really good to try and find out how many different ways you can use them and the different effects that you can get cleaner workbooks supplies in the past where I've seen one person do something specific with it which I've loved. So I've had a go at that and then it kind of SAP around then for months and months not being used. So that's one of the things I really like to do is challenge myself to use supplies in different ways. The universe just on different paper, different colors, adding something different to it, layering on top or behind, and just seeing what kind of difference it makes. So that's my three flowers added. I'm going to draw those quickly so I can add some details onto them. I want to keep these flowers nice and simple. So I'm going to use is a white gel pen. It's a universal signal, a brand, and just add some little dots in the center. And these are another great pen for writing on top of lots of different surfaces and great for white highlights and details. And then to finish this off the for the IR to the journal writing, I'm going to add a little dashed border. This time. I'm going to add this all the way around the outside of both of the pages. And that's the finishing touches now added to my page. 20. Layers Upon Layers: Journal Writing: The last thing I'm gonna do now is add my journal writing onto these white writing spots that I've created. And I'm going to use a black Ngugi gel pen. I'm not worried if it's too legible is more about meatus been able to let things out, and you could do this in pencil, anything else that you like. So that's my journal writing now, all done. It's lovely and lease and scratchy because it's on top of these different textured layers. And I love the way it kind of contrasts with the bone dry etching of coding the background. And it's just a few of my thoughts I've been able to let out onto my page. 21. Class Project: For your class project or an absolutely love you to take a photo of one of your journal pages and share it in the project section down below. Even if you're not happy with it, perhaps share with me what it is you've learned through that process because I think it's something which takes quite a while to develop and become really confident and happy with and find your own style by think through sharing your pages would be wonderful for me, but also for other students that are taking part, encouraged them to see how different people have used their supplies and how they've approached this class. So please do share a quick photo. 22. Thank You: Thank you so, so much for being here and taking my art journaling class. I really hope that you've enjoyed it, that you've learned some different tips and techniques along the way. And I hope most of all the ETAs feel confident and inspired to go off and get creating with your own supplies in your EIN styles in your art journal. I think that when times are a little bit tough, sometimes the best way to express ourselves is through eight near per journal or getting out some supplies and apply different colors and textures and just really kind of unburdening ourself onto those pages. So I really hope you've enjoyed the class. If you have, I would love it if you would leave a review and thank you again for being here.