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Gel printing in an art journal and making clean up prints on envelopes plus how to use watercolor pencils to add the rainbow video tutorial by Carolyn Dube

What do you do when you have a plan but you’re distracted in the middle by your muse?  Follow her lead!  I had planned to gel print an art journal page but the clean up prints were so scrumptious I had to ditch the journal.  Instead, it was watercolor pencil play on the clean up prints, which were supposed to be on plain paper but that didn’t go as planned either.

Watch Using Watercolor Pencils on Gel Prints on YouTube.

The plan was to fill the entire background of a Dylusions art journal. A little paint, a  Rae Missigman stencil, a Gel Press gel plate and voilà, a background.  That part was on track.  But it was the clean up prints that pulled me “off course”.

Gel printing in an art journal and making clean up prints on envelopes plus how to use watercolor pencils to add the rainbow video tutorial by Carolyn Dube

The clean up prints were calling so I ditched the art journal.  It’s okay to do that, after all it doesn’t have an expiration date, unlike those old eggs I found in the back of the fridge.  Those definitely had an expiration date.

Gel printing in an art journal and making clean up prints on envelopes plus how to use watercolor pencils to add the rainbow video tutorial by Carolyn Dube

The best supply is the one within arm’s reach. When a piece of paper couldn’t be found for a clean up print, whatever was on my counter that could be used was used.  Hence the prints made on envelopes.

Gel printing in an art journal and making clean up prints on envelopes plus how to use watercolor pencils to add the rainbow video tutorial by Carolyn Dube

Those lines screamed for color, so in came the watercolor pencils. New to watercolor pencils?  They go on like a colored pencil but when you get them wet they move around like watercolors.

Gel printing in an art journal and making clean up prints on envelopes plus how to use watercolor pencils to add the rainbow video tutorial by Carolyn Dube

Now there are playful envelopes that will be fun to mail or I just might end up putting it in my art journal. But whatever the plan, I’ll be ready to follow the muse even if she points me in an unexpected direction.

Want to know what happens to the art journal page?  Get signed up for my weekly newsletter so you’ll know what happens to it next.

Gel printing in an art journal and making clean up prints on envelopes plus how to use watercolor pencils to add the rainbow video tutorial by Carolyn Dube

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!


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Stenciling in a 150 year old ledger turned art journal with StencilGirl stencils tutorial by Carolyn Dube

This 150 year old Grantee ledger was destined to become an art journal the moment I saw it.  This is a one of a kind journal and it called for something special.

After getting the journal home, a little research enlightened me as to to what it was originally used for. It was for recording the receiver of property, the grantee.  That was the spark that led to the theme for this journal, feelings.

I am the grantee of my feelings, and this journal is going to be all about representing, processing and honoring those. All of them.  The good, the bad, the comfortable and the uncomfortable with a page for each feeling.

The first is daring…and feel free to laugh along at how I wasn’t daring at all doing this and how it actually did honor the feeling in the end.

Watch on YouTube

See how I gave myself permission to play in such an old and large journal in this post.

The first thing was to get the word on the page using my Jumbo Vintage Typewriter Alphabet stencil.  That bit of red peeking out is washi tape used to line up the letters so that they were perfectly level. No very daring at all.

I rarely ever do this, so why was I so cautious on a page all about daring? The pressure of the first full page in a journal.

Stenciling in a 150 year old ledger turned art journal with StencilGirl stencils tutorial by Carolyn Dube

This is a large journal, over 2 feet wide when open.  To get the stenciled women running in rainbow colors across such a large area was a snap. By putting the hand of the stencil on the hand of the painted one, it kept the chain going as far across the page as needed.

I didn’t line them up with washi tape…I was getting over that first page pressure.

Stenciling in a 150 year old ledger turned art journal with StencilGirl stencils tutorial by Carolyn Dube

Why these lines of women hand in hand?  Because women supporting each other is what makes it possible for those risk taking, daring moments.

Stenciling in a 150 year old ledger turned art journal with StencilGirl stencils tutorial by Carolyn Dube

By loosely sketching around every woman with a fountain pen, each became one of a kind.  Just like real women.

What feeling will be going next into the journal? I’ll have another video soon with that play so get signed up for my newsletter so you won’t miss it!

For those who are concerned, as I go, I am taking complete photos of the pages so that none of the historical information is lost.

Stenciling in a 150 year old ledger turned art journal with StencilGirl stencils tutorial by Carolyn Dube

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming! 

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Image transfer cheat in an art journal plus a gel printing the colorful background video by Carolyn Dube

What can you do when you love a background but want to add an image on it?  Use an image transfer because it will let some of the background peek through. But some techniques are wildly unpredictable and can be a lot of work.  Granted, they look cool, but I prefer an easy no fail way to do it by using Craft Attitude.

You can probably guess what a frustrating day it was based on the stenciled word, well letters technically, that built the gel printed background of this colorful neighborhood. It was a what the flipper-doodle kind of a day.

Watch Easy Image Transfer Cheat in an Art Journal on YouTube.

The background was built using a piece of the Teenage Angst stencil and a gel plate. Thwaping that plate on the page with those letters was very cathartic.

Image transfer cheat in an art journal plus a gel printing the colorful background video by Carolyn Dube

Ever write in your journal and instantly not like it? I scribble journaled and the split second I was done, I didn’t like my writing.  It was even scribble writing, but it still bugged me.

A  little paint could cover it right up. I used yellow and O.O.P.S.  It is notoriously the most translucent color so it didn’t cover a thing. That O.O.P.S. was just an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly that led me to get the white paint out to cover up the writing.

Image transfer cheat in an art journal plus a gel printing the colorful background video by Carolyn Dube

An entire neighborhood of image transfers was added using Craft Attitude and a glue stick. When I want that translucent, see what is below it kind of an image, my go to is this way.  I’ve tried all sorts of image transfers and they are either too much work for me or I don’t get good results.

But print out and attach with a glue stick? That is a reliable and speedy way to get the look of an image transfer. The hardest part is remembering to get glue all the way to the edge.

Who designed those houses? It was Tumble Fish Studio.  As of the writing of this, she has retired from digital design however, the shop she used to be at, Mischief Circus, has all sorts of funky and fun digital kits.

Image transfer cheat in an art journal plus a gel printing the colorful background video by Carolyn Dube

The Craft Attitude might be a plastic film, but it is not shiny at all.  It blends into the the page and more can be added on top of it.  Watercolor crayons wrote on it effortlessly.

Image transfer cheat in an art journal plus a gel printing the colorful background video by Carolyn Dube

When this page started, life felt frustrating. By the end of the page, life looked much rosier. That is one magical side effect of art journaling, the processing and releasing of feelings.  Another side effect is a journal full of color and fun.

This page is nearly finished…but not quite…maybe.  I’m on the fence…should I leave the white space there or add more?

Image transfer cheat in an art journal plus a gel printing the colorful background video by Carolyn Dube

Here are the supplies used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!


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