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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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!