I’m so excited to share the first of many art journaling layouts I’ll be doing that are specifically for beginners! Even if you’ve never art journaled before, or are coming from other art forms like scrapbooking, drawing, or painting, we’ll have a variety of projects that will help make transitioning to art journaling styles much more comfortable. Today we’re focusing on combining watercolors with traditional scrapbook materials to make this Paris Pastels | Art Journaling for Beginners design.
Paris Pastels | Art Journaling for Beginners
Keep in mind, that as with most of the projects I do, don’t worry one with if you don’t have the same supplies I use! You can use different paper, different kinds of paints, adhesives, stickers, etc.
Supplies:
- Watercolor paint and water brush
- Floral patterned paper
- Glitter paper
- Dot roller
- Washi tape
- White gel pen
- Letter stickers
- Craft knife and cutting mat
- Fleur de Lis chipboard cut out (you can print or trace one onto thick cardstock)
- Your art journal
- Optional: glitter gel pen
Every time you work in your art journal, I recommend placing a large piece of scrap paper behind the page you’re working on. This will keep the edges of the other pages from getting marked up, especially when you work with paints. Note that my art journal has perforated pages. I choose to go past the perforation all the way to the binding wires when making my designs, but that’s all personal preference.
Start by taking some pink and blue watercolor paint and thinning them out with some water so you get some light pastel shades. Use your water brush (or a regular brush if you don’t have a water brush) to paint thick pink stripes on the paper, leaving equal white space in between. Let the pink dry, and go back in and paint your blue stripes.
While that is drying, take your fleur de lis and cover the front of it with adhesive from your dot roller. Press it onto the back side of your glitter paper. Then use your craft knife to carefully cut around the edges.
And you have a thick, glittery fleur de lis! Set that aside for a minute.
Take your floral paper and carefully tear off the edges, giving it an aged edge effect. Pull edge toward you as you tear, so it leaves a white border. Check to see how it fits on your page, and make sure the paint on your page is completely dry. The torn paper should cover most of one corner. Go ahead and put your dot roller adhesive on the back, and press the floral paper down onto your page.
If you used thick chipboard like I did, the edges will be quite visible. Take your white gel pen and color in the edges of the fleur de lis. Cover the back of it with adhesive, and press it down onto your page, partway on and partway off the floral paper.
Next you’re going to rip off a few pieces of washi tape and press them down on the paper, on the opposite lower corner from the floral paper.
Go ahead and add your letter stickers on top. I chose to have mine say “Paris” but yours can of course be different.
This part is totally optional, but I found these really cool new Gelly Roll pens that are actually clear ink with glitter in them and I really wanted to use them in this project.
So I just drew along the edges between the pink and blue paint stripes all the way down the page.
I like how it adds just a bit of sparkle and more dimension to the page. You can also use a regular glitter gel pen, a metallic pen, or just leave it as is!
And you’re all done! This page is quick and easy to do, and a good starting point for the an art journaling beginner. I hope you enjoy making this project!
