Pocket Journal with Altered Pages

Hi lovelies,

I have different sized art journals to work with, but I always come back to the pocket sized ones. They are a practical size for art play, quick sketches, and making notes. Some of mine are dedicated to just one theme, such as "florals", "autumn", "faces" etc. 

At the beginning of this year I started a new project: altering the pages in a vintage style theme with fun tuck spots, journaling cards, collage clusters, tabs, and other interactive elements. I recently completed this journal and I wanted to share some of the pages here with a short explanation on how I created them.

First, I decided on the color palette, which I used thoughout the journal: ash green, misty blue, rose, gray and cream. Plus black, white and tiny touches of brown and ochre.

I painted, collaged and/or distressed all the pages. I alternated simple pages with pages that contained tuck spots for tags and note cards. This is to prevent the journal from becoming too chunky.  

A simple "trick" to make cards look aged is to brush them lightly with watered down raw umber ink and make a few splatters. In the example below I dipped a small plastic lid into the ink and stamped faux coffee rings. 

For embellishment I used torn paper pieces, washi tape, tissue collage, stamps and added cute tabs to a few pages. On each spread I left enough space for journaling. The journaling cards and note paper tucked inside can also be used for additional notes, thoughts, dreams. 

I'm really pleased with how this little journal turned out! I like how each page is different, yet the overall look is cohesive. I like the textured elements. Bonus: I used leftover paper scraps from other projects to create the collage and some of the journaling cards.

Thank you for reading along. Take care and Happy Friday!