Hybrid Art Journaling with The Lily Pad

So you’ve bought all these wicked awesome card sets, and you’ve used them in your Pocket Project all year long. But you also are curious about how well those cards and other digital items print out, and what else you can use them for.

I started out scrapbooking with paper. I love paper. I love books. I used to make books in college and loved art journaling back in the ancient 1980s. I hit a huge concrete brick-lined wall for the past few weeks that plugged up my creativity.  It was (and is)  horrible. And the thing is, I know I’m not alone in getting these blockages.

Hybrid art journaling to the rescue! Drawing and sketching is a skill I’d wanted to get back to for a while. I started there. Then I eyed all the products for paper scrapping that were sitting unused in my closet for the past three years. And I checked out the PDFs the designers include in their Project Life card sets, or in their kits. I looked back at all that left-over letter-sized card stock sitting unloved and neglected, gathering dust.

A selection of cards, tape, and ephemera printed out on stuff I found in my closet.

 Quirky Peeps by Michele Godin

Comic Book Tapes & Stickers by Lynne-Marie

Pocket Fillers-Currently by Valorie Wibbens

I printed the Comic Book Tapes out on newsprint patterned vellum, the Quirky Peeps on the back of  printed card stock with a flat texture, and the Currently pocket fillers on some highly textured paper with flowers and leaves layered in it. Surprisingly, my printer handled it really well!

The next step I sprayed the page with some glittery bottled ink (also neglected in my closet) and went to work on the journal.

A handy hair dryer accelerated the drying process, and I applied a glue stick  and glue dots to the card “Currently Making” and the printed vellum.

Baxter had to check out what I was doing. Note: next time work on a table to keep curious puppies out of the way. You can see the box of glue dots, the glue stick, the scissors, pencils, and in the corner on the right, a small Art Bin briefcase that holds a TON of stuff, including 6×9 journals.

Here’s the finished page. The yawning toddler was colored in with pencils (green hair, blue face, purple clothing).  For this journal I’m using Strathmore’s 140lb watercolor Visual Journal–awesome weight and texture!

Print out those elements and cards and tapes and use them! It’s a lot of fun.