Art Journaling in an 8.5x11 Binder

As a native scrapbooker, my art journaling pages are styled a lot after my scrapbook layouts. I use a lot of patterned paper, photographs, and memorabilia when I'm creating.

The difference between my scrapbook layouts and my art journaling pages:

• Scrapbook Layouts: I'm attempting to document a specific story or thing about my life.

• Art journaling pages: There isn't necessarily a specific story I'm telling. I'm using photographs to help me get the muddled mess of ideas out of my head and onto the page as something physical.

Here are a few of my favorite pages from the past season of Get Messy challenges:

Unbreakable

Homesick

For the second page (Homesick) I painted the background paper using strips of washi tape and black acrylic paint. Here's a quick step-by-step if you want to replicate.

Step One: Take strips of washi tape and lay them across the paper (I used watercolor paper) to create horizontal stripes.

Step Two: Put some acrylic paint on the paper and start brushing it in horizontal strokes. It might take two coats in a few places -- or just don't worry about it too much and have some imperfections like mine.

Step Three: Finish up the paint and leave it to dry. When it's finished, gently pull up the strips of washi tape and you'll have yourself a hand-painted sheet of patterned paper.

PS -- If you're new to rukristin, learn more about my feminist scrapbook journey, follow me on instagram (where all the good stuff goes down), and sign up for my newsletter so I can send you fun notes about behind the scenes stuff and tips on keeping up with documenting your awesome lady life. <3/k