Using Scrap Cardstock: Art Journaling

{reprinted from 2008}

You can make art journal backgrounds from the thin strips of cardstock left over from paper trimming. I'm not sure about you, but I fall so in love with patterned cardstock that I keep it in a box in the hopes that it will be used one day. If you have such a stash, pull it out!

"13 Weeks" was a page about the summer of 2007, a summer of kid activities. It started with a piece of 9" x 12" watercolor paper (great canvas for art journaling). I placed strips of paper roughly parallel with each edge of the watercolor paper. No measuring, just go for it. Multiple strips make up each side, and you work from the outer edges in toward the center, keeping the open space roughly a rectangle. Leave as much space as you wish for journaling or a quote, and paint the center space with white gesso. You can lighly gesso here there as desired. This gives the look of a frame, with the focus on your writing.

You can add bits from magazines, maps, receipts, etc and oddly shaped scrap paper too. I painted and doodled around the edges with Golden fluid acrylics, doodled with Faber-Castell Pitt pens and edged with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II crayons, keeping the center white for writing.

More ideas for using leftover cardstock:

• Weave + Re-Use Scrap Cardstock into ATCs
  
• Make Psychedelic Batik Cardstock