I’ve been creating dot grid journal layouts for over two years.
My layouts usually consist of markers, stamps, or stencils. Every once in a great while I’ll use color pencils. But I had this need to try something a little different. I decided to add watercolor. Very small amounts of watercolor.
I really didn’t know how this layout would turn out, as I’m not painting on watercolor paper. The paper in this journal is 100gsm (read more about journals and paper weight here).
Before adding that small amount of watercolor onto the journal page, these are the concerns I had –
- the water would seep through to the others pages, causing colors from the other pages to mix together.
- multiple pages in the journal would buckle (or wrinkle) once it dried.
- the watercolor paint pigment wouldn’t look as beautiful as it does on watercolor paper.
- the watercolor would thin the paper too much and tear it.
Despite my concerns I tried it anyway. I had to experiment. Surprisingly, it turned out better than expected. Because of the results, I’d definitely add watercolor again, but it would not be a frequent occurrence.
Here’s the results. The watercolor did not effect the other page designs or cause the pages to bleed or mix together. As expected, the paper did buckle. Once fully dried, the pages flattened and are stiff in the areas that contain the watercolor. Sadly, the watercolor did seep to the other side of the page (see below) but only in certain spots and only on one side of the page (I added too much liquid to those spots).
Stay tuned for my next journal layout. I’ll share how I’m hiding those spots that bled to the other side.
Supplies
- Notebook
- Ruler
- Flower Stamp (Hobby Lobby)
- Permanent Stamp Ink
- Acrylic Block
- Watercolor Brush
- Tombow Dual Tip Brush Pen (835)
- Tombow Mono Drawing Pen(05)
- Tombow TwinTone Marker
- Washi Tape
Step One
I applied a strip of washi tape onto the notebook as a reminder to keep the stamp above the washi tape.
Step Two
As I planned this layout in my notebook I knew I couldn’t just use any stamp ink. To help avoid the stamp ink from bleeding, I needed to use permanent ink. This ink from Ranger did just the trick. So I applied the ink onto my flower stamp and placed the design on several areas of the notebook.
Step Three
It’s time for the watercolor. With Tombow Brush Pen 835, I colored onto an acrylic block then added about 1/8 teaspoon of water right next to the colored portion. I gently dipped the tip of my watercolor brush into the water (the brush was barely wet) and added some color. Then I painted the flowers (making it splotchy). After the first layer dried, I added more splotches of watercolor.
Step Four
To finish the layout, I added several lines separating the layout with a ruler and TwinTone Marker. Then I added the days of the week with a Tombow Mono Black Drawing Pen.
