Creative Art Journal Page Ideas Using Watercolors

One of my first journal pages created was the day we put my moms ashes to rest. It was a really tough day for me and so I decided to journal my thoughts and emotions because living with loss is no stranger to me. But, journaling really does help.

When I was getting ready to take photos of this spread, I could’ve easily just closed the blinds and used a photography lamp, but for these pages I decided to take the pictures under the natural sunlight coming through the windows. In that moment, I just felt like it was a message from mom to live in the sunlight.

Lilac Butterfly Journal Page Steps

1. Give the pages a light wash of green watercolor.
2. Next I layered a botanical leaf stamp along the edge of both pages.
3. Add a small strip of grid washi tape in the bottom right-hand corner.
4. Final element is a purple butterfly wax seal to hold in place a leaf sample that I took directly from my mothers funeral flowers.

Since both of our birthdays are in February and purple amethyst is the birthstone color for that month, it just seemed fitting to use that color in the pages.

Butterflies are often associated with loved ones who have passed. It is believed when you see a butterfly it is your loved one communicating with you a message they are okay. I’d like to think I now have gained another guardian angel. Butterflies are also associated with transplant too, read about the symbolic meaning of the butterfly.

One day while working I happened to take notice of all the birds singing. We have bird houses on our porch so having birds around is natural, but for some reason on this day I happened to pause and enjoy their sweet chirps. That’s what inspired this journal page which also led to some reflective journaling.

Singing Bird Journal Page Steps

1. I started with a wash of light blue watercolor.
2. Next I stenciled over that with distress ink.
3. In the upper left corner I had made a mistake. To hide it I covered over it with a wood-look piece of scrapbook paper. Then stamped on top of that a bird cage with blossoms on top.
4. In the lower right-hand corner I layered two different stamps. The first was the bird sitting on a cherry blossom branch, next I carried over a bit of the branch, stamped a bird nest with eggs in it and then a set of leaves at the end of the branch.

Now this page is ready for some journaling!

As you can see from the picture above, I haven’t quite perfected my free form watercolor technique yet. But that’s okay because the point of creating journal pages is to enjoy the process; not worry about them being perfect.

Apple Tree Blossoms Journal Page Steps

1. Start with a pale green watercolor base.
2. Next I did some watercolor free-hand painting of the apple tree blossoms.
3. I added in the photos I took by sticking them down on the two pages opposite of each other. For a little added interest I gave one photo a scalloped border.
4. To keep balance in the pages I added two strips of light green grid washi tape on opposite sides.

I’ll make a confession about this page. I loved this page so much that I haven’t actually written on them yet. Instead I wrote my thoughts on a separate piece of paper that is safely tucked into the book. I’ll get around to writing directly on the pages at some point.

A new venture for me this year was vegetable container gardening with plants I bought at a fundraiser garage sale. It has been a fun adventure to bring these plants to harvest and I’m happy to say it was a successful one too. Our harvest was used for bacon lettuce tomato sandwiches, additions to salads, and this most tasty homemade yellow pear tomato salsa. It was so delicious!

On this page, I knew in my head what I wanted to do but as I’ve said before…I can’t draw. So, I had my daughter sketch a tomato plant for me. Then I used watercolor paints to add depth along with a fun little watercolor paint palette at the bottom.

This was a great page to journal and record what worked best with growing the beefsteak tomatoes.

When I garden I do so withe purpose of planting for visitors. We get a fair number of bunnies in our yard and gardens. I always enjoy seeing them (and our dog loves to sniff them out!). For me, the fun of journaling is more in creating the page, which makes sense because I’m a visual person. But by shear function of creating these pages I have also finally begun to do memory keeping which I’ve come to discover is very meaningful to me.

Although I’m not very good at recording what watercolors I used in my journal pages. I tend to get inspiration and just need to get it down on paper. But, I have listed all the art supplies that I’ve used in these memory journal pages at the top of this post. Don’t forget to check them out.

This is one of my favorite watercolor journal pages! One of my goals is become better at watercolor painting. So, one day while at the local craft store I went in for one thing and walked out with three or four books on watercolor painting. You know how that works!

In one book, Floral Watercolor by Christin Stapff, there was a step-by-step guide to watercolor a purple boot with flowers. Since purple is one of my favorite colors and I love rainboots it was a no brainer to start with this design. I do really love how it turned out! Keeping reading for the benefits of, and how to, get started journaling.