How To Add Fun Images To An Art Journal

Now that the tag art journal book is made, and all the backgrounds are finished, it’s time to add the images!

Where To Find Images For Art Journals

I get most my images from Creative Fabrica, because there is such a huge amount to choose from on there.

I pay a monthly subscription and then I can download anything from their website… but you can also just buy things as you need them… and they also have lots of things fo free on there too, so it’s well worth checking them out to see what they are giving away right now

No Fussy Cutting Images For Art Journals

I love every step of making art journals, apart from one… I really don’t like fussy cutting!

I know a lot of people really love to do fussy cutting and find it quite relaxing, but unfortunately I’m not one of those people.

Fortunately for me, there is a much easier and quicker way to cut perfect images every time.

I use my Cricut Maker

I just download images from Creative Fabrica, and upload them onto Design Space (this is Cricut’s software to use with your machine)

The beauty of doing it this way is that I can resize the images to fit my art journal, and then My Cricut Maker cuts them out for me, even the most intricate details, which I would never be able to do with a pair of scissors!

As a side note, I also use my Cricut Maker for making and cutting out my stickers too, and it does a brilliant job of those!

Which Glue To Use In Art Journals

Once I have my images all cut out, the next step is gluing them onto the tags, and for this I use Matt Medium, it doesn’t really matter which brand, but one of my favourites is Windsor & Newton, check to see if Amazon have it in stock here

Matt medium is typically used to mix with paints, but it also makes a great adhesive for journals as it dries clear and because it has a matt finish, it doesn’t leave that sheen where the glue is.

Once it’s dried, which doesn’t take very long at all, you can write over it with your markers or paints.

A point to note, do make sure it’s completely dry before going over it with any type of pen, as it will ruin your pens otherwise. I speak from the experience of just being to impatient to wait… and not just once! 😊

Adding The Finer Detail In Art Journals

I use a black Uni-Ball Gel Impact pen (from Amazon) to go around the outside of all the images and add finer detail on the image (see the video below)

I then use a white Uni-Ball Signo Broad to do some highlighting, they can be difficult to find, but Amazon sometimes have them available

Adding some black Archival ink around the edges with a dauber to give it a frame, then I use both of the above pens to create a border around each tag/page

Attach some eyelets in the top holes and tie short lengths of ribbon, string, folded washi tape, fabric or anything else you have to hand.

The final step is to add the ring binders and a fabric strip to hold the art journal tag book closed.

Click on the video below to watch my process, or watch it on Youtube along with my other videos here

https://youtu.be/Wzlor86mR_4