Art Junk Journal - Coral pocket and journal cards for Ocean One

After making a couple of watercolor journal cards for the Ocean One Journal, I wanted to experiment more with my watercolor pencils, so I decided to make some coral, sea sponge, and ocean plant life ephemera. After drawing out the designs and blending the colors with water, I let the paper dry thoroughly before I fussy cut them so the individual pieces are ready when I want to use them.

Creating my own ephemera not only saves money on journaling supplies but also gives me greater creative control over the designs on my journal pages.

For this journal, I made several strips of sea grass in different lengths and shades of green. These strips can be easily cut to size and one strip can also be divided into multiple smaller pieces. These strips can easily be cut to size when using them and one strip can also be cut into multiple smaller pieces easily as well. They also layer on top of each other very nicely, which is a great place for a starfish to hang out in between.

When making my own ephemera, I like to make the same styles of ephemera in different colors and sizes to make sure that I have a variety of items to select from once I start to design journal pages that the ephemera will find their forever home on.

On this page of the Ocean One Journal, I used some of my watercolor ephemera to make a pocket. I arranged the pieces to create a collage with a variety of complementary colors. Then, I used a glue stick to attach the ephemera to a cardstock pocket, starting with the pieces in the back and working my way to the front. The cardstock adds strength to the pocket since the coral and sea urchins are individual pieces.

The background of this page is a blue vellum with a flowing water design to the page. To glue the pocket to the vellum, I used E-Z Vellum Runner adhesive tap from Amazon. I doubled up the tape by making two strips to ensure that the movement of the journal cards being taken out and put back into the pocket wouldn't pull the pocket away from the vellum over time.

To go into the coral pocket, I found a vintage travel magazine from the 1940's and I cut out a picture of the ocean and another picture of a beautiful lighthouse. I used a glue stick to attach the pictures to cardstock for added strength and left the back of each card blank for writing or personal artwork. I used a paper punch to round the corners of the writing cards and also inked the edges with ocean blue colored ink to give them a finished look. There is also room in the pocket for the forever owner to add more of their own treasures as well if they would like.

I hope this page helps inspire you to experiment making your own themed ephemera for the journals that your creative soul is making.

Best wishes always,

Judy - Mud Doll