Art Junk Journal - Ocean One - more Pocket pages

This weekend I spent more time on some pages for the Ocean One journal. Here are some of the pages that I finished.

The first page of the journal is a vellum page with a splashing water design. I left that page blank and on the second page, I have added a simple side pocket.

I filled this pocket with watercolor ocean-themed ephemera, along with a tarot card from an animal spirit deck. The animal card is of a sea turtle swimming in the sun-lite ocean, with the saying "Different Worlds, New Directions" at the bottom of it, which I thought is a great way to spark some journaling ideas. I didn't glue in the coral and sea plant ephemera so the forever owner can decide to leave it in the pocket, or to use it somewhere else in the journal or elsewhere. I also did minimal decorating on the page so there is room for future personal touches on this page as well.

The next couple of pages are printed pages from the Ocean Odyssey book from www.Grabbie.com. On the top right page, I added some watercolor bubbles that are similar to the bubbles used on other pages throughout the journal. This helps tie the pages together and still leaves plenty of writing space or space for more decorations later.

This photo also includes a couple of printed pages from the same Ocean Odyssey book. On the page to the right, I added a sting ray and a sponge sticker to keep the page going with the ocean theme.

On this next page, I fussy cut a ships wheel with a telescope. I let the telescope reach over the left page and made a pocket from the ship's wheel on the right page. In the pocket, I placed a folio that is filled with more ephemera for the new owner to use during their journaling.

Another great piece of ephemera that I added to this journal was a beautiful envelope with a picture of a lighthouse and other nautical themed images. This envelope tucks into a pocket made from wave paper that is printed on a think card stock so the pocket will hold up over time. The opposite page is another sheet of the vellum ocean print.

On the right side of these pages, I made a couple of pockets with the same paper that is on the cover of the book. On the left side, I used watercolor bubbles to make a small bellyband. I filed the pockets with a journal card that has an old captain's pipe printed on the front and has writing space on the back for the captain's notes. I also included an envelope with an old world map printed on it. The envelope also opens up with another pocket inside that holds a seahorse journal card. Under the belly band to the right, there are a couple of ocean-themed mini-file folders to keep notes in as well.

Throughout the journal, I included more pockets with scraps, ephemera, pocket flips, etc. to ensure that the new owner will have plenty material to work with that complements the papers and designs that are already in to the book.

The centerfold for this signature has two flip-outs and between the two pages, there are a four pockets filed with all kinds of journal cards, flip-cards, vintage music paper with old sea songs and even a small spool of ribbon used elsewhere in the book that is in beautiful shades of greens and blues.

This page has a several small writing tags and large fussy cut seashell with writing space on the back. The page has a pocket to hold the treasures but I am leaving the rest of the page undecorated, again for the next owner to decorate as they see fit to decorate. I love the contrasting shades of blues, red and tan on this page, as well as the vintage music ephemera from the 1940's. I used rub-on transfers to decorate the music sheets as well to give them a more sea and ocean travel feel to them.

I saved my favorite pocket for the end of this post. Using watercolor pencils, I drew the ship below and cut it out. I used that cut-out as a template to cut a longer but slightly narrower piece to go inside the ship as a journal card. On the front of the journal card, I drew the ship in a lighter shade of brown so new owner can still write on the journal card if they choose to, and I added a ship's mast and sail as well, all which can be written on or left blank. The back of this card was left blank. I thought this was a playful way to add more unique elements to this journal.

Pockets are a great way to add little treasures like poems, photos, event tickets and notes to any journal. I also like the removable writing space in my journals so if the journal gets chunky over time and becomes harder to write evenly on the pages, I can simply write on a removable journal cards, or even a plain piece of my own paper and slide it into the pockets for safe keeping.

Happy Journaling, safe seas and best wishes always!

Judy - Mud Doll