There’s nothing more frustrating than wet media bleeding through on to other pages in your art journal. Let’s solve that!
My first experience with wet media in an art journal was when working with a traveling journal through a swap group I collaborate in. This journal was beautiful, filled with weighty pages and creations that inspired me to try new things. So, I did.
My vision was to create painted pages that, when dried, would have collage elements attached. Watercolor was my first choice, so I decided to work with washes from tubes and detailed work with pencils. My concern was the color bleeding on the pages that had already been completed and those that were still clean.
My solution: waxed paper and a hair dryer.
I was worried about the adhesive letting go of the collage elements on the pages before the ones I was about to embellish, so I used a very light wash combined with watercolor pencil on that very first page (on the left). Behind the next page, I placed a piece of waxed paper between the pages to act as a barrier. I left the waxed paper in place until the pages were completely dry.
When moving on to the next step, I still kept the waxed paper in place. When working on the left hand page, I used a glue stick to add all my embellishments because it's a "drier" adhesive that still works very well. On the facing right hand page, I used a stronger wet medium. Once the pages were completely dry (with help from my hair dryer because I'm very impatient when it comes to these things), I removed the waxed paper and placed it in between the pages I had just worked on when closing the book.
These steps were repeated for each page spread I completed during the rest of my time with this traveling journal. I've worked in this way with all traveling journals that have come into my studio space, as well as with my own art journal.
There's a twist to my art journal, though. I decided to make the waxed paper a part of my art journal that could be removed when the journal is full. Right now I'm working in a 9x12 hardback, coil bound book with heavy duty paper, which is notorious for bleeding through.
I cut two pieces of waxed paper into 9x16 pieces, one for the front cover and one for the back. I secured the pieces down with tape and, this way, I can keep the pieces sandwiched between in page on both sides throughout use of the entire book. When the book is full, all I have to do is remove the tape and use reuse the waxed paper in my next art journal.
