Art Journaling – Strathmore – Bring Joy To Her Life

Here’s the next page:

For this page, I first did some watercolor drips and then drew my girl in pencil:

then I colored her with neocolor ii watersoluble crayons:

then I stitched. A LOT. all around the page. over the balloons, the girl’s hair, clothes, etc.

i know it’s hard to see but just in case you don’t believe me, here’s the back:

and here’s the finished page again:

The full text reads: She believed it was essential to bring joy to her life.

Here are some details from the page:

If you have questions about anything specific, just leave me a comment and I promise I will respond.


I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for July and August (and maybe longer). You can read more about it and the book I am using for these pages at the top of this blog post.

13 comments to Art Journaling – Strathmore – Bring Joy To Her Life

  • Beautiful page! The stitching is amazing!

  • cindy b.

    Hi Karen! I just love seeing all of your art journaling pages. My first question is this: Do you put gesso on every page??
    Second: Do you tear your pages out of the book? If so, do you plan on binding the pages together some how or do you have just a bunch of art journal pages. Just curious. I seem to have a bunch of journals with pages but have considered creating just “pages” and then maybe combining those with related ‘themes’ but so many of my pages are complete randomness. LOL!!
    And I guess my final question (for now) is that I am assuming the lettering is a set of stamps correct? I really like those…can you tell me the brand? Thanks Karen!!

    • karenika

      Hi cindy! thank you for your kind words and I apologize for the delay! I didn’t gesso this page and for most of the pages I created using this paper, I didn’t gesso at all. I did when I was using the Moleskine book. It generally depends on what medium I plan to use on top and what kind of paper I am using. I did tear the pages out. And I did end up binding them. I will post the finished book and all the pages around late September when I am done showing you all the pages. It wasn’t anything fancy. I stitched some additions and used my bind-it-all. I talk a lot about it on that day’s post ( i think it’s on sept 21). yes, they are a stamp set but I threw the box out a long time ago. they were a set i bought on a salebin so they’re not a big brandname. I am so sorry that I don’t have it 🙁

  • Susan

    Your stitching absolutely amazes me! Love how it frames the balloons. Thank you for sharing your work. After reading your post on the weekly art journal I started my first pages last night. First goal is one a week for the month of September. Thanks for being so inspiring.

  • Holy Stitch-a-roni ,,, I love how you stitched everything….balloons and all!

  • This is gorgeous – I love the girl/text combo and the stitching is amazing. Such detail, thanks for showing the back too.

  • jesa

    Thank you, thank you for the visual steps on your art journaling! The stitching on this page was just fabulous you inspired me to give it a try. : )

  • I’ve thought often of stitching paper, but have never tried it. I’m not much of a seamstress in the first place. Is it better to use a higher count stitch / inch? I would think the stitching would make holes in the paper. And what weight paper are you using? This is fabulous! And I like the addition of the little birdie!

    I found your post through Google Alert: “art journaling” and I’m glad I came by! {:-Deb

    • karenika

      Hello there, i won’t lie, i am no expert at all. i don’t change anything. i just put the paper there and stitch 🙂 this paper is 140lb watercolor I believe 🙂 thank you so so much for your kind words 🙂

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