If you've ever ended a painting session with leftover paint and no idea what to do with the results — especially when the results are a little rough — this tutorial is for you. I show one simple watercolor technique applied to book pages, then walk through a whole collection of ways to use those painted pages in junk journals, mini books, notepads, and more. The painting itself takes about five minutes. What you do with it afterward is where things get interesting.
What we cover
This is a roundup-style tutorial built around a single watercolor technique — dabbing color directly onto book pages — followed by a showcase of around ten different projects you can make with the results. We cover the painting process, fussy cutting, making a paper bow from heart punches, and a range of journal elements including journaling spots, tags, pockets, writing boards, flip pages, and laminated mini journal covers.
What you'll learn
How to create simple watercolor paintings on book pages — no drawing ability required. The core technique is dabbing two or three colors onto the page to suggest flowers, using the book's existing text as a backdrop. Sub-approaches shown include:
- Working in a production batch (painting several pages in the same session while one dries)
- Adding stems with pencil first before going in with watercolor
- Starting with marked circles to get a feel for composition before adding color
- Working with loose splotches when you want to use up leftover paint fast
How to fussy cut a watercolor painting and turn it into a journal insert — trimming around the painted area, inking the edges to blend away the raw white, and mounting onto a 12×12 scrapbook paper base to create a folio-style insert with pockets and a sewn signature.
How to make a paper bow from heart punches, including:
- Punching two sizes of heart and leaving them joined at the center to form the bow loops
- Cutting curved tails from a paper offcut
- Layering and inking all pieces before assembling
- Using this bow as a finishing element on journaling spots, tags, and journal inserts
How to split a painting in half to create a two-panel composition — dividing the image across a fold or pocket so the two halves meet when closed. This works particularly well for paintings you're not in love with, because the fold breaks them into something that reads as decorative rather than pictorial.
How to make a journaling spot from a watercolor painting — gluing the painted page onto cardstock, sewing around the edges, and adding the bow element. The result drops straight into a junk journal as a writing surface.
How to make a laminated writing board — gluing the painting onto scrapbook paper, laminating, and keeping it flat so there's nothing chunky to interfere with the laminate. A writing board sits at the back of a journal and gives you a smooth surface beneath the page you're writing on, reducing the bump from underlying pockets and inserts.
How to create a flip page hinge insert — gluing one section of a painted page down onto a journal page and leaving the rest hinged so it lifts to reveal extra writing space or a pocket underneath. Especially useful on book pages that are too fragile or decorative to write on directly.
How to make a simple laminated mini journal cover from a painted page — gluing the painting onto scrapbook paper, putting it through a laminator, then building a spine and assembling a small journal around it.
How to use paintings you genuinely dislike — several projects in the showcase were made from the worst paintings in the batch on purpose. The point is that fussy cutting, inking edges, layering, and adding dimensional elements like a bow or tassel draws the eye away from the painting itself and toward the overall piece. From a distance, it works.
Tips & gotchas
Use real watercolor paper if you want bleeding effects. Book pages give you a nice textured backdrop and the printed text adds visual interest, but they don't absorb water the way watercolor paper does. If you want soft color blooms and the paint to move, watercolor paper will do something genuinely beautiful with this technique.
Mark your circles before adding any color. It sounds like an extra step but it saves you — sketching light pencil circles first gives you a visual sense of the composition and spacing before you commit paint to the page. Jumping straight in, especially if you're not confident with painting, means you can end up with flowers that don't sit well together.
Draw stems in pencil before painting them. Going in with watercolor straight away tends to produce stems that are too dark and too thick, and there's no fixing it once it's down. A light pencil line first gives you something to follow and keeps the result delicate.
Don't glue all the way to the edges if you're planning to sew. If you want to stitch around your journaling spot, tag, or insert, leave a margin unglued so the layers don't shift as you sew and the needle has clean paper to pass through.
Bling and shimmer details don't always work with grunge. I tried small rhinestone dots on one of the pieces and they fought with the dark, muted palette. Marker dots — just a fine-tip pen going in with simple circles — worked much better and kept the vintage feel intact.
A writing board lives at the back of the journal, not inside it. It's not a page you write on — it's what you slide under the page you're writing on. Keeping it flat and unembellished (aside from maybe a tassel to pull it out) is the point.
Be mindful of copyright if you're scanning book pages. Scanning your painted book pages to reprint or redistribute the text content is a different matter from using the physical pages in your own journals. If you want to reproduce them, make sure you're working from pages you're legally free to copy.
The batch approach is worth taking seriously even if it feels a little mechanical at first. Painting five or six pages in one short session — letting each dry while you work on the next — means you end up with a whole stack of raw material ready to cut, fold, and build with. Most of these projects came out of one afternoon of dabbing paint around with my daughter, trying to use up what was left in the palette. That's genuinely how this whole thing started, and I think it shows in the best way.
None of it requires the painting to be good. It just requires you to keep going past the point where you'd normally throw it away.
