I like to use second hand books for journalling. There is a comic book range in Scotland called ‘the Broon’s’. They produce cook books and gardening books( Waverley Books) that look like old journals and are a nice weight of paper and size for art journalling.
The paper is a bit smooth so I like to prepare a few pages before I start journalling
Today I added gesso to a page with a credit card and then dabbed acrylic paint through a commercial stencil. By adding the paint first it means that you can rub the paint off the page with a baby wipe or damp cloth to get a more interesting result
I like commercially produced stencils but they can look a bit samey when lots of people use them.
So I use doilies that I find in second hand shops. Lace or crochet work well. If you do use them – make sure you dry them well in-between use or they rot and smell bad .
I covered the print below with a layer of watered down paint.
I always use acrylic for mixed media journalling because I make lots of layers that I don’t want to run into each other. I am dyslexic and have trouble with upside down and the wrong way round – I added the cover design on the back of the book so all the pages are upside down …….
I always try and make paint go as far as possible so I spread what was left of the blue onto some pages with a credit card and through another stencil.
The pages of the book are such fun I don’t often add a lot more before journalling.
The cover of the book is quite shiny so I scored it with a scalpel blade before I decoupaged it. 
I used a selection of different papers – the back is upside down tooo. And then added details, texture and random text from magazines
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