I've been working on preparing some art journals. First I decided to Gesso my pages to make them a little stronger and have the ability to hold paint better. When you gesso your Paper the paint adheres to the gesso instead of soaking into the paper and weakening it.

Another thing to remember when you gesso your paper is to gesso only one side of your paper at a time and let it dry completely before painting the other side. The reason for this is that if you paint both sides before one side is dry it can create a sort of wet area inside the paper itself and weaken it. If you've ever worked with paper mache, you will know what I mean!

My advice when gessoing is to always use a cheap brush. Gesso is very hard on brushes and will ruin a good one. Just sayin'.

I also want to give a shout out to this new gluing gadget (new to me anyway!) I've just started using. It's for gluing one piece of paper to another, however I discovered today it's useful on more than paper. I found that it worked perfectly to glue a print onto glass. The glue went on exactly where I wanted and was effortless to apply. I have to say it is absolutely awesome! The kind I got has little glue dots that slide off of a film onto the product you are swiping it with. I am thrilled!