Paint Scraping: An Effortless Technique

Have you seen other journaler’s create an entry in their bible that looks like they’ve nonchalantly strewn bright paint across the page? It’s called scraping and it is an effortless way to get color on a page before you begin journaling. I’m pretty sure this technique was first demonstrated by one of the lovely ladies over at Illustrated Faith.

The image above is one of my own bible pages I used the scraping technique on. You can find this page offered as a challenge at rebekahrjones.com.

This design could’ve been done without the bright yellow scraping. However, I think it’s important to notice that without it, the page really would have looked unfinished. I think Rebekah did an incredible job designing this page.

Scraping is one of my favorite techniques. Not only because it’s super easy, but whenever I’m a little too excited about taking notes or journaling my thoughts, I also become a tad bit impatient. Scraping enables me to put color down and almost immediately start writing (because scraping dries crazy fast too).

First things first, scraping does not require a special tool to apply the paint. Though there are adorable scraping cards you can purchase at DaySpring, all you really need is an old credit card or an empty gift card.

 

What You Need

1. a plastic card
2. acrylic paint

Instructions

1. page prep
2. squeeze paint onto the edge of your card
3. take painted edge and scrape it across your page
4. Ta-Da!

Please Note: Not only will the amount of paint you use effect the size of your scrapes, but the angle at which you hold the card will determine how much color you lay down as well.

When squeezing out a small amount of paint onto the edge of your card, keep in mind whether you want large scrapes or smaller dabs for your specific project. Remember the more you have on the card, the bigger the painted area on your page will be.

One more thing, I recently discovered a new way to use the scraping technique. If you look at this final photograph, I made a thin line across the lower part of the page. The only thing I did differently to create this effect is handle the paint card like a knife.

Finishing Touch…

Paint scraping is a fun and straight-forward technique that can be used in the creation of so many types of journaling art. Grab some acrylic paint, a piece of paper, and a card, and practice a few swipes. Try to get the hang of this technique before laying all that color down in your bible or journal. Scraping just might become your new go-to-technique for faith art and bible journaling.