Top 17 Mixed Media Collage Techniques to Master for Expressive Art Journals in 2025
Welcome, fellow creators! There’s a unique magic that happens when you open a fresh art journal. It’s a blank canvas for your thoughts, a playground for your imagination, and a safe space for your most authentic self. In this world of boundless expression, mixed media collage reigns supreme. It's the art of gathering, arranging, and transforming disparate elements into a cohesive, deeply personal story.
This isn't just about gluing pretty pictures onto a page. It's about building layers of meaning, texture, and emotion. It's about the rustle of old book pages, the vibrant splash of acrylic ink, and the satisfying texture of gesso under your fingertips. By combining different materials and techniques, you unlock a visual language that is uniquely yours, allowing your art journal to become a true reflection of your inner world.
As we look ahead to 2025, the desire for tactile, meaningful creative outlets is stronger than ever. It's time to move beyond the basics and dive into techniques that will push your boundaries and elevate your art journaling practice. Ready to transform your blank pages into expressive masterpieces? Let’s explore the top 17 mixed media collage techniques you need to master.
1. The Ephemera Foundation: Layering with History
This is the quintessential starting point for any mixed media collage. Ephemera—transient, everyday items like ticket stubs, old letters, postage stamps, book pages, and sewing patterns—infuses your page with an immediate sense of history and narrative. These items are not just background noise; they are the first whisper of your page's story.
Layering these papers creates a rich, complex foundation. Don't be afraid to cover things up partially. The magic is in the fragments that peek through, hinting at a deeper story. Use a quality matte gel medium or PVA glue to adhere your pieces. Tearing the edges instead of cutting them creates a softer, more organic look that integrates beautifully into the page.
Pro-Tip: Organize your ephemera by color or theme in small folders. When you start a new page, you can quickly pull a collection that resonates with your mood, saving you from the overwhelming "too many choices" dilemma.
2. Gesso and Texture Paste Stenciling
Want to add instant dimension and a tactile quality to your journal? Stencils are your best friend. But instead of using them with just paint, try pulling thick gesso or texture paste through them with a palette knife or an old gift card. This creates a raised, dimensional pattern that you can either leave raw or paint over.
This technique is perfect for adding subtle background interest or creating a bold focal point. When the paste is dry, you can sand it lightly for a distressed look or paint it a contrasting color to make the design pop. It’s a foundational mixed media technique that adds a professional touch to any spread.
Pro-Tip: Try making your own texture paste by mixing gesso, a bit of PVA glue, and something gritty like fine sand or even coffee grounds for a unique, custom texture.
3. Transparent Layers with Inks & Glazes
One of the secrets to a dynamic, professional-looking collage is depth. You can achieve this by using transparent layers of color. Acrylic inks, high-flow acrylics, or watercolors are perfect for this. Apply them over your initial paper collage layers to unify the elements and tint the page.
This technique allows the text and images from your ephemera to show through, creating a beautiful, multi-layered effect. You can also create "glazes" by mixing a tiny bit of acrylic paint with a lot of clear gel medium. Painting this glaze over certain areas can push them into the background or subtly shift their color without obscuring the details underneath.
Pro-Tip: Use a spray bottle with water to spritz your inks while they are still wet. This will cause them to bleed and blossom into beautiful, unpredictable patterns, adding an element of serendipity to your work.
4. The Magic of Image Transfers
Image transfers are a game-changer for integrating photographic or printed elements seamlessly into your work. This technique allows you to lift an image from paper and transfer the ink directly onto your journal page, creating a translucent, ghost-like effect that feels like it’s part of the paper itself.
The most common method uses a gel medium. Print an image using a laser printer (inkjet won't work!), apply a layer of gel medium to the printed side, and press it firmly onto your page. Once it's completely dry, use a damp cloth or sponge to gently rub away the paper backing, leaving only the ink behind. It takes patience, but the result is stunning.
Pro-Tip: For a quicker, grungier transfer, try the packing tape method. Place clear packing tape over a laser-printed or magazine image, burnish it well, then soak it in water. The paper will peel away, leaving the image on the tape, which you can then adhere to your page.
5. Scribble Journaling & Expressive Mark-Making
Your handwriting is a powerful tool for expression. Before you even begin your collage, fill a page with "scribble journaling." Write freely and continuously about your thoughts and feelings, letting the words overlap and become an abstract texture of lines. This is not for reading later; it’s about infusing the page with your energy.
Once you have your text down, you can start layering papers and paint on top, allowing bits of your handwriting to peek through as a design element. You can also add expressive marks on top of your finished collage using charcoal pencils, oil pastels, or ink. These marks can add movement, define edges, or simply introduce a raw, energetic element to the piece. Here at the Goh Ling Yong studio, we believe that these personal marks are what truly make a piece of art your own.
Pro-Tip: Try writing with your non-dominant hand or holding the pen loosely to create a more abstract, less controlled line.
6. Fabric and Fiber Collage
Don't limit yourself to paper! Incorporating fabric scraps, lace, cheesecloth, and thread adds incredible softness and tactile interest to your art journal. The texture of fabric provides a beautiful contrast to the flat surface of paper and paint.
Use a strong adhesive like a fabric glue or a heavy gel medium to attach your textiles. You can let the edges fray for a rustic look or layer delicate materials like cheesecloth under other elements to create a sense of ethereal depth. This is a wonderful way to use up sentimental fabric scraps, like a piece from an old shirt or a child's blanket.
Pro-Tip: Prime a piece of cheesecloth with gesso. Once dry, it becomes stiff and translucent, and you can stamp on it or paint it before adding it to your page for a unique, semi-transparent layer.
7. The "Window" or Peek-a-Boo Cut-Out
This technique creates an interactive element in your journal. Carefully use a craft knife to cut a shape—a window, a circle, a keyhole—out of one of your journal pages. This creates a frame that reveals a surprise on the page behind it.
You can collage the "window" page and then create a special focal point on the next page that will be perfectly framed when the journal is closed. Alternatively, you can glue a piece of acetate or a transparent photo into the opening to create a real "glass" effect. It adds an element of discovery and invites the viewer to look closer.
Pro-Tip: Before you cut, lightly sketch your shape in pencil. Use a sharp, new blade in your craft knife and a cutting mat underneath the page to ensure a clean, crisp cut.
8. The Digital-Analog Hybrid: Printing on Deli Paper
Bridge the gap between digital and physical art by printing your own custom collage papers. Deli paper (the kind used for wrapping sandwiches) is thin enough to go through most printers and becomes almost transparent when glued down with gel medium, much like a decal.
You can design patterns, use your own digital art, or print vintage illustrations onto the deli paper. When you add it to your journal page, the background of the deli paper virtually disappears, leaving just your design seamlessly integrated with the layers below.
Pro-Tip: Gently tape the deli paper to a standard piece of printer paper with masking tape around the edges to help it feed through your printer without jamming. Make sure to print on the non-waxy side if your deli paper has one.
9. Stitching and Sewing on Paper
Adding real stitches to your page with a needle and thread introduces a delicate, handmade quality that is impossible to replicate with a pen. It can be used to outline a shape, attach a piece of fabric, create a textured pattern, or simply add a decorative border.
Use a thick needle and embroidery floss or thread. It’s wise to pre-punch your holes along the intended stitch line with an awl or a pushpin to prevent the paper from tearing as you sew. The act of slow stitching itself can be a meditative part of your creative process.
Pro-Tip: Don't worry about perfect stitches! Messy, rustic stitching often adds more character and charm than a perfectly executed seam. Let the thread tangle a bit or create uneven lines for a more expressive look.
10. Deconstruction & Reconstruction: The Woven Paper Technique
This is a fun, graphic technique that turns your collage papers into something entirely new. Take two different decorated papers or painted pages and cut them into strips of equal width. Then, simply weave them together as you would for a paper placemat.
The resulting woven piece has incredible pattern and texture. You can create a tight, neat weave or a loose, deconstructed one. This woven panel can then be used as a large background element or cut into smaller shapes to become a focal point in your collage.
Pro-Tip: Try weaving with unconventional materials like strips of fabric, ribbon, or even painted canvas for added textural variety.
11. Creating with Photographic Elements
While vintage ephemera is wonderful, modern or personal photos can bring a powerful, contemporary feel to your journal. Use your own photography or images cut from magazines to create a narrative. You can use a whole photograph as a focal point or cut it up and use fragments as abstract shapes and colors.
To make a photo feel less "stuck on," try sanding the edges, tearing them, or painting over parts of the image to integrate it with the rest of your page. Juxtaposing a black and white photo with a colorful, abstract background can create a stunning visual contrast.
Pro-Tip: Make photocopies of precious original photos to use in your artwork. You can experiment with resizing them or printing them on different types of paper without risking the original.
12. Wax Crayon or Oil Pastel Resist
Tap into your inner child with this classic and always satisfying resist technique. Vigorously draw patterns, shapes, or words onto your page with a wax crayon (a white one works great) or an oil pastel.
When you paint over the drawing with a wet medium like watercolor or fluid acrylics, the paint will be repelled by the waxy areas, leaving your original marks showing through. This is a fantastic way to create textured backgrounds or preserve white space and highlights in a vibrant, organic way.
Pro-Tip: After your paint has dried, you can gently scrape some of the wax away with a palette knife to create an even more distressed, layered look.
13. Stamping with Found Objects
You don’t need expensive, store-bought stamps to create beautiful patterns. Look around your home for objects with interesting textures: bubble wrap, the corrugated edge of a piece of cardboard, a bottle cap, a fork, or a crumpled piece of plastic wrap.
Dip your found object into a shallow pool of acrylic paint and use it as a stamp to create unique, repetitive marks on your page. This is a playful way to build up background texture and add a layer of personal, non-commercial imagery to your work.
Pro-Tip: Create a "stamp" by wrapping string or rubber bands around a small wooden block. The resulting stamped pattern is graphic and wonderfully imperfect.
14. Metallic Accents with Foils and Leaf
A touch of metallic shine can instantly elevate a journal page, adding a bit of luxury and catching the light beautifully. You can use gold leaf, metallic foils, or metallic paints and waxes.
For gold leaf or foils, you’ll need a special adhesive called "size." Apply the size, wait for it to become tacky, then press the metallic sheet on top and burnish it before peeling away the excess. For a simpler approach, metallic waxes like Rub 'n Buff can be applied with your fingertip to highlight raised textures from stenciling or heavy gesso.
Pro-Tip: For a subtle, antiqued metallic look, use a gold or bronze metallic acrylic paint, and then wipe most of it away with a damp cloth while it’s still wet, leaving the metallic sheen only in the crevices of your page's texture.
15. The Art of the Focal Point
A common beginner mistake is to make every part of the page equally "loud." A great composition often has a clear focal point—one area that draws the viewer's eye. This could be a striking image, a bold piece of text, or a cluster of embellishments.
Once you have your background layers established, consciously choose one element to be the "star of the show." Arrange other elements around it in a way that supports it rather than competes with it. This creates a sense of balance and makes your page easier for the eye to navigate and understand. It's a principle I, Goh Ling Yong, constantly emphasize in my own workshops.
Pro-Tip: Use the "rule of thirds." Imagine your page is divided into a 3x3 grid. Placing your focal point at one of the four intersections where the lines meet will almost always create a more dynamic and pleasing composition.
16. Negative Space Collage
Think about the shapes around the objects you're cutting out. Instead of gluing down the image of a flower, what if you glued down the paper from which you cut the flower? This creates a "stencil" effect, where the background of your journal page becomes the flower itself.
This technique forces you to see your materials in a new way and often leads to surprisingly sophisticated and graphic compositions. It’s a wonderful exercise in composition and appreciating the importance of what’s not there as much as what is.
Pro-Tip: Keep a small box for these interesting "off-cuts." You'll soon have a collection of unique shapes that can inspire a new journal spread.
17. Narrative Collage: Telling a Story
Finally, bring all these techniques together to tell a story. This doesn’t have to be a literal, linear narrative. It can be a "story of a mood," a "story of a color," or a "story of a memory."
Select images, words, and colors that evoke a specific feeling or idea. A bird might represent freedom, a clock could symbolize the passage of time, and the color blue might evoke sadness or peace. By thoughtfully combining these symbolic elements, your mixed media collage becomes more than just a pretty picture—it becomes a piece of visual poetry.
Pro-Tip: Start with a single word or phrase that captures what you want to express. Write it down on a scrap of paper and keep it in front of you. Use it as an anchor to guide your choices of materials and imagery as you build your collage.
Your Creative Journey Awaits
The art journal is your personal laboratory. There are no rules, no mistakes—only experiments and discoveries. These 17 techniques are not a checklist to be completed, but rather a set of keys to unlock new doors in your creative practice.
Start by picking one or two that excite you the most and just play. See how you can combine fabric with image transfers, or how scribble journaling looks under a layer of transparent ink. The more you experiment, the more you will develop your own unique artistic voice. Your art journal is a conversation with yourself, and these techniques will give you a richer, more expressive vocabulary.
Now it's your turn. Which of these mixed media collage techniques are you most excited to try in your art journal for 2025? Share your thoughts and your own favorite tips in the comments below
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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