Master how you can create your watercolor digital journal! Use Canva to transform your paintings into beautiful digital pages.
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Are you looking to take your watercolor art to a new level? In this post, discover how you can use your watercolor art to create a digital journal in Canva.
I love Goodnotes and have made myself several different styles of planners and some of them include my very own artwork. I love Goodnotes because is is user friendly and has many features that I use on a daily basis.
Canva makes it so easy to create the digital journal with their easy to use format and use of shapes, fonts and more.
Please note that some items you will may want to use will require a Canva Pro account, but there are other resources available to get those features at a minimal cost.
Designing Your Digital Journal Layout
When it comes to designing your digital journal using Canva, you first need to have your watercolor artwork scanned and uploaded to Canva. To learn more about Canva, my friend, Pam has the perfect place for your to join! Her Canva Clubhouse is the place to go!
Choosing the Right Templates
Canva offers a wide range of customizable templates specifically designed for journals and you can look at them to get ideas for layouts.
I have a specific layout that I use and it so very simple. I start with a 11″ x 8.5″ rectangle.
Customizing Your Layout
Now that your have your layout and looked at other examples of a digital journal, it’s time to personalize the color scheme, fonts, and your graphics from your watercolor art.
Your watercolor art can be used as the background of the digital journal, as well as your cover image, and inside the journal itself. I recommend painting individual items to use within the journal.
I will note that it may be best to have a generic background as too many elements added may prevent you from making all of your pages.
To get started with your layout, you will need to make your base page with another rectangle. You want to leave enough space on the sides and tops for tabs to hyperlink to.
Creating and Organizing Your Pages
Let’s look at the flow of the digital journal and how you want it to be structured. Arrange the pages that makes sense to you like months, weeks, days, etc.
I will be showing you a weekly journal and it is so simple because you only need to make one weekly set and duplicate it throughout the journal. It sill be the same as the months, just use the duplicate icon and change the names of the months for each one.
My digital journals are usually undated to they can used over again. You can make yours dated, but you need to be sure all the months and dates are in the right sections.
We will using a monthly calendar, followed by the weekly, and at the end have a few pages for notes.
Your Cover Image Page
Your cover image would be your first page and you will want to create this with the journal in a closed position, meaning one side. Once you design your cover, this will also help you to determine your color theme and font as stated earlier in this post.
You can add shadow to the cover page to give the appearance of height or depth. Add whatever elements needed depending on if you are doing spiral or flat like a notebook. Your journal, your choice.
Check out Etsy or other online digital journal retailers to see what they offer to give you inspiration.
Monthly Calendar Page
When creating your monthly page, you can start on either side of the journal. I prefer the right side and create a calendar. On the left side I add a decorative element, which could be a watercolor clipart that I painted. Add the month title there as well, only make it larger. I used the font Ayesha for the larger monthly title and for the smaller one at the calendar, I used Simple Free.
The calendar was created with the tables section under elements and adding rows and columns. There are several ways to create calendars, but this is the simplest one I think, to create if you are a beginner.
Weekly Calendar Page
For the weekly calendar, under elements, I use the rounded square and turned them into oval shapes and gave them a border and no color. Within those ovals, I used the line element in each one. I also use the text box and put each day of the week in those boxes.
The image shown of the digital journal is one I created for watercolor prompts. You can add whatever quotes, sayings, prompts, etc. for yours. You can also add more of your watercolor art!
If you want to learn how to create clipart for your digital journal, I wrote a post on how I make clipart with my watercolors.
Once you created you monthly and weekly pages, duplicate the monthly so you have 12 and weekly so you have 52. On the monthly, change the month titles. the weekly can be changed to have your other additions like quotes, etc.
Put your months in order and then under each month, add your 4 weeks. You will have extra weeks, and I recommend you look at the next years calendar and decide which months should that fifth week.
Once that is finished, go to grid view and name each monthly page. This how you be able to hyperlink them to the correct page. Each page should be named as well. Under each week you can do week 1 up to week 52. You will not be hyperlinking those pages, but it’s good to have them named.
Adding Interactive Elements
Once all of the pages are finished, titled, and you are satisfied with the look and flow of your journal, edited it for any errors, it will be time to add tabs and hyperlink them to the corresponding pages.
Making Tabs
Making tabs is easy enough as you go to elements and look at shapes. Find a shape that would make sense for a tab. Once you select that shape, reduce the size because you will need 12 of them for the right side of the journal. See the image below on how those tabs look.
In each tab using text, add an abbreviated form of each month until you have all the months place inside the tabs.
How To Hyperlink
Now it’s time to hyperlink those months. This is the final step. If you made a mistake on your journal and find it after, it may mess up the hyperlinking at times because the pages were moved.
To hyperlink, double click on the month tab so it is highlighted. Click on the link icon and link your text to the corresponding month page. Do this for all 12 of your months.
Placing The Tabs On All Of Your Pages
If you are familiar with Canva and know how to group, you will want to group all twelve of your months (tabs and text). Once grouped, copy and paste on each page going down until you are finished. Choose either the right or left side of your journal. I prefer the right side.
If you created a home icon for the home page, make sure you linked that as well and do the same for each page. It is a tedious project, but once it is done, it is done!
Finalizing
Give you journal the final onceover and also click each link to make sure they are linking properly.
To save this to your computer, download as a PDF Standard and DO NOT flatten, or you will lose your links. Once downloaded give it a look and test all of your links once again.
Lastly, export it to your Goodnotes app and start using it. This will be the final test of your product.
That’s it! You made it!
For more tutorials on creating digital planners, Samantha is the expert! Read her blog post on How to Make a Digital Planner for Personal Use or to Sell
Sharing and Selling Your Digital Journal
When it comes to sharing and selling your digital journal watercolor creations, there are various avenues you can explore to reach a wider audience and potentially monetize your work. Here are some tips to help you get started:
Utilizing Online Marketplaces
Online platforms like Etsy provide a marketplace that is already looking for digital products with a large audience. Upload and showcase your digital journal by using engaging descriptions and relevant keywords to attract buyers who are looking for digital journals.
You can also utilize Etsy to see what digital journals similar to yours sell for so you don’t overprice or undercut yourself.
If you are interested in opening an Etsy shop and want more information on how to do so, visit Amanda and check out her Building A Passive Income With Digital Products On Etsy membership.
To see my digital journals on Etsy, Visit Laurie’s Colorful World.
Building Your Online Presence
If creating digital journals is your jam, why not blog about it? Let others know about your journey and give helpful tips and tricks to create digital journals. My mentor, Sadie, has taught me a lot about blogging and creating an online presence.
To learn more about blogging, visit Passive Income Pathways.
With your watercolor skills and digital skills, you have a whole new world open to you!
If you are enjoying this post, please Pin these to your Pinterest Page. It helps my page very much! Thank you!
You can also build an online presence through social media platforms. Share sneak peeks of your creations, behind the scenes content, abd user testimonials to engage your audience and build a following. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are great places to start!
Creating a digital journal using Canva for Goodnotes opens up a world of possibilities for you. Selling them on Etsy, makes it even better by creating a passive income for yourself.
Embrace your creativity, don’t hold back! Experiment with different layouts, colors, and features to make your digital journal truly yours. Let your imagination run wild and enjoy the journey.
Stay Colorful, Stay Creative, and HAVE FUN!
~Laurie
