This is a project I'm so excited to bring to you guys! A&O Signature notebooks can work well with watercolor but if you are an artist who likes to use a ton of water you've probably been desiring a true watercolor paper.

These pages are 100% cotton, and acid free. Made for watercolor, so you can go CRAZY. Below is my experience using a TON of water on these pages, so I can give you an honest account of how the paper held up. 

The paper is hot pressed and pretty smooth (as smooth as you can get with watercolor paper) and I haven't had ANY issues using my Tombow Brush Pens or felt tip pens on these pages. 

Watercolor was never my expertise. Once in a watercolor class a teacher informed me I wasn't good at painting, I was good at drawing with paint (rude - but so true). I have a VERY controlled style so this experiment was a bit outside my comfort zone. 

Step 1: Coated the paper with water. 

I kinda remember this from that watercolor class? To really push these books to the limit I coated the entire page in water before applying any color. I would recommend not doing this directly on top of the other pages (as pictured) but rather separate the page from the rest (you'll see what I mean later). 

Step 2: Add More Water AND the Watercolor:

After the paper was coated in water, I began adding watercolor to create the background. You can see below the paper began to warp, which is totally normal. 

3. Separated wet sheet from others

At this point, I decided to separate the wet sheet from the dry ones. It's possible to do this because of the spiral. Now it's just a waiting for the paper to dry game.

4. As paper dires it begins to flatten 

As the paper begins to dry, it begins to flatten. You can see I got impatient and started doodling on top before it was completely dry.  

5. Start adding the finishing touches. 

Once the page had truly dried, I began adding my finishing touches with white gouache. 

6. Next day - almost completely flat

I was happy with the flatness of the page BEFORE closing the book overnight. But the next day, the page was almost completely flat. Yay!

Working in the watercolor bullet journal was SO MUCH FUN. It makes me want to dust off my watercolor brushes, and begin practicing this type of painting again.