Junk Journal

Last night I discovered junk journals. Wow!!!!!!! I was so inspired that I got started straight away.

The idea with a junk journal is to use all those scrap bits of paper and craft supplies that you never seem to use but never throw away.

I LOVE this idea. I’m a hoarder and I love finding new ways to use the things I’ve kept. Pretty papers, old artwork, paper cuttings. I love that you can stick anything you want in there: envelopes, book pages, photos, letters, etc. It can be a scrapbook, photo album, travel journal, or more of a blank journal.

I saw some beautiful junk journals on Youtube. Some journals are made from actual books, some are made from notebooks, others are made from scratch. Some are themed, some are used for keeping photos, others are used for keeping lists.

Some of the journals look like beautiful books in themselves, works of art, that you wouldn’t journal in because you can’t write on the decorated pages. I’d rather a journal that I can actually write in since I love functionality as much as creativity. But I definitely love the idea of making the journal look pretty.

I’ll have to experiment with different styles and I got started last night.

I have two copies of some Harry Potter books so I got the first one from the series and used it as my junk journal experiment. I may keep it or give it away as gift.

I ripped out the back pages which had the covers pictures and I plan to use these later on in the journal.

I left the first pages blank because they can be used to write on as is, plus I like keeping some of the original pages in the journal.

On the next page I covered over the copyright info and the dedication. I thought it would be cool to write a quote on the left page and your name on the right page.

PVA didn’t work too well on the pages because it made them soggy so I used washi tape to stick my papers in.

I’m going to keep at least one page from each chapter in the journal.

I’m not a fan of these pages. But all about experimenting. I left one side of the papers un-taped to create a pocket.

I used distress ink for these pages and quite like the effect.

Then I started using gesso as a glue and realised it would probably be good to put gesso on anyway so pen and texta won’t bleed through the paper. Not sure how well it will work though because I’m not sure what types of pens you can use to write on gesso.

So they are the pages I’ve done so far.

I’ve love the idea that a junk journal doesn’t have to be perfect. They can be rustic or more care can be taken.

Here are the videos that inspired me:

The first one is more rustic while the second one is a work of art that I absolutely love. It’s beyond my skill at the moment but one day I hope to create something like that.

For now I’m sticking with the most basic junk journal but looking forward to making my own pages from scratch.

What do you think?