Your Junk Journal ~ The First Page

Hello my lovely friends 💕

I hope you found piles of treasures in your thrifting adventures! 😍 Yes? Then you should be ready to create your first page of your junk journal!

Making a collage is a good way to flex your creative muscles. I always start with one, or make one when I’m stuck, and the creative juices just won’t flow 🙃

Here we go…

Decide what size your journal should be, and trim your paper.

Mine are usually 12” (the width of a scrapbook paper page) by 8.5” (that makes a double-page).

The advantage of using scrapbook paper is having ‘ready-made’, colorful pages without any effort 😉

Now tear (or cut) small scraps from the materials in your stash. Remember – there’s only one rule – there are no rules 😁 Just have fun!

Fold your paper in half, and start glueing stuff down 🤓

Done! 😃 Easy peasy!

Of course you can do the same to the opposite side (no rules!), but I wanna show you how to make a pocket, ’cause pockets are awesome! 😎

Cut a piece of any paper to the width of the page, and to about 1/3 of the height.

Glue, tape or sew* it in place.

*Yes, you can sew paper. It won’t hurt anything. More on that later.

You can stuff the pocket with some of your awesome finds, and/or extra blank paper for more journaling space.

There – it’s finished. Your first Journal Page 🤩

For your viewing pleasure and inspiration…here are some collage pages I’ve made😻

Happy Halloween! 👻🎃🤡

Autumn 🍁

Just for fun

I hope you found some inspiration here, and will share your awesome project with me! 😊

Next time I’ll tell you more about ‘sewing paper’, and will share some ideas for the next few pages! 🤓

Until then 💕

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So You Wanna Junk Journal? 🤓 Where To Begin…Part II

Hello my lovely friends 💕

I hope you had a good weekend!  😊 Did you spent part of it foraging in Thrift- and Antique Shops for hidden treasures? Did you enjoy it? If you did…I have good news!😁
Here are a few more things for your Junk Journal you can collect while out and about next time.
If you missed Part I with more ideas for treasures to hunt …it’s right here (link will open in a new window)

Magazines and Catalogues

I prefer the vintage (non-shiny) ones. But that’s just a personal preference – you get what you like!

 

Paper Dolls and -Animals

This book is a reproduction – but isn’t it adorable?! 😃

Stamps 

The postal- and rebate (Bonus) kind

 

Sheet Music

 

Flash Cards

 

Children’s Books

I love collecting vintage children’s books and turning them into journals. I do keep the original pages in order…just add my own pages in between.
~If you’re not quite sure if you want to (or can) take a book apart, please read the (hopefully reassuring) post here 😊

Here are some pictures of the journals I made out of these lovely books

 

I do hope these pictures make you want to start creating right away! 😍

At one point you might get frustrated with the lack of selection in your Thrift- and Antique Shops. And you visit the various resale sites. That’s a great idea! But – buyer beware! Do yourself a favor and only buy ‘ephemera collections’ that are fully visible. Where you can see each and every item you are buying. I fell for the ‘100 awesome pieces – each pack varies’ nonsense.  😕 Well, most of it landed in the bin. Over half of the 100 pieces were torn out bookpages (got those…thank you very much), cut up city maps (to make 5 pieces out of 1), copies of game pieces, etc. You may pay a little more for the smaller packs, but in the end it’s worth it! 🤓

Now, while you wait for the weekend to get more stuff for your journals (it can be addictive 😉), and possibly are itching to get started, why don’t you coffee-dye some paper. Coffee is a great way of turning ordinary paper into a vintage-looking page.

Just fill a pan (I used a baking sheet) with coffee, and submerge the page.

Depending on the depth of the liquid, you will get different results.

 

The pages on the left were in about 1/2″ of coffee, the one on the right about 1/4″.
Both were submerged overnight.

Then let them dry on an old towel, and you have beautiful, ‘aged’ pages, that will give your journal a lovely vintage feel.

 

I’m thinking that’s it for today. 😊 Next time we’re really going to start creating. I promise! 🤩

 Until then 💕 Take good care of yourself!

 

A Booktalk ~ Using Vintage Books in Junk Journals

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Welcome to today’s Booktalk 📚 No, I’m not reviewing anything. I will just tell you about, and take the fear out of, using vintage books in making Junk Journals.

I admit, it sounds cringeworthy. 🙈 But it doesn’t have to be. As I mentioned yesterday, buying the books with the intention of cutting them up makes the whole endeavor easier (at least in my experience). And if they’re a bit – or very – tattered they would probably end up in the landfill. That would be a real tragedy. So try to look at it as giving those old, time-worn beauties a new life. Where the bits and pieces will be admired, and loved again.

Old books have wonderful illustrations you can use to spruce up a blank page or incorporate in collages.

  Of course, it’s not just the pictures that are useful. A poem can give a page meaning, scraps of pages that are written ‘old-fashioned’ style make a nice addition to a collage,  old dictionary pages make a nice background for some photos or stickers, whole pages of children books give your journal a little whimsy.

You see – a new life! 😍

 Once in a while though, I come across an antique book that ends up on my bookshelf.
I managed to make a little room for the newly acquired treasures. 😊

  Like this one…

 

It’s an illustrated Mark Twain book (Life on the Mississippi), printed in 1902. 🤗
It’s amazing. Really beautiful in all it’s shabbiness, and simply stunning!
I love to hold it, leaf through it, and imagine the people who held and enjoyed it before me. 😍

As you can see…it is quite tattered.
But I’m thinking, when I’m 117 years old, my spine will be brittle also, and my backside nothing to write home about. 😅

 Then there is this one…

 

A handwritten recipe-collection that found it’s way here from good, old Germany,
written in 1924  🤩 It’s written in the historical form of German handwriting, called Suetterlin. I can make out a few words here and there, but not enough to start cooking. I’d love to cook my way through this book.  👩🏻‍🍳 Now I wish my Mom had taught me this style of handwriting. 🤓

And last but not least – this beauty

 

  I love the raised lettering on the cover. I bought it to be used as a Halloween Journal, because it comes with it’s own awesome-spooky illustrations. 👻

 

But I don’t have the heart to cut it up. So it will sit on the bookshelf with it’s other gorgeous friends, and brought out once in a while to be admired (and dusted😆)

 That’s it for today’s Booktalk. 😊I hope you had fun, and that I was able to ease your anxiety about cutting in to books, because journal-making should be enjoyable! 🤓

Until next time  💕 Take good care of yourself!

 

 

 

 

So You Wanna Junk Journal? 😃 Where To Begin…

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Today I wanna tell you how to begin your foray into the junk-journaling world.

And what an exciting, wonderful, freeing creative adventure it is! 🤓

What is a Junk journal? A Junk Journal (or Smashbook) is a Journal, most of them are handmade, containing a vast variety of papers and embellishments.

These embellishments, also called ephemera, can be anything that can be glued, stapled, sewn down.

I’ve been making journals for only a few months now, so the beginning stages are still fresh in my head 😁 and I can tell you, before you start make sure you have a nice stash of papers and ephemera. Otherwise it can get boring real quick 😉

That’s where the fun begins – shopping! 😅 In Thrift stores! 😍

So…what should you look for? Basically…anything made of paper 😁

Here are a few examples…

Office supplies

Game pieces

Greeting Cards

Souvenir Postcards

Cut outs (these are not thrift store finds)

Vintage Books with illustrations

I can feel some of you cringe at the idea of cutting up books 🙈 Believe me, I do too (my husband still can’t believe I’m actually cutting and tearing into books!)

But I found when I buy the books with the intent of using the beautiful insides (and sometimes the outside too 😊) for my journals, it makes it easier. Look at it as a way of saving it from the landfill, and giving it a new life. 🥰 It will be loved and treasured again. This time a little scrap at a time. 🤓

Of course, that doesn’t always work 😅 More on that later.

Cigar Labels

Vintage (or new) Sewing Patterns

Once you start looking around you will see the possibilities in a lot of goodies out there. 🤓

You also wanna pick up some scrapbook paper, and blank art papers, like a drawing- or painting pad. Even though you can sometimes find scrapbook in thrift stores, you might want to get a pad or two at your regular craft store.

While there, take a peek at the die-cutters. The small one – like this one

I picked this shape because I thought it’s pretty versatile. And I was right. 😉
It makes nice cut-outs you can use as ephemera, you can use it when making pockets

and it came in pretty handy when I made a page featuring a cookie! 😅

 

Then, of course, you need something to put it all together.

These are the glues and tape* I liked the best. You might find some from other companies…just make sure they’re ‘no wrinkle’. Trust me 😁

 Alright…while you go hunting and gathering your beautiful things, I will start writing the next post – ‘What to do with all your newfound treasures’
I’ll meet you here in a day or two and we can start glueing stuff down. 😃

Until then 💕

*no affiliation with any products shown here

TBT ~ Looking Back At My ‘New Year’s Resolutions’

Hello my lovely friends! 💕

It’s been so (too!) long that I sat down to write a post, and share it with you all. In my mind I’ve written a few 😁, but somehow I ended up in an endless loop of wanting to put fingers to keyboard, putting it off…just to start the same process the next day.

But, enough excuses – we’re all here now, and I thought writing a ‘TBT’ post is a good way to get my creative (writing) juices flowing again. 😃

The ‘New Year’ Resolutions…well, even though there weren’t many, I pretty much failed each and every one. 🙈

1. Sharing photos – Nope, did not happen  😔 It’s still in the realm of possibilities though…see 😅
2. The ‘Weekly Gallery” – Nope 🤭 See above
3. A steady writing schedule – Nope…this is getting old 😬 see above

My biggest goal for this year, and I didn’t even write it down, was getting my US Citizenship  – that I did. 😊

As of July 24th, 2019 I am an American citizen. 🇺🇸
It was a very moving ceremony, and I met a lot of lovely people from all over the world. 😍 It was wonderful to share this day with all these amazing people. We were so many (321 new and proud new citizens), that we even made the news. 🤠
Here’s hubby and me after the ceremony

 That was it for my ‘Throw Back Thursday’. 🤗 I will be back soon to tell you all about my new journals… (here are some examples) 🤓

…hoping to inspire and maybe even help you through the first steps of creating your own ‘Junkjournal’.

Until then 💕