My Foray into Junk Journaling

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks, doing something new to me, creatively speaking, and that is junk journaling.  It feels weird saying that, like confessing to cheating...on sewing, I guess? 

Seriously though, I've not done much at all with the sewing machine except a few small things relating to Junk Journal July, the journal-along hosted on Instagram by @megjournals.  I'm not on Instagram, but I stumbled upon her YouTube channel when I was first learning about junk journaling, in general, and then Junk Journal July, specifically.  Conveniently, #junkjournaljuly was about to get underway, so I figured it was as good a time as any to dive in, follow the daily prompts, learn, and have fun in the process.

(Materials ready to make a junk journal)

But backing up a bit, I will say that I've been interested in altered art, collage, and similar things for quite awhile.  I have a Pinterest board called Artful Eclectic, which has been an art admiration and wishful thinking space for me.  I haven't had an art class beyond junior high, so even thinking I might attempt such things feels pretty fish-out-of-water for me.  But I do have a lot of ephemera (aka junk) accumulated through the years that I've wanted to do something interesting with, and assemblage art, collage, and repurposing appeal to me on a lot of levels.

Anyway, junk journaling.  As you may have guessed, one rabbit hole led to another, and soon I was watching videos on how to make journals from cracker boxes and other would-be trash.  I saved an empty gluten-free graham cracker box (after eating all the s'mores I could handle around Memorial Day) and thought I might give it a try.  Then, as luck or laziness would have it, I came upon instructions for an even simpler journal with a stick binding, no sewing in of pages, touted as something even children could do.  Perfect for this beginner, then!

Well, you know how it is when you get into something crafty and the wheels start turning.  The kid-friendly materials were basic—paper, stick, rubber band—but the little book seemed in need of a cover.  I had some black cowhide from an old leather jacket my husband decided was out of style a few years ago, and I'd cut it apart instead of donating it.  

So I made a leather cover for my first little journal from that.  Then I had a piece of cording from the tag off a Stetson hat hubby had just bought at the local Fleet Farm, so I sewed that down on the back part of the cover.  The cord needed an anchor to complete the closure, so I rummaged through the oddball button tin and sewed one on.  The stick came from my yard, from a bush I pruned a day or so earlier, and the rubber band securing the stick was from a head of broccoli.  I love that it came together from all those odd bits and pieces!

Thus, my first little journal was made.

For Junk Journal July, though, I was going to need a larger journal with more pages to junk up, so I trolled around on YouTube and ultimately landed on this tutorial.  Again, the no-sew aspect of it was appealing for simplicity's sake, but also because I wanted to make a mental shift from creating with needle and thread—at least to begin with.  I watched that video twice all the way through before I felt ready to begin.  Even then, I played it while I actually made the journal, pausing between steps to make sure I didn't miss anything.  Newbie nerves much?

(Tea dying paper...I threw in the bags from a pot of tea)

A trip to Goodwill had yielded the composition notebook that was the basis for the journal.  It cost  a whopping fifty cents, being half off that day, which seemed reasonable for something I'd be ripping the guts out of and cutting up.  

The pages tied inside the journal included some tea-dyed printer and scrapbook paper, pages from an old piano lesson book, a canning booklet, a dried flowers book from the thrift store, some graph paper, and a vintage floral print I'd found at Goodwill and took out of the frame, one of two I found that day.  Gorgeous!

Since I didn't want to wreck the floral print in my first junk journaling go, I scanned it and printed the image onto one of the tea-dyed papers.  Because the paper was wrinkly, however, the ink didn't adhere properly and the printout had a mottled look.  I almost threw it away in disappointment but let it sit on the table until the next day, when it magically looked interesting enough to include in the junk journal.  Funny how that works.

Here was the resulting book by the end of the day...

...and as seen in the light of day the next morning.  

Ready to go!

I'll be back with more on some of the first days and first junk journaled pages of JJJ.  

In the meantime, here's a peak at Day 3's page, the prompt for which was LAYERED TAG.  As you can see, a tiny bit of sewing came into play.

~Paulette