My First Junk Journal

I've been wanting to make myself a "junk journal" after discovering them on Facebook a little while ago and realising that they are what I've been hoarding stuff for without even knowing it!  All the papers and ephemera that were too pretty to throw away suddenly have a use at last.

What's a jun journal?  Well I have realised that it is whatever you want to make it!  Some people recycle old hardback books to make the covers and add their own signatures, others make inserts for ready made "traveller's  notebooks", and others make the whole thing from scratch.  The sky's the limit.

I was a little unsure where to start so I joined a mentoring scheme on the amazing Friendly Junk Journal Facebook Group and was assigned a volunteer tutor, Angela, to guide me through the process of making my own journal over the course of three months.

In the first month I made myself a cover from card, decorated it and made my first signature, sewing it into the cover.  Month two the task was to create a decorated signature and sew that in too.  In the third month I learnt about tuck spots and journalling cards and added them to the signatures.

I soon learned that I could have done with somewhat thicker card for the cover, as the fatter the journal get the more the cover bends, and that trying to stamp onto pages after they are sewn into the signature is not at all easy to do well.

I wouldn't say it is finished yet, as I want to add a bead dangle to the spine and will almost certainly add more decoration to the pages, but it was a brilliant introduction to a fun craft and I have learned a lot from my wonderful teacher Angela and fellow mentee Olivia.

Anyway, here are some of the pages from my first junk journal - but it certainly won't be my last!  The theme I chose was Folk Art, and with the exception of the bookbinding awl, thread and needle and a couple of Russian Doll colouring pages from the internet everything I used was already in my crafty stash.

Thank you for looking xx 

Colour themed ATCs

I have had some mixed media fun with the ATC swap on the My Make Forum this month.  The brief was: three ATCs, all mainly the same colour.

I chose aqua as I'd just bought some aqua metallic paint from our new local craft shop and wanted to try it out!

The first one has a collaged paper background edged in Peacock Feather Distress Oxide.  I mixed some of the metallic paint with Grunge Paste through a starry stencil, and once it dried I overstamped in black archival with more stars and a sentiment, and finished off with a star sequin.

The middle ATC has a Distress Oxide background of Peacock Feather and Cracked Pistachio.  I used the blended Grunge Paste as before but with a butterfly and stars stencil, then added some patterning to the butterfly's wings with metallic pen and some tiny sequins. Again I finished with a couple of stamped sentiments and some sequins in different shades of aqua.

The final ATC has a patterned paper background, inked with Peacock Feather, and I used the Grunge Paste through a HOTP feather stencil.  Again I coloured in detail with a metallic pen, stamped and added sequins as before.

They are now on their way to the States for a swap, who knows where they will finally end up?

Some forum swaps

I joined in with the ATC and Fridge Magnet swaps on the MyMakes forum in May: the theme for the magnet was the Royal Wedding and the ATCs were to be one for a boy and one for a girl.



The image that stood out for me from the Royal Wedding was that marvellous doorway of greenery and flowers so I based my magnet on an arch of green FlowerSoft with punched flowers and dots of Liquid Pearls and glitter glue.  The centrepiece was a crown embellished with more glitter glue in regal colours, above Harry and Meghan's initials, they year and entwined wedding bands.









The backgrounds for the ATCs were made with Distress Oxides.  I dabbed them onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water, then the card was dragged through, dried and repeated.  I stamped the cute baby hand and footprints in Distress Oxide and highlighted them with clear Wink of Stella, then after spattering with silver paint I added some more stamping and some bows and embellishments from my stash.