Friday 22 June 2018

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 























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