Junk Journals… questions

I’m not sure if junk journals are a type of mini album or not, but I have done some mini albums. They are not only fun, but can be a good way to use up papers and other items that don’t necessarily work for any pictures/layouts, but that you love. For most mini albums, I started with a mini binder or base of some kind.

Probably depends but the people I’ve followed make their own books. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has a lot of good info on her site.

Junk Journal/Art Journal/Treasure Books/Collage Art. There are lots of variations!

I’ve always done some form of “scrapbooking” since I was a child. Like my grandmother and mother, it was less about pictures and more about memorabilia and other things I have found interesting and wanted to keep. I like the no rules and the “do what you like and enjoy” style. I used to do traditional scrapbooking, but have moved away from it over the years , but still have a lot of supplies.

I joined a lot of Facebook groups and follow makers on YouTube. Some start from scratch and make their own covers and sew in signature pages. This allows for great flexibility on the size and what your pages consist of. Others will use books from thrift stores and tear out pages to give themselves enough space to work in, and then collage or glue papers over the top of the pages.

I started out using the “Smashbook” brand of books. It was a good way to start out because they had some structure that helped me get started. When they were no longer available, I had to branch out and find something different. Currently, I am using old planners. Particularly the disc bound ‘Happy Planners”. I buy discounted last year‘s planners from Hobby Lobby, Michael’s or Joannes. It’s easy to remove pages to work on them. I use my scrapbook paper to “paper over” the calendar pages.  Because I like to do collage art, the disc bound planners allow me to remove as many pages as I want and leave plenty of space for my thick collage pages.

I have a Cinch machine to make wire bound books, but I’m not loving it, so I recently bought a planner punch and extra discs so I can construct my own disc bound books. I also bought a We R Makers Thermal Cinch. I haven’t even taken it out of the box since I’m a little intimidated by it. Ha. I like the idea of making a book out of my pages after the fact, so I can put them in any order I want. We shall see.

If you are wanting to make your own, you definitely don't need to buy supplies as long as you already have paper crafting supplies. Journals can be made using chipboard, cardboard or even cereal/cracker boxes for the covers. You might want to glue together 1-3 layers per cover page to make it stiff/thick, before covering with paper or fabric. If you have something to poke holes with - small if you want to use twine to bind it, or bigger (like a hole punch) if using binder rings, etc. There is no "right" way to do it. You just use what you have. It can be "traditional" scrapbook paper or something less so like things from magazines or other things from around the house (coffee filters, envelopes, packaging, tags, etc.).