While I was on break, I discovered junk journals. YouTube is full of inspiring tutorial and flip-through videos of these handmade books. The big draw for me was the combination of using papers and images I love to make a book I could write in, and I loved the result so much, I made a video.

Junk journals are a cross between art journaling and scrapbooking. After watching some of Kate Mower’s videos (KatesJunkJournals; her last name rhymes with “power”), I was inspired to make my own. What excited me was Mower’s emphasis on having plenty of space to actually write on.

Most art journal entries emphasize the art and what little writing they contain is often illegible. To make a journal specifically for writing in? I couldn’t resist. Being able to use the postcards, wrapping paper, old photos, and random art supplies I have been collecting for years was a wonderful bonus.

So I made my first junk journal. It’s called Sunny (my one-word theme for 2021). I used scrapbook papers* as my base, then added other papers I had lying around. The fact that I only had to buy one thing for this project (glue that wouldn’t make the paper pucker) proves that junk journals are right up my alley.

I haven’t written in Sunny yet because I wanted to take photos for this post. But now that that’s done, I can start adding the things I’ve been thinking of including. First in? The cards I got from my family for my birthday and a story about something nice someone said to me. It’s so nice to have a place to collect all my happy thoughts.

Have you heard of junk journals before? How do you store the paper items and memories you collect? Would you use a junk journal if you had one?

*Most of the scrapbook papers come from a Pathways pad by Michelle Anderson: Illuminations. The print date is 2006, so it’s probably not available anymore.