Junk journal notebook

How can you explain in a text message what a junk journal is using as few characters as possible because the text was to travel from the to UK to NZ?! My answer was to say I’ll make a small one for you mum 🙂 😆

I had just finished making my first one and it was very well received by my dear friend whose birthday it was for. I started the notebook sized one immediately but thinking about the process a little more carefully. I made the cover first and my sewing machine was most disgruntled sewing through paper and card and decided to go into a huff and missed lots of stitches. I decided not to worry about it and carried on. Having completed the cover I started gathering recycled paper together for a tea dyeing session. These were baked dry and ironed. Other papers were assembled and mingled in with the tea dyed pages. There are 23 leaves creating 46 pages which were sewn to the cover as a single signature. Next came the decoration and addition of ephemera.

I really enjoyed making both the journals. I’m only showing images of a few pages and the cover of the second junk notebook. It’s secured with a length of lace tied around the cover and finished with a simple bow…

Inside the front cover (above).

This last week I’ve also made these for future junk journals…

And these clusters below made out of scraps…

Unsurprisingly, I’m a bit behind with my Coastal stashbusting blanket CAL 😆

I have loved making these junk journals and have several ideas for some more. I can’t wait to make one for myself 🙂

A note about the dyeing… I had coffee dyed a batch of paper for the first junk journal but I really didn’t like the subsequent smell. I don’t usually mind the smell of coffee. So the second time I used tea. It didn’t produce such a strong stain. I used old tea bags that were used, left to dry out and then stored. For the dye bath I poured hot water over the bags and let them soak for an hour before using.  I will try making the bath stronger next time. Most of the bags were earl grey so the paper has a more pleasant smell 😃

My faith journaling is going very well and I shall have to compile a new one of those soon also. I use rings to bind these so that I can add stuff in. It’s amazing how fast it has filled up. In it I write personal prayers and answers to prayer, scripture and any thoughts I have about it, plus I use it as a time to listen to what God has to say to me and I write what I believe he is saying into my journal.

It’s a while since I wrote a post…I can can’t remember if there’s anything else I’m meant to add…??

Thank you for visiting me 😘❤💛💜💚💙😁