A coptic bound journal for Junk Journal July 2025

Gather up your colorful paper scraps, bookmaking rejects, surface design samples, workshop uglies, old calendars, and trash can rescues. Hit the recycle bin and get prepped for Junk Journal July!

A collection of printed, decorative, and recycled papers for a junk journal.

Inspired by an annual artists retreat, a group of my “art camp buddies” and I are jumping into Junk Journal July 2025 in effort to continue with our art practices—which was a topic of discussion at several meals.

Junk Journal July is an easy and forgiving, low-stress Challenge, with minimal expectations—except to work at our art practice for the entire month of July. We’ll be supporting and cheering each other on next month for 31 days! 

Using the coptic binding method 

I’ve participated in the Junk Journal Challenge four times. For my last two journals—Junk Journal July 2024 and Junk Journal January 2025—I’ve made accordion style no-sew journals. After a recent demonstration on the coptic binding, however, I decided to get more practice with this book binding method and use it for this year’s Junk Journal July.

Coptic bound junk journal.

The coptic bound book has specific characteristics that are very conducive to junk journaling:

• the book opens flat, making it easy to work in.
• the spine of the book is exposed and can accommodate any number of signatures.
• coptic binding can accommodate a soft cover, so you are able to use recycled materials for the cover in addition to the inside pages.

Making my junk journal

My junk journal is 8” square. (I like the square format for Instagram posts.) It has 5 signatures, plus front and back covers—86 full pages and a few short or partial pages. I like to use recycled papers to construct my junk journals, but any journal is absolutely OK to use! The important part is that you work in it!

Junk journal front and back covers.

Because various weights and types of paper were used for the pages in my journal—text papers, magazine pages, mixed media paper, mailing envelopes, cover weight papers, packaging from from a bag of sugar, and a sheet of watercolor paper—in order to (somewhat) maintain the same thickness, the signatures for my journal contained between 4 - 6 folios each.

Journal covers and various papers for the inside pages.

When making a junk journal, remember that’s what it is—a JUNK journal. It’s made of recycled materials and not meant to be perfect. And it will definitely get thicker, bulkier, and more interesting (and fun) when the various items get pasted into it. 

My thoughts for creating a “perfectly imperfect” junk journal are:

• Use what you have! I recycle saddle stitched catalogs and sales booklets for my journals. Get out the staple remover and then trim the pages to your desired folio size. The fold is already set and you’ll know the paper’s grain is correct—parallel to the spine of the book.

Removing staples from a saddle stitched catalog.

• Short pages are welcome. When making folios, if the sheet of paper is not the needed size (16” long is the folio size for my journal), it was folded to accommodate one (8”) page and the other page was short.
• if you don’t want a short page, paste something onto it to make it longer.

Example of a short page in the journal.

• use paint and/or collage to cover up distracting or unwanted text and images on the pages.
• if a page seems too “wimpy” to work on, glue two lightweight pages together to make them stronger/thicker.
• I include at least one folio of a watercolor paper (for painting) and a few uncoated, blank pages for ink drawings, sketches, and hand lettering.
• I like to add envelopes or pockets into the journal to store ephemera and extra paper bits.

A recycled envelope serves as a pocket for small paper bits.

• I paste the daily prompt list at the front of the journal for reference. The printable, provided by Creativity and Coffee, is in a Google drive here.

Daily prompts for Junk Journal July 2025.

Here is my junk journal for Junk Journal July 2025.

Junk journal for Junk Journal July 2025. Size is 8” x 8” x .75”.

Pre-work and collage fodder gathering

Before July 1, when Junk Journal July begins, here are a few activities that get me prepared for a month of journal art making.

• research quotes or poems related to the prompts. This can provide a direction in which to respond to a prompt and a source for hand lettering. 
• pull out the acrylic paints and paint backgrounds on pages. An interesting/colorful page is more approachable than the intimidating blank white page.  
• gather paper scraps and ephemera to tuck into envelopes for collage fodder.
• fussy-cut images from calendars, junk mail, catalogs, etc. for collage fodder.
• replenish my supply of glue sticks.

But first, I need to clean up the work table from making my journal…

The work table needs tidying up!

 

Group collaboration: a Story in Collage and Stitch

In a recent textile workshop, Bringing out the Best: Visually Telling our Stories in Collage and Stitch, with artist and instructor, Merrill Comeau, I had the opportunity to collaborate with three other artists to create a textile collage. 

Collaborative textile collage project in progress.

My fellow collaborators were Michelle, Susan, and Rae, and our group’s theme was “Spring.”  The “visual thinking strategy” exercises in which all workshop attendees participated, generated lists of words, phrases, emotions, memories, shapes, and colors—both symbolically and literally—that were reflective of each of the four seasons. 

Work in progress: a mandala representing Spring.
36” x 36”

This group collaboration project came home with me. The piece is approximately 36” x 36”. I have backed it with a tear-away stabilizer and am in the process of auditioning threads in preparation for free-motion machine appliqué. 

Auditioning threads for free-motion appliqué.

The seasons in collage

Other workshop groups created collages representing the Summer, Fall, and Winter seasons.

Textile collage: Summer

Textile collage: Fall

Textile collage: Winter

For now, I’m undecided about whether our piece should be quilted or not. I’m sure, however, the piece will speak to me at some point to tell me what it needs/wants.

A 100 Day Project made into two textile books;a Make Nine finish

A revisit to my 100 Day Project from 2023 resulted in a two-volume set of stitched and collaged textile books. I learned the slot-and-tab binding technique through this year’s 100 Day Stitch Book project, and decided to use it to compile the individual stitched and collaged compositions from 2023 into a finished piece—a book. Learning from the experience with the 100 Day Stitch Book, the assembly for these two books was smooth and I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.

100 Day Project 2023.
Volume I (left) and Volume II of stitch and fabric collaged compositions.

The new books required covers

With 18 compositions to work into a textile book (a lot of pages that would make a very thick book!), I decided to divide the compositions into two volumes. This made the assembly more manageable and allowed the compositions to relax and expand on the pages.

Making two books/volumes required making two [new] book covers. With these newly stitched covers, I was able to document the name of the project. This is the cover for Volume I (a 12-page book + cover) …

Cover for Volume I. Measurements: 9.75” x 9”

… and this cover is for Volume II (an 8-page book + cover).

Cover for Volume II. Measurements: 9.75” x 9”

In my group of stitched compositions, I had one partially finished page. I decided to finish it so there would be less blank pages. This made a total of 19 compositions divided into two books.

• Volume I: 12-page book with 11 stitched compositions.
• Volume II: 8-page book with 8 stitched compositions.
• Front and back covers are in addition to the inside pages.

A partially completed page from 2023 was finished in 2025 and added to the book.

The inside compositions/pages were all 9” square. The front and back covers, as well as the inside front and inside back covers, were cut slightly wider, at 9.75” x 9”, to accommodate the spines. 

View of the book spines.

View of the front and back covers that wrap around to create the spine.

Discoveries, notes, and tips

To make note of a few things for future slot-and-tab books:

• All the pages are yarn-dyed fabrics [from Diamond Textiles] which are a dream for hand stitching.
• The surged edges of the book’s pages helped when turning the signature right-side-out.

Sewing past the corners on each side.

• When sewing the signatures, I sewed off the edges at the corners (rather than pivoting and turning). The stitch line was used as the guide for turning the corners right-side-out.
• I love the stitching on the backs (wrong sides) as much as the stitching on the fronts! So, I took photos of the compositions (fronts and backs) before assembling the signatures. 

Back sides of two of the stitched compositions.

• The paper folding dummies were extremely necessary as the slot-and-tab assembly does not follow the conventional pagination scheme for book signatures. 
• I’m thinking about adding a pocket in one of the books to hold the paper dummies.

Paper folding dummies for pagination.

Four-page signatures.

Here are a few of my favorite page spreads.

Page spread. 100 Days of Stitch and Fabric Collage, 2023. 

Page spread. 100 Days of Stitch and Fabric Collage, 2023. 

Page spread. 100 Days of Stitch and Fabric Collage, 2023. 

The left page on the spread (below) was the newest composition that was started in 2023 but completed this year.

The additional, new composition is on the left.

A Make Nine 2025 Finish

These textile books are fulfilling one of the UFO prompts for Make Nine 2025.

Make Nine 2025 “UFO” prompt.

Make Nine 2025 tracker. June 1, 2025.

The last page of Volume II.

I’m happy to have these stitched compositions from my 100 Day Project from 2023 in book form. And I do see more slot-and-tab textile books in my future.

Create Daily Tracker 2025, entering the summer season

Today is June 1 which means the first five months of 2025 are behind us. We’re entering the month of June and the summer season. Here’s a check-in on the progress of my Create Daily Tracker for 2025, with five months completed.

January - May, 2025, Create Daily Tracker.

Tracker analysis

January - May consisted of 151 days.

• 100 days were spent on the 100 Day Project for 2025 [Jan. 17 - April 26], the 100 Day Stitch Book. If I spent a significant amount of time also working on another activity that day, I included a small box of with another color in the box for that day.
• 31 days in January were spent working on the January Junk Journal project.

The percentages of time spent on various activities were:

• 5% sewing and garment construction.
• 7% free-motion quilting, which was mostly charity quilts.
• 11% was spent on art projects—painting, collage, art journaling, etc.
• 12% on knitting/yarn projects
• 18% piecing and patchwork
• 40% slow stitching and mending; this includes the 100 Day Stitch Book, and the last half of the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge that started on the Winter Solstice and concluded on the Spring Equinox.

11 days (7%) are marked as Finishes—completed projects from any/all of the above categories/activities.

January - May 2025 creative activities.

With the completion of this year’s 100 Day Project—which involved a lot of hand stitching—the remainder of the year should balance out the percentages of each activity. Unless, however, I stumble upon another enticing slow stitch project in the upcoming months.