I have a collection of really cool art supplies—acrylic paints, gel mediums, stencils, various papers and collage materials—from several workshops I took at Ephemera Paducah. I love these supplies! And it's fun to get messy and creative with them. But it's been a while...
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| Junk Journal January 2023. |
Happily, serendipity presented itself in December when I discovered the Junk Journal January Challenge, an online challenge hosted by Meg of @megjournals. This would be just the thing to motivate and inspire me to work with my art journaling supplies.
Making my Junk Journal
A junk journal is the perfect recycling project! Go to the waste basket and pull out all kinds of papers— brown paper bags, old envelopes, mailers, old calendars, cereal boxes, etc.—in essence, "junk." For my journal, I recycled old sales boards and flyers for my 3-signature, hand sewn journal.
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| Recycle old papers and envelopes to create a junk journal. |
Three signatures were sewn into the spine. Each signature is between 16 - 24 pages. The journal cover is 8.5" x 5.75" and the inside pages are slightly smaller at approximately 5.5" x 8.5". I made the cover slightly larger to accommodate any collage elements or embellishments that might extend beyond the inside pages.
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| Journal spine showing three signatures sewn into it. |
Filling the journal pages with art
Bring out all the art-making goodies: paints, brushes, stencils, glue sticks, my hand-carved rubber stamps, decorative tapes, and collected ephemera! A box of yarn crumbs, paper bits and cut-offs from other stitching and art projects were also gathered to play along in this art festival.
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| Work area with junk journal supplies and tools. |
The Day 1 prompt was "Resolutions," which turned into my prescription for what to use in my journal. Lots of the other participants interpreted this prompt in a similar way. (Who makes New Year's resolutions any more, anyway??)
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| Day 1 prompt: Resolutions. |
Responses to the daily prompts can be single pages or 2-page spreads. Here are other pages and spreads that have been created in my junk journal so far.
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| Day 2: Starry (left) and Day 3: Stained (right). |
A junk journal is also a great space to try out new art supplies... like Posca paint pens. The page for the "Decorated Tag" prompt was fittingly embellished with these pens.
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| Day 4: Decorated Tag (left) and Day 5: Routine (right). |
The "Stitched" prompt deserved a 2-page spread. Strands of embroidery floss, knit swatches and other bits from the yarn box came into play for this prompt.
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| Day 6: Stitched |
Sometimes I find a quote that incorporates the prompt.
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| Day 9: Shimmer |
I want to find more opportunities to incorporate stitch and fibers into the pages. Stitching and threads provide an exciting tactile aspect to the pages.
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| Day 13: Hobbies (left) and Day 14: From the Day (right). |
Rounding the halfway point
Today is Day 22 and Junk Journal January is more than half way through! It's been a good exercise to flex the art muscles, get reacquainted with my art supplies, do a little up-cycling, and be messy and creative for [at least] a few minutes a day.
