This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Gahnique Bell. Find her on Instagram at @s14rbur81_g4l4xy. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
Have you ever heard of junk journaling? Are you looking for a new hobby? Perhaps you already know about junk journaling and you ‘re trying to brainstorm some junk journaling ideas. Look no further! Junk journaling is a creative hobby that reuses recycled materials like magazines, newspapers, fabric, tickets, receipts, and postcards to record memories, journal, or use it as part of an art journal. It’s different from other types of journaling like bullet journaling which is mainly used for notes, ideas, events, goals, organization, and tracking daily lives and scrapbooking which consists of photos, art, cards, tickets, and any other materials that can be used as a way to document you daily life. Junk journaling is pretty much if both scrapbooking and bullet journaling had a baby. This new hobby started off as a scrapbooking trend during the 19th century when people were starting to document their lives. People would use cheap materials to log their memories in books, and often used as a catalogue for recipes, coupons, marketing, and even technological advancements.
Over the years, scrapbooking has become one of the largest arts and craft hobbies and even turned into something people could do digitally. People dedicated themselves to going out to local craft stores and buying supplies that would be rather expensive for scrapbooking to make it look pretty, organized, and aesthetically pleasing. But as we all know, things are too expensive these days, so as an act against the expensive effort to make everything perfect, junk journaling was born. Instead of buying materials that would break the bank, junk journaling gives you the chance to utilize what you already have. Got some old magazines lying around? Receipts stuffed in your bag? Extra pieces of fabric? All of these things would be great to start your very own junk journal. But wait. How do you make a junk journal anyway? Read on to find out!
Creating A Junk Journal
Junk journaling has become it’s own fun hobby that people are starting to invest in. I have seen plenty of people use junk journaling in various of creative ways that always leave me in awe. Some ways people have used junk journaling is by using them as a planner, art journals, documentation, a collection, art, etc. The main objective of a junk journal is to be creative with it! It doesn’t have to be perfect so embrace the imperfections and make it wild, messy, and fun for yo to enjoy. It’s great for people who just need a place to stick r place something, jot down ideas, or simply record your favorite memories. There are so many possibilities when it comes to junk journaling, which makes so much more fun to put together! But in order to start making one of your own you’re gonna need some supplies.
Junk journaling has become it’s own fun hobby that people are starting to invest in. I have seen plenty of people use junk journaling in various of creative ways that always leave me in awe. Some ways people have used junk journaling is by using them as a planner, art journals, documentation, a collection, art, etc. The main objective of a junk journal is to be creative with it! It doesn’t have to be perfect so embrace the imperfections and make it wild, messy, and fun for yo to enjoy. It’s great for people who just need a place to place something, jot down ideas, or simply record your favorite memories. There are so many possibilities when it comes to junk journaling, which makes so much more fun to put together! But in order to start making one of your own you’re gonna need some supplies.
Let’s start with the supplies.
Supplies
Next, your gonna need supplies.You probably have most of the items in your house but if if you feel like adding more a pizzazz to your journal you can take a trip to your favorite local arts and craft store. Most craft stores have a variety of different paper and materials you can use in your junk journaling. Don’t be afraid to get creative with it!
One of the first things that you need to get is a journal. First things first is your gonna need a journal. It can be any kind of journal that you can get your hands on. It doesn’t have to be fancy or anything. It could be something cheap from Walmart or a simple dollar store. You just need something to get started with. It you wanna go for a more aesthetic route or you just want a specific journal you could look on Amazon for journals.
How your junk journal look all depends on you!
Papers, Please
Paper is of course a very important part of junk jounraling or any kind of jounraling. Depending on how you want to decorate the page you can use any type of paper that’s around your house. This can be computer paper, magazine pages, junk mail, tea dyed paper (if you’re going for an old vintage style), or ready to use scrap book paper from Michales or Hobby Lobby.
You can print stuff out as well if you have a printer! Printable are also a good way to add decorations to your journals. Sites like Etsy has thousands of wonderful design that you can choose from. However, with printables it requires you to use a ton of ink in the long run so try not to go overboard with it (unless of course you totally don’t mind spending 20 dollars on ink). Other supplies related to paper is a paper trimmer! Of course, a regular pair of scissors would work, but it will be a bit tedious cutting every single piece of paper. You can use paper trimmers to cut the corners of the paper you would be using and it can make your journal more neat if that’s the angle you want to take your junk journaling.
Basic Sewing Materials
For junk journals, people learned how to create their own cover of their own journal to give it more of an arts and craft feel to it. For this, you just need a basic set of sewing needles, thread, and fabric (or your favorite decorative paper). To make the cover simple fold some paper together in half hamburger style and start to stitch the paper to thread with the thread then viola! Junk Journal cover has now been completed.
Markers and Pens
You can never go wrong with a set of markers to dot up a journal. Though cheap and usually something a 1st grader would use, Crayola markers would be a great place to start as a small form of opportunity. They have a variety of colors to choose from and would be perfect for writing in your junk journal. If you want something that’s a little more fancy to draw and sketch, then I highly recommend Ohuhu markers and Arrtx markers. These are great for not only writing as well, but for little doodles and illustrations that yo can add to the page if you ever feel bored or just need something to spice up the pages in your junk journaling a bit.
Glue
What’s a scrapbook without glue to stick your favorite decorations in your junk journal? Stick glue, Elmer’s, glue, gorilla glue (okay maybe not gorilla glue, but you get the gist). Glue is how you will be able to stick all of your favorite decorations onto your journal. If your not so much into glue, consider using tape! It works just as well and might even last longer than glue.
And there you have it! A list of basic supplies to help you get started on your junk journal journey! If you want to learn more about journaling and how to use it to document and navigate your life, check out this article right here.
What are some junk journal ideas you came up with to put in your journal? Let us know in the comments!
Leave a Reply