A few months ago I stumbled on some YouTube videos of people making junk journals. A junk journal is exactly like it sounds - a journal made out of junk - whatever you have lying around the house. People make them out of old notecards, envelopes, junk mail, scrap paper, paper bags, magazines, calendars, coffee filters, tea bags - just about anything made out of paper, though here lately people have started incorporating fabric remnants and plastic photo protectors. You can use them as a diary or scrapbook or day planner. Some people use them to write down their shopping lists; others write down what they're thankful for each day. I'm not really a writer, but I love making these junk journals. Most of all, it's helping me use up the gobs of paper I've collected over the years.
I've made journals with a beach theme, butterflies, flowers,
vintage, shabby chic, travel,
back-to-school, Christmas, and Halloween. I'm addicted.
While we were on vacation, a fellow journal maker,
I'm a Cool Mom, posted a challenge on YouTube to make a junk journal out of items purchased at the Dollar store. She gave everyone a $15 limit and allowed people to use basic supplies that you have at home (like glue and scissors). Even though I missed the deadline, I was obsessed with this challenge. I went to Dollar Tree the next day and bought my stuff: a calendar, a book, some legal paper, notecards, memo pad, stickers, bulletin board decorations, sequin trim, playing cards, notebook dividers, construction paper, goggle glasses, and a kitty collar - only 13 items though I ended up not using the deck of cards.
I wanted to do something different, and since this challenge was a bit crazy anyway, I went with the
Despicable Me calendar.
I think it ended up being really, really cute. I don't usually do a junk journal quite this thick and I never bind it into a real book (what a pain), but there are so many pages, you could probably write in this thing for a year. I did do one "cheat" beyond the guidelines that were set. I used a piece of yellow fabric I had leftover from an American Girl outfit to make the cover. I glued the kitty collar underneath the goggles so you'd have a way to close the book, because it is really fat. What a hoot!
