Craft Project - Junk Journal

To keep the pressure off with regards to blog topics, especially as I don’t always feel inspired to write at the moment *gasp* – having said that, I wrote a little story yesterday which I’m happy with – and I don’t want to rush reading just so I can do a book review, I’ll be blogging about my craft projects on Tuesdays.

I finished this junk journal – so-called when off-cuts and leftover scraps are used to fill the journal – last week. I didn’t have a theme as a starting point, which is rare for me. I just wanted to get started with crafting.

The only ‘rule’ I set myself was to use papers I haven’t touched in a long while. I’m terrible with some of my craft stuff – I want to use them but can’t bear to use them because then I’d have used them and, oh my, what if I want to use them for something else? Oh, the dilemma…

It was only after I covered the packet, did I realise I hadn’t taken a photo of it. It’s a chocolate packet, made of slightly thicker cardboard and I saved it with no idea what I might use it for.

When looking through my supplies, I thought it would make a neat cover, especially as the fold in the middle is already scored and a perfect fit for one signature. I layered a square of fabric over the paper as it looked too plain on its own.

Front cover before adding fabric

Completed back cover

I use PVA (white) glue but need to practice more to avoid air bubbles and to stop the paper wrinkling. But I was pretty pleased – given my messy track record – with how the cover turned out.

These are the papers I gathered before making a final decision on what I wanted. Sometimes I go for papers of a uniform size; other times, I choose different sizes. Just depends on my mood.

Once I was happy with the choice and arrangement, I held them together with paper clips to stop them moving around when I’m marking where the holes should go for the thread to bind them together.

And this is how it turned out. Excuse the wonky photos – my fatty cat was wanting attention at the same time.

When it comes to deciding on the closure, whatever I imagine in my mind never translates into reality! After some experimenting, I’m pleased with how this closure has turned out with the buttons.

It’s not too clear from the photo but to keep the journal closed, the thread is wound around the brad once then wrapped around the journal before being wound twice around the brad again.

I’ve decided to use this for some of my favourite quotes and a few random pictures.

I really like this size, but that was the only packet I had… I might have to buy more. Just as well it’s dark chocolate, my favourite.