Debris Diary Aka Junk Journal

I have been wanting to make a junk journal for awhile so this was the perfect opportunity. I craft lots of different things so I aways have scraps of this and that lying around. I knew I wanted to be able to write and draw in my journal. I love to doodle and draw. That helped me decide on the papers to use. I also like to keep things that I find interesting and think, hmm, maybe I can use this later. I keep scrap yarn and small pieces of paper, especially the origami paper my aunt sent me from Japan!

OK, you will need to gather your materials. Mostly anything that normal people throw away or recycle. (I love to recycle and repurpose!)

First, I have the recycled boxes. Cereal boxes, dog treats, and GIRL SCOUT COOKIE BOXES! I loved them because of the colors. I did not eat all the cookies...

Second, the origami papers.

Third, envelopes. I know it's weird but like I said I keep things that I think I can use. These were holographic, beautiful colors,and one had a really cool texture.

Fourth, just scraps of stuff I thought I might use. Bags, denim, ribbon from Bath and Body-have you seen these? They are gorgeous.

Fifth, the supplies I think I'll need. Brushes, glues-different types for different papers. materials, stencils,scissors or paper cutter.

Sixth, paints in a variety of colors.

and lastly, different types of card stock, lots of colors and patterens.

Now, I did come across some things that I didn't start out with and you will see those later on. It took a long time to do this. I worked on it a little at a time, sometimes hours at a time, lol. Waiting on paint and glue to dry! Do you know how long it takes paint to dry while your staring at it?

I didn't want a huge journal and the dog treat box seemed a great size. I trimmed the edges off some and then glued them down. I had to put some pressure on it so it stayed down. After it dried, I took some packing paper, like from Amazon boxes, crumpled it more, then glued it down on the outside of the box. I used Elmers glue and watered it down-DON'T do that. It did not leave the crumpled look I wanted. Too much water made it lay flat. I would use something different if I did it over.

After the front dried, I found this cool paper, with lines and some blue flecks. It came from a box of shoes! It worked great and I love it. I just used the glue, not watered down. I tore the edges to give it a cool look.

After all that dried, I used part of an insurance envelope and made a front pocket. I made a back pocket using a little brown lunch sack. I painted that blue and trimmed it with washi tape.

I used bubble wrap to make a pattern on the outside of the journal. I used some ink stamps too. Didn't really like the way that came out though. I am going to make some paper flowers to put on top of it. I also put origami paper down the binding but I realized I needed to cover this up later after the signatures were in place so the beading string didn't show. You may use colored string if you want it to show. It's up to you!

A signature is a section of a book. They are bound together so the pages turn easily, especially on a thick book. You can see evidence of this in older books.

So I have dedcided to use the Girl Scout cookie boxes for the outside of my signatures. I gathered paints, brushes, a beenie Weenie can, and a paper towel.

The first one is green so I painted the brown side of the box green then dipped the can into the paint to make a design. Let it dry and move on to the next. I used blue and just blended 2 shades so they were ombre.

The next was mostly yellow and orange, both colors I do not care for-except in flowers! I painted the back yellow and after it dried I balled up a papertowel and daubbed paint onto half the box.

After they were all dry, somtimes you have to use 2 + coats of paint- I glued some other papers on them. I used origami paper and other paper scraps. Also later you will see the Dentyne Fire and the Lindt Bar fronts. I just loved the gold accents.

You can use whatever you have-AKA-JUNK journal. And you can paint it however you like. You really don't even have to paint it. You could just glue some other papers on top of the back of the boxes or just leave them natural

I have many signatures I am using to make my journal. I want different papers inside- drawing paper, writing/lined paper, colored paper just to possibly glue things into like movie stubs, game tickets, memory things. I gathered papers according to their color themes. I cut typing paper to the size that I felt it neede to be to fit inside the book cover- the dog treat box. I cut it so that it could be folded in half. From there, I made a template to go by, which we will use later for placing the holes for sewing, yes, I said sewing, the papers together.

Now the lined paper was a different story. I didn't want to buy anything for this project-Use What You Got! I ran across my sons old composition books. You know the ones. Not spiraled- because those lay the paper so nice and flat- and that would be too easy for the kids to use. No they must use the black and white comp books that DON'T lay flat so you can't really use the back of the paper. Anyway, enough of my pet peeves. I knew he didn't use all of those pages in the books. I proceeded to cut them out. I then had to cut those papers to size but since they weren't long enough to fold in half I had to figure something else out. How am I going to get these papers in the sigatures? I knew I couldn't sew them in because I couldn't fold them and the lines be horizontal. Well, I had some scrap wood and some large clips. I put the paper in the make shift book binder press, daubbed Elmer's on the edge to make the pages stay together. Let it dry. Lots of downtime on this project. I repeated the gluing process once more and it was great. The pages stayed. Then I just glued that into the spot I wanted it to be.

Using the template you made, place it inside the pages. I know this shows I did it on the outside. I found the holes came out better when it was inside. Use your clamps to hold the papers in place. Now you should've already decided where to put the holes. You may want 2 or 3 , or 5 or 6. I did 3. Place the papers on a hard surface, I used my wood scrap, line the awl up on the hole and smash it with the hammer! This was stress relieving. After all the holes are punched, remove the template. You will need this later.

Thread the needle with the string or whatever your using. I used some beading thread I had- (UWYG!) It's very strong, but any thread will do. Now leave a tail long enough for you to tie it off. Just sew it back and forth through the holes. Do it however many times you think you need to so it stays together.

Here you can see the finished signatures. I ended up with 5. They are not excactly the same size but that's the way I wanted it. I wanted some of the papers sticking out, just not sticking out of the binding. They are full of color. Full of paper. Full of repurposed trash!

Now you need your template to make the holes in the book spine so you can attach the signatures. I have 5 so I need 5 holes across my spine plus the 3 holes per signature. That equals 15 holes. I cut the template to fit the inside spine of my book. Then using the signature template I found the middle and drew a line. I drew 2 more lines equally spaced on both sides of the middle line. This gives me 5 lines for my 5 signatures. I took the original template and just matched up the hole marks on each line.

I clipped the brown template inside the spine and proceeded to punch the holes. You don't have to hit it too hard. You could probably just push it through. I finally had my 15 holes. They look pretty good..

I began sewing the signature I wanted at the back of the book first. Make sure it's facing the right way. Just continue doing that with each signature until you are finished. Make sure to pull the thread tight. The beading thread worked nicely because it tied tight without too much effort. Plus I was able to cover the outside spine with more origami paper.

I made some bookmarks with some of my scraps and a few extra finds. I like the pink one especially. I used some old pink tissue paper, crumpled up. I glued it onto the back side of the marbled paper because it was white. Blah. I just gently ripped it away after it was dry, leaving a cool edge. On the colored side, I glued jute down for my string and added some beads.

The green tag was actually a tag from a piece of clothing. The ribbon was already there and the paper feels velvety smooth. I really liked it so I just kept it like that. Less work for me!

The little sayings came from some tea bags my mom had. I like them. Nice touch. Extra encouragment.

I also added the Bath and Body ribbon as a large marker for my journal. I just hot glued it on.

It's been a long journey.. for me and the journal and the junk! But finally it has found a beautiful end other than the garbage dump. This was so much fun. I am so excited to use it now. When I was finished, I weighed my journal. 1 pound 3 ounces! That's not to bad. I used so many things that would've been throw out or recycled.

The stuff-

-dog treat box

-5 Girl Scout cookie boxes

-tissue box

-Dentyne gum box

-5 Lindt bar wrappers

-2 envelopes

-tissue paper and shoe box paper

-Amazon packing paper

-paper bag

-Bath and Body ribbon

-clothing tag

-teabag tags

-Kerrygold butter box (on a bookmark)

-old composition notebook paper

The rest was things I had

-scraps of paper

-ribbons

-button

-paint

-washi tape

What a great way to repurpose and USE WHAT YOU GOT!

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