Junk Journals | Julie Dawn Designs

May 4, 2024

Where has the time gone?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure where March and April went. How did it get to be May already? Time seems to be flying by and I completely failed to post lately and for that I apologize .

I have been busy getting ready for the Spring Show and Sale at the Craft Guild of Dallas. It starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday. I just hope the weather cooperates because it is outside and we have had a lot of rain lately, especially on the weekends.

I made some true junk journals that are for sale on the Craft Guild’s Online Gallery. They are so much fun to make and it gives me a chance to use up all those fabric and paper scraps I seem to have so many of. Here are some photos of the four that I have made so far.

This first one is called Soar and was inspired by the orange butterfly that I cut out from a tapestry that my daughter was getting rid of. That was a great find for me and there are a lot of beautiful butterflies I was able to salvage from it.

Here is a picture of some of the pages inside. They are truly a random mix of papers. The thing I like most about these journals is that the pages aren’t bound at all. They are folded and then tied into the journal with either string or elastic. This way, pages can be slipped in or out and you can keep the cover for as long as you want.

This next one is called Bunny Rides and I just love the images for this one, not to mention the gorgeous color scheme.

Here is a picture of the inside.

The third one is called Frenchie and I just love how dapper he is.

Here is a sample of a the inside.

Here is the last one and it’s called Soar and features another butterfly from the tapestry.

Here are some of the pages.

That’s all for now. I hope to post again next month with more journals to share and maybe a textile collage or two.

June 17, 2023

Unicorn Journal

I have been wanting to make a journal like this for quite some time. When this digital kit came available, I knew I had to buy it.

Here is a picture of some of the elements included in it and the signatures I made from the pages in the kit.

So far, I’ve sewn in the signature covers and started decorating the front and back covers, as well as the spine.

I was trying to decide between these two ideas for the front cover:

It was a difficult decision, but my daughter told me the one with more butterflies was better than the one with less, so that is the one I went with. Now I’m working on the back cover and then I will finish decorating the spine. After that, it’s time to add pockets and ephemera to the pages inside and then it will be complete.

January 23, 2022

Sunday Afternoon Vibe

It’s been cold here lately, probably not compared to a lot of places, but for Texas. Today finally warmed up to 64 degrees with very little wind. Cooper decided to take advantage of it.

It’s such a weird way to lay, with his belly pressed up against the cabinet. All I can come up with is that the sun had warmed the cabinet and this way, he is able to get sun on his front and his back.

We have really old windows with zero UV protection, so the sun can really warm things up inside. I wonder if he is going to be disappointed when we get the windows replaced next month.

I’ve been hard at work on more journals. The latest one was really a challenge. I finished the cover without too many issues, but then when I went to put the signatures in, I realized the pages were all about an inch too short. I ended up having to add an inch of some sort of embellishment or a tab to every page to get them the right size. Once that was done, the signatures almost ended up being too thick to fit inside the journal. I finally got it finished and photographed today.

This is another I made after taking the online course The Beauty Within. I really enjoyed the course and it’s really fun to take a hardcover book and flip it inside out and turn it into a journal.

This is the first one I made from the course.

Now I’m on to the next one. I haven’t decided what type it will be yet. I still have a long way to go to get enough to sell at the Craft Guild Show in April. I wanted to make enough so that I would need two tables, but junk journals take a lot of time to make, so my next one might have to be something a bit less time consuming.

April 22, 2018April 27, 2018

Nature Study Junk Journal

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so I just wanted to share some of what I’ve been working on.

Enjoy!

December 27, 2017December 27, 2017

Mermaid Themed Junk Journal

After making my first junk journal, I knew I was hooked, so I decided to alter a book and create another one. I found this amazing mermaid book at Half Price Books, so I decided that would be my theme. I bought another mermaid book and found some vintage mermaid images and from that, I created my first Mermaid Junk Journal.