junk journal | Julie Dawn Designs

August 31, 2024

Sad to See Summer Go

I love summer. It’s by far my favorite time of the year, especially if we are lucky enough to take a trip to the beach. That is like icing on the cake for me.

Now that school is back in session and September begins tomorrow, it’s time to gear up and make more journals. My youngest is driving, which is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, so I am finally free of carpool lines. The only thing I miss about that is I used to read while waiting for school to get out. Now I don’t do that as much anymore, so I need to find time to fit that back in somewhere.

I have made a few new journals since my last post. I’m also teaching a four hour workshop a the Craft Guild of Dallas in September on how to hand stitch a bird. It’s a cute little sparrow that one can make as simple or as detailed as one likes. All you need is some fabric and needle and thread.

Here are some of the journals I recently completed:

This is Song of the Marsh. I love this kit and haven’t made one in a while. It’s always been one of my favorites. I also used images from the Graphics Fairy premium membership site.

I just LOVE Halloween, so when I saw this digital Wednesday Adams journal kit, I knew I had to purchase it and make a journal from it. I love the way it turned out.

This digital kit is just so cute and fun, so I had to buy it and make a journal out of it. I really need to stop buy digital kits, but someone always comes out with something new that is just so great that I have to buy it.

This is a junk journal in one of my favorite styles to make. I could make these all day long. It’s also a great way to use up fabric scraps.

I made one similar to this that is in the gallery at the Craft Guild, so I wanted to make another one because it’s just so cute. This one is kind of a hybrid junk journal, as it contains mostly white, blank papers, with a few colored papers scattered throughout.

This is yet another digital kit that I fell in love with and had to buy. From the images on the cover, I’m sure you can see why.

The last two are these two beautiful fairy journals. I just love the grungy look with the pink and peach tones.

That’s all for now. I hope everyone had a great summer!

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.

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.

junk journal — Mermaid Junk Journal Side view

December 27, 2017December 27, 2017

Halloween on Christmas

My 11 year old daughter asked me to make a junk journal for her as a Christmas gift. I asked what theme she wanted it to have and she replied “monsters, vampires, ghosts, witches and wizards.

I immediately thought how appropriate this was, since we love Halloween and all things scary. It also reminded me of lines from one of my favorite Blink 182 songs titled I Miss You:

“Hello there
The angel from my nightmare
The shadow in the background of the morgue
The unsuspecting victim
Of darkness in the valley
We can live like Jack and Sally if we want
Where you can always find me
And we’ll have Halloween on Christmas
And in the night we’ll wish this never ends
We’ll wish this never ends”

halloween junk journal — Front cover made from an altered book

halloween journal — Embellishments from vampire book

November 19, 2017November 19, 2017

My First Junk Journal

coffee and tea dyed papers — Coffee and Tea Dyed Papers

My obsession with dyeing papers has not waned. This is a stack of various papers that I dyed in coffee and tea to use in a new journal I created. This time, I used all sorts of papers, including drawings, book pages, scrapbook paper, etc. instead of just plain paper. I did not dry these outside, but baked them in the oven instead. I love the texture that the heat gives the paper. It’s a more labor intensive process, but it works great if it isn’t hot and sunny outside.

eco dyed papers — First Batch of Eco Dyed Papers

Next, I tried eco dyeing for the first time and I quickly fell in love. This is something I’ve wanted to try for ages, but it just sounded too complicated. I finally discovered a method that was simple enough for me to give it a shot and I’m so glad I did. The first time I did it, I didn’t use watercolor paper, but mixed media paper and the paper did not hold up as well. I also didn’t have a large enough cover, so there is a lot of dark space on the pages.

I learned from my mistakes the second time around and I love the way it turned out!

Below are pictures of the journal I made using my dyed papers.

tea dyed junk journal page — Tea Dyed Book Page with Fabric Tab

junk journal pages — Pocket Made From Scrapbook Paper

junk journal pocket — Pocket Made From a Security Envelope

fabric book tags — Beginning to Add Fabric Tabs and Ruffles

This entire process was new for me. The journal construction itself was a completely different method than I have used before.

Full disclosure – I originally created this journal with the intention that it would be donated to a silent auction at our church, but I became too attached to it and had to create another one to donate.

Until next time….