Junk Journal 101

I loveee junk journalling and I 100% recommend getting into it if you like being crafty/creative at all, or want to try something new. You can do it in so many different ways and completely personalize it to you.

I'll give you guys a few different ideas and then tell you what supplies are my faves!

Just an FYI - some people are super strict on the "junk" aspect, and would say what I do is actually scrapbooking since I buy supplies. But I think it's whatever you want it to be, and if you want to buy stuff to make it cute, why not?

*not my photos - found on Pinterest*

Inspiration for Spreads

My first recommendation is looking up "junk journal spreads" on Pinterest/Tik Tok/Instagram to start finding inspiration. If you don't know where to start, it's great to see what other people have done and recreate it with your own spin. 

Actual Junk - it's super fun to use receipts, cute packaging, wrappers, etc. to tell a story in your journal! One of my fave things to do is take any flyers, old magazines, or newspapers I can find and cut out anything I see that's cute! For example, a photo of a beach or some products that you love. I also love to cut out letters and do the "ransom note" style. 

Scrapbooking - If you have any polaroid photos or photo booth strips, they always are cute in a spread! This is more the scrapbook style, but I love it. I like to use my journal as a record of my life, so why would I not add photos? You can also make this fun by adding cute paper, washi tape, or just writing about what happened. 

Lists - another really cool thing to do is adding "lists". Books you love, TV shows, movie ratings, your fave songs at the moment, stuff like that. You can add little photos of book/movie covers too, whatever you want. I know a lot of people will even make a dedicated book journal where they track books they've read, rate them, put their TBR list, analyze characters, all that fun stuff. 

Writing - I don't know that most people would really consider this junk journaling. But one thing I love to do is add like one sticker or one photo on a page, and then just surround it with writing. I guess that's just journaling but who cares, add it to your junk journal! Something else I like to do is write letters to myself, then put it in an envelope that I glue down to my page and decorate around it. 

Sentimental Stuff - IDK about you guys but I always keep every card I've ever received. I haven't actually done this yet - but I've seen people do really cute spreads where they cut out pieces of card covers and the messages written inside and make collages from that. If you're like me and have a bunch of random stuff you keep because someone else gave it to you, adding it to your journal is perfect for saving space. 

Collages - Another thing I love to do, especially when I've run out of ideas, is make a collage. I'll pick a theme (usually a color), then take everything I can find relating to that theme and cut it all up to glue together. 

Sisterhood of the Traveling Journal - I haven't tried this one yet, but it's a trend I love to watch. People will make groups (friends or complete strangers) and each make their own journal. They typically make a few pages about themselves, a few fun interactive spreads (ex. everyone write your fave song down), and blank pages. Then they swap journals every couple of weeks until everyone has had the chance to contribute to all the others journals. Definitely search this up because I love watching these videos so much lol. 

Collecting - now that I've been junk journaling for a while, pretty much everywhere I go I am on the hunt for stuff to put in my journal. Maps, brochures, napkins, paper from restaurants, free stickers, business cards, anything I could glue down I will take it. This is my absolute favorite thing of all because it is so fun to search for cute stuff when I'm out and about. At this point, the people I'm with will help me get stuff too! And it makes for excellent additions to your spreads, especially if you make any travel spreads. 

Supplies

I already mentioned some of the different things you can use in your journal, but this section I'll tell you the stuff you can purchase. Of course, it's good to use what you already have to reduce waste. But as a certified hobby-addict, shopping for the supplies is half the fun haha. These are not all essentials, most of them are just extra, fun additions. 

1. Journal

When I was getting into junk journaling, my whole social media feed was people using the travelers journals (like Louise Carmen, Paper Republic). And I wanted one sooo bad. So that is where I do my junk journaling (not in a Louise Carmen lol, I found a travelers journal cover on Amazon). I actually bought a bunch of Craft notebooks. These are relatively cheap to buy, so good for if you're starting out!

Craft Notebooks

You can honestly use anything for your junk journal. A scrapbook, regular notebook, sketchbook, bullet journal - it doesn't need to be expensive at all! I even saw one girl use an old book, she just glued stuff right onto the pages and covered up the words. 

2. Pens

You will discover that the journaling community is very particular about their pens. I personally use the Sharpie gel pens. I also really enjoy using Tombow calligraphy/dual brush pens. I have a bunch of different colors. Crayola markers are also great for writing titles or creating backgrounds. 

Tombow Dual Brush Pen

3. Stickers!

Stickers are my absolute favorite thing ever honestly. I have recently discovered "adult" sticker books and wow. They are so fun, I literally wanna buy em all. 

 

 

The Antiquitarian

Nathalie Lete

John Derian

      

Definitely not necessary but so cute and so fun to use. 

4. Washi Tape

I also really like to use washi tape, either to hold pictures down or to add some decor (page borders, etc.). I don't really use a specific brand, just whatever I can find at craft/book stores. 

Random washi tape

5. Paper

I love adding cool backgrounds to my spreads. You can find scrapbook paper at craft stores, or dollar stores. One thing is it's usually pretty thick which can cause issues eventually (once you're gluing a ton of stuff into a journal it all stacks up lol). But honestly I just use it anyways haha. You can buy cute packs on etsy too!

Random scrapbook paper

6. Sticky Stuff

This is pretty important for actually securing anything to the page! There's lots of different products you can use for different purposes. My favorites are tape runners and glue sticks, but you could also use scotch tape, double sided tape, liquid glue or glue dots! Or probably something else that I don't know about haha. It is nice to have multiple adhesives. For example, using a glue stick works great on paper, but not so great on photos or thicker things. I find tape runners work well on pretty much everything, but they are pretty expensive and run out fast. ALSO - if you use tape runners on photos make sure that they are safe to use on photo backs (it usually says on the packaging). 

 

     Elmer's glue

AdTech tape runner

     

7. Photo Printer

This is more of a splurge, and I waited a while to buy this because the printer I wanted is pretty expensive. But it was 1000% worth it for me! I got a Canon SELPHY CP1500 because it can print 4x6 photos, but on the app you can edit the layout. So I like to edit 4-9 photos onto there and then cut them up after they print! It can get pretty expensive with these types of photo printers because you have to buy ink and special paper refills, but I use mine all the time and it is just soooo convenient.

Canon SELPHY CP1500 Compact Photo Printer

You can also get cheaper printers that use polaroid film, but can print photos directly from your phone. And there's other similar brands. Some people also just make a google doc that they add a bunch of photos from their camera roll and pinterest, then print those off for cheap at a local library or staples type of store. There's lots of options if you want to add photos to your journal spreads. 

8. Cutting Stuff

I personally use 3 different things to cut up my supplies: scissors, x-acto knife, and a paper cutter. The paper cutter is so nice for cutting straight, even lines. Because personally I cannot do that with scissors lol. This pic isn't the one I use but it's a cute little portable one!

Fiskars SureCut Paper Cutter

9. Corner Rounder

This is like my most underrated purchase. It's actually so helpful. My days of trying to cut even corners are over now haha. I wanna get more of these cool shaped stamp cutters? IDK what you call them. Hole punches maybe? I like this one because it has different size options:

Paper corner rounder

10. Other Handy Stuff

Some other random items I use that I didn't have much to say about lol: 

Ruler - sooo helpful for making things even and for pressing down papers when you glue them. 

Pencil/eraser - great for planning out spreads or marking where you need to cut on a paper

Cutting mat - literally any random mat or cardboard works, but great for using your x-acto knife or keeping you from getting glue all over your table

Organizing bins - honestly a necessity once you collect a bunch of supplies. I like having one dedicated to scraps, so when I just need a tiny piece of paper I can look through there!

Hopefully this helped you if you're trying to get into junk journaling. Maybe one of these days I'll be brave enough to post my own spreads lol.