Inspire Creativity By Making And Giving An Adorable Christmas Or Birthday Junk Journal With Quilted Cover

Maybe you are looking for a last minute gift for Christmas or a birthday. Here’s an idea that will help you use up some of your scrap stash and will wow the person you are giving it to.

Let’s make it:

• What is a junk journal?
• Decide on a theme for your junk journal
• Watercolor hardback journal
• A variety of items to glue in your junk journal
• How to make paper unique to add to your journals.
• Choose a variety of fabric for your patchwork squares.
• Use low loft batting.
• You will need Fabric for backing which is actually going to line your junk journal cover.
• Sew a running stitch around the patchwork squares with Perle Cotton thread you want to accent.
• Add some applique or either scrap back or raw edge applique.
• Sew your backing and quilt patchwork topper together with the batting in the middle leaving about 2″ unsewn for turning.
• Turn, press, and sew the opening closed.
• Attach to your journal by turning back corners and sewing each folded corner to the top and side of your journal.

The good thing about creating a junk journal is that you can use a lot of things you have on hand. Come up with a simple theme. Pick out fabrics that coordinate well and get to work.

What Is A Junk Journal

If you are new to junk journals they are a fun creative way to journal. It’s a very unconventional, very creative and individual journal! You put paper pockets, trim, assorted greeting cards, papers, like graph paper, assorted art papers, magazine pictures, junk mail (yes even junk mail) ephemera, paper flowers, tissue paper, paper bags, etc… whatever you have on hand or purchase specifically for the journal you are making. You leave part of the page open for journaling or glue in other paper to journal on. Tear paper page edges, use scissors with decorative edges, stamps, and other kinds of media. Search online for lots and lots of fun ideas.

Choose Your Theme

What kind of a junk journal do you want to create? Think about the person you are making it for. Are they nature minded? Sports driven? Flower or garden lover? Love Christmas or would like to keep track of this year’s Christmas list and activities? The sky is the limit or your imagination maybe is the limit to what you can create. Come up with a theme you can use throughout the junk journal. This makes decorating the pages much easier.

Find A Watercolor Journal

Watercolor you ask? Maybe the person you are giving this junk journal to isn’t a budding artist but they can certainly entertain the idea and it doesn’t matter because they can determine how fancy they get with their journaling. The cool thing is the pages can take mixed media so you can use watercolors, markers, pencils pens, crayons in addition to the items you put in the journal. (More about that in a minute.) Watercolor journals come in all shapes and sizes so pick one that fits the size you want to work with.

I use a 10″ x 10″ and really like this size.

What To Put In Your Junk Journal

First go back to your goal and your theme in creating this journal. If it has a Christmas theme then you can use all kinds of greeting cards, tags, wrapping paper, brown paper bags, things that will give you a Christmas vibe. Go with your theme and put in things that will support the theme you chose. If you really don’t need a theme and just want to create individual pages with whatever you have around the house, that is okay too. Make sure you have pages where there is plenty of room to write your thoughts, lists, ideas, etc… Did you know you can even use a junk journal as a planner. I love that idea because I find that regular planners don’t work for me. You got this. Try creating a junk journal and see what you think.

Add Extra Unique Paper To Your Journals

When I create a junk journal, I also like to add unique art paper. Walmart sells a pad of paper for young artists in their crayon, pen, and poster paper section. It is fairly inexpensive. I like the texture. It’s lighter weight than the watercolor paper but perfect for journaling and drawing with pens, pencils, and colored pencils.

I tear a page out of the art paper sketchbook. Take a ruler and place it about 1/2 ” away from the edge of your paper. Press down on the ruler with your left hand and with your right hand tear the paper by the other side of the ruler. It gives the paper a cool looking torn edge.

Then take the paper an fold the straight edge side of he paper about a 1/2″. Apply stick glue down the folded edge of the paper and put the paper near the middle fold of the book. Press the folded edge down so it will adhere to your journal.

Add pages from budget books, novels, scratch paper, computer paper scrunched and then straightened out and folded over. Endless possibilities and it’s funny when you start creating your mind will catch hold of all kinds of ways to decorate your junk journal pages.

Make The Patchwork Cover

Let me talk fabric here for a minute. I love the German fabric Acufactum.

(I have to buy it online. The two stores I like to purchase it from are Got Kwilts and Willow Cottage Fabric Co. Great customer service and excellent service from both stores.) It works really good to have a variety of fabric prints with cute people or animals on it. You’ll have to take a look at the variety of these fabrics they carry. Super, super cute.

• Measure the length and height of your watercolor book.

• Cut out patchwork squares the size you want to use that will cover your watercolor journal. Sew your patchwork or quilt squares the way you want them to look.
• Sew your squares so they are long enough and tall enough to cover your journal.
• Add enough fabric at the top and the bottom and at the end of your book so you can fold your patchwork squares back a little on the top and the bottom of your book once you sew the backing on.
• After sewing your patchwork topper together, cut out low loft batting to match the size of your topper.
• Sew a running stitch around some of your squares that you want to accent. (This goes through the topper and the batting.)
• Add backing to your journal cover. It should coordinate with the fabric that will show on your journal.
• Lay your backing fabric right side up on a table. Lay your topper with the batting right sides together on top of the backing. Sew around the edge leaving about 2 inches unsewn. Turn inside out.
• Press.
• Sew the open edge closed.

• Add some scrapback applique if you want to or raw edge applique. Either one would be really cute on your scrapbook cover. It just depends how much time you want to spend making your cover.
• Attach cover to your junk journal.
• Add lace or trim to the top, bottom and side edges of the patchwork cover after it is attached. Use hot glue to attach.

Attach To Your Journal

Fold the front of your cover over the front edge of your journal.

Attach the edge of the top of your cover to the top of your journal. Do the same to the bottom edge of the inside of the junk journal. Gift away! Don’t be surprised if you end up keeping the journal for you.

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