Faith Hale 
You know that feeling of spending a long time searching for something and when you finally find that thing, a voice inside you exclaims “THIS is what I meant!”? That’s exactly how I felt when trying out junk journaling. If you’ve spent any time in online craft spaces, junk journaling has likely crossed your view. I love collaging and altered books, but felt intimidated by the junk journals I had seen because it looked like it required tons of supplies and a lot of pre-planning or expertise.
I’ve since discovered, of course, that this is just not the case. The materials and reasons for junk journaling (and even the definition of what junk journaling exactly is) are as diverse as their makers. For me, it’s a creative practice that gives the opportunity to make aesthetically interesting compositions using daily detritus as an element, and getting to be reminded later on of specific experiences when I look at the pages. You collect scraps from your day and at the end of the day, you get them down on the page in a way that looks and feels fun to you.
It differs from scrapbooking and art journaling in a few ways, though there are tons of overlap: in my practice, junk journaling is messier and less cohesive, prioritizing expression over pre-planning and capturing daily life more often than special experiences. When it comes to the materials you’re using, it’s less about preservation and more about process and exploration.
I feel perfection pressure about so many of the mediums I chose to work with: bookbinding, knitting, sewing, even baking require following precise directions. On the other hand, give me a medium that requires me to be entirely creative, like drawing or painting, and I quickly feel overwhelmed by the excess of options and an anxiety-producing lack of skill. Instead, junk journaling mostly utilizes a commitment to the page and to the practice, a intuitive pace, and the literal substance of daily life. I love that zing of delight I feel when I’m about to toss something in the trash and I realize I can put it in my junk journal. It has – admittedly – turned me into a trash goblin but LOOK at how groovy these pages are and tell me it’s not worth it!
To get started junk journaling, you’ll need a small-ish notebook – I dig 6 x 9″ – scissors, a glue stick, decorative paper (scrapbook paper, magazine pages, patterned paper, maps, etc.), and smallish, flatish things you’d normally throw away. Think: packaging of any kind, stickers, notecards, junk mail, receipts – the sky’s the limit. Or is it the trash can? In the spreads above, you’ll find scratch paper I used to work out projects and rough drafts, packaging from pens, white-out, granola, and crackers, a card sent by a friend, marbled paper I made, paper packaging, maps and notes and magazine pages and so much more.
I prefer a blank book but starting absolutely from scratch can be even more fun: junk journal queen Jen Perkins shows how to make your own in this live shoot. For page techniques, you may want to explore the altered book classes on Creativebug hosted by me and my very favorite Creativebug artist and creative mentor-to-many Courtney Cerruti. If you want artistic inspiration, art journaler Dawn DeVries Sokol has several classes on Creativebug that can guide and inspire you.
And while your pages may not be decodable to anyone else, they can represent days that felt commonplace at the time but that become special in the recording: getting a pizza with my daughter and then going to the playground where we found a little free library that had so many old books about animals, reading them together and sharing an ice cream cone. I got to revisit that feeling while I assembled the page, and get to revisit it again now. It’s time travel, it’s beautiful and cathartic, and I absolutely love it.
