stonepicnicking_okapi

My first attempt to make a junk journal was for Hobbit's birthday (aka Super Secret Craft Project #1). If you aren't familiar a junk journal is here is one definition:

A junk journal is a book made out of found and recycled materials. It is often handmade and can be used to collect and record memories, thoughts, ideas, and inspiration. The journal can be made out of different pages and ephemera, such as packaging, junk mail, paper scraps, book pages, music sheets, maps, illustrations, and ephemera. Rather than discarding meaningful objects from your day-to-day life, you give them a home in the journal.

If you want to see one, just search for 'Junk Journal flip through' on Youtube and you will get your fill!

I am much more inspired when I craft for other people than for myself. I first got the idea of making this journal when I went to look for some kind of fannish item to buy

smallhobbit for her birthday related to one of her favorite fandoms: the dance productions of Sir Matthew Bourne (British choreographer). I couldn't find much so I decided to make a junk journal with a Matthew Bourne theme.

Every journal project is different and this one I had in mind: interaction. I wanted to provide Hobbit with as much interaction as possible. No writing space. This wasn't a journal she would write in (because frankly in our years of friendship I've never heard her talk about keeping a journal). One thing I need to improve is beadwork. I don't know much about how to add beads but I did my best with the tassel and the embellishments of the pages. One of the most fun parts of a very fun process is the trim of the pages so I was very excited to find creative ways to use ribbon, trim, stickers, and other things to decorate the page edges.

So I gutted a book and made 2 signatures (bundles of pages) and bound them into the cover. The first signature's theme was the Bourne version of Swan Lake and the second was the Bourne version of Carmen called "The Car Man."

Then I decorated the pages with many, many interactive elements. Flip ups, flip downs, flip out, envelopes. I also printed out two of Hobbit's ficlets and cut some of the words and pasted them on the pages. I ordered a used copy of Matthew Bourne: His Adventures in Dance and used that, too.

30 pages, 9 postcards, 17 tags.

So here are some examples from the Swan Lake signature.

This is an example of a flip out. You flip out the movable part. This includes Hobbit's ficlet as well as the cover of the Bourne book (the Swan of Swan Lake).

This is an example of an envelope page or a pocket page. There's a treat inside this.

These are folding book pages (from the Bourne book) into envelopes. There are treats (tea bags, stickers, tags) in these. The page itself is hand-dyed with tea.

Some of the postcards and tags which were swan/ballet/Swan Lake themed. This were tucked or clipped onto various pages.

The Car Man is inspired by Carmen as well as The Postman Always Rings Twice so for this signature I got to indulge a retro vibe and use black/white/red as the color themes as well as travel, gambling, and old movies ephemera. These are mostly pictures cut out from the Bourne book.

So what I mean by interaction is you flip up the bit before to reveal this:

and then pull down the suitcase bit to reveal this (which are Hobbit's own words from an AO3 ficlet):

Or this where you uncoil the string and open the stage to reveal a different scene. I wanted most pages to have an interactive element.

But in the back of my mind was always that the other goal was to give her fannish elements of a fandom that doesn't have a lot of fannish goods so I made tags of scenes from the production (from pictures in the Bourne book) and put them in a tag folder like this:

I think it's important to remember the person you're making it for and what the purpose of it is. That determines how you proceed.

And finally, the inner cover/ex libris postcard (removable). And the strip of ribbon across is called a 'belly band' in junk journal lingo.