Junk Journal Ideas: Themes, Pages and What to Put In

Junk journal ideas start with a theme and a pile of paper you already own. Fill the pages with envelopes, ticket stubs, postcards, maps, sheet music, paper bags and fabric scraps, add pockets and tags for loose pieces, and leave space to write. Beginners do well with one theme and three or four items per spread. Keep newspaper clippings off your good pages: glue in a copy instead, because newsprint stains the paper next to it.

What is a junk journal?

The Graphics Fairy, a site with a long list of junk journal tutorials, defines it as a handmade, hand-bound book made with recycled paper and found objects that might otherwise go in the bin. The "journal" part means you also write in it: thoughts, plans, lists, a line about the day.

There are no official supplies. The cover is often an old book cover or cardboard faced with fabric or paint, and the pages are whatever paper you have.

It sits somewhere between a scrapbook, an art journal and a diary. If you want a book that mainly plans your weeks, a bullet journal is the closer fit, and some people keep one of each.

What to put in a junk journal

Anything flat enough to glue down or bind in will do. A starting list, most of it from around the house:

• Envelopes, including window envelopes from post, which double as pockets
• Postcards, greeting cards and the backs of cards you were sent
• Ticket stubs, receipts, programmes and paper wristbands
• Maps, timetables and brochures
• Sheet music, book pages and dictionary pages
• Brown paper bags and coffee-shop bags, flattened
• Patterned paper, wrapping paper and tissue
• Lace, ribbon, fabric scraps and doilies
• Tags, labels and stickers
• Printed images, clipart and quotes

Two things make a junk journal feel full without much work. Pockets (an envelope or a folded strip glued on three sides) hold loose pieces. Tuck spots, such as a belly band of paper wrapped around a page, hold a card or tag you can pull out.

Junk journal ideas for beginners

Starting is easier with limits. A first-weekend plan:

1. Pick one theme. A season or a colour is enough.
2. Gather a shoebox of paper that fits it: envelopes, cards, bags, wrapping paper.
3. Fold five or six sheets in half and nest them into one booklet.
4. Bind the fold. A few stitches through the spine are enough; The Graphics Fairy teaches a five-hole pamphlet stitch, and a stapler will do for a first try.
5. Make a cover from cereal-box card or an old book cover.
6. Fill one spread at a time with three or four pieces: a background paper, one image, one pocket or tag, and space to write.
7. Write something on every spread, even a date and a sentence.

Leave some pages bare for things that turn up later.

Junk journal themes

A theme helps you decide what to keep and what to leave in the box. The Graphics Fairy's list of more than a hundred themes groups them into nature, past eras, travel, books and films, holidays, seasons, myth, colour and home life. Some that work well with ordinary household paper:

A theme can also be a format. A traveler's-notebook style insert, a folio with lots of pockets and a small pocket-size book each push you toward different pages.

Junk journal page ideas

Once the book is bound, these spreads are easy to start:

• An opening page with the date you began and what the book is for
• A month on one spread: a calendar grid on the left, scraps from that month on the right
• A list page: books read, places visited, songs on repeat
• A pocket page made from two envelopes, holding cards or letters
• A collage of one colour, cut from magazines and packaging
• A recipe page with the recipe written out and the food label glued beside it
• A sticker page using up the last few from several sheets
• A plain writing page with only a strip of washi tape across the top

Printed papers and stickers fill gaps fast. If you want your own, our guide on how to make stickers at home covers sticker paper and packing-tape stickers. Digital journalers can do the same on a tablet with digital stickers. Leftover strips of card make a matching bookmark for the journal.

How to make a junk journal last

This is the part theme lists skip. Junk is, by nature, mixed paper of mixed quality, and some of it ages badly. The Library of Congress gives care advice for paper and for scrapbooks and albums; turned into junk journal rules:

• Keep acidic paper apart. The Library recommends storing acidic papers separately so the acid cannot migrate into other paper.
• Use a copy of newspaper clippings. The National Archives says not to mix clippings with letters, photographs or other documents, because impurities in newsprint stain the paper next to them. It also warns that sleeved clippings add bulk that can damage a book's binding, so a photocopy or scan glued into the journal is the easier route; keep the original in a folder.
• Choose base paper with care. For albums the Library advises acid-free and lignin-free paper.
• Go easy on tape and glue. The Library's paper advice is to avoid rubber bands, self-adhesive tape and glue on paper you want to keep; for albums it suggests wheat-starch paste instead of other glues, and photo corners made from acid- and lignin-free paper.
• Avoid staples and paper clips on keepsakes. Both are on the Library's list of things to avoid.
• Use the right plastic. If you add clear sleeves, the Library names polyethylene, polypropylene and polyester film.
• Keep it out of strong light. The Library advises minimal exposure to light and no direct or intense light.

You do not need archival standards on every page. Washi tape and a glue stick are fine for a fun spread. Save the careful methods for the letter, the photo or the ticket you would hate to lose.

Junk journaling ideas for using up scraps

Junk journaling is a good home for things that are too nice to throw away and too small to use elsewhere:

• Offcuts from printed projects, trimmed into tags
• The unused half of a sheet of printable cards or labels
• Envelope linings and patterned security envelopes
• Wrapping paper from gifts you were given
• Calendar pages from last year, which make ready-made monthly backgrounds

If you print backgrounds or pictures for your pages, our notes on how to print wall art at home cover printer settings and paper that apply to journal pages too. More planning and journal pages live in our Planners, Journals & Calendars section.

When you add a pocket, glue it on three sides only and test that a card slides in before the glue sets.