Junk Journaling 101: A Creative Guide to Getting Started

If you love paper, stamps, layers, texture, and collecting little bits and pieces that are simply too good to throw away, junk journaling might be your next favorite creative outlet. Part art journal, part scrapbook, and part memory keeper, a junk journal gives you a place to experiment, document, layer, and create—with very few rules.

Even better, you probably already have plenty of junk journaling supplies tucked into your craft room, desk drawers, and recycling bin. Cardmakers can bring familiar techniques like stamping, ink blending, masking, die cutting, and stenciling into their journals, then mix them with everyday finds for pages that feel personal and completely unique.

A junk journal is a handmade or altered journal filled with a mix of papers, found materials, memorabilia, and traditional craft supplies. Pages might include vintage book paper alongside stamped cardstock, a ticket stub layered over patterned paper, or an envelope transformed into a pocket for handwritten notes.

There really is no right or wrong way to junk journal. Your journal can document your everyday life, preserve memories from a trip, explore a favorite color palette, or simply become a place to play with art supplies.

The "junk" is part of the fun. Instead of starting with only brand-new materials, junk journaling encourages you to look at ordinary objects differently and give them a new creative purpose.

One of the best things about junk journaling is the freedom it offers. If you're used to creating handmade cards, you may find yourself thinking about straight edges, balanced layouts, perfect stamping, and a finished project that needs to fit inside an envelope.

A junk journal can feel completely different.

There is no recipient waiting for the finished project and no deadline for completing a page. You can experiment with a technique simply because you're curious about it. Cover something up. Tear a piece of paper instead of trimming it. Add another layer because it makes you happy.

Junk journaling can be a wonderful way to:

• Create without pressure. Give yourself permission to experiment without worrying about a perfect finished result.
• Use your existing craft supplies. Pull stamps, inks, stencils, dies, and mixed media products from your stash and use them in new ways.
• Save meaningful little things. Photos, notes, ticket stubs, tags, receipts, and other everyday keepsakes can become part of your pages.
• Reduce stress through creativity. Enjoy the process of layering, stamping, painting, writing, and simply making something with your hands.
• Try new techniques. A journal is a great place to practice ink blending, masking, stamping, mixed media, and collage before using those ideas on another project.

Most importantly, junk journaling should bring you joy. Your journal doesn't need to look like anyone else's.

Almost anything made from paper—or thin enough to attach to a page—is fair game.

Start by combining your everyday crafting supplies with found materials such as:

• Old book pages, maps, dictionaries, and sheet music
• Junk mail, envelopes, and paper bags
• Candy wrappers and colorful food packaging
• Tags, labels, and product packaging
• Fabric scraps, lace, ribbon, and thread
• Photos, handwritten notes, and ticket stubs
• Patterned paper and cardstock scraps
• Stickers, die cuts, and stamped images

Keep a small box or basket near your craft area and start collecting interesting pieces. A beautifully printed envelope, an unusual label, or a strip of packaging might become exactly the detail a future page needs.

Inspiration doesn't have to begin with a finished junk journal you see online. Start with the things you're already drawn to.

Look at color combinations in magazines, book illustrations, fabric patterns, product packaging, or photographs. Visit an antique store or flea market and notice old typography, ledger paper, advertisements, botanical illustrations, and postcards. Your own memories can also become a starting point—a vacation, favorite season, family recipe, garden, book, or ordinary day can inspire an entire journal or a single page.

You can also challenge yourself to begin with one object. Pick a photograph, ticket, piece of patterned paper, or stamped image and build outward from there. Add colors, textures, and details that complement it without worrying about where the page will end up.

One of the easiest ways to get started is to look at the products already in your craft stash with fresh eyes. Many favorite cardmaking supplies are especially well suited to journaling because they make it easy to add layers without adding lots of bulk.

Hero Transfers

Hero Transfers are ideal for adding words, images, and decorative details directly to journal pages. Since they don't require ink or stamping space, they're especially handy for working over collaged backgrounds or adding a finishing detail to a nearly completed page.

Try adding transfers to cardstock, acetate, vellum, tags, pockets, or envelopes. Layer them over ink blending or patterned paper, or tuck small designs between torn paper layers so they look like part of the original collage.

Pastes, Waxes & Mixed Media

Texture can instantly make a junk journal page more interesting. Hero Arts pastes and waxes are great for adding dimension, shine, and tactile details.

Apply paste through a stencil for a raised pattern, add small areas of texture around the edges of a page, or use wax to highlight raised or dimensional elements. You don't need to cover an entire background—a little mixed media can go a long way.

Wood Block & Cling Stamps

Wood block and cling stamps are perfect for adding imagery, pattern, and texture throughout a junk journal. Smaller wood block stamp sets featuring icons, alphabets, and everyday motifs are especially fun for adding quick details, creating labels, spelling out words, or repeating tiny images across a page. Larger wood block stamps can become focal images or be used to build eye-catching backgrounds.

Cling stamps are another great option for creating backgrounds and adding layers of visual interest. Try stamping a full design across a page, or bend and fold the cling stamp before inking to stamp only portions of the image. This creates loose, organic patterns that work beautifully around photos, collage elements, and page edges. Stamp onto book pages, tags, envelopes, or scraps before layering them into your journal, or stamp directly over existing papers to help bring all the elements together.

Stencils

Stencils are an easy way to visually connect different elements on a page. Blend ink through a stencil over multiple layers of paper, add just a portion of a design to one corner, or use a stencil with paste for extra texture.

You can even stencil across the edge of two overlapping papers. The continuous pattern helps separate materials feel like they belong together.

Turn the Page Collection by Esther Glas

If you'd like to start with products specifically designed for creative memory keeping, the Turn the Page Collection by Esther Glas from Spellbinders offers plenty of possibilities for junk journals, mini albums, and keepsake projects. The collection includes a vintage-inspired binder system along with patterned papers, stickers, rub-ons, stamps, dies, and other elements designed for layering and documenting everyday stories.

The Dark Roast Binder is an especially useful starting point if you don't want to construct a journal from scratch. Its ring binding makes it easy to add, remove, rearrange, and expand pages as you create, while interior pockets can hold photos, tags, notes, and other collected treasures.

The coordinating dies, stamps, stickers, die cuts, and rub-ons make it easy to build layers around your found objects. Mix those ready-made elements with your own photos, memorabilia, and favorite Hero Arts supplies for a journal that feels completely your own.

If you're already a cardmaker, you don't have to learn an entirely new way to create. Think of your junk journal as another place to use the techniques you already love—just with a little more freedom.

Ink blend around the edges of vintage papers. Mask off an area before stamping. Create a repeating stamped background. Die cut flowers from leftover cardstock. Stencil over patterned paper. Heat emboss on a tag. Layer scraps that would normally be too small for a card front.

And if something doesn't turn out quite the way you imagined? Glue another piece of paper over it and keep going.

The beauty of junk journaling is that there isn't one correct finished look. Your pages can be colorful and playful, vintage and distressed, clean and graphic, heavily layered, or wonderfully simple. You can fill an entire journal around a theme or let every page become its own creative experiment.

Start with what you have. Save the little things that catch your eye. Pull out the craft supplies you already love and try using them differently.

Your junk journal doesn't have to be perfect, finished, or made for anyone else. It can simply be a place to create, experiment, preserve a few memories, and enjoy the process along the way.