“Franken Tags”

Hi Friends,

Have you heard of “Franken Paper”?  It is a technique where you glue or stitch random scraps of paper together to create new papers, tags. pockets etc. I have made a few pages before, but decided to do some tags today!!

Check out this tutorial, from one of my favourite Junk Journalers, Nick The Booksmith on YouTube “HERE”

I have been working this weekend and in between, I have been making some more pages in my personal journal. I needed a little break as I had heaps of paper scraps everywhere. I decided to pull out a heap of manilla folders I had accumulated and use them to collage some of the paper scraps on my desk. I also have heaps of card stock so I made random size tags with some of it also.  This was lots of fun just tearing and gluing down the paper.

I am not a perfectionist, as I don’t have the time to start with. I like to tear and enjoy the freedom of “just playing” and seeing what I come up with 🙂 I just randomly added the torn paper to the tag with a glue stick then when it was a little dry I used my snips and cleaned the edges up 🙂 You could also use your Gel Medium/glue and seal, but these are going in a journal so I didn’t bother.

I have made about 30 or so today and have had a ball!! These few I have added stitching after they were completely dry. These tags I will be using in my junk journals as embellishments or for the journaling space on the back.

I hope I may have inspired you to have a go at using your scraps, to make some embellishments and also and have some crafty fun!

Have a great night!

Kerri x

 

 

“Recycled Junk Journal Tutorial – Part 4”

Hi Friends,

I am feeling a bit under the weather today as my back has been playing up and work is pretty hard yakka at the moment. I am resting up today and thought I might catch you up on my Tutorial if you are following along 🙂

PART 1 – “HERE”

PART 2 –  “HERE”

PART 3 – “HERE”

STEP 6 – Now we are on to making our signatures (a bundle of 6-8 pages)  You can use whatever you have for this part.  You can find a list I have put together for you “HERE”

 

As my book is larger than the standard say 5 x 7 journal I measured the length of my book and doubled it to get the right size pages. I then had to tape my pages together and they have an overlap which isn’t a problem as some I am using as pockets. I have made four lots of approx 8-10 pages for my Journal. You just make enough that will fit into the spine of your book. If you want to heavily embellish your pages, then less is better.

As you can see above I have used a variety of paper and ‘junk in signatures to create the book. I used a fair bit of scrapbook paper from my stash, coffee dyed paper, envelopes and doilies plus vellum, music sheets, book and ledger pages. You just fold them all in half and collate them to what order pleases you.

Above is a stack of signatures I have made for my new 2019/20 Planner which I have been working on this week also. You can see how the pages are created here ready to go into my Journal.

These are the 5 signatures I have completed for my Botanical Journal. I used a good mix of papers in it and happy with how they have come together.

STEP 7 – Now, it is time to bind your pages into your book, ready to use. There are quite a lot of different ways to do this, but the easiest I find is called the
Easy Twine Method and requires no sewing or special tools. This is the video I used from YouTube and is very easy to follow “HERE” 

First of all, put my signatures in order that I want to bind them.

As this journal is quite large, I am not using Twine as I don’t want it to rip my pages as it will have a bit of weight. Instead, am using a mix of my coffee dyed seam binding, trim and lace. I have decided also to tie each binding separate so the weight is evener. You will also find your journal will open flat to work in.

You can either tie one signature at a time straight into it or as I am doing above, I am tieing my trims on first to get them evenly space along the spine. They will move a little when you are using your book but that is fine as you can just slide them back.

 

I ended up trimming my pages down a smidge as they were getting caught as I put them through the binding. You just go to the centre of each lot of pages and gently coax them into the middle.

This is how each signature will look as you place them through each binding. Once you have them all in, I close the book, then work the biding and the pages to get them back even.

Your lovely new book will stand up nicely on it’s own and open to show all the pretties and ‘junque’ you have added to it to make it your own!!

Your lovely journal is now complete to this stage and now you can embellish it to your heart’s content. I will be adding some pockets and tuck spots plus adding stamping and lots of other items. I will create another post for you with some great video tutorials for you to make ephemera for your journals plus show you what I have created for it!

I hope you have joined in my Step by Step and you have completed a journal for yourself. I would love to hear from you if you do!!!

 

Now to clean up my disaster of a messy table to start again!!!

Happy Junking

Kerri x

 

“Nameless Vintage Art Junk Journal Class”

Hi Friends,

I am taking part in a YouTube Junk Journal Class run by Johanna Clough. It is a class to make a Junk Journal with her and use the photos of people in our families, that we do not know names of and anything about them. You can also use stock photos or ephemera.

I am really enjoying this different creative outlet working along with her class and I am really happy with my results so far.

You can find her YouTube Channel here and have a go it also HERE! Johanna first inspired me to stop making endless scrapbooking layouts and work in Junque Journals. I love the freedom and the fun process fo scrapping like this now, and I have been making a few!

PART 1 – Making The cover – As you can see Johanna did hers very vintage looking. I used her tutorial but did it a little different to my style.

My first attempt didn’t go quite to plan so I started again and I am very happy with this cover. I used an old book, took the pages out and used the cover. Instead of cutting out a window I used some ephemera as my cover was very thick and I didn’t want to chance to wreck it with a knife!

THE TECHNIQUE – To create this texture on my book cover, I Gessoed it all over first to prime it. I then used my glue/sealer to adhere crumpled baking paper over the top making sure it was well covered under and over it. I then used my Dylsuions Inks and sprayed over the top with one colour, then when it dried I added a bit more of another colour and some stamping paint that I used with my fingers over the creases. Once dried I added a bit more of sprayed ink and sprayed it with water and let it run. Once it dried thoroughly overnight I painted it with another coat of sealer. 

On the inside of my book, I made sure the paper went inside a little and I adhered it down and tidied up the corners. I then used some Prima paper from an A4 pad I have to finish the inside. The black you can see is cloth tape that I always use to strengthen the spine.  I used my crop-o-dile to punch the holes and add the large eyelets. This is where the pages will be bound in. Once the book is together you won’t really see it 

PART 2 – Making the Pages –  Johanna made 4 lots of paper into her signatures and I also coffee stained my A4 copy paper, added bits and bobs from my scraps as she did, but instead of sewing on a machine, I went with faux stamped stitches.

I chose to use pattern paper for the cover of each signature instead of cardstock. I added a few more pages to mine as my spine is a bit thicker.

 

You can see above, I used some brown twine to bind my signatures the same way Johanna has. I have left long strings on them for the next part of our class.

Stay Tuned!

Thanks for stopping by

Kerri x