Oh dear blog - it has been way, way way too long. Are you all still about?

I have to admit - I have been ignoring these pages lately - well not really ignoring - they are always on my mind but I wonder if they are on yours too.

SCREAM OUT - let me know you are there! or at least partially listening and viewing. The best way to let me know you are there is to leave a comment and/or subscribe when the pop up appears - you know how I feel about other forms of social media - talk to me here as this is where the best is shared. More importantly -share what you are working on these days too.

Onward and optimistically upwards - I’ve mentioned before that I have been online/blogging since 2008 - (Calculating in my head for you 2023-2008 = 15!!!!!!! yes 15 years) - can it be?

So in 2008 when I started sharing “ junk journaling” was just becoming popular. The idea of junk journaling then, and now, is that you use what you have at hand to make a journal. No purchased, pretty pages, envelopes, or mass produced trinkets. The idea was that you use what you have on hand, for example:

• using brown paper bags from the grocery store or packing material versus using beautiful scrapbook paper (tough but necessary!)

• using snail mail envelopes (ideally those with windows) versus, I dunno, - glassine envelopes

• using your own hand sewn and stitched trinkets versus (dare I say it) Tim Holtz vintage hardware (Disclaimer: I love everything Tim Holtz - just trying to make a point here)

And that’s just a few ideas of the concept behind junk journaling versus journaling. And junk journaling although started as early as 2008 is still wildly popular today - just search @junk journals on instagram to see other artists.

But I mention all of this because in all of that time, and in all of the journals I have ever made, I never truly made a “Junk Journal”.

But now I have and I am here to share pictures of my “first junk journal”. I have to say - I - LOVE-THIS-JOURNAL AND IT IS MY CONSTANT SOURCE, NOW, OF INSPIRATION.

And I have to say AGAIN -I LOVE - EVERY-SINGLE-PAGE-OF-THIS-JOURNAL…(If I do say so myself)

One of the first few pages - on the right - an excerpt from an intended book page cover in approx, 2008 - still in my stash …

I used a vintage book cover that I have been saving for literally years …

There are blue pages from fabric that nothing more needs to be said about …

I saved vintage digital prints that is was time to use and more recent coffee stained paper towels included here …

And to say nothing of stamped text on linen bits and rub on stickers …

And beautiful magazine pages that I could not resist …

and colorful scrapbook papers and more hand sewn buttons .. more joy!

OK - wait for it - hammered stamped fresh flowers on the left side page + a hand sewn red button … oh more joy!

Lace bits go without saying …

And finally the book that encloses everything with an over the top spine of buttons and bits…

That, believable it or not, is a small sampling of the inside pages of this “junk journal”. I loved sharing this with you and will share more of the pages probably in a youtube video soon. If you read through the post - you know I NEED you to comment, ;)

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