July Junk Journal 2023 - Caroline Webley

I actually made it through July and followed all the prompts for Junk Journal July! I had a blast and found my inner art warrior! If you check out the hashtag #junkjournaljuly on Facebook and Instagram you will get to see the stunning makes by other artists. You can find out more about this yearly event from @megsjournals and @artgetsmessyjournal .

It is an achievement for me to see something through to completion like this. I do have so many creative things on the go at any one time!

I’ll show you the pages over the coming weeks. I loved the whole process and the different slant on the prompts which everyone had.

The prompts were as follows:

I had to really get my thinking cap on for some of them and I have to admit that some of my interpretations are a little obscure. But that’s ok!

I made a small A6 size journal. In hindsight, (which is a wonderful thing), I would have made the spine a bit bigger. This little journal ended up being super chunky by only having two signatures. But then A6 is a nice size to create with. Don’t forget, as you open the pages you do have the choice to go across both A6 sides. This gives you an larger A5 area to work on.

I did find that a basic hair band wrapped around this journal and kept it closed perfectly. It just about opens enough to get the band around it. Lovely.

I sewed the signatures into the spine in a slightly different way. I wanted the loose ends showing on the outside of the spine. They can be put to some use, like this one where the tag shows the year it was started. Yes, I know I have only just started on this journey. I do have more journals started as we speak!

For the journal cover I used a lovely design which I created and which is available on my Etsy shop. I covered this with some pink parchment paper, which gives it extra protection. It is nice that you can see a hint of the design through the pink.

I love how this turned out! With the addition of pockets within the signatures I was able to pander to my love of tags too. I have made many tags over the years, each with no real aim in mind. Now I know exactly what I am going to do with them all – put them into journals! YAY!