Space Themed Junk Journal using Eileen Hull Dies

I’ve always loved learning about space. You know, the kind of space with stars, moons, suns, and more. My husband and I lived next to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral for a couple of years. In fact, my daughter was born at Cape Canaveral Hospital. We saw night and day launches and learned so much. It was amazing. What a big wide beautiful universe we live in. It’s mysterious, amazing, and beyond comprehensible.

I wanted the theme of my journal to be inspirational, uplifting and to be an encouragement. I wanted the journal to include a message to shoot for the stars, live a brave life, and reach for those lofty goals. The book is chunky and chock full of random pieces and techniques that came together pretty quickly.

I created this little book using cardboard, copies, ephemera, paint, ink, scraps, and of course Eileen Hull’s awesome Pocket Notebook Die. I love her dies as they are so versatile and easy to use. Eileen’s dies are such great and awesome bones for amazing journals. Because her dies are steel rule dies by Sizzix, I can use the on all sorts of materials from fabric, leather, chipboard, matboard, and again, one of my favorites – cardboard. Cardboard is easily accessible and great to upcycle.I created the cover from one of my favorite substrates; cardboard. It lends itself to distressed and grungy right off the bat. HERE and HERE is how I created the base of the cover.

I thought a video tour was the better option to share about this book that chock full of goodies that I won’t call it junk, although it’s considered a junk journal. I hope you’ll enjoy! Before we get started though, I wanted to share a few reasons I love junk journals and what makes them easy to create;

• Junk Journals don’t need to be perfect. These journals can include random pieces collected from different resources.
• You can start with the foundation of a book and add to it throughout the months as you find treasures and tuck them away in the pockets of your journal.
• Make it unique and out of the box if you desire. I used scrap paper and paint for a foundation. I adhered the scrap pages together in a unique way.
• Junk Journals allow you to use your stash of papers, ephemera, stickers, clips, scraps, embellishments, and more. Sometimes those mixed media scraps are looking for a place to call home and junk journals are a perfect place.
• You can get creative on the ways you can hold the treasures and contents of your junk journal. Think pockets, strips, staples, clips, mini clothes pins, and more.
• The possibilities are endless in what you can fill your junk journal pages with; vintage resources like atlas’, dictionaries and more, stickers, gel press pages, paint, ephemera, and scraps. I used the above in my journal. I have had a vintage Atlas and Gazetteer for quite sometime and thought this was the perfect time to pull it out and use some of the star charts. It’s a huge book so I took it to a Fed Ex/Kinkos and reduced and copied the images to use in this journal.

Below are some photos and a video walkthrough of this chunky junk journal that I hope might inspire and encourage you.

Some tips regarding junk journals;

• A theme is very helpful and keeps things cohesive. You can include different themed pieces that come from different collections or sources, but streamling a subject helps to keep some organization to the journal.
• Choosing a color palette helps to avoid a visual overwhelming. It’s okay to include additional colors but staying with two to three constant colors helps to some harmony. I used a base of blues that you might find in space. I adhered the pages together and painted the base right off the bat.

Looking for additional themes for junk journals? Feel free to check out my Bee Inspired Journal, as well as several that Eileen Hull’s Education Team created. More at eileenhull.com.

I’d love to know if you’ll be giving a junk journal a try, or maybe you already have.

Warmest creative wishes,