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I made my first junk journal years and years ago. The cover image shown above has been repinned a multitude of times. Back then, they were made from scratch with, well, junk mail, old magazines, and scrap paper. And the basis of it was a cheap Paperchase notebook. Bits fell off when I pulled it from the shelf so I have had to glue parts down and add some scraps to fill in the gaps.

Anyway…

When my eldest son was small he had a book called ‘The Jolly Postman‘. It had lots of pockets and hidden letters hidden within the pages. My son loved it and treated it gently. It was passed down to my other two kids, who were less careful. But 35 years on and missing a few treasures, it now lives in Australia with my grandson.

My second grandchild is due in a few weeks (Oct 23) so I decided to make a journal for her mother along the lines of ‘The Jolly Postman’. She can add to it–photos and text, and one day can explore it (and the hidden treasures) with her little girl.

Here’s the cover with a wrap-around, lace-trimmed tuck spot, hidden paperclip, and a couple of cards from the Botanical Inspirations deck. You can probably guess the baby’s name by the general theme.

I used scrapbook papers from Stamperia’s House of Roses pad, bits of lace, and rose washi tape.

There are lots of spaces and places to add photos, text, and any other small mementos. Of course, it’s not suitable for a young child to play with but will be lovely for her to sit with her mother and explore all the details.

Several inserts are made from envelopes and junk mail brochures. I trawled through my photos and selected a few to print out in ‘sticker’ size and pasted them into one spread in the journal. You can’t see them all in the image above.  I then printed them out on photo paper, eight to a page, trimmed them, and popped them all into a pocket held in place with more hidden paper clips. The photos on the right are pasted onto a multiple-part tag that came off a jacket.

The book is a ‘flip journal’ so when you reach the end, you flip it over and there are more pages like an accordion book.

I really enjoyed making it and have been bitten by the junk journal bug again. More to come.