Gather up your colorful paper scraps, bookmaking rejects, surface design samples, workshop uglies, old calendars, and trash can rescues. Hit the recycle bin and get prepped for Junk Journal July!
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| A collection of printed, decorative, and recycled papers for a junk journal. |
Inspired by an annual artists retreat, a group of my “art camp buddies” and I are jumping into Junk Journal July 2025 in effort to continue with our art practices—which was a topic of discussion at several meals.
Junk Journal July is an easy and forgiving, low-stress Challenge, with minimal expectations—except to work at our art practice for the entire month of July. We’ll be supporting and cheering each other on next month for 31 days!
Using the coptic binding method
I’ve participated in the Junk Journal Challenge four times. For my last two journals—Junk Journal July 2024 and Junk Journal January 2025—I’ve made accordion style no-sew journals. After a recent demonstration on the coptic binding, however, I decided to get more practice with this book binding method and use it for this year’s Junk Journal July.
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| Coptic bound junk journal. |
The coptic bound book has specific characteristics that are very conducive to junk journaling:
- the book opens flat, making it easy to work in.
- the spine of the book is exposed and can accommodate any number of signatures.
- coptic binding can accommodate a soft cover, so you are able to use recycled materials for the cover in addition to the inside pages.
Making my junk journal
My junk journal is 8” square. (I like the square format for Instagram posts.) It has 5 signatures, plus front and back covers—86 full pages and a few short or partial pages. I like to use recycled papers to construct my junk journals, but any journal is absolutely OK to use! The important part is that you work in it!
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| Junk journal front and back covers. |
Because various weights and types of paper were used for the pages in my journal—text papers, magazine pages, mixed media paper, mailing envelopes, cover weight papers, packaging from from a bag of sugar, and a sheet of watercolor paper—in order to (somewhat) maintain the same thickness, the signatures for my journal contained between 4 - 6 folios each.
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| Journal covers and various papers for the inside pages. |
When making a junk journal, remember that’s what it is—a JUNK journal. It’s made of recycled materials and not meant to be perfect. And it will definitely get thicker, bulkier, and more interesting (and fun) when the various items get pasted into it.
My thoughts for creating a “perfectly imperfect” junk journal are:
- Use what you have! I recycle saddle stitched catalogs and sales booklets for my journals. Get out the staple remover and then trim the pages to your desired folio size. The fold is already set and you’ll know the paper’s grain is correct—parallel to the spine of the book.
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| Removing staples from a saddle stitched catalog. |
- Short pages are welcome. When making folios, if the sheet of paper is not the needed size (16” long is the folio size for my journal), it was folded to accommodate one (8”) page and the other page was short.
- if you don’t want a short page, paste something onto it to make it longer.
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| Example of a short page in the journal. |
- use paint and/or collage to cover up distracting or unwanted text and images on the pages.
- if a page seems too “wimpy” to work on, glue two lightweight pages together to make them stronger/thicker.
- I include at least one folio of a watercolor paper (for painting) and a few uncoated, blank pages for ink drawings, sketches, and hand lettering.
- I like to add envelopes or pockets into the journal to store ephemera and extra paper bits.
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| A recycled envelope serves as a pocket for small paper bits. |
- I paste the daily prompt list at the front of the journal for reference. The printable, provided by Creativity and Coffee, is in a Google drive here.
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| Daily prompts for Junk Journal July 2025. |
Here is my junk journal for Junk Journal July 2025.
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| Junk journal for Junk Journal July 2025. Size is 8” x 8” x .75”. |
Pre-work and collage fodder gathering
Before July 1, when Junk Journal July begins, here are a few activities that get me prepared for a month of journal art making.
- research quotes or poems related to the prompts. This can provide a direction in which to respond to a prompt and a source for hand lettering.
- pull out the acrylic paints and paint backgrounds on pages. An interesting/colorful page is more approachable than the intimidating blank white page.
- gather paper scraps and ephemera to tuck into envelopes for collage fodder.
- fussy-cut images from calendars, junk mail, catalogs, etc. for collage fodder.
- replenish my supply of glue sticks.
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| The work table needs tidying up! |
