This July marked my fifth time participating in a Junk Journal Challenge. My first Junk Journal was January of 2023, followed by Junk Journal January 2024, Junk Journal July 2024, Junk Journal January 2025 and now July 2025. Each journal feels just as exciting and fresh as the first.
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| Opening page of my Junk Journal for July 2025. |
What started as a fun, creative, month-long experiment in 2023 seems to have become an annual ritual—one that inspires me, challenges me, and reminds me to slow down and enjoy the process of art making. The challenge sets the stage to create freely in a handmade or altered journal, using what I have—scraps, ephemera, paint, found objects from daily life—to tell a story on each page or page spread. The daily prompts are only a guide, and can be foregone if a new path or detour presents itself.
A few favorite pages
Each journal becomes a visual diary of daily thoughts or prompts. Pages are layered with color, paper, images, stamped motifs, paint, and quite often text. To practice my hand lettering, I search for a quote, poem, or prose that somehow relates to the daily prompt. A different, unexpected composition often emerges when I focus on the quote or poem rather than a literal translation of the prompt.
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| Two page spread. Prompt: Opening, with quote from Walt Disney (left page). Prompt: Thankful, features the poem, “Thanks to Flowers.” |
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| Prompt: Vintage. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 was the inspiration. |
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| Two-page spread. Prompt: Favorite Place. |
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| Prompt: Favorite Place. “Where I Belong” poem appears when two hinged flaps are opened. |
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| Prompt: Sunrise/Sunset and a quote from John Lennon. |
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| Prompts: Torn and Keepsake, paired with “More than just a Teapot.” |
Why I keep coming back to junk journaling
This year, a few of my art friends joined me for Junk Journal July. It was so wonderful to see their creations and responses to the prompts. I hope they had fun and will consider doing it with me again in the future. Looking at my own journals over the years, I can remember where I was or what was going on in the world when various pages were created.
Repetition creates reflection. Coming back to this challenge year after year shows me how my techniques have changed, how I’ve improved, and which tools and mediums are favorites that I return to often.
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| Prompt: Ribbon. Paired with a watercolor painting and the first stanza of “The Highwayman,” a ballad by Alfred Noyes. |
What 5 Junk Journals have taught me
When I participate in the Junk Journal Challenges, the aim is not for perfection—the aim is to make art a practice. I let my pages be messy, layered, and real. Some pages are simple, others (when more time is available) are more complex, nuanced, and layered. Junk Journal July is a creative pause, a way to mark time, make art, and capture memories in layers of paper, paint and heart.
The junk journaling process has taught me:
- There are no rules! Some days I draw, paint, or write a lot; other days, it’s a visual collage.
- Scraps are treasures. That hotel key envelope, a postage stamp, a marketing brochure, or scribbled grocery list? They create memories. They tell a story.
- Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Junk Journal is a safe place to try new things—a new tool, a new art supply, a new technique. I don’t have to show the page to anyone if I choose not to.
What’s Next?
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| An empty page spread awaits more color and layers. |
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| A pocket filled with collage fodder. |
Although Junk Journal July 2025 has wrapped up, I have more pages in my July 2025 junk journal that can be worked and filled. There are two pocket pages filled with collage fodder and other bits of ephemera. The open pages can be filled with slow drawing, collaging, and hand lettering various quotes and other text… adding to my ever-growing collection of messy, layered, artful pages.
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| My Junk Journal for July 2025. |
