Junk Journal July: my 7th Make Nine finish for 2026

Last month, I participated in Junk Journal July 2026 and am counting this art journaling experience as fulfilling my “Online Challenge” prompt for Make Nine 2026. 

My junk journal for Junk Journal July 2026 Challenge.

Developing the prompt list

This year, I couldn’t find a good list of JJJ [Junk Journal July] prompts, so I gathered ideas from various sources and composed 31 prompts myself; publishing them for other participants to use as well. For me, the prompts serve as the inspiration framework for the month-long art practice and it reminded me of the 8 years I facilitated my ATC [Artist Trading Card] swap from 2009 - 2016. 

Junk Journal July 2026 page with prompts.

Favorite pages

Following are just a few of the pages and spreads in this summer’s Junk Journal. “Black and white” is a simple prompt but can lead to a dramatic composition. This page started with a a collaged checkerboard background a base page of lines. A slow drawing from one of my sketchbooks was added in the foreground. This page came together easily. Who doesn’t like a graphic black and white composition?

“Black and white” prompt.

Trying unfamiliar supplies added another layer of discovery to the challenge. This page is the response to the “Soft pencil, slow line” prompt and uses a Stabilo Woody pencil which has a soft lead that is water reactive.  

“Soft pencil, slow line” prompt with Stabilo Woody and watercolors.

The  “Fun art supply,” and “Unexpected” prompts also allowed for experimentation. Stepping outside my usual art supplies and experimenting with some new-to-me art materials, these pages were fun to work on while learning the properties of the supplies. The Distress Crayons, a set of water-soluble crayons, were in my art toolbox for a few years and got pulled out for this prompt.

“Fun art supply” prompt with Distress Crayons, Stabilo Woody, and water.

A bottle of walnut ink is a relatively new addition to my art supplies. It was combined with watercolor and the Stabilo Woody on this page.

The “Unexpected” prompt uses watercolor, walnut ink, and Stabilo Woody pencil.

The “Patriotic” prompt was especially timely this year, coinciding with America’s 250-year Semiquincentennial. This prompt gave me an opportunity to use the abundance of America 250 marketing pieces that were readily accessible.

“Patriotic” prompt on July 4.

Interactive, 3-dimensional page spreads

This Junk Journal also became a place for three-dimensional paper structures. Along with my usual art-journaling fare—drawing, watercolors, hand lettering, collage, layering, and textile samples—I incorporated several pop-ups to create moveable, interactive elements. The summer workshop I took on dimensional book structures was a great influence and resource for these spreads.

This is the still photo of the “Pop-up/Tuck spot” and “Botanicals” interactive spread.

A 2-page spread of “Pop-up/tuck spot” and “Botanicals” prompts.

Adding 3D elements transforms the journal from a collection of art journal pages into an interactive and playful book. This spread, for “Hand written” and “Folded layers” prompts, features a no-sew blizzard book with note cards (love letters) inserted into the folded signatures. The blizzard book is aligned with and pasted into the gutter of these two pages.

“Hand written” and “Folded layers” prompts.

The final JJJ prompt was “Celebrate.” This 4-page spread was created to celebrate textiles. 

Although more thought, testing, time, and a bit of reverse engineering were involved with making the pop-up pages, this Junk Journal offers an invitation to open, pull, move, unfold, flip, and explore the elements found within its pages.

Pop-up spread for the “Celebrate” prompt.

Why I like the Junk Journal Challenge

Thirty-one prompts mean opportunities to make something, try something new, play with cool art supplies, or simply see where an idea would lead. As with past junk journals, some pages came together quickly, others are experiments in materials, structure, or composition. Together, they document a month of creative practice and creative play. 

Images of all my Junk Journal July 2026 pages and prompts can be found on my IG page, @veronica.fiberantics.

Make Nine finish #7

This Junk Journal July is the 7th finish for Make Nine 2026.

“Online Challenge” prompt for Make Nine 2026.

This journal joins my growing collection of seven junk journals. This one, made with 7 signatures (including the cover), and coptic bound, has many more open canvases ready for further art and creative explorations!

Make Nine 2026 tracker, August 2026.

Getting ready for Junk Journal July

On Earth Day this past April, I made a junk journal in anticipation for Junk Journal July 2026—which is about to start in a few days. (It feels good to be ahead of the game this time!)

Junk Journal July 2026 prompts.

In the past, I followed the prompts from @MegJournals but I think she stepped away from hosting the JJJ Challenges a year or so ago. So for this summer’s Junk Journal Challenge, I decided to “ask the box” for various creative prompts to curate my own prompt list. 

For anyone that is new to the Junk Journal Challenge and wants to play along with me, I made the prompts practical and easily interpreted. For folks in the US, I intentionally chose the prompt, “patriotic,” for July 4—which should allow for numerous options for a journal page.

What is the Junk Journal Challenge?

Junk Journal July is a fun, creativity challenge that goes from July 1 through July 31. The junk journal encourages recycling and repurposing found materials and supplies [aka “junk”] such as junk mail, paper bags, envelopes, brochures, and other ephemera. 

My new junk journal for Junk Journal July 2026.

My junk journal is an 8” x 8” format with seven signatures (including the front and back covers) that is coptic bound. The pages/signatures are [mostly] from the recycle bin—old sales brochures, catalog pages, packaging paper, brown paper bags, envelopes from the mail… with a couple of sheets of pristine mixed media and watercolor papers.

Inside pages of my new junk journal.

Paper scraps, images, text, fabric bits, and other ephemera are then combined with a myriad of art supplies and drawing/painting utensils to interpret a daily prompt—or to just fill up a page in the journal for fun with no regard to the prompt. The Junk Journal Challenge is similar to the 100 Day Project in that it gets you in the habit of doing something creative on a regular basis.

There are No Rules!

There are no rules and there are no judges. You can use the prompts for inspiration or do your own thing. Sometimes my journal entry is one page, but it can also be a page spread (two pages). Sometimes I combine two prompts in a single entry. There are no rules, just play! You’re doing it right if you’re having fun.

Two pages from my Junk Journal January 2025.

The junk journal is also a vehicle for trying out different techniques or new art supplies with no expectations. Found something intriguing at the art supply store? Did you come across an interesting technique tutorial online? Bought a few new paints or markers on sale? This is your opportunity to give them a test drive.

A two-page spread from Junk Journal July 2025.

Prepping for a month of Junk Journaling

With the start of July in just a few short days, here are a few warm-up exercises that get me excited to start a new junk journal and into the journaling groove:

• 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. 

• gather paper scraps and ephemera and tuck them into envelopes or boxes for collage fodder. 

• fussy-cut images and/or words from calendars, junk mail, catalogs, etc. for collage fodder. 

• pull out your paints and brushes and paint backgrounds on the journal pages. An interesting/colorful page is more approachable than a daunting blank white page. 

• pull out those new art supplies you’ve been curious to try. 

• replenish the supply of glue sticks.

The junk journal work table.

My 7th junk journal

The junk journal for July 2026 will be my 7th junk journal. I’ve done both the Junk Journal Challenge in January and in July the past few years and they have all been fun. This Challenge helps me be accountable and devote time to my art practice.

It’s time to get messy and have some journaling fun again.

A Wild Card finish for Make Nine 2025 with Junk Journal July

As with most Challenges, finishing Junk Journal July was a rewarding accomplishment—responding to the prompts, learning how to use cool art supplies, creating pages and spreads, and letting intuition lead the way. A recap of my Junk Journal July is in his blog post. With that, I’m checking off the box for the second Wild Card prompt in Make Nine 2025. 

Junk Journal July fulfills the second “Wild Card” prompt in Make Nine 2025.

Continuing my art practice

July may be over, but I continue to fill the extra pages in my July Junk Journal with collage, hand lettering, and slow drawing. The creative practice from doing Junk Journal July continues, but now it’s a calming contrast to the fast pace of daily prompts, and a chance to slow down and create more deliberately—when the muse strikes and without any pressure of a deadline. 

Collaged spread in the junk journal.

The journal is becoming more complete and meaningful as I continue to work in its pages.

In-progress spread in the junk journal.

Journals with longevity

I’m glad I had the forethought to add extra pages in my junk journals—more than what is needed for the month of the Challenge. It gives my journals longevity. It provides continuity to the creative process. 

A page spread with slow drawing.

There is space for making more art… or to go back into earlier pages to add detail. Sometimes, meaningful creative moments come when we allow ourselves to wander and play without a plan. 

Collage and hand lettering page.

Here’s to another Make Nine finish and filling more journal pages in the months to come. Letting creativity evolve… even after a challenge has concluded.

My 5th Junk Journal: the recurring joy of collage, layering, and hand lettering

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. 

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.

Two page spread. Prompt: Opening, with quote from Walt Disney (left page).
Prompt: Thankful, features the poem, “Thanks to Flowers.”

Prompt: Vintage.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 was the inspiration.

Two-page spread. Prompt: Favorite Place.

Prompt: Favorite Place.
“Where I Belong” poem appears when two hinged flaps are opened.

Prompt: Sunrise/Sunset and a quote from John Lennon.

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.

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?

An empty page spread awaits more color and layers.

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.

My Junk Journal for July 2025.

A coptic bound journal for Junk Journal July 2025

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Daily prompts for Junk Journal July 2025.

Here is my junk journal for Junk Journal July 2025.

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.

But first, I need to clean up the work table from making my journal…

The work table needs tidying up!

 

I joined the Junk Journal July Challenge

This July, I’m taking the Junk Journal July Challenge. It's 31 days of art journaling, mark making, practicing my hand lettering, and collaging with paper and fabric scraps. I have participated in this Challenge twice before—both times with the January version, Junk Journal January—in 2023 and 2024. It’s a fun recycling and artsy, month-long exercise.

"An hour of art making is cheaper than therapy.

My Junk Journal

My Junk Journal this time is a no-sew, accordion book block. It's made with various papers and cardboard from the recycle bin (aka "junk"). I like to use discontinued fabric sales materials as they are always so colorful and have interesting textures and designs. The format of my July 2024 journal is square (8” x 8”). so it's easy to photograph the pages for IG social media posts.

Art journal for Junk Journal July 2024.

Accordion folded, no-sew journal.

The Challenge and the prompts

The Challenge, coordinated by @megjournals and @getmessyart, offers daily prompts that can be used for inspiration and direction. They can be followed… or not. (I usually follow the prompts.) 

This year, a lineup of art journal crafters have created videos showing how they interpreted one of the daily prompts. So, you can see 31 different artistic styles of art journaling through the page each has created.

The prompt for Day 1 was “spark.” 

Day 1 journal spread for Junk Journal July 2024.

To get into the practice of hand lettering, I found a great quote by Robin Williams.

"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
—Robin Williams

I'm letting that little spark of madness cultivate my art journaling this month.