Junk Journal January: first 2026 Make Nine finish


Four years in, still learning and loving it! This January marked my fourth time participating in Junk Journal January—and it was just as fun and fulfilling as the first. 

Junk Journal January 2026

I did my very first Junk Journal January back in 2023, not really knowing what to expect, but I was curious. I also wanted to get back into making art and thought a junk journal was a good place to experiment—with no expectations or judgement. Fast forward to 2026 and this challenge has become something I look forward to as January rolls around to begin a new year. 

2026: more pages with watercolor and drawings 

Generally, most of the pages in my junk journals have been collage. This year, I’ve enjoyed responding to a few of the prompts by reaching for my watercolor paints and drawing pens. On Day 5, the “Echo” prompt was illustrated with a wacky mandala (techniques learned in the Artsy Marathon session I attended on New Year’s Eve) and slow drawing patterns. 

Freeform mandala with slow drawing patterns.

Day 14 “Morning” was illustrated with an abstract watercolor exercise. Just watercolors and color mixing. So fun! 

“Morning.” Watercolors.

Day 23 “Layers” was all about preparing for a predicted major winter storm that stretched from Texas to New England. This journal page has ink drawings of articles of clothing that can be layered to keep warm. The tonal background is a simple watercolor wash.

Watercolor and ink drawings. Day 23, “Layers.”

After Day 23’s watercolor and ink drawings, the Day 24 prompt “Blank” turned a blank white page into a canvas for black and white slow drawing. And Day 25 prompt “Rest” again combined slow drawing and watercolor. All three of these pages were restful and relaxing to create and I enjoyed using my watercolor paints and drawing with ink pens.

Ink drawings and watercolor.

I’m also especially pleased with Day 29 “Wrapping” page for which I painted a small cherry blossoms watercolor composition. 

Watercolor painting of cherry blossoms with a story about the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Four years in… why I continue to participate in Junk Journal January 

Returning to the Junk Journal January for multiple years has become easy for me because, even though the prompts are different and each journal page is new, the process is familiar. 

• Junk journaling doesn’t demand perfection or mastery—you just have to show up and put something on the page. 
• Sometimes the prompts are easy to interpret or immediately inspiring. Other prompts require research; a stretch of the creative muscle to interpret them on a journal page. 
• The journal is made from recycled papers [aka “junk”] and I get to practice my bookmaking skills with each new journal I make.
• The art supplies can be inexpensive, multiple, and various. A junk journal is also a great place to try out new art supplies.
• JJJ is a solid, creative endeavor to start a new year.

What’s fun about the Junk Journal process?

Using scraps: I save old catalogs, found objects, and fabric and paper scraps, that I think would be interesting for art projects. I get to combine these various bits in new compositions… and get to use the collectibles I’ve been savoring.

Two page spread for Day 13 prompt: “Paper trail.”

Experimenting with art supplies: The small ritual of creating a daily journal page—a small format, inspired by a given prompt—is a great way to experiment with my stash of art supplies and try different techniques I’ve wanted to test. It’s a small investment of time and supplies while still learning something. 

Watching the journal grow: Watching the journal “bulk up” with layers of paper, paint, marks, stitching, and ephemera—beautifully imperfect—is exciting to me. Your hands can literally feel the progress made when holding the journal. I add extra signatures to my junk journals so I can continue to add slow drawings, notes, and practice hand lettering, even after the Challenge month has concluded. 

Day 6 prompt: “Page as object.”

New prompts, new language: One of the things I was introduced to this year were prompts that were unfamiliar to me. I had to look up the terms “page as object” (above) and “still frame,” and I feel my interpretations were illustratively successful. 

Day 12 prompt: “Still frame.”

First Make Nine finish for 2026  

This journal is my sixth junk journal and I’m counting it as my first Make Nine finish for 2026. I’m fulfilling one of the Wild Card prompts. 

Make Nine 2026, January 31.

I love all my Junk Journals! Paging through past journals, being reminded of different supplies and techniques I used, and reminiscing about the time the page was created, is so inspiring as well. 

Six Junk Journals so far.

I enjoy this art practice and it’s a great way to do a creative reset at the start of a new year.  

Day 4 prompt: “Landscape.”
Collage with catalog pages.

Six journals in. Four Januaries down. Still showing up and enjoying an art-making ritual.

Prepping for two 2026 art journaling adventures

What better way to start the new year than being surrounded by paper, paint, scissors, paste, and a marathon of artsy inspiration! I’m starting off 2026 by plunging into two art journaling adventures: the and Junk Journal January 2026 and 2025/2026 Artsy Marathon. These are the two junk journals I’ve made specifically for the occasion. 

New junk journals to ring in the new year.

My 4th Junk Journal January

As in the past three years, I’m joining the Junk Journal January Challenge. It’s becoming a bit of an annual tradition since I ventured into art journals with my first Junk Journal January in 2023. After doing JJ January and JJ July the past few years, this will be the 6th junk journal for me. I’m looking forward to responding to the prompts and getting creative and messy with my art supplies. 

Junk journals from January 2023, January 2024, and January 2025.

To get excited about making junk journal art again, I’ve pulled out my previous five journals from my JJ endeavors. It’s becoming quite a library! 

Five junk journals from previous Challenges.

Checking out a new virtual meet-up: the 2025-26 Artsy Marathon

This year, I’m also trying a new art journaling experience with an online event I recently discovered—the 2025-26 Artsy Marathon. 

The 2025-26 Artsy Marathon.

From the morning of December 31 to the morning of January 1, I’ll be binge watching the 2025-26 Artsy Marathon hosted by Kiala Givehand of Life Alchemy for 20+ hours of “art journaling bliss,” as the program description indicates. A perfect way to ring in the new year, don’t ya think? 

Whether I actively participate in real time, or just watch the artsy goodness unfold, I hope to get a plethora of fresh inspiration from artists I haven’t been exposed to before. I also want to pick up some cool techniques to use for Junk Journal January that starts on January 1. 

Junk Journal 2026 prompts.

With these two upcoming art journaling activities, it should be a quite the creative workout from which to launch into a new year—responding to prompts, experimenting, playing with succulent art supplies, and creating one messy, joyful journal page after another—for the next 31 days.

It’s not too late to join either or both of these! Start the new year with something “magically delicious.”

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!

 

Junk Journal January: first Make Nine finish for 2025

Junk Journal January is a wrap! I’m counting it as my first Make Nine 2025 finish to fulfill the “Online Challenge” prompt.

Make Nine 2025 tracker. Online Challenge prompt

Journal format and page spreads

For JJJ 2025 [Junk Journal January 2025], I made a square format, no-sew journal. 

No-sew junk journal.

After getting into the daily process of answering the prompts, I found myself creating compositions in 2-page spreads. Sometimes the composition was in response to a single prompt…

Day 30 prompt: fabric

… sometimes it combined multiple prompts.

Days 24 and 25 prompts: line and modern.

I liked working in a larger, 2-page space. Paint, color, and collage were used to unify the background. Similar marks were made across both pages, and often the spreads incorporated text, quotes, or poems relating to the prompt(s), that were hand lettered on the pages.

Days 26, 27, 28 and 29 prompts: movement, crumpled, sealed, and reveal.

Materials and techniques

For this year’s junk journal, I used techniques that I used in the past: acrylic and watercolor painting, collage, hand lettering, and drawing, and an occasional use of a rubber stamp. I did experiment with solar paste and stencils this time—on Day 18 with the “bright” prompt. Solar paste is a fun art supply and is very effective on a black background.

Solar paste medallions made with paste and stencils.

Starting with Junk Journal January in 2023, and followed by Junk Journal January and Junk Journal July in 2024, Junk Journal January 2025 is the fourth journal in my collection.

Junk Journals from 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Wrapping up the final week of Junk Journal January 2025

Today starts the last week of January and the final week of Junk Journal January 2025 Challenge. This Challenge has been an exercise in “showing up and doing the work.” Travel and long, busy days as a fabric rep sometimes leaves me tired and uninspired… that’s when the commitment to the process kicks in. Paraphrasing Picasso, “Exploration and creativity happens, but they must find you working.”

Day 21 prompt: map

Here are a few of my favorite journal pages and spreads from the month that started off somewhat mediocre, but turned out very well.

Days 6, 7 and 8 prompts: embossed, tuck spot, and antique.

After prompted to use tissue paper on this spread, the tissue paper was used again on other pages.

Days 20 and 21 prompts: tissue and map.

On the recommendation from a friend, I experimented with solar paste, a new-to-me art supply. It was used along with a stencil to create the medallions on the left-hand page of this spread.

Days 17, 18, and 19 prompts: fragile, bright, and bubble.

William Morris is one of my favorite printers, typographers, and designers. The aesthetic of the Arts and Crafts movement resonates today as much as it did back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Days 24 and 25 prompts: line and modern