7 Simple Junk Journal Ideas/Quick Embellishments

Hello everyone, I'm Natasha from Treasure Books, these are all the things we are going to do in today's video where I share with you seven

simple

ideas

for

junk

journal

s,

quick

embellishments

or additions to our

junk

journal

s, each of these

ideas

will spark . additional related ideas that of course I will share with you and at the end of the video I will also explain why I chose to do only seven ideas instead of 10, 15 or 25. Alright, let's start idea number one is the scrapbook with lace fragments, so This is more of an addition to a journal and the idea is that this comes inside the journal or lives inside the journal like this, for example, and then the recipient or yourself will have all of this lace or fragments of lace at their disposal to use them throughout the day.

Journaling, this all comes off so there's nothing sewn together, everything can come off very easily and I think the best thing to do is make one on camera, so here I have some cardstock as a base and I have already cut some. cords that can go there and I layer them so that the little edges are visible, something like that, for example, and then I finish with a mat right there in the middle, now you can add a little bit of fabric on top and sew, you could add pieces of fabric everywhere, you know, you can make this as fun as you want.

Now I'm using a paper mat laying it on top like this, then just a little piece cut out, some scrapbook paper, just making a fun little cut. there and the main reason I'm putting this piece in is because I'm using these bulldog clips and I find that when I do this without that piece it just gets into everything and doesn't look right so that's really the main reason. why I have this piece there and that's why I'm going to bend it down a little bit. You can really take this in so many different directions and here we go to keep everything in its place.

Now some of you may know this. Some of you may know this. it's not like these can be taken off like that and then you can hang whatever you want from there and this one can put it back on, tighten it and here we go, how easy was that and such a fun little concept and what you can do. small ones and put them in pockets in journals and things like that, like I said you can take this a lot of different ways, this is just supposed to spark your imagination, you can even have little packs of them in your etsy store and sell them like that.

Let's move on, you may have seen my video on using empty pen barrels to bind journals, if not I'll link my idea number two below. We are using empty pen barrels as closures for the journals. The reason I mentioned the binding video is because in that video I go more in depth into how you can decorate these empty pen barrels. The idea is that you use your pens, but instead of throwing away these pieces you reuse them correctly, so you don't destroy perfectly good pens. I just demonstrated how you would do it. I'm sure you know how you would remove the ink from the inside, but just in case, there's my empty pen barrel and then here's a little piece of paper that I've rolled up one more time if you want. having trouble with anything, you know, just check out the video that I'm going to link below where we use them to attach the signatures, so basically you have this rolled up, you put it inside and you can use washi tapes. and wrap all kinds of different things you can do, but this is just a

quick

little demo that you can do.

Know? Use different types of scrapbook paper for this part. When I made this video on bookbinding with empty pen barrels, it was gone. using the end caps as you can see here, I don't know why I didn't think of using them, but it's actually much better if you use them, so what I'm talking about are these ones that you know about here and you can do it very easily. remove them by using a long wooden skewer like this and just pushing them in and then they come off, I mean they're not all the same but you can see they have this hole at the top and that's the hole you would use for this. or for binding, but having said that sometimes the holes can be really small which means you can't use them, in which case you just won't use them, just do it without them, okay, so basically I have my sheet of paper rolled up. there I made sure there was enough room for my cap to fit inside and now you take some elastic.

I have this beautiful gold elastic. I mean, the silver one would look great with that journal, but you're just going to thread it so you can do it. use a thin stretchy cord for example if you have a journal it has to be stretchy because you want to be able to take it on and off a journal and now from here you can go to town with how you want to embellish it. I guess, but before I start with beads or something, I'm going to put the end cap on like this and now I'm going to put this part back on, not all pens are the same, of course, these are mostly gel. pens I was using and you know it won't work on all empty pens, but it's just an idea you can play with to see what it looks like without any other

embellishments

.

Here I added some beads, I added a little bit. Some washi tape and some more beads on top here, I added silver beads even though I have them on a gold thread but it still looks good okay here we go so make sure it's somewhere in the middle. You can play with the knot. We're going to make it okay for me to make this knot visible, but you might want to measure and tie the knot and carry it inside the pen, but then you won't be able to add all of these. accounts, so anyway that's something to think about.

I'm going to hold it in place there and pull it a little bit like stretch the elastic a little bit and tie a knot and I'm going to do the exact same thing on the other side. and now you can have it either way, you can have the pen up or down, whichever you prefer, and tie it around the journal, tie a knot and a double knot, and I'm just making sure three times to dye a third knot in there just to You know, stay safe, cut it and here we go. I think it looks very nice and goes very well with what we are doing.

We are reusing things that would otherwise end up in the landfill. I am very passionate about this. and it also says that because it's a pen, obviously you can't use it, but you know it makes sense for this pen to be in this journal, okay, let's move on, idea number three is a mini folio and we're talking about something

simple

and there's nothing simpler than this, but it's a beautiful and very effective addition to a journal, so this is what we're talking about, it's just a little mini folio that you put, you know, you can overlay a lot of labels, I chose just I have both things in there, but there's small pockets with an ornate front and are cut out on the side of the page.

It's very simple and I'm going to demonstrate that, just for fun, you can use any size paper you have and that's basically it. I want those curved things to happen here so you can have as much fun as you want. You can have a large opening, a smaller opening, whatever, so I'm not really going to start from there, but maybe from somewhere here and then. I could use something curved like a plate, but it doesn't matter, it looks like a corset just by inking the edges a long time ago and by now you might have guessed that we're just going to glue the sides closed, but I want that too.

Why did I leave this little part here? I also want to glue it, I just want the pocket to close on three sides. Put some glue in here and then of course glue the actual sides closed and of course you can use your sewing. machine, which is what I often do, but we stick with simple, quick and easy, here we go, here's a little sheet of paper, you can go ahead and put something on the front or just leave it as is, it's already rich and fun and then, of course. Fill it inside to your heart's content, it's such a simple concept, but when you put it inside a journal, especially when there's something else on another page, it brings everything to life, makes it look rich, let's see, maybe it could have is somewhere. more in the diary I have a little thing here and then maybe I could have something on this side.

It would look nice to put a picture or something small maybe even a tab maybe I can sew this right on the first page you know? I'm sure you can come up with ideas. You can make small versions of them. You can make giant versions of this thing. You can make a few, say, three, four, five, of different sizes and turn them into a little booklet with fragments. inside you can make little packages again, there are so many different things you can do with a really simple concept, just try things out and see how they work.

Idea number four are these mini clipboards, they are additions to junk journals and they are so easy and simple to make what I'm using for this is this thick cardboard the type that comes in the back of notebooks and stuff like that, this one has all written down but generally I don't plan on writing on it so that's what I'm going to use I just cover it with scrapbook paper. I'm going to use this one and the one I'm going to make today is going to be bigger than the ones I made before just to show you. you know you can make them any size you want, the size I was making so far was half the size of this one, you can even make small ones like that, you know, and keep them in your journal pockets, so I'm just going to apply a bit.

The glue is really the edges that are most important, so I'm going to push the glue all the way to the edge and then since I want to use the other side, I'm going to put it on top to make sure it's all right. glued and then using my metal ruler and my Exacta knife, I'm going to cut right there at the edge and if you wanted to hide the edges, which is something I'm not going to do, you would leave more around it and then wrap the edges, but I'm just removing that extra step and now I repeat on this side.

You can choose to use two different scrapbook papers, but I'm doing the same thing again, press down and cut again and here we go, there's my little board and just this can be used to make journal covers and all that. type of thing so now I'm going to ink the edges this really gives it a finished look and here we go you can see the side of that cardboard and that's what I was saying before if you don't like this you would wrap the paper inside and then you would glue the second piece or you can just do this and that gives it a more finished look so now you can cut out any paper you want there.

I already have a bunch of these tea dyed papers and I have a hard time using them because I don't like the lines that go this way when I fold the pages, so I don't like them in my journal and this is a perfect project. For these types of pages and when I'm cutting the papers I want them to be smaller than the board so you can see the outline of the board. I think it makes it look prettier when it's visible, so I'm just doing it. a little mark where I want to cut and here we go it's time to cut and of course I keep these because I can cut them out and have the smaller ones too or I can turn them into little booklets and cut some more and then Of course these cuts I'm also going to keep them and probably use them today in this tutorial and here we're going to place them and here's our little clipboard and I'm talking about all the different things we could do with this idea and all the different shapes.

We could make this so much fun. You could do something like this. You could have papers. You could have fabrics. You could have lace doilies. All kinds of clipping stuff on a clipboard and then that comes with the journal. Beautiful. You have all your details. in one place I just want to see what it would look like if we made it a little more fun maybe a little sticker would look nice maybe I can use this little cut out piece also one idea leads to another and another but you know, I have to stop somewhere place, something like this I think looks really cute, it's really quick to make and you can make it really fun and each one can be totally different and embellished differently, you can have something hanging here, a little tassel charm.

I know that's the nature of these projects, one idea leads to another related idea and another idea leads to five different related ideas. I think so, anyway look at this as a little package as such a cute little gift. The next idea is another really simple and quick idea. that you can totally flesh out and it's this here, it's a tag that opens up like this so you can have it above the page like this, but then it would be upside down, so I usually have it under like at the bottom of the page like this one, so that when you turn the page, both sides are visible or, a lot of times, we cut it out like this on the side of the page like this so that it then opens up like this when we make them.

I always keep in mind that at least one side can be written on, so if you had busy scrapbook paper like this on both sides then it doesn't make much sense, it's not suitable for writing on, so this one was a 12 by 12 paper that has been cut out. and it's used in different ways and I have this piece left over so you can have wide labels, you know, small ones that open whatever, I just want to make sure all my sides are even. ItNext thing I'll do is do it. In label form, you can decide how much you want to cut.

I think I like that a lot. I'm going to use one of those here to get an even cut on both sides and now I have these triangular pieces. that I want to use inside, as you've seen here, it's just to have a little fun. I often save these cuts because they are very nice to use.on pages of your journals like this they are beautiful corners look that looks very nice or you could do what I am doing here maybe you could do two like this you could do something like this maybe something like this but I'm going to do the same thing I did on this one here, so I'm going to fold it down so I can see where my edges are and that way it's easier than this way, I can't see exactly and here we go.

It's done, I've inked all the edges and now we just need you to know that if you want to continue, you can stop here, you can embellish, you can put something here, but we'll keep it simple. Make a small hole now. I don't have all these reinforcements, so I make my own, I make little circles and of course I ink them all because I'm a fan of inking and then I make a hole in the middle like this. I do that on everyone. four and then I glue them like this and the reason I do it this way instead of gluing them and then doing them all at the same time is because maybe they won't all be in the center and then I'll have one of them with a hole here or something so I just like things to be centered and here we go done and dusted, so it's pretty simple, but you can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want, it's totally up to you and your own imagination, you could totally do the same thing, but in Instead of opening like this, it can be opened like this from the side, like this.

Alright, the next idea is a scrapbook with paper cutouts and this is my favorite idea and the reason I have so many made up is because these are all my scraps, well not all. I have a scrapbook, so what I mean by this is that when I'm cutting out pages that go into my journals, you usually know that you'll have strips of paper left over and use them all in different ways, like something like this, for example, the I save them all and one of my next ideas will be to use some of these, so there are two different ways to do this and of course they look fabulous as little additions to journals. so I'm actually going to use what was left over from that previous project.

I got the little clippings you have. I like to use a variety of different colors, you know, just to make it more fun, so if you have really long pieces, I would fold them in half, which is what I've done here. You can see that this top piece is actually a sheet of paper that was folded in half, but I don't seem to have any, so what I do is something like this. I don't fold it in half, but I fold it up a little bit, maybe I want to have some shorter pieces like this. You don't even have to fold them, maybe you can just stack them and then the last piece that I like.

They've been folded, so the next thing we're going to do is make two holes here, there, we're going to make two holes, then get some thread, poke the first hole back to the front, tie a knot and then tie. an arch and now you can leave it as is or maybe play with these edges here, I don't know, make a little waterfall like that, you can keep inking all those edges, I'm not going to bother with that. I'll just do a little bit, maybe just the top one and the bottom one, I'm just telling you right now that you're never going to get rid of all those clippings because if you keep making journals you're going to keep getting rid of clippings, so it's a losing battle, but that doesn't mean we can't try, there was no folding here, it's just individual pages that I stacked and then used a scrap of a 12 by 12 that I folded on top and then pretty much did the exact same thing I just did and you know you can embellish it even more so I guess, but I think a little sticker like this is often enough to just put something on there and here we go, it's done and the last idea, at least for today, are these little matchbooks and again we're using all cutouts from previous projects and as you can see here, they can be any size you want, you can use larger cutouts, you can use smaller ones, whatever.

You have, so I have these cutouts from today's project that I did earlier with the clipboards, so I could use them for a bigger one or, for example, like this, I could use here are some shorter ones like this, a lot of little cutouts here, So this. It's probably too long. I also make long notebooks like this one, for example, I have a whole bag that I made and they are all cutouts. You can see all the little cutouts in here and it's a little laminate cover and I love using things. up, but anyway there was one little thing.

I'm going to use these today, maybe mix some of these together too. Next, I'm going to use another cut piece and turn it into a booklet first, so I want to have a big flap, but probably not that big, maybe something like this, for example, okay, let's get a little bit closer, then I'll leave a little bit of space here, fold it like this. simple and now I'm going to cut this at one point. Of course, you could just watch it, but I like to find the perfect middle and maybe just make two little marks here to correspond to each other, it'll probably be faster. and it's easier to just look at it, but since you prefer something like that, the next thing we need to do is make a little cut like an opening for this flap so you can know how to stay closed and the way I do it. to ink the edges so you can see good, inked edges so now you can see a little better and now just to know where to make that cut again, you can just look at it and decide where you want it, I mean, you don't want to I don't want to make the cut. there and you just have a little bit that keeps everything closed, so maybe I'll make a cut somewhere there, so I'm just going to mark.

You can see, I made two little marks there and I can see. when I open it up and that's exactly the length of my cut, line up my ruler and just make that cut, you don't want it to be any bigger than those two marks then it's just going to slide out, it's not going to keep everything closed, here we go, so at this point, if you want to be a little more, you can take this completed piece to your sewing machine and sew all over it. Look, I made them years ago. I made them about seven years ago and still have them. so the stitching isn't really the best, I actually sewed that signature on my sewing machine and I stitched around the opening so it's visible, so that's something you can do, I'm not going to do it today and because I'm not going I'm going to do it and I'm not going to sew and accentuate the opening.

I want to ink it, but it's really hard to ink it when it's like this, just a little cut there, so what I do is I grab it. some scrap paper and I do it this way okay there's one side I'm going to do the same thing on this side and here we go so just accentuate it's there okay now our little signature that's going to go there It's going to be stitched and of course I have to get rid of this excess here, so again I'm going to trim it, that's good and done, and now go ahead and stitch that signature using a three whole booklet. stitch, which is what I've done on these, I actually made a little mini three full pamphlets, very simple, very quick, another option, as I mentioned of course, is to sew like I did on these little ones or you can just use your stapler and just staple that closed you would open it of course like this and then you would use your stapler there you wouldn't staple it there or anything like that I guess you could do that too and here we go I ended up using my sewing machine to sew that one signature now I feel like I want to add stitching all around and here we go, I couldn't help but just sew all around and ideally you would do that before you sew on the signature because that was a little bit difficult and I think it looks pretty good, although it would look better, you know, when it also has this seam around the opening, but it still looks good without sewing, just a little mini pocket filler that I would call this and another little one. place to write do you want more of this kind of stuff?

Let me know in the comments below. The reason I chose to do seven ideas instead of 10, 20 or 50 is because I think we all have unlimited ideas and many times over. that in itself can create a problem, we can start to feel stuck in a routine or not sure what to do on this particular day or what to add to this particular diary because there are so many possibilities, too many possibilities, these kinds of things are hello good. particularly at times when you feel like you've lost your mojo, you sit down for 15 minutes and you just recreate one thing, you just do this, for example, you just do these little naturals, you just do this, they're very, very quick to do and very funny, okay let me know what you think.

Thank you very much for watching and see you in my next video. Bye bye.