Junk Journals from a Journal Junkie

What do you do when you're a paper hoarder lover who can't bear to throw out a single scrap of paper that is visually interesting? You sew those scraps together and make junk journals out of them, what else? Can anyone ever have too many journals? I think not.

Larger scraps and other fun paper become the journal pages. How many junk mail envelopes do you throw away in any given day? Put those suckers to good use.

My scrap paper bin holds endless amounts of paper: book pages, wrapping paper, wallpaper samples, candy wrappers, brown paper bags, envelopes, maps, paper projects gone awry, and anything else that I can recycle and reuse. It's endless because I throw paper in there faster than I can possibly use it up.

There are days when I sit at my sewing machine for hours randomly grabbing paper out of the bin and sewing it together crazy quilt style. It's just another way I like to relax. (When I'm not sewing little felt hearts or making marks with gouache.) It's almost hypnotic in a way.

Sorry, Mom. I'm sure you never intended for your sewing machine to be used in this barbaric way.

Yesterday's output. OK, it was really, really hot and the basement is so much cooler than the rest of the house.

Pretty little snips of thread.

So pretty that I like to keep them in a jar. (Hmmm. I'm beginning to think I may need help.)

After many months plus hours of trial and error, I've figured out a way to turn the sewn scraps into journal covers that I'm happy with. I've also used this method to make postcards and now I'm experimenting with little junk boxes.

I even made a few bitty junk journals with signature scraps left over from a few coptic journal projects. Even a take-out Chipotle bag found its way in there. I'm telling you--nothing is off limits when it comes to junk journals.