Unlock the Power of Self-Expression

At the heart of every great piece of art is a story waiting to be told.

Perhaps you have heard it said that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I really don’t like using the term “junk journal” but as you may know, this is the popular name for the type of journal that contains found objects and other ephemera.

One of my folllowers on Instagram wrote that she is just getting started with journaling, indicating that she found it to be expensive to begin. I respondeed that there is much that can be done with a trip to Dollar Tree, and even without that, there are opportunities to get a head start using supplies already on hand.

Almost everybody has an old composition notebook around the house. We all get junk mail on a regular basis and one easy way to put together pages is by using discarded envelopes. I used to make greeting cards and when I began making journals, I found that I had leftover scrapbook paper and even some colored construction paper that had been purchased for my granddaughters. I made “books” from cardboard boxes that had once held cheese crackers. It was much later that I got more “fancy” with my creations.

Why we love vintage

I have thought a lot about our fascination with what we call “vintage.” Usually this refers to images from the 19th and 20th century, although the technical definition is anything that is from a period 50 years ago or earlier. It is the nostalgia, yearning for a simpler time that is driving a lot of this popularity — a time of hand-made things, when cars were slower and clocks had to be wound every day. We cannot avoid our fast-paced digital world and there is something special about reconnecting with the past.

My grandmother had several old church hymnals. I shared some pages from them in my Etsy shop. I simply scanned them to make digital files because I could not bear to tear the pages out. We have used book stores here and last week I picked up some old books printed in languages other than English. (You can find pages of foreign languages in our downloads.)

Pam, at The Paper Outpost has dozens of how-to videos on You Tube. I learned a lot from her in the beginning. (Usually I turn the sound off because I think she talks too much, but that’s just me. She has a bird or something.)

Making your own one-of-a-kind journal can be a therapeutic process. The act of cutting and pasting, arranging bits of paper, scribbling and decorating can be a form of mindfulness. We can focus on the here and now, and create something that feels authentic and meaningful.