I’m sure you’ve heard of junk journaling by now - either you or someone close to you has peeled labels off of their coffee, snagged the receipt or the paper menu from your local takeout restaurant while claiming, “I need this for my junk journal.”

At first I was pretty skeptical. While they looked fun and cool, most times I found myself asking, “are people really glueing meaningless garbage to a notebook?”

Sure, I was seeing a lot of videos of people making journal spreads full of takeout bags, candy wrappers, and actual trash. But when I looked deeper, I saw it for what it really was - an exercise in creativity, and furthermore, a sustainable way to scrapbook with materials that are all around us and readily available.

I bought a journal and instantly started collecting what looked like straight up trash to the naked eye. But to me it was treasure, and I began viewing everything as potential material. A colored shopping bag could easily be cut up as scrap paper, elements from the random zine that’s given out at an event, newspapers, flyers with big letters - anything!!

From there, the journal spreads would come together almost on their own, taking form with some imagination and glue sticks.

It’s not surprising that junk journaling is the latest trend. With a looming (or maybe current) recession, it’s an affordable way to embrace creativity, with a low barrier to entry to get started. Additionally, with the changing climate on everyone’s minds, it’s another great way to help reduce waste - one, because you’re not buying new art materials (or at least, not a lot of new materials), and two, because you’re reducing the amount of garbage being tossed into a landfill (even if it’s just a small amount).

Here are some examples of items I started collecting for my personal junk journal:

• Pretty bags and packaging - I started appreciating decorative shopping bags a lot more since junk journaling (thank you anthropologie!) I started cutting them up and saving them for backdrops for my spreads.

  

• Newspaper and magazine clippings - anything that looks like I could potentially use it later is getting clipped and saved

  

• Receipts (and tickets) - especially when you go to a new fun place with friends, it’s a great way to capture your adventures.

  

• Fruit stickers - I feel like every junk journal-er has a fruit sticker page. How can you resist?

  

• letters, letters, letters - all letters, big or small, from all types of packages. I love using these for cute scrapbook, ransom-type letters!

• other elements from paper bags - thanking trader joe’s for this one!

• literally anything else - when I get marketing mailers, I see if there’s anything I can save. Coffee sleeves, stickers, wrist bands, whatever you want!

  

do you have a junk journal? show me your favorite spreads to spread some inspiration around!!

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