Circus Memories Junk Journal by Jack Ravi

Circus Memories Junk Journal

Hey, everyone! Jack Ravi, one of our amazing Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Circus Memories Junk Journal for us this week. As you know, we feature one new Junk Journal project each week created by one of our creative team of artists. Our Design Team Members select from the 100’s of Vintage Image Bundles on our Premium Membership Site, for their creations, in order to show you beautiful ways to use those images. We hope you will be totally inspired by this series!

Therefore, please make sure you check out the video tour at the bottom of the page…please scroll all the way down to see it. Are you ready to be inspired? I will step out of the way and let Jack introduce himself, and tell you all about his incredible project…

Hello, my name is Jack Ravi and I am a collage and mixed media artist. As soon the Life is a Circus bundle was released I knew I had to make a journal about a circus, it was calling me. And I had so much fun making it, coming up with a fun shape and collaging it all together. I called this journal Shorty which is the name of the Clown it belonged to. The structure of this journal is my own design, and the pages open up to create a three-dimensional circus tent. There are five signatures and a lot of space for journaling. It comes in its own box.

I mainly used two bundles from the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership site: Life is a Circus, and Dazzling Circus. I also used some animals from the African Safari bundle, and some of the gorgeous portraits from the Instant Ancestors.

The journal is scented with a warm buttered popcorn oil, which diffuses that typical smell of vintage funfairs and carnivals.

This journal is thick and bursting with colors. It is very weathered as I wanted it to look like Shorty had collected all the circus posters and flyers that had been sitting in the rain and made his own scrapbook.

The pages are created collaging fragments of images and printables that I had dyed with rust and tea, creating a very textural and aged look for the pages. I also used candy and treats bags that I had in my stash which add to the colorful stripy patterns in 18 different colors from the Dazzling Circus Printables.

The cover is made with stained fabric, a photo of Shorty, and a rusty metal plaque that I engraved. It closed with a red and white chord that ties around a vintage button. I also made a little flag that is attached to the middle signature, which stands centrally when you open the journal.

The journal starts with a quote by P.T. Barnum: “The noblest art is that of making others happy.”

I tried to include elements that were historical accurate, like names of performers and reproductions of real documents that I typed with my typewriter onto vintage paper to recreate the effect of antique ephemera.

I included a few pockets to store bingo sheets, reprints of antique circus photographs and miniature playing cards.

I dedicated a spread to The Bearded Lady, which includes a little bag containing 5 grams of her beard, sold at the circus for a dollar. I used a lepidopterist specimen label for the bag.

There’s also a tiny accordion made of circus tickets from the Dazzling Circus bundle.

I used a lot of stripy paper bags, reprints of vintage photos and some golden tattoos.

CIRCUS MEMORIES JUNK JOURNAL SHOW & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Let’s take a tour of it together:

Bundles used:

Life is a Circus

Dazzling Circus

African Safari

Instant Ancestors

Lepidopterist

This journal is available to buy on my website

To see more of my work follow me on  Instagram

Jack’s Etsy 

I hope you like my journal, this is probably one of my favourite I’ve ever made 🙂

Thank you for your time!

Jack

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!