European Travel Junk Journal by Jane Chipp!

European Travel Junk Journal

Hey, everyone! Jane Chipp of Willow Blue Vintage, one of our amazing Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous European Travel 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 Jane tell you all about her lovely project…

At the time of making this journal, the UK is in its third lockdown due to Covid-19. It’s inevitable therefore that my thoughts have turned to the desire to travel, through my journal, if not in reality. I’ve always liked the idea of the ‘Grand Tours’ that wealthy ladies did in days gone by. They’d travel through Europe staying in all of the fashionable spots, and often write their travel memoirs.

I wanted to make a journal that represented such a voyage, through the ephemera and images that I used but also through the structure of the book. For this reason, I decided to make a concertina structure that can either be viewed as a book if the concertina is folded, or as a long strip when it is opened, or can stand up in a star formation giving glimpses of the treasures within. I made the base for the journal from numerous old map pieces, handwritten letters and book pages in foreign languages that I collaged into a long strip.

Because the concertina needs to be able to open right out, I couldn’t make a cover in the usual way i.e. with a spine. Instead, I printed an old photograph of three ladies travelling onto fabric for the front cover, and an image of the Eiffel Tower (from the Vintage Paris bundle) for the back cover, handstitched them to some calico and machine stitched them to the covers of the book. The journal closes with a silk tie and I made a pocket to keep the journal safe during the travels by printing a map from the Olde World Maps bundle onto a piece of calico.

To build upon the feeling of a voyage, I handstitched a line in red thread that travels along the bottom of all of the pages which represents the journey.

I was spoilt for choice when I was selecting which images to use from the Graphics Fairy bundles. My main criteria was that I was looking for authenticity rather than decoration. As you travel through the journal you find all sorts of interesting pieces tucked away in the pockets…business cards from restaurants visited, receipts, fashion items, maps of countries and cities, photographs, postcards, timetables, a pocket of stamps for the owner to use when writing home.

I wanted the journal to look functional, as if it was important to the traveler; that it was where they kept all their travel information, maps, etc. for their travels as well as souvenirs picked up along the way.

Each of the valley folds in the concertina has tuck spots where ephemera can be held.

I made a notebook using some beautiful covers from the French Mini Ephemera and French Attic bundles and blank papers inside that slots into one of the manty tuck spots.

I also made a sewing kit using items from the Sewing Ephemera bundle.

As always, I tried to get plenty of different textures into the journal and printed on different weights and types of papers as well as fabric. I made a set of tags by printing maps onto some calico and attached them to pages with buttons.

I used several of the script ephemera images to print onto a semi-transparent paper reminiscent of Air Mail paper.

EUROPEAN TRAVEL JUNK JOURNAL SHOW & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Let’s take a tour of it together:

I hope you enjoyed looking through the journal and that it’s given you ideas on how to use some of
the beautiful bundles. I’ve listed below the ones that I used:

• European maps
• Olde world maps
•  French mini ephemera
•  Fench papiere
•  French attic ephemera
•  Ephemera collection
•  Bibliophile ephemera
•  French ephemera and transfers
•  Vintage postcards
•  French newspaper ephemera
•  Blank paper ephemera
•  Sewing ephemera
•  Vintage Paris European ephemera

I also used various images that weren’t in bundles by searching for ‘Script ephemera’. The fashion
ladies were found by searching for fashion.

The European Traveler Journal will be listed for sale on 16 March 2021 in my Etsy shop

Follow me on Instagram
See more of my work here.

Jane Chipp

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!