Family History Junk Journal
Hey, everyone! Julie Rohrer of August Birdsong, one of our amazing Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Family History Ephemera 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 Julie introduce herself, and tell you all about her lovely project…
Hello, Everyone! Today, I am bringing you my latest journal titled “When My Grandparents Were Young.” The inspiration for this began years ago when I purchased a small book with facts about the year 1900.
You see, one of my grandmothers was born in 1900, and my other grandmother was born in 1893. My two grandfathers were born in the 1890’s as well. I always thought it would be fun to do some kind of project about what the world was like back then when they were growing up.
First, I made a list of subjects for that time period, like clothing, travel, hygiene, school, entertainment, etc.,that I thought would guide my search for images and ephemera at The Graphics Fairy.
I was able to find so much ephemera reflecting life between 1890-1920 on The Graphics Fairy website and in the archives on the blog that my journal is packed as you will see in the video.
I like to make my journals in vintage Better Homes and Gardens ring-binders. I found this one online for around $5.00; it’s from 1951. I use the heavier cardstock dividers as my pages. My journals are more about the visual experience and the stories they reflect than a place for writing, like traditional journals.
I like to add flip pages to the base pages using muslin or ribbon as the hinge. In addition to the vintage photographs and ephemera, I like to add flowers, fruit, or greenery as embellishments to enhance my focal points.
I find all of these embellishments at The Graphics Fairy by searching through the various search categories: Bundles, Printables, and Images; I constantly use the filters in these three categories to narrow my search. I also use the archives found on the blog with “Friday Freebies.” There is a search link on that page where I looked for more vintage ephemera and photos to use.
Finally, I often have two pages next to each other related to the same subject. On these two pages, I wanted the audience to see the fortune teller looking at her customer on the left page, so I fussy cut a vintage photo of a gypsy looking to her left and placed her behind her magic ball. The magic ball has adhesive squares beneath it, so she appears seated behind it. Some of the apples are on adhesive squares as well. As for the spinning wheels above the fortune teller, I placed brads through small puncture holes in the center of each wheel, but I left one of the “legs” on each as a pointer on each wheel. Then I mounted the tag to the page.
As for the left page, I used paper from the Luna the Magic Queen bundle for the background, but I also added gesso through a clock stencil to add some additional mysterious effect to the page. The moon to the left of the pretty lady is actually one of the magic balls distressed a little with some inks. The lady is supported by adhesive squares on her right side only, so the two little tags can be tucked behind her gown.
I hope you enjoyed looking at this journal and feel inspired to create with all of the wonderful images and ephemera available through The Graphics Fairy. Even if you don’t have time to make a large visual journal like mine, any page in it could make a lovely card or cover for a smaller journal.
FAMILY HISTORY JUNK JOURNAL SHOW & TELL VIDEO TOUR
Let’s take a tour of it together:
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Bundles Used in this project:
- A Taste of Tuscany
- Autumn Botanicals
- Autumn Harvest
- Bee-Utiful Day
- Bikes & Gears
- Black & White Kitchenware
- Digi-People
- European Maps
- Forget-Me-Not
- French Paperie Collection
- Fruit and Nuts
- Luna the Magic Queen
- Marbled Endpapers
- Mother’s Day Ephemera
- Ocean Blues
- Peacock Hues
- Scents & Soaps Ephemera 1 & 2
- Sewing Ephemera
- Spring Has Sprung
- Spring Meadows
- The American West
- The Typesetter
- Vintage Gentlemen
- 1907 Beauties
Happy crafting!
Julie
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