Japanese Ephemera Junk Journal by Jane Chipp!

Japanese Ephemera Junk Journal

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

Hi everyone, I’m Jane Chipp, and I’m really excited to show you my first journal as a new member of the Graphics Fairy design team. My background is in textile art and, as such, I’m always really drawn to texture. Over the years I’ve collected lots of antique Japanese ephemera because, not only does it look beautiful, but the different papers have such delicious textures. I decided to use some antique book pages, handwritten rice paper and old stamps as the basis of my journal.

My journal is actually an altered book…it started life as a children’s book and I covered all of the pages with combinations of antiques papers, gesso and silk. I had great fun searching the premium site for images to use and mainly used images from the Japanese Watercolors, Asian Inspired Images and Instant Ancestors 2 bundles.

The cover is made from a page from an old Japanese poetry book. There is handwritten lettering on a pink background which I coated in encaustic wax to give it more texture and the appearance of lacquer work. The spine has a strip of silk with gold embroidery to add to the precious feel of the journal.

The first page has a beautiful image of some pink lilies from the Japanese Watercolor bundle. I applied the image to a page made up of rice paper and silk that I’d stitched together with silk thread and then coated it in wax. The dusty colors of the image really worked well to create a very aged looking page.

I rarely use images without adapting them in some way, as I did with the image of the Kingfisher by a pond which I sandpapered to give an antique appearance to blend in with the old papers.

Its fair to say I adored the Instant Ancestors 2 bundle! I used the sepia version of the Japanese woman portrait to make a cabinet card which slots into a tuck spot with dried flowers on the page surrounding her. I used the same image as an altered photograph in the printables section to make a fragile looking print on transparent paper which I stitched to a piece of silk and stitched into the journal.

One of my favorites is a tiny concertina book that I made using the 1-inch printables that hides in a tiny tuck spot.

I used some of the images to create a lacquer look by applying them to a background of black paint and, for the geisha image, added a halo of gold paint to give even more richness.

And last, but definitely not least, the little lanterns that dangle from one of the pages which are adorable! I printed the lantern in different sizes onto layout paper, cut them out and coated them in wax so that they have an ethereal look. I attached each one to thread so that they dangle on the page.

JAPANESE EPHEMERA JUNK JOURNAL SHOW & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Let’s take a tour of it together:

Graphics Fairy Premium Membership bundles and images used:

• Japanese Watercolors
• Asian Inspired Images
• Instant Ancestors 2
• Mother’s Day Ephemera
  

My journals, ephemera and printable downloads of antique Japanese papers are available in my
Etsy Shop
Follow me on Instagram
See more of my work here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my journal and that I’ve given you some ideas for using the beautiful Graphics Fairy images in your own journals!

Jane Chipp

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!