Marsh Song Junk Journal

Hey, everyone! Kathleen Mower of BeAgain Books, one of our amazing new Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Marsh Song 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 Kathleen introduce herself and tell you all about her incredible project…

Hello everyone! I’m happy to introduce myself as a new member of the Graphics Fairy Design Team. I love mixed media art and particularly love to design and create junk journals. I have used images from the Graphics Fairy for many years, but signing up for the Premium Membership opened up an even larger world of crafting with beautiful images! And hanging out with such talent on the Design Team is a dream come true. Do you remember a lovely book called “A Girl of the Limberlost” by Gene Stratton Porter? I am inspired by this vintage novel and the character of the heroine, Elnora, who has few possessions and fewer resources, but plenty of courage and intelligence. She embraces and draws comfort from the marshland around her. Ultimately the marsh provides the means by which she gains an education and achieves a happy life. I like to imagine Elnora would love my journal. Two primary bundles from the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership site enabled me to bring the marsh to life in this special journal. I enjoyed finding and choosing the images, fussy cutting, and creating collages on the cover and for elements in the journal. The journal has two signatures hand sewn into a recycled book cover. It has a beaded elastic closure and a lovely tassel and charm dangle for the spine.

One of the beautiful printable pages included with the Marsh and Pond bundle provided the perfect images for the inside of the front and back covers. I love the stately Great Heron and the sunset colors of the stucco wall. A textured “painty” paper opposite the image page is a fun background for either written text or additional images or photos. I’ve used gesso, acrylic paint, and distress ink in a similar way on several pages within the journal.

Making digital collages is such a fun activity and the elements in these bundles make it easy to create this layered window pocket on top of a digital collage. Beautiful vintage postcard images make a perfect journal card. Maybe you can see that I love adding layers to my journals?

I turned this vintage card image into a very large corner tuck spot and embellished the butterfly and the frog with an additional layer to make these small images pop on the card. I detailed each of these tiny embellishments with Glossy Accents to make them even more interesting.

A vintage music cover with a “just right” color makes a lovely backdrop for this embossed paper tag and the dragonfly image journal card. I resized one of the pre-designed printable pages to make the large folded journaling paper that you can see on the left. Extra journaling space is a bonus in any journal.

While the designers at the Graphics Fairy are exceptional, I have always wanted to play around with digital design and this is one result. I left these center pages free of decoration to enjoy the full impact of these lovely images. The little frog image down in the left corner is a removable journal card, printed back to back and folded around the page.

Pockets always feature in my journals. I love being able to write small notes or cards and hide them behind a large patch pocket such as this one. The real feather is from a Green-Winged Teal duck. I carefully glued the feather to the card and added some simple stitching to embellish it further. The coffee-dyed braille paper on the right page and the embossed index card in the pocket adds additional texture to this spread.

I love adding layers in my journals! The textured background in this pocket spread is a great foundation for the layers on top of it. The guest check is removable, of course, and there is plenty more room for additional papers in the pocket. Six layers all together along with the beautifully smooshed inks on the opposite page.

What I call a cluster peek-a-boo pocket is one of my favorite elements to make for a journal and this one is no exception; another real feather helps add some authenticity.

A little colored digital butterfly sticker embellishes a simple black and white image on the left while an elaborate collaged tuck spot on the right provides contrast, lilies everywhere!

Another signature center spread gave me a second opportunity to try my hand at creating digital collage. So much fun!

Another contrasting digital butterfly sticker in one corner is enlarged into an elaborate bellyband on the opposite page. I took advantage of the flap from the envelope and added that gorgeous butterfly image! A really lovely handmade .paper is captured behind for extra journaling space.

A simple large digital collage paper is embellished with three small pocket envelopes and folded around this page in the journal. I was inspired by a Layered Pocket Tag Team handcraft tutorial on the Premium Membership site taught by Jane Chipp. I did something a little different, but I appreciate the tutorial all the same… thanks Jane!

The final pocket is a simple thumb-cut patch pocket layered on top of a mixed media background of paint and stamped swirls. Another simple vintage botanical image makes a perfect journal card for the pocket. There is a full flip through video available at the bottom of this page. I hope you’ll join me to see all the fun details in this special journal. Here is a list of the bundles and images I’ve used for the journal and a couple of links where you can spend more time with me.

MARSH SONG JUNK JOURNAL SHOW  & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Premium Membership Bundles used in this project:

Marsh & Pond
Marsh Song
A Forest Stroll
Lotus & Water Lilies
Woodland Walk
Woodland Wonders
Wings & Things
Delicate Butterflies
Delicate Branches
The Author
Mini Ephemera Pieces
Antique Paper Scraps
On the blog website I searched the images for frogs

I hope you will visit me here:
Kathleen’s YouTube

Kathleen’s Etsy shop
Kathleen’s Instagram

Thanks so much!

Kathleen

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!