Ocean Diary Junk Journal

Hey, everyone! Sharon Coughlin of Mad Paper Crush, one of our amazing new Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Ocean Diary 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 Sharon introduce herself, and tell you all about her incredible project…

Hello! I’m Sharon from Mad Paper Crush and I live in Eastern Pennsylvania. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love making things with paper, and when I found junk journals, well, I was hooked. It’s just the best combination of art, vintage, imagination and paper! Thanks for joining me for my 1st Graphics Fairy Design Team journal. I’ve created a concept journal which is
the Diary of Eliza Patton – the daughter of a merchant ship captain.

It all started a few weeks ago when I got my Monday morning email from my Graphics Fairy Premium Membership, and it was a bundle called “Sea Captain’s Voyage”, and that’s when the idea for Eliza began to take shape. I did a little searching on the site for other ocean or sea related images I could use, and found so many you will see throughout the journal. You see, Eliza wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and be a captain, but her father is still working very hard to be sure she’s a well rounded girl! The cover started as 2 book boards from a used book, and I covered them with a gorgeous marbled image in the La Mer kit that I printed out on canvas, so it has a great textural feel.
Photo 01, 02

The front inside cover has a layered pocket where Eliza keeps some of her treasures – a button card for mending her blouse, some tickets from the opera the last time they were in port, and even some vintage crochet from a dresser covering she’s working on.

I love this image of some sort of sea monster – it makes a great background for journaling, and I imagine Eliza probably heard many sea monster stories from the crew.

Eliza’s father makes her practice piano everyday on the ship, and you can see some of the paper here in her diary. This little drawing of a boy holding a fish makes a perfect tuck spot for a cake recipe she wants to make with the cook as well as a newspaper article for cleaning shabby clothes – something Eliza has found might be helpful for all the dirt on board.

Eliza is especially fond of sea creatures, and loves to learn more about anything she sees while making their runs. I printed these images onto a vintage ledger paper thinking that Eliza would’ve doodled them while having her Latin lessons.
Like me, Eliza loves paper, and decided to make a little notebook from a drawing of a sea urchin! It tucks right into the belly band on this page – which came from a bookmark printable on the premium site. The bookmark made it super easy to add another interactive element to the journal.

Eliza is pretty crafty herself – she likes taking things she has around and making collages to put in her diary. Here you can see she used a drawing of a shell and some old advertisements to make a tag.

You can see in this picture, I printed some shells onto deli paper – which crinkles a bit as you turn it, and I love those additions to a journal.

The diary also includes a fabric page with a pocket on the back to hold a notecard and more of Eliza’s treasures.

I love having some authentic vintage items in my journals, and I’ve included several vintage ledger pages – and some I even printed on top of to add some ocean creatures and plants!

Eliza’s diary is packed with tucks, pockets and all sorts of ephemera to spark your imagination and take you on a journey with her! Thank you so much for joining me for my first design team journal – see you in a few weeks!

Let’s take a tour of it together:

OCEAN DIARY JUNK JOURNAL SHOW & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Premium Membership Bundles used in this project:

Sea Captains Voyage
Sea Spray
La Mer
Sea Green Backgrounds
Sea Life Ephemera
Nautical Kit
Seaside Holiday

Sharon’s YouTube
Sharon’s Etsy shop
Sharon’s Instagram

Thanks so much!

Sharon

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!