Sit a Spell Junk Journal

Hey, everyone! Susan Miller of Miller’s Laboratory, one of our amazing Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Sit a Spell 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 Susan tell you all about her incredible project…

Happy November and thank you for taking a look at my Design Team project! This time I’ve created a sweet little book with the theme, “Sit a Spell”, using a color scheme of calm neutrals, greens and blues. I had an old green book cover that I cut in two, creating a little 4” X 5-½” journal. I used tea-dyed watercolor paper, other cardstock, and handmade envelopes to create the 76 pages which are all put together using a slip knot binding technique.

It is finished on the top with antique white buttons and the book is tied closed with creamy sari silk ribbon. The cover’s chair image was added with an old rubber stamp.

This binding technique allows the spreads to open up and lay flat for easy artwork and/or writing. I collaged old papers onto the pages throughout the book, and then went back through to decorate it. On the left you see a label which came from a Printable in the Vintage Paperie bundle. On the right I’ve used a handmade envelope as a page, and I placed a little booklet inside for extra writing space. The cane chair on the front of it is from the Graphics Fairy free site.

I love how the heavier weight pages make this feel like a board book for grown-ups! And the binding stitches create a bit of space between pages so there’s plenty of room for embellishing without making the book bulge. On the left I used a pretty lady from The Ornithologist bundle. And on the right, I interlocked two rings from the Architectural Frames bundle to form a tuck spot for a sweet small tag.

To create the negative space chair on the left, I used my limited computer skills! Selecting this chair image from the Grand Saison bundle, I upped the brightness until it was all white, layered it onto the pretty teal background image, and printed it onto vellum. On the right, you can see another Architectural Frame image folded over the top from the other side of the page.

The frame image on this side is glued down on the sides to form a tuck spot. To slide into it, I made a simple journal card using as the background a beautiful Printable from the Tattered Paper Treasures bundle. The focal point on it is a chair I created by digitally changing the color of the thumbnail sheet from the Black and White Ornate Chairs bundle. On the right, I glued down a cabinet card frame to function as a tuck spot and filled it with an old photo from my personal collection.

Again using my computer, I changed the color from pink to green and layered this settee image from the Chateau Life bundle onto a document from the European Ephemera bundle.

This is the first of three digitally collaged flip pockets in the journal, which I created using various backgrounds, borders, and chair images from several different bundles. I admit, I went crazy! See the complete list below. The tag inside started with a grid-patterned index card, to which I added some stitch pattern tissue paper and a gorgeous paint swatch image from The Artist bundle.

On the left, I again used a cabinet card frame to hold a vintage photo. The repeated chair image on the right is from the Black and White Ornate Chairs bundle. I printed out multiples of it and then flipped the paper over and printed images from the Sea Green Backgrounds bundle on the back. So when I cut them out, I got the chair silhouette without the outlines. Then I just embellished them a bit with a gel pen.

The pocket on the right holds two coordinating tags. I got the tag bases from a Printable in the Weathered Lace Papers bundle. They’re each embellished with a pretty frame from the Romantic French Frames bundle, as well as other papers, and I inserted a length of raffia through the holes.

This is one of three pop-ups in the journal, all created in the same way. I started with a postcard from the Vintage Postcards bundle, digitally altered the colors a bit, and then added an image of a settee or chair. This pretty one is from the Black and White Ornate Chairs bundle. Additional frames from the Architectural Frames bundle help to fill out the spread.

On the left, you see another negative space chair image printed onto vellum. And on the right, I placed a row of tags that I sketched some chairs onto. I’m no artist but I think they add a little whimsy to the spread!

I left the little envelope on the right incomplete so it could be opened up and used as a secret writing spot. It’s a Printable from the Vintage Album Frames bundle. I tucked a vintage photo and a small accordion-folded journal spot inside, and created a closure for it with a label rubber stamp.

This journal is for sale in my Etsy shop! Thanks for looking, and please watch the video to see the entire journal.

SIT A SPELL JUNK JOURNAL SHOW  & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Premium Membership Bundles used in this project:

Images and Printables I used for this project are from these bundles:
Antique Portraits
Antique Portraits 1
Architectural Frames
Beau Papiers
Birthday Greetings
Black and White Ornate Chairs
Blank Paper Ephemera
Book Lovers Only
Chateau Life
Cherry Blossom Lane
Cream and Green Ephemera
Delft Blue Ephemera
Delicate Endpapers
European Ephemera
Garden Club Tour
Grand Saison
Green Gables Inspired
Impressionist Painted Backgrounds
Instant Ancestors
Marsh and Pond
Mini French Ephemera
Moon Dreams
Pastel Wallpapers
Peacock Hues Ephemera
Pink and Green Ephemera
Polar Hues Ephemera
Rich Marbled Endpapers
Romantic French Frames
Script Ephemera
Script Ephemera 2
Sea Green Backgrounds
Tattered Paper Treasures
Tattered Paper Treasures 2
The Artist
The Lacemaker
The Ornithologist
The Typesetter
Vintage Album Frames
Vintage Everyday Objects
Vintage Paperie
Vintage Postcards
Weathered Lace Papers

I hope you will visit me here:

Susan’s Instagram

Susan’s YouTube

Susan’s Etsy

Susan

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!