Steampunk Junk Journal

Hey everyone.  Terri Kolte, one of our amazing NEW Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a gorgeous  Steampunk Art 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!

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 Terri  tell you all about her fabulous project…

For this monthʼs project I wanted to play with the images from the Steampunk Images #2 and Eclectic Steampunk bundles from the Premium Membership site.

Picked up in the discount bin, I found a binder for $2. Perfect except for one thing… the color was awful. It was a sickly pinkish-gray that did nothing for me. Acrylic paint to the rescue! A little
ochre yellow acrylic and lots of water made a transparent wash that was perfect. Baby wipes helped remove some of the color and helped give it a mottled look. I added some scrapbook paper
and pretty trims to the inside of the cover after I pulled the binder mechanism out.

The binding was made from card stock which I scored and folded to create a “hidden hinge”. What I didnʼt know at the time I was making the hinge was that by using watercolor paper for
the pages the hinge binding was not going to lay flat. Had I left myself about 3/8” between the pages it would have been better. More often than not I design projects on the-fly and end up
learning my lessons the hard way!

Watercolor paper made a sturdy base for the pages and pinking shears added another decorative element. I loved the crispness of the black and white images and thought theyʼd make a great focal point for a small book.

Originally I was planning to use just the steampunk images with some florals thrown in to make them pop. I printed many flowers from the Wildflower Field Guide, Red & White Floriculture and a
few other misc flowers and leaves.

After ‘auditioningʼ them on the stark white watercolor paper it was clear that they still needed something. Postcards to the rescue! I printed out all the images from the Vintage Postcards bundle at 3 1/2” x 5”. This gave me a great base to layer all the pieces, collage-style.

For some added texture, I machine stitched around the edges before adhering them to the watercolor pages.

When working with images Iʼve printed, I never let their shape dictate to me how I must use it. If I want to snip a branch or flower off to make it fit- I do. If too much of one image is covered by another image I cut the pieces up and rearrange them to work with my own vision.

Think outside the box- use leaves to create wings, try a floral wreath cut into sections and use as a crown, another layer of leaves or flowers can become a draped “fabric” on a figure. Use your
imagination!

Donʼt  hesitate- itʼs just paper. If you donʼt like it, try it somewhere else.

When the book was fully assembled, embellishments were few as the pages themselves were already balanced in a way that I thought was pleasing. Some gears to scatter about, a handful of
decorative corners …

and printed quotes were all that was needed to finish the pages.

Lastly, I tied a couple sheer ribbons onto the spine and tied them into a big, soft bow with a metallic tassel.

Some of the TGF Premium Bundles used in this project, from The Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site:

Steampunk Images 2 Bundle

Eclectic Steampunk Bundle

To see a video tour of my Design Team Junk Journal project, please watch below:

Thanks for stopping in to take a look at this monthʼs project!

Terri from The Gypsy Magpie

The Gypsy Magpie Blog

Terri’s Instagram

Terri’s YouTube