Victorian Christmas Keepsake Journal

Hey everyone.  Beth Wallen, one of our amazing NEW Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Victorian Christmas Keepsake 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!

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 Beth and tell you all about her lovely project…

Hi everyone! Beth here from Beth’s Journal Boutique to share my design team project for November. Are you getting ready for Christmas yet? I love the festive season: the hustle and bustle of shopping, the baking, the decorating, the parties, the music, but most of all, the time spent with family and friends. I wanted to create a keepsake Christmas journal where all of those wonderful
holiday memories could be recorded. I found inspiration from the images in The Graphics Fairy Victorian Christmas bundle and decided to start my creative Christmas season by making a journal that has an old world, antique feeling.

The journal cover is made from chipboard, with an image of a red leather cover from the “Book covers and tin types” bundle. The cover was completed with antique gold Rub n’ Buff added to the edges and a sparkly satin ribbon with an authentic vintage Christmas post card slipped underneath.

My vision of a Victorian Christmas includes lots of pattern, texture, sparkle, and trim. To achieve that feel in this journal I have added a variety of different papers, with colors that are fairly neutral, using cream and kraft and adding lots of sparkle with pops of green, burgundy and gold. I have used vintage papers and ephemera from my stash and mixed them with the Graphics Fairy printables, from the Premium Membership site.

Pro Tips:

I thought I would share a couple of tips to get the best quality images for those using an inkjet printer. Inkjet printed images can run when using a water based glue such as Mod Podge, to adhere them to a surface. In order to avoid this, I first sealed the cover image using Distress Glaze by Tim Holtz and then used Fabri-tac (a non-water based glue) to adhere it to the cover. This made sure that the cover image color was set and did not run. The great thing about Distress Glaze is that it makes the color of an inkjet image richer and deeper, providing a beautiful satin finish.

I have made some Victorian look rosette “decorations” to embellish this journal. To make these, I simply cut coffee dyed paper with pinking shears, folded it in an accordion style, fanned it out and glued the edges together. I used stickles on the edges to add sparkle and then layered images in the center of the rosette.

I have been inspired by the snippet rolls I have been seeing lately and decided to use that collage style to create some pockets for this journal. They tie in the colors and textures I have used throughout and I love the interest they add to this journal!

With so many wonderful images on the premium membership site, this journal came together quickly. Thanks for having a look at my Victorian Christmas keepsake journal! I hope you have found some inspiration for your own Christmas projects. I’ll see you back here in a month’s time with my next project!

Some of the TGF Premium Membership Bundles used in this project, from The Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site:
Book covers and tin types
Vintage Paper Lace
Victorian Christmas
European Ephemera
Seamless Pattern
Antique sheet music
Angels are among us

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

CHRISTMAS JUNK JOURNAL SHOW & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Beth

You can find me on my You Tube channel where I showcase my journals, on Instagram to see sneak peeks of upcoming projects and in my Etsy shop where I sell my creations:

Beth’s Journal Boutique on YouTube

Beth’s Journal Boutique on Instagram

Beth’s Etsy Shop