Vintage Gentleman Junk Journal

Hey, everyone! Kathleen Lyle of Journaling Junky, one of our amazing  Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Vintage Gentleman 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 Kath tell you all about her incredible project…

Hi there, this is Kath, aka JournalingJunkY and I am so happy to share with you my second Design Team Project for the wonderful Graphic’s Fairy! My passion is creating junk journals but especially grungy/vintage style journals and with so many delicious printables available from the Graphics Fairy membership site, I admittedly went a little crazy as you will see by the size of this tome! This journal measures: 9 inches x 5 ½ inches, features 2 signatures and spine of 2 ½ inches!

Most of the pages and ephemera have been stitched around, all pages feature stencilling and I have also included fabric tags to the edges of some pages. I will give a list of the collections I have used at the end of the blog that I’m sure will be of help to you in your search for that perfect journal you are waiting to create. Please note, the photos shown are only a small selection from the journal.

I created the cover using a heavyweight upholstery fabric which has a wonderful almost ribbed texture and then layered various natural fabrics; hessian, linen, calico. I added the photograph to an embossed piece of Kraft card and then used distress inks and gilding wax for highlights. The photograph corners were created from a die. I added the metal file embellishment and monocle which I think added the look I wanted, do you agree?

To create a traditional, masculine theme I tried to use natural fabrics, obviously not wanting lots of lace that I would usually use in my journals. What I wanted was to set a neutral tone with pops of colour too, but which would appeal to females too. I love this image of the group of ‘dapper’ chaps posing for this photograph and wondered who the journal could belong to and who was the lady below and would she consider the chaps conduct unseemly?

Horse-racing and an admission ticket to the left pocket and a wonderfully colourful tag of a grouse(?) adorn these pages which would have been considered gentlemanly sports to the Victorian gent. This page then flips open to find a small envelope pocket.

This side pocket shows the Victorian fashion style of time in full splendour. The Cafe Au Lait Hues collection features many masculine images, I fussy cut him from one of the full pages to create this pocket. I loved the next page so much I couldn’t bare to cover it with anything, so simply added a small piece of hessian lace to the edge.

Are the fabrics on this page samples for his new wardrobe? Here, I searched through the membership site to find fabric labels and thought this suited the theme of the journal.
Who are the wonderfully dressed couple in the photograph tag? Could the fabric samples have been used for this occasion? I created the large pocket from Kraft card which I embossed and stitched around the oval aperture and added acetate to protect the photo.

These page have been created using snippets from various collections. I first applied brown paper, stencilling and stamping and the little boy is taken from one of the Digi kits available on the membership site.

Window envelopes have been used here to create the flaps, each has been collaged with scraps from pages and lightly stamped. Each pocket contains a decorated index card.

Once the envelope pockets have been opened I have created lots of writing space inside and added the family photograph. The photograph corners have been cut from a die.

On the left hand page I have simply added a few pieces of ephemera, the ‘Pantomime’ lady (is she the gentleman’s lady friend?) is from the Cafe Au Lait collection, the bird image which can just be seen peeking behind is from the Mocha and Java collection, I have also added a piece of vintage ledger paper. I have lined the inner section of the page with a scrap of paper and stencilled and stamped the gentleman image.

This page has simply been stencilled and stamped to provide journaling space and to the right, I have used a cut down page from the Postal collection to create a pocket and then added the circular date wheel by the use of a brad so that it actually spins and can be used as a tuck spot. I have then added small pieces of ephemera from various collections. Behind the pocket there is a large photograph tag featuring a gentleman with his two beloved dogs.

The page has been made from a piece of vintage ledger paper. I have added a large collaged tag, the little bird has been fussy cut from the Cafe Au Lait collection. To the opposite page, I have made an old envelope into a flip up page, decorated it with lots of bright ephemera. The side has been left open to create a tuck spot and inside is a little file folder which again has been collaged.

Here we have 2 flap style pockets which have been made from pages from the Cafe Au Lait collection. The top flap is decorated with embossed Kraft card to which I have added gilding wax, and added brads to each corner. To be perfectly honest, I cannot remember which collection the pretty lady is from! The lower flap pocket has been made in almost the same way but in this case, I have fussy cut the birds again from the Cafe Au Lait collection.

The left hand page is taken from a vintage Homeric dictionary page, showing the owner of the journal is an educated man. To the right, we again have the flap style pockets, the bottom flap features a photograph of cricketers, is the gentleman amongst them?

The ephemera on this page has been taken from various collections and attached to the background page which has been coffee dyed, stamped and stencilled. The next page, I did a search on the premium website for envelopes and from a huge list, I decided on this one as I liked the neutral colours. I added a small snippet piece which I cut from a French receipt and added a small piece of sellotape which I aged with alcohol inks. I covered the flap of the envelope with an acetate flower, then gently sliced through so that the envelope would open, there is a small piece of ephemera inside. I also added the large tag which is decorated top and bottom with small pieces of lace.

To the left is a large image of Queen Victoria and Albert which folds out and the back of it has been covered with coffee dyed paper for lots of journaling space…….perhaps I should have photographed this open, silly me! The right hand page features a large pocket which is trimmed with a lovely brown lace edging and is decorated with ephemera again, taken from the Mocha and Java collection. Inside the pocket I have included a small notebook made with a selection of coffee dyed, printed and vintage book pages. For the cover of the notebook, I simply did a search for book covers where there is a huge collection.

Here we have a simple page with rigging knots and ropes which I thought was appropriate for the gentleman who own the journal maybe a sailing man along with his other sports, I have added to his list! The opposite page is taken from a vintage ledger book dated from 1922.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at the photographs of my Gentleman’s Journal and if so, please take a look at the full flip through below.

VINTAGE GENTLEMAN JUNK JOURNAL SHOW  & TELL VIDEO TOUR

Premium Membership Bundles used in this project:

Cafe Au Lait Hues
Masculine Ephemera
Mocha and Java
The Traveller

Plus various seraches for individual images on the Premium site.

I hope you will visit me here:

Kath’s Instagram

Kath’s YouTube

Kath’s Etsy

Kath

Check out the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership Site HERE!