Jumbo Junk Journal [Pt 4]: Easy Ephemera

Project JJJ...

One of the most compelling reasons for my interest in junk journals is the ease with which ordinary throwaway items can be transformed into useful, uncommon keepsakes.

This is especially true when it comes to making the ephemera used to decorate and fill junk journals.

While you may be tempted to purchase supplies to make some of the more elaborate pieces that are often featured on YouTube videos, understand that it is entirely possible to make unique ephemera with what you have on hand. (Or, perhaps more rightly stated, with what you can suss out from some nook or cranny in your home.)

Ephemera made out of an envelope, stamps and assorted paper...

And because I am still very much thinking about sewing in the back of my mind, wherever there is a mention of paper in the upcoming descriptions, fabric scraps can almost always be substituted.

Oh, by the way — long post warning!

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Postage Stamps & Paper

It used to be that we all had access to cancelled postage stamps since we wrote letters and sent cards, but I will grant that many people likely don't have any these days. I found mine in a bag filled with old letters that I'd kept from my younger years, when I corresponded with friends and family by mail on a regular basis.

Once I freed the best looking stamps from their old envelopes, I pondered how best to showcase them. My first inclination was to scatter them on the front of a card, but that seemed like an unimaginative choice. Then I recalled having seen them being glued down on various paper backings and then being used to create interesting clusters.

My initial plan was to lay these down on the back of a card...

I dug into my box of paper crafting supplies and found some remnants of yellow scrapbooking paper that had been cut into petals for flowers (you can see one of them in the photo below). With those, I cut various shapes to accommodate a backing for the stamps. I mainly used my edging scissors, but I also tried making jagged cuts with my regular scissors, just to see if it would work. Given that the aim is for uneven edges, it actually turned out quite well.

Making some postage stamp ephemera...

Before gluing down the stamp, I took a felt marker and carefully went around the edges of the paper to give it a proper finish. (Simulating that practice of inking that journal makers do with sponges.) With the yellow paper, I used a brown marker, with the blue paper, I used a blue highlighter and with the red and the grey patterned paper, I used a black marker.

My collection of postage stamp ephemera...

Once the stamps were secured, I added other embellishments with a marker (lines, dots). Some of the remaining oddly shaped scraps were glued onto the back of some of the pieces, as you can see above. Lastly, I brushed on some glossy Mod Podge on top of each one to seal the layers.

I believe you can still get small containers of Mod Podge at Dollar Tree for cheap. Because it also functions as glue, I don't consider it a frivolous purchase if you're doing junk journaling.

Next up, a home for my collection of stamp ephemera...

In terms of the other supplies, I actually had scrapbooking paper remnants, but if not, I would have glued wrapping paper to cardboard as an alternative, or used the afore-mentioned fabric scraps (which I would probably interface with scraps of SF101 or Decor Bond to provide some stiffness).

By the way, if you don't have postage stamps, you can make similar items out of stickers and small images. Here's an example of a sticker applied to paper which has been edged and then the whole thing is adhered to another piece of edged paper.

A couple of my postage stamp pieces in a plastic pocket...

So what do you do with these once you've made them? You can slide them under a paperclip, add them to journaling pages or tags, or slip them into a pocket. Or if you're looking to make larger, more 3-D types of ephemera, add more layers using lace or ribbon fragments, tiny bows, buttons, etc.

Windowed Envelopes

Here's something that I think you'll have: windowed envelopes. The ones with patterned interiors like these shown below immediately lend themselves to other kinds of potential uses (like for the backing of the postage stamp ephemera).

Windowed envelopes with patterned interiors...

I used one of these envelopes to make a new envelope for my collection of postage stamps. The front is embellished with some washi tape; the back view is of the patterned side of the paper (as seen in photo near the top of this post). This envelope is now tucked into a pocket inside my junk journal.

A home for my postage stamp ephemera collection... 

Another piece of ephemera that you can make with windowed envelopes is something with a quasi-ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) feature. This will crinkle and make a sound when you handle it, which may or may not evoke a true ASM response, but it adds another element of intrigue.

Front and back views of my quasi-ASMR item...

For this, I put two windows back to back (or front to front, considering that the patterned side is out) and trapped little things inside. These were the holes punched out of tags that I had made for the junk journal, plus a couple of stickers stuck together.

Adding some "crinkle" to my junk journal...

Small pressed flowers or leaves that you might have saved from last summer would be good options for something like this too.

In the true spirit of junk journals, an item like this is just something different to explore and look at... and perhaps to marvel at the idea that it was made out of things that could arguably have been categorized as garbage.

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Stickers, Washi Tape & Cardboard

If you also have a huge collection of stickers and address labels (from charities) like I do, you can turn them into scads of altered paperclips with the help of some washi tape.

Easy ephemera with stickers, washi tape and paperclips...

These are meant to be double-sided, so there are two stickers on each. They are as simple to make as they look. Just slip some washi tape between the prongs of the paperclip and stick the tape to itself. Add a couple of stickers at the midpoint and trim the end to your liking or add the stickers to the end.

Oops... gotta trim up that cut!

If you don't have stickers, washi tape by itself can do the job just as well. You can also do this with strips of scrapbooking paper or fabric if you glue them together (or use double-sided tape).

I have a section of my journal that's kept behind a sliding "lock" made out of an Olay Regenerist box, stickers, and a staple.

A sliding lock that hides some "top secret" journal content... ;-)

You can see how easily this was put together. The silver and red cardboard pieces were cut to size, the stickers were put back to back onto the ends of the horizontal sliding "bolt" and then a staple was applied to the silver piece, which was then glued onto the page. Sliding the bolt to the right releases the page to reveal what's underneath. Cool, right?

And totally made out of stuff that was either in my crafting stash or my recycling box. (The heart stickers were a purchase from years ago when I was still doing Valentine's Day with hubby!)

Speaking of hearts, one more piece of ephemera I want to draw your attention to is the heart shaped paperclip. (You can search for "how to bend a paperclip into a heart" to find out how to do it.) Totally cute and you can do it with any size regular paperclip, although the vinyl wrapped ones are the best choice.

My junk journal Christmas pages are clipped together by a couple of these, as I don't feel the need to access them on a regular basis when I flip through the book.

Perfume Sample Card Holders

I'm not big on scents, finding most perfumes too overpowering. Whenever I receive a sample of something from somewhere, I usually toss it into a drawer in the bathroom and forget about it. When I found the most recent one that I received from Avon (called Bali), I was struck by how lovely the card holder was. The one that's shown here is nice too, but I appreciated the design of the former, since it doesn't show a bottle.

A beautifully designed perfume sample card...

Anyway, I took the card and trimmed it up to resemble a tag and glued some blue paper on the back (for writing on). Some gold-toned string and a paperclip later and it was a quick piece of ephemera.

Tag now has a matching cover...

Several weeks later, I received an actual Avon catalogue, from where I harvested two other images relating to this perfume. With those and a Dominos gift card holder, I was able to craft a matching "envelope" for this tag.

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Fabric Scraps & Cardboard

These final ideas came from Natasa at Treasure Books (again). 

The first one – which you've likely seen if you've done a flip-through of my journal (part 1 here and part 2 here if you haven't) – starts with just a simple shape drawn onto a piece of (scrap) paper with a dark marker. Fabric scraps are then laid over top in random fashion, glued and zigzag stitched into place. After cutting away the extra fabric and paper to reveal the original shape again, the whole thing is glued and sewn onto a piece of card stock.

My fabric scrap tulip...

I liked the essential idea but didn't want to have stitching showing up on the reverse side, given what I wanted to do with it. So I zigzagged the perimeter of the original finished piece, glued it onto some cardboard (that came from the back cover of the pad of paper that I used for the junk journal) and then cut around the shape.

This is a tulip — for spring, which was just around the corner when I made this. Of course, then I had to transcribe a whole slew of spring related quotes onto the back of it. (Around the perimeter, I repeatedly printed "spring is a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be".)

Reverse side for journaling...

The inset in the photo above shows how big this piece is, in relation to my journal page. The scraps came from five selections, a couple of Tim Holtz pieces (Subway and Correspondence), two Dollarama "linens", and a bright pink duck fabric from a Value Village drapery panel.

This is definitely something that all of us sewing folk can do with fabric scraps, regardless of interest in junk journals. I can see putting several of these onto a canvas and creating some abstract DIY art. Single pieces can be framed. If you apply fabric to both sides, they can be strung up mobile-style or hung individually from the ceiling. Many possibilities, and anything that can transform the bits and pieces from my box of fabric scraps is worth considering.

Scrap fabric and paper tags...

Finally, back to the topic of tags: you can use fabric scraps to make them, too. This particular design incorporates a torn book page (or in my case, a torn magazine page) – which I really like – along the bottom and is sewn layer by layer onto cardboard (think of recycling cereal, cracker, or other similar box), ending with paper of some kind on the reverse side to accommodate journaling.

Tags usually provide writing space on the reverse side...

I believe Natasa used tea dyed paper for the back; I opted for one of my greeting card envelopes. For the front of the tag, she finished with a (paper) picture, but I couldn't find an image that matched well with my linen fabric, so went with more fabric, trimmed with lace. (On the small tag, I've shown it with a temporary sticker, but I actually prefer it without that third element.) The sheer ribbon that's looped into the top of the larger tag came from the ribbon that I was originally going to use as the belt around the journal.

With most of the supplies for these coming from crafting scraps or a recycling bin, did you expect that it would be so easy to make unique ephemera for a junk journal? I didn't.

Part five of this series focuses on storage ideas, one of which again involves sewing.

'Til next...