Junk Journaling 101: Starting With What You Have
If you’ve spent any time on TikTok or Pinterest looking at junk journals, you’ve probably seen gorgeous spreads filled with $40 antique lace, imported rice paper, and hand-aged parchment from a boutique shop in Paris. Which is great – until you realize you just spent half your paycheck trying to buy "aesthetic garbage."
The entire original spirit of junk journaling is right there in the name. It’s supposed to be raw, chaotic, tactile, and made from the physical scraps of your actual life.
If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines waiting until you buy the "right" aesthetic supplies, consider this your permission slip to stop spending money and start tearing up what’s already on your desk.
Raid Your Own Life (The Ultimate Ephemera Stash)
The best junk journals aren't the ones filled with mass-produced "vintage-style" paper packs—they're the ones that preserve weird, mundane hyper-local moments. Before you even think about buying new paper, look around your room.
Here’s what you should be hoarding right now:
Daily Paper Scraps: Espresso bar receipts, parking tickets, clothing tag labels, and branded stationery.
Packaging: Tea bag wrappers, packaging inserts, or fun tissue paper.
Mail Chaos: Cute postcards, stickers, and promotional flyers.
Physical Artifacts: Ticket stubs from that indie theater, concert wristbands, or a paper coaster from a local brewery.
Studio Tip: The messier and more personal the scrap, the better the spread looks. An ugly yellow parking ticket added to a spread gives an immediate punch of color and story that fake vintage paper just can't replicate.
The Bare-Minimum Toolkit
You don't need a full craft room setup. To get started today, you literally only need three basic physical items:
A Substrate (The Base): An old planner you never finished, a cheap composition notebook, or a few pieces of cardboard folded in half.
Adhesive: A plain old glue stick (PVA liquid glue if you want zero wrinkles, but glue sticks keep things quick and portable). My personal go-to is a taperunner.
Scissors: Or honestly? Just your hands. Torn edges add ten times more organic texture than clean-cut lines anyway.
Cool Resources & Upgrades (When You're Ready to Elevate)
Once you get hooked on the process, mixing in a few high-quality, specialized elements with your real-life trash creates an incredible visual contrast. Here are a few favorite, trusted stops for building out your toolkit:
For Color & Sticker Fixes: If you love adding playful, tactile layers without buying bulky embellishments, check out Pipsticks for unique sticker subscriptions and decorative flat paper goods.
For Essential Adhesives & Archival Basics: When you want your spreads to actually stick without yellowing over time, grab archival tape, bone folders, or heavy-duty glue sticks from Michaels.
For High-Quality Paper & Binding: If you decide to construct your own journal signatures from scratch, Blick Art Materials is the go-to for heavyweight watercolor paper, bookbinding thread, and awls.
For Free (Legal!) Vintage Ephemera: Don't pay for fake old documents. Browse the Library of Congress Free-to-Use Sets for hi-res, copyright-free public domain maps, vintage photos, and antique botanical prints you can print at home.
How to Beat Blank Page Paralysis
The hardest part is always laying down that first piece of paper on a crisp white page. The solution? Destroy the white page immediately.
Step 1: The Background Wash
Grab a scrap of brown paper bag or an old book page. Tear it into three random chunks and glue them down in the corners. Instant layout structure.
Step 2: Layer the Focal Point
Slap down that ticket stub or a photo print right off-center.
Step 3: Add the Contrast
Tuck a piece of bold packaging, a strip of patterned tape, or a dark ink mark underneath the edge of your focal photo.
Step 4: Stop Overthinking
If it feels slightly messy, you’re doing it right. Junk journaling is about kinetic creative energy, not perfection.
Clear off your table, grab that stack of mail you were about to throw out, and go make some beautiful chaos.
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