A Junk Journal - A New Way to Keep the Memories Alive!

A JUNK JOURNAL - 
A NEW WAY TO KEEP THE MEMORIES ALIVE!

This is the "junk journal" I won in a giveaway last month.  It is made of literally just "junk" papers, cards, tags, labels, odd pieces of paper, etc...all very pretty, cute or otherwise unique. I hadn't a clue as to what it was or what I would do with it but hey.... I won something and.....I sure liked it!

Here are some pictures of some of the pages in the book...all shapes, sizes, themes, colors! Note cards, strips of cards, parts of stationary, tags, labels...kind of like, you name it, there was a "page" of it in there!









But still...what do I do with it? I am not busy enough to make it a planner. I don't have anything to say to journal about. Well, my daughter recently got married and for a very terrible reason, I was not able to get to her wedding. Sad doesn't start to cover how I felt. 1:00pm was the ceremony and at 1:00 I stopped what I was doing and thought about her and then said a little something to her in my mind. I then thought that  I wanted to write that down....but where. Then I thought of this junk journal. It was just a few sentences that I said and a small little prayer, so I needed just a little bit of page...it would be perfect! So I got the book out and looked through for a complimentary page...and found this one of a bride. How perfect.Then I just flipped the card and wrote what I was thinking.

It suddenly hit me...journaling doesn't always have to be about what I do or have done...it can be about others and my special thoughts of them. Well, as they say, one thing lead to another... and thinking this was a good idea...my grand daughter just turned 9 the week before...and I thought I'd do the same for her...so I chose this card-page. She loves "old time-y" clothes so this was perfect for her. On the back I "talked" to/about her.

 

And then my most recent little grand daughter was born, I wrote welcome to the world note to her and this oval "page" of the little girl was a perfect match for her!

Well, nothing to happen for awhile now...but something occured to me on St Patricks day last week. It made me remember the past St Patrick's Days. For years, my oldest grand daughter loved the leprechauns and all that went with them. I would get green sequin shamrocks and secretly sprinkle them around and she'd think they were from the leprechauns and the trail to the pot of gold or to where they lived.  She'd even make leprechaun traps! I would pick her up at school and as I walked to the meeting place, I'd drop the shamrocks as I walked, so when we walked back....she'd see this trail of the little green shamrocks and think she was chasing the leprechauns! The rest of the day she was with me, I'd secretly drop them around and some green plastic coins and It was such a fun time for us! It was great for many years, but now she is a freshman in high school so of course, it is just a wonderful memory for both of us that we like to recall every St. Paddy's Day.  I chose a green "page" in the junk journal and I glued some of the little shamrocks (yes, I have kept them all this time!) to the front of the page, and on the back..just a little note about our fun St Patrick's Day "tradition". So I intend to write a little something about someone on every holiday or time/event that I had in the past with someone and just write like I am talking to them and recall the memory we made together.

More thinking about bringing past memories into present....I  thought about the little notes that this same grand daughter (she will be 15 next week) wrote to me over the years past. I have many of them taped to the mirror in my bathroom so I see/read/remember them every day. What a perfect addition to the book! This one says "I had fun spending the nite at your house and thanks for letting me bend the rules. I had fun". So I just glued the note to a "page" of its size. I don't remember what rules I let her bend but I apparently let her bend the best ones!

 So, I have decided to use  this junk journal to  bring  past memories,  into my present. When finished, not only will i have a nice book of my favorite memories but....anyone can read it and "walk" through my life and enjoy my memories! Since it is not in chronological order, it will kind of be like a time travel thing! (And I enjoy reading books about time travel!)  One page  might be dated currently and the next page could be dated 3 years later, next page 6 months earlier and the next..a year later and the next 8 months prior and so on. It reminds me of that book "Time Travelers' Wife"...where the  guy popped in and out of time during his girl friend/wifes life.  I liked the point of the story but it sure was a hard book to read and keep track of what was going on! The movie stunk! But my time travel journal.. will be awesome and enjoyable and bring lot of smiles to lots of faces!

I am working on a "prolog" for it and since I have always loved Robert Browning's..."Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be..." quote, I think I shall include that some how.  If this world tarries another 50 years, my great and great great grand children will have a little bit of Nanny in their lives..without ever having met me! Plus, memories about when their mothers and grand mothers were little! A journal through time...in a junk journal!

I am also making fabric lace memory books... you can read about that journey HERE on my blog. More memories to preserve and fun to be had while making them! Here's a few pics to show you what a fabric lace memory book is. I am working on making one for each of my 5 grand daughters.

 

So..this is my start into the world of "junk journals". I love them! They are so cool, neat, groovy, and just really, really amazing...both in how they look and what they are for. And what a great way to use/recycle/upcycle...junk! Granted..."junk" journals are made of literally that...junk...junk mail, junk pieces of paper (see the one page up there...old notebook paper page!) And in this book are pieces of the green ledger paper, graph paper, and things like that. Junk mail days in the mail box are a good place to find junk paper! So I intend to keep looking around and finding things...due to the "no size" limit...anything is possible! I just have to figure how to bind mine. I think like this can be done at Staples and I know there is a kit for sale to do it your self, but I probably won't invest in one of those.  I have since discovered how to make "junk journals" out of my stash of scrapbook papers and embellishments. Different in looks and structure than this style, but still really nice. I have started one and see it is more of a "scrapbook journal" as it looks like double page layouts that I used to do, but hey....it works and looks great!

And there is a style to use junky stuff like this...and include it in a junk journal with binding..which is the way I intend on going. So...I am excited and anxious to make these.. and hopefully.... preserve more of my memories. I will be posting more about the scrapbook journal next week.. have a few pages done..so if you want to follow along...join to follow my blog up there on the left side at the top pf this page. I have joined a few Facebook groups that have just the best ladies chatting about their journals and the how-to's and what to do's and things like that. I love sharing, learning and helping other with this amazing craft! Come on and follow along with me! In the mean time... do as I plan to do.. and collect some junk!

And when all is said and done...... since dementia "runs" in my family... when I am old, I think that I will be living the happiest times of my life..since my memories are where my happiest times were!

Thanks for stopping by and...keep on sewing those memories!

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