Top Picks: Junk Journaling

Keeping a diary and scrapbooking have long been popular ways to preserve memories for therapeutic reasons or commemorate a special event. Over the last few years, a new form of memory keeping has risen to mainstream popularity that combines both of these practices, called junk journaling. A person's junk journal is unique to them, but most of them follow a general technique of using lots of stickers, doodles, washi tape, old ticket stubs, magazine cut-outs, and other add-ons that capture or commemorate a mood or event. 

Junk journaling is one of several "granny hobbies" picking up in popularity with millennials and Gen Z as members of these generations look for ways to unplug and slow down their over-packed schedules. In addition to traditional scrapbooking elements, junk journalers also incorporate seemingly disposable items or tokens such as receipts, candy wrappers, or other detritus. The choice of a journal medium depends on how many items the person may want to paste into the journal. Many in the junk journaling community prefer softcover or spiral-bound notebooks to allow room for expansion as the amount of pasted items strains the spine. If you're new to scrapbooking, here are some books to inspire you and help you get started.

Francesca Radice teaches bookbinding, scrapbooking, and gives practical advice for junk journaling for different budgets in Junk Journal Joy.  Radice's approach in Junk Journal Joy explains how people can use their journal to boost their self-confidence by showcasing things about themselves and their daily lives that they enjoy.

Martini Calvi's The Art of Memory Collecting is a colorful array of scrapbook page examples and craft projects, including bookmarks, trinket tins, and miniature zines. For those eager to continue their paper crafts beyond the journal pages, Calvi has plenty of ideas. 

Abbey Sy's The Art of the Travel Journal gives an overview of different purposes a travel journal can serve, as well as sample pages of souvenir entries and planning entries. Make a travel journal for a single trip or add a page or two for multiple past vacations. Examples of items to save for a travel journal include metro cards, exhibit tickets, and plane passes. 

You can take your journaling a step further by including illustrations, special script, or other adornments using the lessons in The Art of Calligraphy. Harris provides an overview of different pens, inks, paper types, and scripts to use that is beginner-friendly. Add in fun drawings to your scrapbook pages using the tips and techniques from CPL's selection of books on doodling. If you're someone who holds on to ticket stubs, metro cards, receipts, photo strips, invitations, or even foreign currency, you already have a good head start on making a junk journal! Take an inventory of your ephemera and divide it up into categories based on the type of journaling you'd like to do.