Loaded Vintage Christmas Fabric Junk Journal

My inspiration

Every year I tell myself I am going to start on my Vintage Christmas Junk Journals and crafts in October. Time goes by so fast, the holidays are already here! I have been collecting everything to do with the holidays throughout the year, so I had enough to inspire this journal without purchasing anything. Great for me since my stash of junk journal supplies is ever growing.

Cover construction

I put the cover together first for this journal because I knew the fabric I wanted to use. Using fabric mod podge, I covered the outside of a coffee filter box (which was just the right size, 6″x 8″) with a distressed red plaid. This was perfect for the background cover of my journal. The interior of the box was covered with black and tan polka dot wrapping paper, this time attached using paper mod podge.

I saved the embellishment of the cover til last because I find it difficult to attach signatures with all the cover decorations already in place.

Page construction

First, I gathered all my vintage Christmas craft paper and previous years Christmas cards. I chose those that had that vintage look and went along with the colors of my papers: deep green, Christmas red, cream and gold. Below are four cards I chose for this journal.

The pages for my journal consist of various papers: lined, scrapbook, graph, music, and recipe pages, all aged with different colored distress ink.

I ended up with three signatures, each having a total of about 10 pages folded in half. Creating pockets and tucks on the various pages before they are attached into the book is the easiest way for me. That way I can sew around the edges and add any fabric trim to any page I desire.

Below are some of the tuck spots and pockets I added to my pages before securing them into the journal. The additional embellishments on the pages were added after the pages were in the journal.

I also included paper and gift bags, an Anthropologie bag, and envelopes of different sizes as you can see here.

Do you remember phonics key cards? I do! The above image of a coat was part of a box of phonics key cards I picked up at Goodwill. There was no date on them, but from the aged look, I am guessing early 1950’s. It is so fun to think of teachers and students who used these in the past.

Final cover embellishment

I used a 3 hole pamphlet stitch to secure the signatures in place. The pages were in, now on to the layering process. I had a poinsettia place mat that I cut the flowers from and tea dyed them. Once dry, I glued them on the bottom and top edges of the cover using Fabri-Tac. These were long enough to go around the whole book. Next, I tea dyed a vintage lace and pearl embellishment that I cut off a 1940’s evening dress I got at Goodwill. My previous post “1940’s evening dress- repurposed” features this fabulous find.

My focal point was this embellishment. I positioned it relatively in the center, again using Fabr-Tac. Wide dark red crinkle ribbon was then secured along the bottom and top edges. On top of that, a broken necklace, faux pine branches and flowers, fabric snippets, and gold tulle. All topped off with a green ribbon and a fabric/ribbon adorned paper clip. This journal was quite a bit chunky so I used a two ribbon tie closure.