Blog,  Christmas,  Junk Journals,  Shabby chic

A Touch of Red Shabby Chic Christmas Junk Journal

I have been concentrating on my holiday journals. Christmas is right around the corner! On my YouTube channel, I created a shabby chic junk journal cover from a white corrugated cardboard box. Since the cover theme was neutral, mainly with cream, off white and beige, the finished cover with added embellishments could be used for all sorts of junk journals…. wedding, valentines, winter or Christmas. I considered all of these options…. Then, when I added a vintage red bow pin to the center, my mind was made up! Shabby Chic Christmas was my theme!

Cover construction

As I mentioned before, I used a corrugated cardboard box for the cover. I love the way the edges were peeling back, exposing the cardboard underneath. This is perfect for the vintage shabby chic look I was going for.

A complete tutorial on how the cover was constructed is on my YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pg0Qd2Kflo&list=PLk97ka63lFSmXkuhLk0DQGCZ-2FqHLmek&index=7&t=1s

I chose to line the inside of the front and back cover with cream and gold brocade fabric. I love the way it enhances the holiday feel to the journal.

Interior pages

Gathering the pages for this journal was relatively easy for me, due to the fact I have a supply of tea dyed lined paper, previous years Christmas cards, holiday cardstock and scrapbook paper, music sheets and vintage images. In addition, holiday images printed from the internet free domain, I was set.

Next, I gathered various fabrics, lace, holiday placemats and doilies to add to the mix. The below photos show some of the embellishments to the pages:

The links below are a few tutorials on how I used some of my Christmas cards to make various ephemera used in this journal:

https://youtu.be/H5oM9wgBriM

https://youtu.be/Yp5xBaJS6N

The following pictures feature how I used some of the Christmas cards I created:

Final Touches

To finish the journal, a bit of lace here, faux holiday flowers there, jewels and rhinestones were all that this journal needed:

Truly, I am so pleased with how this journal came together. It gives me great joy to use items and recycle them into these creations!

I hope this inspires you to look at items in a different way and let your creativity flow!

Glitter on friends,

I am a self proclaimed junk journal fanatic and creative crafter. If it is vintage, I am in! I recently retired from the corporate world and now have more time to devote to my love of creating one of a kind treasures. Besides junk journals my hobbies include thrifting, flea market outings, fashion, cooking, hanging with my girlfriends and daughter and golf with my husband. I currently live in the mountains of beautiful Colorado.