Blog,  Christmas,  Junk Journals,  Thrift store and flea market finds

Around the Christmas Tree Junk Journal

My Inspiration

As you all know, I absolutely love scouring flea markets and thrift stores. Whenever I go on a trip, I make it a point to look up thrift stores in the area I am visiting. On a trip last year with my girlfriends, they tagged along with me to a small thrift store in Glenwood Springs, CO. Once inside, I asked them to help me look for anything vintage in all areas of the store. My friend found a Christmas record album from the 1950’s. It was titled Around The Christmas Tree. I instantly knew I had to purchase it, even though at the time I had no idea what I was going to do with it.

The person at the check out counter gave me a deal since it was missing the record, $1.00. Funny thing is, I didn’t want the record, just the cover!

Cover construction

For a long time, I pondered how I was going to turn the album cover into a journal. It was way to large to use as it was….but I wanted to keep the images on the front and back cover intact.

Using a standard book as a size guide, I positioned the book over the images on the front and back cover and cut the album to these dimensions. The journal ended up measuring 6 ” x 8 1/2″. The Christmas Tree image was used for the cover and the photos below show how I used rest of the cut pieces.

Paper choices and Page Embellishments

All different kinds of paper are used for journaling pages: lined, unlined, penmanship, graph and cardstock.

I had a lot of fun looking through the public domain for images to use in the journal. I wanted to stick to the retro theme I had going for the journal. As you can see they are so cute!

In addition to all the retro images I found, I also added magazine clippings and pages from a December 1960 magazine I purchased at a flea market:

Last but definitely not least, I created some ephemera with that retro look from the 1950’s.

A full flip through is on my YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/KGRA2MpKh0Y

I hope this journal brings you joy this holiday season! The next time you are at a thrift store or flea market, check out the record albums! You never know what you might find!

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.