CNN
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Daniel Keaton is the kind of person who hangs onto old birthday cards, boarding passes and business cards — ephemera that feel wrong to toss but have no particular use.
These pieces of her daily life were collected in a large plastic bin recently, when she came across one YouTuber who introduced him to the practice of junk journaling.
Fidget journaling calls for taking these bits and pieces and sticking them to the notebook page. A freeform hybrid of collage, scrapbooking and traditional journaling, the creative hobby is having a moment right now. Google searched for “junk journaling” in late December and early January, and countless creators across TechTalk, Instagram, and YouTube. Documents Sharing their junk journal process and tips with followers.
While scrapbooking may involve purchasing sticker kits and decorative paper to document a special occasion, junk journaling emphasizes using found and recycled materials: a sticker of a piece of fruit, a museum A leaflet picked up, a piece of product packaging too beautiful to waste.
Purists may adhere to the ethos of using only “junk”, while others complement recycled scraps with printed images and other decorative flourishes. For some, a junk journal is a visual diary of sorts, with notes and thoughts in the margins. But it can also be a completely random assortment of materials arranged on paper.
Part of the fun is that there are no rules.
Keaton, 37, only started junk journaling a few weeks ago but says she’s already feeling addicted. Plus it gives him an excuse to repurpose stuff he has lying around the house.
“Things that would have traditionally ended up in the trash are now finding a new life inside a journal,” she says.
Despite the recent surge in interest, variations of junk journaling have been around for a while.
Crafting blogger Jennifer Perkins says she’s been junk journaling for more than a decade, before she realized there was a term for what she was doing. She considers hobby as a repetition Zin makingthe self-published DIY medium she dabbled in as a teenager in the ’90s (and seeing it herself Restoration)
Perkins, 50, also traces this form to mixed-media journals such as Kerry Smith’s 2007 hit. project”Destroy this journal,” which encouraged users to unleash their creativity By filling and spoiling its pages, and K & Co Broken bookswhich forced users to glue or tape items from everyday life.
Junk Journaling is a creative outlet for Perkins. This is a method that helps to make her energy happy.
She remains unstructured in her approach, and lets herself be guided by intuition. In one spread, he pasted in a piece of math homework from 1982, paired with an image of a woman with two black braids. In another, he scattered cutouts from vintage yearbooks. Yet another is made entirely of scraps that are orange.
“Glue sticks are my Xanax,” she says. “If I just need a minute to calm down and chill, I’ll grab one of my books and a stack of random things… and I tear it up.” And just stick to it.”
Science seems to back it up. A study last year suggested that creating arts and crafts can significantly boost public wellbeing, while previous research has shown that it can help people with mental health conditions. can be Junk journaling videos, featuring the dulcet tones of crinkling paper, are even a form of ASMR content.
Keaton, who says she suffers from multiple mental illnesses, says the process has so far helped her process her emotions better than simply writing about them. She also appreciates that it forces her to get away from her phone and computer screens.
“It’s calming and it’s therapeutic, and it allows me to kind of shut my mind off a little bit,” he added.
The trend of junk journaling also compliments another recent trend: the return to analog.
Faced with a deluge of digital content, younger generations are expressing an appetite for physical media.
At a time when photos, movie tickets, and messages all reside in the cloud, junk journaling creates a small record of one’s experiences.
Tatiana Gordon, 26, gravitated to Junk Journal in a big way for the same reason. She picked up the hobby last June and is now in the habit of collecting physical memorabilia throughout the day to put in her journal. With Tiktok’s future uncertain, he reminded that digital media can be permanent: the memories he posted on the platform may one day be inaccessible, but putting them in his junk journal means That she can always look back.
Her new hobby has also inspired her to find joy and beauty in the world, an act often referred to on social media as “Romanticize your life“After taking up junk journaling, she’s learned to appreciate objects that others might overlook: wrapping paper from Christmas presents, a city map laid out casually, even red and white checkered paper. There’s also a basket of take-out fries lined up.
“So many times I’ve ended up junk journaling about very small and specific memories that, without the space I’ve created for myself, I probably would have forgotten about,” she says.
Recently, Gordon documented a Saturday morning visit to a coffee shop in the city with his partner. He took home a business card, a piece of his coffee cup and the receipt from his order, later arranging them on a page in his notebook.
“It’s a small blip of a moment in terms of a week, but it was so special trying something new and doing it with my partner,” Gordon says. “I’ve made it a little bigger now that it’s a permanent spread in my journal.”
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and overwhelmed by the constant stream of negative news on our phones. At least for now, Gordon says junk journaling is giving him some respite — and an easy, inexpensive source of entertainment.
