A few months ago I went to an estate sale where they wrapped and packed everything for me.
When I got home and unpacked, I had stacks and stacks of large pieces of wrinkled and folded grayish paper that was just a little bit heavier than copy paper. My instinct was to throw it in the trash, but I got a snip of inspiration that there might be a project somewhere in that paper.
I started by tearing the paper into book signature size pages, without worrying about getting even edges or all the same size.
Next, I put the paper in a cake pan and poured tea over it. After the tea bath, I dried the paper over a heat vent, making it a little crunchy.
My idea for the journal was to make it look worn, faded and a little bit dirty. To add some background and depth to my pages, I stamped all over them randomly with sepia ink, not worrying about overlapping or smeared ink.
I used an old file folder for the covers, a scrap of fabric for the spine and then used twine to tie three signatures through the spine.
Smaller pages are nestled in between larger pages.
The journal is the perfect place to keep bits of ephemera like the round red thread label, or instructions on how to use your fortune telling Teddy Bear. The perfect place for the precious little bits of paper that make you smile like...
...a vintage cardboard package that held knitting needles, or a crumbling book spine.
Occasionally, a little color sneaks on to the pages.
The journal isn't quite finished, but a lot of pages have been started. When I find something "special" like a page of embroidery stitch instructions or an old typewritten letter, I glue it down so the next time I find a precious bit of ephemera, I'll have a background already in place for it.