Crafting and decor
Junk Journal Ephemera
A mixed sheet of tags, tickets, labels, frames, quote strips and date boxes to cut out and glue in, with bookmarks on their own sheet. Outline only, so a sheet costs almost nothing in ink and whatever you write on it afterwards stays readable.
Four steps
How to print junk journal ephemera
- 1
Pick the sheet
Mixed, or a full sheet of one piece type.
- 2
Add words if you want
One line per piece, used in order. Blanks are fine.
- 3
Try landscape
It fits noticeably more, because the pieces pack into rows.
- 4
Print on thin paper
120 gsm or less, so the finished journal still closes.
- 5
Cut and glue
A glue stick, not wet glue, which wrinkles thin paper.
Thin paper, even though it feels wrong
The instinct is to print ephemera on card so the pieces feel substantial in the hand. It is the wrong call. A journal with twenty pieces of 200 gsm card glued into it will not close, the pages splay, and the spine gives up inside a month. The pieces are meant to be part of a book, not objects in their own right.
120 gsm or thinner. If you want a piece to feel weightier, glue it onto something else already in the journal rather than printing it heavy.
Why landscape fits more
The pieces are packed into rows, tallest first, and every row is as tall as its tallest piece. A wider row therefore wastes less space at its end, and the difference is not small: the same settings typically fit about half as many pieces again in landscape as in portrait.
What each piece is for
| Piece | Used for |
|---|---|
| Tag | Tied in with thread, or glued as a pull-out |
| Ticket | An entry, a date, a place. The stub tears off |
| Label | Naming a section or a pocket |
| Frame | Around a photograph or a pressed flower |
| Quote strip | A line of writing across a page |
| Date box | Dating a spread without writing it large |
| Bookmark | Keeping your place, or a long pull-out |
Related printables
Patterned paper supplies the backgrounds and the same patterns used here, paper craft templates add pockets and boxes, and party printables cover tags and cards at a larger, sturdier size.
Answers