Hello, Everyone! I have been working on a few sewing projects intermingled with decorating for Christmas and day-to-day chores. Why not throw one more project into the mix?

This year, on Black Friday, we ventured out to breakfast at a decent hour. Afterwards, we stopped at a few stores: not so much for hardcore shopping, but mostly to entertain some Christmas Spirit. We picked up some seasonal Starbucks Holiday Drinks and headed to Target. Why Target? For all of the obvious reasons AND they still have a Book section!

We browsed the $1 section in the front of the store, women’s clothes, movies, and then we finally hit the books. The book and movie section is much smaller than in past years, but it was still nice to browse. And then, I saw IT. Way on the bottom in the righthand corner of the shelf, was this book:

I know I have seen this book before, but never paid much attention to it. The first printing was 2007 and it has been reprinted and expanded since then. I’ve also seen Smash Journals and Junk Journaling. I have looked into junk journaling and watched a few YouTube videos. It looks interesting, but never enough to get into it myself. It feels like there is no real purpose for what you are making, so why make it? It takes a lot of thinking outside the box, making a mess, and making a lot of mistakes or imperfections. The things I see people making aren’t “good”, they miss the mark. This thinking of mine actually bothers me something fierce. The reason you do this kind of journaling is to flex your creative muscles: try something different, expand on the ideas you are working on. It’s all very uncomfortable, yet rewarding when you see it through.

I think it would be great to take a class on collage, or if they have a “junk journal” class. I took a journal class at the library a few years ago. It introduced us to all of the supplies and types of journals, but it didn’t go deep enough. So, when I saw this book I wanted to know what it meant to, “wreck this journal”. It’s pretty cool!

Each page gives you something to do: draw circles, “wrap something with this page”, “color this entire page”. Some of the things I don’t want to do, but others are really interesting. I almost didn’t buy this book because I thought it doesn’t seem too creative to have someone telling you what to do. But, I am so inconsistent and lazy in my sketching and journaling, I need a bit of structure to get anything done.

I have been working on a few of the pages and feel good that I did them. But, my pages feel boring or I just didn’t put enough thought or time into them. Because of this, I went looking on the internet to see if other people had shared their work done in this book. The answer is YES! They sure did! If you search for the reviews on this book on Amazon, you will find pictures of peoples creations. There are also Pinterest boards dedicated to ideas for this book, and there are web sites with prompts for Children as well:

Simple Wreck this Journal Ideas for Kids

Today, I am sharing my “Fill this Page with Circles” page with you. It is looking like it needs some color or texture or something. I will fix it up and share it again later, I think.

Do you have a “Wreck this Journal”? Did you fill the whole thing up? If you don’t have the book, you could make your own with a sketch book and check out the prompts on Pinterest or other web sites dedicated to the book. It’s a fun creative outlet!

I am off to work on some Christmas Sock Monkeys.

Have a Wonderful Tuesday!

Missie S.