Hello crafty friends! Today I am here to share my Valentine’s Junk Journal, highlighting the Deco Foil Toner Sheets, which I absolutely love! These can be used in so many ways; here I have both the white and the clear on my cover and as inside pages.
Valentine’s Day Junk Journal with Deco Foil Toner Sheets
This post will be a little photo-heavy, but sometimes with junk journals, it’s easier to show than to tell. I really hope this inspires you to pull out the Toner Sheets and play a little.
Junk Journal Supplies:
iCraft Deco Foil Transfer Sheets – Glass Slipper, Enchanted Rose, Pink Melon and Red
iCraft Ultra Bond Liquid Adhesive
iCraft Double-Sided Adhesive Foam Tape
HeatNBond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive
Gina K. Designs Gnome for the Holidays Fall Add-on Kit
Other Supplies: fabric, Valentine or love patterned papers, cardstock, foiling machine or laminator, discarded book(s), dies and die-cutting machine, scissors, ribbon, clips, elastic thread, mini stapler, black ink pen, and beads.
Valentine Junk Deco Foil Journal
Start by pulling some items together for your project. I pulled out all of the items I wanted to use (Toner Sheets, the Gnome Fall Add-On Kit, and some dies). I only stared at it for about 3 minutes before it screamed “JUNK JOURNAL” at me, but of course, everything these days screams “junk journal” at me. I added some fabric, some plain and patterned cardstock, some book cut-outs, some beads, and Ribbon and went to work.
Hint: I pick up old books at the library that would otherwise get discarded. I use the pages in my journals, but I also have a lot of fun going through them and cutting out phrases. I store the cut-outs in zipper bags by theme (i.e. scary, love, creativity, etc.)
Valentine Junk Journal Step One
First, trim your fabric down to the size you want for your cover. Next, cut a piece just a little larger for the inside cover and to give it a little more heft. Cut a piece of Heat n Bond just to the size of the cover and iron onto the backside of the cover per package instructions (if you’re lucky, you have an Oliso Smart Iron for the task). Once it cools, peel away the release paper flip it over onto your larger piece of fabric (centered), and repeat the ironing process. This is the best way I have found to adhere journal covers, whether it be fabric to fabric or fabric to paper. By using the iron-on, dry adhesive, you don’t have any of the wrinkles that liquid adhesive or tape leaves behind.
Hint: For extra interest, sew around the edges of the cover with a zig-zag stitch.
Valentine Junk Journal Step Two
Before moving on to the inside pages, take some time to die-cut pieces for your cover and for your pages. I find that it goes much more smoothly when you have piles of pieces to choose from rather than contemplating endless possibilities as you go. Set aside your die-cut pieces.
Now that you have your cover created and die-cuts ready, let’s work on the inside pages. I used a combination of plain white cardstock and the white Deco Foil Toner Sheets. I found that the slimline card fronts folded are perfect for this. Decide how you want your pages to sit in your journal.
Next, foil the toner sheets in various shades of pink and red. I used Melon, Enchanted Rose, and Red. I like to place my toner sheets with the Foil Transfer Sheet (dull side down) over the black toner areas into a folded piece of parchment paper and run them through my laminator.
Hint: Make sure to decide where your pages will go in your book before you foil so you know what colors you want to foil them.
Valentine Junk Journal Step Three
Now let’s add the signature (inside pages) to the cover. For this book, I used the simple binding method of just tying a band around the center of the signature, tied on the outside. I left the strings long so I could add beads to the binding.
Hint: Use elastic cording to tie the binding so there is a little give.
Valentine Junk Journal Step Four
Embellish your cover using the die-cut pieces you have prepared. I know it sounds a little crazy, but I used some pieces of clear toner sheets without foiling them on my cover. I absolutely LOVE them foiled, but sometimes the black is also perfect. Take a look below at the two pictures, one with the black toner hearts and one without. See what I mean? They were the finishing touch! Use some Foam Tape for some of the pieces on the cover to create some dimension.
Hint: Embellish your cover before the inside pages. You’ll kick yourself if you go to do the cover and find that the one piece you want is glued inside.
Valentine Junk Journal Step Five
This step is pretty self-explanatory. Embellish the inside pages with all of the die-cuts, ribbon, paper clips and book page strips. I adhered my paper using Ultra Bond Liquid Adhesive.
Note: I created the fun heart trees using the Gnome for the Holidays Fall Add-On Kit … not just for fall!
Hint: I created a story with my book page strips. I laid them out on the table and put them in backward (starting at the back page) to make sure I had room for my whole “story.” You can see the story in the pictures below (hopefully, I have the pictures in the right order 😊.
Note how much interest the foiled pages add. They take your journal to the next level.
I know the number of photos is a little overwhelming lol, but I wanted to make sure to show every page. Because I challenged myself by choosing my supplies before I started and because I die-cut all of my pieces (no cheating and die-cutting more after starting), this journal actually went together very quickly and easily for how heavily it’s embellished.
I hope this inspired you to look at your toner sheets in a whole different light.
