How to Remake An Old Planner Into A Travel Themed Junk Journal

I have been waiting for an idea of how to repurpose a stack of previously used old planners.

Then came the recent junk journal craze and this month’s challenge for the Do It Over Designers, and these old planners finally have a new purpose, which I share in this post on how to remake an old planner into a travel-themed junk journal.

This post contains affiliate links, which help support this blog at no additional cost to you. I hope you find something enchanting for your home through these links.

 

 

THIS POST IS PART OF THE ‘DO IT OVER’ DESIGNERS LINK PARTY.  A GROUP OF DESIGNERS WHO TAKE SOMETHING OLD AND/OR UNUSED AND ‘DO IT OVER’ INTO SOMETHING NEW. THESE ITEMS CAN BE FOUND IN CLOSETS, BARNS, GARAGES, YARD SALES, THRIFT STORES, YOU NAME IT!

 

Junk Journaling – what exactly is this creative hobby?

When asked, this is how I have described the trend of junk journaling as I have noticed it. 

Junk journaling is the creative process of making a personalized, hand-made journal using old books.  Stuffing it full of found materials such as old magazines, envelopes, fabric scraps or ribbons, or anything else you have on hand to repurpose.   If you have paper and craft items you usually discard, aka junk, now they can have a new place in a junk journal. 

There are no rules for making a junk journal. You have total creative freedom in what you use and how you combine it. It is self-expression and recycling beautifully mixed in an innovative, often therapeutic, unique way. 

 

 

 

This is my first attempt at crafting a junk journal, and I made it travel-themed.

For many years, I have had a travel bucket list that includes visiting every state in the United States.

Even though I have visited states all along the East Coast and ventured a few times to the Midwest, I have not even come close to accomplishing this goal.  

I am looking forward to planning travel adventures on the West Coast. 

 

 

 

 

Investing in an RV for future travels.

Last year, my husband and I bought our first RV to start getting out there and enjoying more adventures.  

As a military kid, he has seen most of the country and other countries, but now we want to start planning more trips together.   Eventually, we will make it to the West Coast.  Until then, we are planning shorter trips to new places closer to home as we learn the skills needed to become seasoned RVers. 

Our next trip is just a few weeks away.

 

 

 

The inspiration for my first junk journal.

For this, my first junk journal project, I decided to create a travel-themed junk journal to gather together all of our notes and ideas for places to explore as we plan our adventures across the U.S. 

Reusing one of my old planners, with its hard cover and sturdy spiral binder, was a great way to repurpose an old planner and the perfect starting point. 

 

 

 

 

The first challenge in repurposing my old planner was covering up the old time-blocked pages.

As expected, the pages of the planner are covered in my many scribbles and handwritten notes about our schedules and dinner plans, scripture verses, random reminders to myself about doctor’s appointments, and notes I don’t even know why I wrote them now.  

My easy solution was to cover the pages with cut sheets of cardstock, decorative scrapbooking paper, and even brown paper bags. As you can imagine, this took a while to work through and more than one glue stick, but it was also very relaxing. 

I started to see the allure of this craft trend almost immediately. 

There are no rules, no one to judge how you make it.  Just you and the creative energy of giving forgotten scraps and notes a new purpose. 

 

 

 

Repurpose a map

For the next step, I cut up a fold-out map of the United States. Each state was cut out as close to the dotted lines. Again, this was not an easy process, and I had to lump some of the smaller northern states together in the planner.

I organized the journal alphabetically, starting with Alabama and ending with Wyoming, and pasted the map cutouts to a now decorated planner page. Then, I counted out two to four more prepped pages for notes and plans for that state. Following those pages would be the next state in alphabetical order, along with two to four pages for notes, and so forth.

Some blank pages throughout the planner give larger states ample space for extra notes. If unused, the pages can be removed. Smaller states with expected shorter trips have fewer pages.   

 

 

 

The front of the junk journal has a dedicated page for a small map of the entire United States cut out from an Atlas and another dedicated page for a checklist of the national parks. 

 

 

 

 

 

After I had planned out the state pages, I went back through the entire junk journal. I added details like state stickers and torn-out magazine articles from Country Living and Better Homes and Gardens about tourist destinations in different states. When we purchased the RV last March, we were given a subscription to Wild Sam magazine, which has terrific suggestions for RV parks across the U.S. to stay at and events to see.

 

 

 

 

Extra notes are added for each state with a National Park to visit, which was also a must since my husband is an avid hiker when he has the time.

I finally used up the last roll of washi tape in my craft stash and long-forgotten pieces of scrap paper. Once upon a time, I had so many scrapbook ideas and supplies that I never got around to using. Junk journaling will give me a reason to finally use them.

 

 

 

 

I kept most of the monthly tab pages throughout the planner because I liked the inspirational quotes from the planner’s designer. My favorite planner for years has been the Living Well Planner by Ruth Soukup, but sadly, she has discontinued the website and the planners. I guess that is my push to create a planner by the end of this year.

 

 

 

 

A decorative travel-themed ribbon previously purchased for our family-inspired Christmas tree topper is perfect for a ribbon bookmark.  Another one is attached to the outside covers to keep the journal closed.

 

 

Since this junk journal is a simple travel journal filled with notes on places and sites to see on our trips, I am already planning a more detailed travel journal scrapbook to document the good times along the way. 

Until then, I have two more junk journals in progress that look entirely different than this one.  One that includes repurposed craft materials like canvas sheets and random scraps of vinyl.  I plan to share those in another blog post. 

 

Pin for Later

 

 

Please take time to visit the other talented bloggers in this month’s Do It Over Designers Challenge listed below. 

 

Pandora’s Box

Purple Hues & Me

Unique Creations by Anita

Sum of Their Stories

Tea and Forget-Me-Nots

Color Me Thrifty

Vintage Style Gal

The Apple Street Cottage

Birdz of a Feather

Exquisitely Unremarkable

Modern on Monticello

 

 

The next Do It Over Designers challenge will be on May 24th.

Hugs,

Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”