From a camping trip, held onto a postcard that she picked up from a gas station, the label from an empty pie filling can and a map of the area she stayed in with her husband and friends as mementos. She then taped the scraps into her over-stuffed journal collage-style. The finished spread of the many random items is somehow aesthetically pleasing.
More importantly, it’s a creative way for her to reminisce on happy times. “I've had a pretty tough year, personally. My dad was very ill in the beginning of the year and then I have been dealing with infertility and trying to get pregnant,” the 35-year-old tells Yahoo Life.
“It just feels like this is something that really gives me a sense of peace.” With this new pastime called “junk journaling,” Harper is just one of many taking trash and turning it into a personal treasure. Junk journaling is a form of scrapbooking with keepsakes from daily events, big or small.
The difference is that it can be done in any type of notebook and aims to capture a state of mind, as journaling would, rather than a specific aesthetic. “The whole idea is that you use stuff that you collect just by living your life,” says Harper. “Junk mail, ticket stubs, parking receipts, stuff like that.
” Some things have more meaning than others, like pictures included in a spread dedicated to a memorable trip. The others, like business cards or remnants of a takeout bag from a restaurant, might take on more meaning when documented among other .