Junk journal prompts: 12 to fill a page tonight
A prompt gives a junk journal page its subject when the scraps alone do not. Pick one, find three pieces of paper that fit it and write two lines. Twelve below, printable as a card.
Start with 40 pages free. No card needed.
Each prompt is answered with paper as much as words. Every one names something to find as well as something to write.
Use one a page, or one a signature as its theme.
See also: what a junk journal is, a junk journal kept on a screen, what a smash book is.
Make a digital scrapbook
Add your photos and keepsakes in tbf scrapbook, then arrange them on the pages. Make a junk journal online.
Twelve junk journal prompts
- The last receipt in your bag: what was it for, and who were you with?
- A ticket you kept: the seat, the weather and one thing said on the way home.
- Something green from this week, and where you found it.
- A label from a food you ate as a child. What does it taste like now?
- An envelope: copy out the oldest address you remember.
- A walk you take often, drawn as a map from memory.
- Three things on your desk today, traced round in pencil.
- A page from a book you gave up on, and the line where you stopped.
- A list of sounds from today, beside a photo of where you heard them.
- A stamp from a letter. Who sent it, and what did it say?
- One colour for the whole spread. Find five scraps in it.
- A tea bag from a long conversation, and three things you talked about.
Find the paper first
Read the prompt, then hunt the house for three scraps that answer it. The writing comes last, in whatever space is left.
Use a prompt as a theme
One prompt can carry a whole signature. Something green becomes twelve pages of green packaging, leaves and tickets collected over a month.
When a prompt does not work
Skip it. A junk journal has no order to keep, and a prompt that feels like homework makes a flat page.
Steps
Print the card
Download the prompts and keep the card in the front pocket of the journal.
Pick by what you have
Choose the prompt that matches a scrap already on the table.
Three pieces, two lines
Three scraps that fit and two lines of writing, then stop.
Tick it off
Write the page number next to the prompt on the card.
Questions
What do you write in a junk journal?
Short notes beside the scraps: where they came from, who was there and what you thought. Two lines is enough.
How do I start a junk journal page?
Pick a prompt, find three scraps that answer it, lay them out before gluing, then write in the gaps.
Can I use these prompts in a digital journal?
Yes. Photograph the scraps, place them on the page and record a voice note in place of the writing if you like.