Creativity and Inspiration

A look at the history, evolution, and future of one of the fastest-growing creative hobbies of 2026.

Junk journaling is having quite a moment in 2026. Everywhere you look, people are tearing up paper, saving receipts, collecting packaging, rescuing old books, and turning what most people would throw away into something personal and creative.

But here’s a question I’ve been asking myself: Are these really new trends, or are we simply rediscovering techniques that junk journalers have been using for years?

If you’ve been junk journaling for a while, you may recognize some of the techniques suddenly being presented as the latest thing. Masterboards, altered books, collage pages, pockets, and handmade ephemera certainly didn’t appear overnight.

What has changed is the way people are using them, the materials they’re reaching for, and the reasons they’re creating.

And the numbers suggest this isn’t just a passing social media fascination.

According to Michaels’ 2026 Creativity Trend Report, searches for junk journaling increased 63% year over year. The retailer connects that growth to a larger movement toward hands-on hobbies, personal memory keeping, and spending time away from screens.

And if you’d like to see these techniques put to the test, head over to my YouTube channel, Creativity and Inspiration, where we’re exploring these trends with actual materials, real journal pages, and plenty of creative experimentation.

So today, we’re looking beyond the pretty pictures and viral videos. We’re exploring seven important trends influencing junk journaling in 2026, where they came from, how long they’ve been around, and whether they’re genuinely new ideas or familiar techniques finding a new audience.

1. Trash Journaling: Turning Everyday Discards Into Memories

One of the most visible directions in junk journaling for 2026 is also one of its most basic: using actual junk.

We’re talking about grocery receipts, junk mail, food packaging, product labels, envelopes, shopping bags, newspaper advertisements, and whatever else happens to pass through our daily lives.

Rather than purchasing beautiful coordinating papers and decorative embellishments, journalers are looking at the things already sitting on their kitchen counters and asking, “Could I use this?”

A receipt from lunch becomes part of a page about an afternoon spent with a friend. The cardboard sleeve from a coffee cup becomes a pocket. A colorful piece of food packaging becomes a background, while an old envelope provides a place to tuck away a handwritten memory.

What makes this particularly interesting is that these materials tell a story that purchased embellishments cannot always tell.

A grocery receipt from October 2026 might seem completely ordinary today. Twenty years from now, it could be a fascinating record of what we purchased, what things cost, and how we lived.

Where did this trend originate?

Using everyday discarded materials in art is hardly a new idea.

Early twentieth-century collage artists, including those associated with Cubism and Dada, incorporated newspaper, tickets, printed advertisements, and found objects into their work. These artists helped establish the idea that ordinary materials could carry artistic meaning.

Later, scrapbookers and memory keepers collected theater tickets, postcards, letters, and receipts to preserve personal experiences.

And when junk journals developed into a recognizable online crafting community during the 2000s and 2010s, repurposed materials were already central to the practice.

In other words, using actual junk isn’t a departure from traditional junk journaling. It’s a return to its foundation.

What’s different in 2026?

The biggest change is the emphasis on documenting ordinary life rather than creating a particular decorative aesthetic.

A journal page doesn’t necessarily need vintage butterflies, lace, or perfectly coordinated papers. It might contain a cereal box label, part of a restaurant menu, and a handwritten note about an uneventful Tuesday.

Social media has helped introduce this approach to younger creators, while growing interest in sustainability and low-cost hobbies has made it especially relevant.

The 2026 resurgence also reflects a larger cultural desire to preserve physical reminders of experiences that increasingly exist only on our phones.

New or returning? Returning to the original roots of junk journaling, with a renewed emphasis on personal storytelling.

2. Maximalist Junk Journaling: More Layers, More Texture, More Everything

If you’ve spent any time looking at junk journals online recently, you’ve probably noticed pages that seem to contain just about everything imaginable.

There are layers upon layers of paper, torn edges, stickers, fabric, ribbons, labels, photographs, writing, paint, and sometimes objects that don’t seem as though they should fit inside a book at all.

This is maximalist junk journaling, and it’s attracting renewed attention in 2026.

The idea is to create pages that feel abundant, textured, and visually exciting. Rather than leaving large areas of empty space, journalers build layers until the page becomes a collection of discoveries.

You might start with an old book page, add a torn magazine photograph, tuck in a piece of patterned packaging, attach a fabric scrap, and finish with handwritten words or a small tag.

The result can be almost sculptural.

Some maximalist journals become so thick that they barely close. Others contain folding sections, cascading pockets, and embellishments extending beyond the page edges.

Where did maximalist journaling originate?

Maximalism has a much longer history than social media.

In art and design, maximalism embraces abundance, decoration, contrast, and visual complexity. Its influences can be seen in Victorian decorative arts, assemblage, collage, and many forms of mixed-media artwork.

Within paper crafting, highly embellished scrapbooks became especially popular during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

By the 2010s, junk journal creators were making elaborate vintage and shabby-chic journals filled with lace, distressed paper, fabric, charms, and layered embellishments.

So while maximalism may be receiving fresh attention, the underlying approach has been part of the junk journal community for many years.

What’s different in 2026?

Today’s maximalist pages often combine materials that earlier journalers might have kept separate.

Vintage paper may sit alongside bright modern packaging. Delicate lace might be paired with a bold supermarket advertisement. A handwritten memory may overlap a photograph, a sticker, and a torn piece of cardboard.

There’s also less pressure for everything to match.

An August 2026 CraftGossip feature highlighted the appeal of these densely layered spreads, where the abundance of materials becomes part of the creative expression.

This approach is particularly interesting because it blurs the line between junk journaling, collage, assemblage, and mixed-media art.

New or returning? A familiar mixed-media approach enjoying a new wave of visibility, especially through highly textured and colorful journal pages.

3. Frankenpages and Masterboards: Old-School Techniques With New Attention

Frankenpages and masterboards are two techniques that deserve a place in any discussion about the history of junk journaling.

They’re sometimes talked about as though they’ve just been invented, but experienced paper crafters know otherwise.

A Frankenpage is essentially a page constructed by joining smaller pieces of paper together. Instead of starting with one complete sheet, you create a new page from scraps.

You might stitch together book pages, ledger paper, packaging, handwritten notes, and decorative paper to create something entirely different.

A masterboard begins with a larger surface covered in a collage of papers, marks, images, and textures. Once completed, it can be cut into smaller pieces to make journal cards, tags, pockets, bookmarks, or other ephemera.

The beauty of both techniques is that they give small, seemingly useless scraps another purpose.

Where did these techniques originate?

Both methods have roots in much older creative practices.

Patchwork, piecing, and quilting have used small remnants to construct larger surfaces for centuries. Paper collage similarly involves assembling separate materials into a unified composition.

Masterboards are closely related to collage sheets and background-making techniques used in rubber stamping, altered books, and mixed-media art.

Frankenpages borrow from the same principles of patchwork and paper piecing.

The exact dates when the terms Frankenpage and masterboard entered junk journaling are difficult to establish. However, the techniques themselves were familiar in online paper-crafting and mixed-media communities well before 2026.

They were especially recognizable in the 2010s and early 2020s through craft blogs and YouTube tutorials.

What’s different in 2026?

The materials and presentation are changing.

Instead of using only coordinating scrapbook paper, some creators are incorporating everyday packaging, junk mail, receipts, and unexpected textures.

Stitching has also become an important visual element. Rather than hiding the seams, journalers may deliberately emphasize them with contrasting thread, crooked lines, or visible repairs.

Another interesting direction is making Frankenpages that remain practical.

Instead of covering every inch with embellishments, creators can leave areas for writing, attach useful pockets, or make the page itself strong enough to become part of a journal signature.

Masterboards are also finding renewed relevance among creators who want to use existing supplies instead of constantly purchasing new paper collections.

New or returning? Definitely returning techniques. Their history predates the current boom, even though new creators are discovering and adapting them.

4. Altered Books and Repurposed Journals: Giving Old Books Another Life

Another direction attracting interest is using an existing book as the foundation for a journal.

Instead of constructing a new journal from folded signatures and handmade covers, creators begin with an old hardcover book, paperback, notebook, or even a discarded planner.

Pages may be glued together for strength, removed to make room for embellishments, folded into pockets, painted, or covered with collage.

Some journalers preserve much of the original printed text. Others completely transform the book until almost nothing of the original remains visible.

There is something particularly appealing about taking a book that might otherwise be discarded and giving it a completely different purpose.

Where did altered books originate?

Altered books have a fascinating history.

The Center for Book Arts documents the practice of extra-illustration in eighteenth-century England, when readers inserted additional images and materials into published books to personalize them.

This practice is an important historical predecessor to modern altered books.

During the twentieth century, altered books became an established form of artistic expression. Artists transformed printed books through cutting, painting, collage, drawing, and rearranging text.

By the 1990s and 2000s, altered books were familiar in mixed-media and paper-crafting communities.

The early 2010s also brought the popularity of K&Company’s SMASH Books, which encouraged people to collect everyday memorabilia and fill pages without following traditional scrapbooking rules.

These approaches helped shape the creative freedom associated with modern junk journaling.

What’s different in 2026?

The focus is increasingly on accessibility and repurposing.

A thrift-store book costing very little can become an entire creative project.

Creators are also experimenting with leaving more of the original book visible, allowing old illustrations, typography, and printed text to interact with contemporary materials.

One page might contain the original text of a gardening book, layered with pressed leaves and handwritten observations. Another might combine a vintage cookbook illustration with modern food packaging.

There’s a growing connection between altered books and memory keeping, with journalers using old books to document their present-day lives.

New or returning? An established art and craft practice being introduced to another generation of journalers.

5. Mini Journals, Pocket Journals, and Portable Creativity

Not every junk journal needs to be large, thick, or elaborate.

In fact, one of the interesting developments in 2026 is the attention being given to smaller, portable formats.

Mini journals can be made from a single sheet of folded paper, scraps of cardboard, old envelopes, or tiny handmade signatures.

Pocket journals are designed to travel with you, allowing you to collect and record memories as they happen.

A small journal might be dedicated to a weekend trip, a visit to a garden, a month of everyday observations, or even the contents of a handbag.

Some creators are also assembling portable journaling pouches containing a notebook, small scissors, adhesive, pens, and a few scraps.

Where did this trend originate?

Small notebooks and portable diaries have existed for centuries.

Travel journals, pocket diaries, field notebooks, and commonplace books all demonstrate the longstanding appeal of recording experiences in a portable format.

In the modern stationery world, traveler’s notebooks became especially influential during the 2000s and 2010s. Their interchangeable inserts made it easy to maintain separate notebooks for different purposes.

Miniature books and one-sheet folded booklets were also familiar long before the current junk journal movement.

What’s different in 2026?

Portability is becoming part of the lifestyle surrounding journaling.

People want to journal at cafés, during vacations, at parks, and while spending time away from their computers.

Search interest supports this broader movement. A 2026 analysis of Google Trends data identified DIY pouch journal as a breakout search, while Etsy-related market reporting pointed to increased interest in travel journals and journal charms.

The small format also makes junk journaling less intimidating for beginners.

Instead of filling a hundred-page journal, someone can complete a tiny booklet using only a handful of materials.

And for experienced journalers, miniature formats offer an opportunity to explore composition, scale, and detail in a completely different way.

New or returning? A longstanding form of journaling finding renewed popularity through portable creative kits, travel-inspired projects, and miniature formats.

6. Interactive Ephemera: Pockets, Flips, Hidden Spaces, and Moving Parts

One of the elements that makes junk journaling different from ordinary collage is the opportunity to create something interactive.

A journal doesn’t have to consist of flat pages.

It can contain hidden pockets, removable tags, flip-out sections, envelopes, secret writing spaces, and foldable pages that reveal additional layers.

A simple envelope can become a place to store a private note. A folded piece of cardstock can create a waterfall of photographs. A paper bag can be transformed into a pocket with several compartments.

Even a discarded window envelope can become an interesting feature, allowing a small photograph or handwritten message to show through.

These elements invite the person using the journal to participate rather than simply look.

Where did interactive ephemera originate?

Interactive paper mechanisms have an extensive history.

Movable books and paper engineering developed over centuries, eventually influencing pop-up books, novelty greeting cards, and interactive children’s books.

Within scrapbooking, hidden journaling spots, tags, fold-outs, and pockets became common ways to include more photographs and writing without overcrowding a layout.

Paper-bag albums, envelope books, and interactive mini albums were especially popular in the 2000s and 2010s.

Junk journal creators adapted many of these techniques, often combining them with vintage papers, fabric, and handmade embellishments.

What’s different in 2026?

Interactive elements are increasingly being created from ordinary discarded materials.

Instead of relying on purchased dies or specialized supplies, creators can use packaging folds, security envelopes, paper bags, and leftover cardstock.

Another direction is the combination of interactive elements with practical journaling.

A fold-out might provide a place to write several days of memories. A removable tag might contain a favorite recipe. An envelope might hold receipts from a trip.

The mechanics become part of the storytelling.

There is also a strong visual appeal to these projects on YouTube, where viewers can watch a journal page unfold and discover its hidden sections.

New or returning? A classic paper-crafting technique continuing to evolve through recycled materials and more personal uses.

7. Everyday Memory Journaling: Moving Away From Perfectly Themed Pages

Perhaps the most meaningful shift in junk journaling during 2026 isn’t a particular technique at all.

It’s a change in what people want their journals to represent.

For years, much of the online junk journal world has emphasized beautiful themes: vintage botanicals, French ephemera, Victorian illustrations, shabby-chic lace, and carefully coordinated paper collections.

Those styles remain popular, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with them.

But another approach is gaining attention: creating journals that reflect everyday life exactly as it happens.

These journals might contain a photograph of a pet, a handwritten grocery list, a receipt from a favorite restaurant, a scrap of wrapping paper from a birthday gift, or a note about something that happened that day.

The pages don’t necessarily match.

They aren’t always beautiful in the traditional sense.

And they don’t need to be.

Where did this trend originate?

Personal memory keeping is much older than junk journaling.

Commonplace books, diaries, friendship albums, scrapbooks, and travel journals have been used for generations to collect thoughts, quotations, pictures, and reminders of daily life.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, people saved newspaper clippings, pressed flowers, postcards, letters, and other mementos in albums and books.

Later, scrapbooking evolved into a major commercial hobby, often emphasizing family photographs and important occasions.

The early 2010s SMASH Book movement encouraged a looser approach, allowing people to attach whatever they wanted to the pages.

Today’s everyday memory journals continue that tradition.

What’s different in 2026?

The emphasis is shifting toward ordinary experiences rather than special occasions.

A journal doesn’t have to commemorate a wedding, vacation, or birthday. It can document the small details of a perfectly ordinary week.

There’s also growing interest in journaling as a hands-on alternative to digital life.

Michaels describes this movement as people creating physical archives of their own experiences, while contemporary reporting connects junk journaling’s popularity with the desire for tactile creativity and personal expression.

What makes this approach interesting is that it brings writing back into the journal.

A beautiful collage can be meaningful, but leaving room to record a thought, feeling, or memory gives the page another dimension.

New or returning? One of the oldest purposes of journaling, rediscovered through modern mixed-media techniques.

Looking Ahead: What’s the Outlook for Junk Journaling in 2027?

As we move toward 2027, I don’t think the most interesting question is whether junk journaling will remain popular.

It’s how the hobby will change as more people discover it.

The available 2026 evidence is encouraging. Michaels reported a 63% increase in junk journaling searches, and wholesale marketplace Faire reported substantial year-over-year increases in searches for junk journals, supplies, and kits.

That suggests interest is expanding beyond a small community of dedicated paper crafters.

However, popularity doesn’t guarantee that every style or technique will continue growing. Social media aesthetics change quickly, and trends that attract attention today may look very different a year from now.

Based on the history of paper crafting, current consumer interest, and the larger movement toward hands-on creativity, here are the developments I believe are worth watching in 2027.

These are forecasts, not confirmed trends.

1. The rise of truly personal journals

I expect more journalers to move away from completely coordinated, pre-designed themes and toward pages that reflect their individual experiences.

That could mean more handwriting, personal photographs, saved packaging, and materials with specific memories attached.

Instead of creating a journal that looks like everyone else’s, the goal may increasingly be to create something that could only belong to its maker.

2. More textile and fiber techniques

Sewing, embroidery, fabric scraps, yarn, and visible mending could become increasingly important in junk journal design.

Fabric provides a tactile quality that paper alone cannot always achieve.

I expect to see more hand-stitched pages, fabric-covered journal covers, embroidered tags, and combinations of paper and textiles.

This isn’t a new practice, but the broader revival of traditional handcrafts could bring renewed attention to it.

3. Nature-inspired and environmentally conscious journaling

Botanical themes have been popular in junk journaling for years, but I believe the next direction may become more connected to the natural world itself.

Rather than simply printing illustrations of flowers and leaves, creators may incorporate botanical observations, garden notes, handmade plant impressions, sketches, and responsibly collected natural materials.

We may also see more emphasis on reusing existing supplies instead of purchasing new collections for every project.

Nature journaling and junk journaling have a natural connection, particularly when the goal is documenting change over time.

4. Functional junk journals

I expect the line between creative journals and everyday organizational tools to become increasingly blurred.

Imagine a junk journal that includes grocery lists, favorite recipes, household notes, garden records, reading lists, or creative project plans.

Instead of maintaining a separate planner, notebook, and art journal, some creators may combine all three.

This would bring junk journaling closer to its practical roots while retaining the artistic freedom people enjoy.

5. More miniature, modular, and portable formats

The growing interest in portable journaling suggests that small, flexible formats have room to develop.

We could see more removable signatures, tiny themed booklets, foldable journals, portable supply pouches, and collections of mini journals housed inside larger handmade covers.

These formats are especially suited to people who want to create without dedicating an entire room to supplies.

6. More creative use of everyday packaging

I believe food packaging, shipping materials, junk mail, and other ordinary household paper will become increasingly important.

As people explore low-cost creative hobbies, these materials offer an almost unlimited source of texture, typography, color, and pattern.

We may see more tutorials built around specific challenges, such as creating an entire journal from one week’s discarded paper or making a signature without purchasing any new supplies.

7. A stronger connection between junk journaling and fine art

This is one of the directions I’m especially interested in.

Junk journaling already shares many techniques with collage, assemblage, book arts, and mixed-media painting.

As creators become more confident, I expect some will begin exploring larger compositions, experimental bindings, sculptural books, and journals that function as standalone works of art.

That doesn’t mean every journal needs to become a gallery piece.

It simply means the boundaries between craft, memory keeping, and artistic expression may continue to become less defined.

One More Thing: Will AI and Digital Printables Change Junk Journaling?

There’s another development worth watching as we head into 2027: the relationship between digital tools and handmade creativity.

Digital printable kits have been part of junk journaling for years, but generative AI introduces new possibilities for creating customized images, patterns, backgrounds, and ephemera.

I suspect we’ll see two directions developing alongside each other.

Some creators will embrace highly personalized digital designs and AI-assisted imagery. Others may deliberately move toward authentic vintage papers, handwritten elements, physical photographs, and materials collected from everyday life.

Neither approach needs to replace the other.

But I do think the distinction between digitally created ephemera and genuinely found materials may become a more important conversation within the junk journal community.

And perhaps that conversation will encourage people to think more carefully about what makes a handmade journal personal.

A Short Recap: Are These Really New Trends?

After looking at these seven trends, one thing becomes clear: much of what we’re seeing in junk journaling in 2026 isn’t entirely new.

Frankenpages, masterboards, altered books, pockets, collage, and heavily layered pages have existed in one form or another for years, sometimes decades or even centuries.

What is new is the audience discovering them, the materials being used, and the way these techniques are being combined.

The current movement seems to be less about inventing completely new techniques and more about giving familiar ones fresh purpose.

And looking toward 2027, I expect we’ll see an even greater emphasis on personal storytelling, recycled materials, portable creativity, textiles, and the connection between junk journaling and mixed-media art.

Perhaps the biggest development of all will be a return to something very simple: making journals that tell our own stories rather than trying to recreate someone else’s.

Come Explore These Trends With Me on YouTube!

We’ve looked at the history, the techniques, and where junk journaling may be headed next. But reading about a technique and actually sitting down to try it are two very different things.

Over on my Creativity and Inspiration YouTube channel, we’re taking a closer look at these seven junk journaling trends, experimenting with materials, and exploring what makes each approach interesting.

We’ll be using everyday supplies, repurposed materials, and plenty of creative imagination.

And I’d love to hear from you, too.

Have you been junk journaling long enough to remember when some of these techniques first became popular? Are you just discovering them? Or have you noticed other changes happening in the junk journal community?

Share your thoughts in the comments, and join me on YouTube as we explore the creative possibilities together.

Because whether you’ve been making journals for twenty years or twenty minutes, there’s always something new to discover—even when the technique itself has been around for a very long time.

Happy creating!

Research note: This article draws on Michaels’ 2026 Creativity Trend Report, contemporary coverage of junk journaling, historical information from the Center for Book Arts, and paper-crafting history. The seven featured techniques are documented practices receiving renewed attention; they are not presented as a verified ranking of the seven most-searched individual techniques. The 2027 outlook represents editorial predictions based on current developments.