I have a bit of a weakness for old books and thrifted finds. Give me a stack of vintage books, an interesting cover, or something that looks like it could be given a second life in my craft room, and I’m already imagining what I could make with it!
So when I found some vintage school textbooks on Facebook Marketplace, I knew I couldn’t leave them behind. The pages may have been missing, but the covers were just waiting for a new story.
And that’s exactly what I decided to do with one of them.
A Journal About a Thrifting Road Trip
One of my favourite things about making journals is that they don’t have to be about a particular theme or follow any rules. They can simply be a place to collect the little things that make a memory special. For this album, I used the covers from one of those vintage textbooks to create an accordion fold journal. And what better way to fill it than with memories from one of my favourite kinds of adventures—a thrifting road trip!
My husband and I spent three days exploring small towns, stopping at thrift stores and antique shops, and, of course, coming home with a collection of treasures. I wanted the journal to hold more than just photographs from the trip. I wanted it to capture the experience. So I tucked in the things I collected along the way, added photos, wrote down bits of our adventures, and incorporated scraps and pieces from my stash.
One of the Best Parts? Using Scraps!
This is one of the things I love most about this style of journaling. I didn’t go out and buy a whole collection of supplies specifically for this album. Instead, I started with the things I had collected during our trip and then went shopping in my own craft room. Scraps of patterned paper, bits of vintage paper, leftover embellishments, pieces of ribbon, stickers, journaling cards and other odds and ends all found their way into the album.
Some of the pieces are polished and coordinated. Others are simply things that happened to be sitting on my desk. And I think that’s what makes a journal like this feel so personal. It becomes a collection of the little things.
- A receipt from a shop we visited.
- A piece of packaging.
- A ticket or tag.
- A photo from along the way.
- A scrap of paper that happened to be the perfect colour.
- A little bit of journaling about something we might otherwise forget.
None of these things would necessarily mean much on their own, but together they tell the story of our three-day adventure.
A Journal Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect
I think this is an important reminder when making something like this: your journal doesn’t have to be perfect to be meaningful. This lesson took me a long time to learn. It’s more about the story than it is about the journal/album. There are pages in this album that are carefully decorated and others that are much simpler.
That’s part of the fun of an accordion journal. Because there’s no spine, you can add as many pages as you’d like. The pages become a little collection of memories, stories, photographs and treasures rather than a perfectly coordinated scrapbook. And because the covers started life as a vintage textbook, there’s already a bit of history built into the album before I even added anything!
Take a Peek Inside
I shared a flip-through reel of the finished album so you can see how all of those little pieces came together.
I especially love seeing the whole album stretched out because you can really see how the accordion format works. When it’s folded up, it’s a compact little book. Open it up, and suddenly you have this long collection of memories.
Want to Make One Too?
If you like the idea of turning a thrifted book cover into an accordion fold journal, I’ll be teaching a virtual class using these vintage textbook covers! We’ll take those forgotten book covers and give them a completely new purpose as the covers for an accordion fold journal or mini album.
And just like my travel journal, you’ll have lots of flexibility when it comes to how you use yours.
It could become a travel journal, a memory album, a seasonal journal, a scrapbook, a place to collect photographs and memorabilia—or simply a fun little album filled with your favourite paper scraps and ephemera.
Learn more about the virtual accordion journal class.
I can’t wait to see what stories you give these old book covers next!
Give Something Old a New Story
This project is such a good reminder of why I love working with thrifted and upcycled materials.
Something that might have been headed for the recycling bin—or simply forgotten on a shelf—can become something completely different. And once you fill it with your own photographs, stories, scraps and collected treasures, it becomes something that could never be bought in a store. It becomes your story.
That’s really what I love most about this kind of journaling: taking what you already have, adding a few memories, and creating something that makes you smile every time you flip through it.
Until next time,
Leave a Reply