Using book pages and scraps for journaling

Two years ago , my work team went to an escape room as our team building activity. It was good fun!

The escape room theme was vintage – more like post war era.

This has set out the theme for my journal layout.

On this layout , I wanted to use vintage look with a bot of colour. So , I used old dictionary pages , old painted packaging paper and old die cuts from past LBC kit.

I chose the dictionary page with the words “escape” and “room” and tore the pages to only show the words on my pages.

The book pages served as my background, but I also made sure that the words show.

I also used a stamp on the background , using red ink. The red ink on a vintage background just worked.

Going through my paper stash , I came across a book page with comic illustrations on espionage.

I thought that it would be perfect for my page.

My paged looked a bit bare with just the dictionary pages, so I added the comic illustration on the background. I really liked it!

As for the photographs, I backed some of them with the painted scrap brown paper that I also found on my scrap box.

Some of the photographs I have stuck / placed on the main page and some ( those that I backed with paper) and placed them on the pocket on the other side of the page.

Yes , there was a collage on the pocket , but this didn’t bother me even if it was not with the theme. I just made it work with the pages.

I used the die cuts from an old lollipop box club kit to decorate my pages and the photographs.

To age the edges of the photograph backing paper , I used a “walnut stain” collar ink pad.

The page called for letter tiles. so, I stamped typewriter font letters , then cut them into small squares.

To age them , I inked the edges of the tiles to fit in with the theme.

I then arranged the letters on top of the page and used a blank ink pen to draw dots on the corners of each square. This is to give impression that the tiles are held by nails. What do you think?

Looking at my page , I felt that there was something missing. There was a blank spaces on the other page that I thought needed something more So, I created more letter tiles to spell out the word ” Dept Head team building”. This just finished the page for me.

This is what the layout looks like after I’ve added all the bits and pieces. What do you think? I know it’s a bit different from the usual colourful layouts, but I feel sometimes layouts can be created taking inspiration from the memory we are documenting.