Journal Photography Inspiration for Submission

 We’re excited to see your journal submissions for The Archivist: An Anthology for Creative Journal Artists! If you’re feeling unsure about what kind of photos you should submit, please use these examples below for inspiration!

Journal Flat Lays

Flat lay photography is what you’ll see most when scrolling through journaling accounts on social media. Surround your journal with home décor, fabrics, and stationery supplies!

Pro-tip—surround your journal with objects and materials that match the colors in your journal page.

A simple flat lay—close up shots of your favorite part of the page are welcomed!

Environmental

On the go journal artists may want to take a picture of their journals away from the craft desk. Hold your journal up and snap a picture or nestle it next to your latte and breakfast muffin.

Hold your journal up and snap a picture!

Sometimes, nature provides the best backgrounds.

Blank Background

Let your journal stand out on a plain background. Less is more.

Struggling to get a good shot without your journal closing on you? Use clips to keep your journal open!

Angled & simple!

Ready to Submit?

Find our submission guidelines for details on how and where to submit!

Daily Snaps Creative Journal Challenge

This year we’re calling 1134 Press’ annual creative journal challenge Daily Snaps.

Remember December by taking a photo a day this month to collage in your journals.

The objective of this challenge is to capture the essence of what makes up the Winter season. Be spontaneous as you carry your camera with you this month. But if you find yourself in a creative rut, use this idea list to help capture the magic of December!

Photo by Tessa Rampersad on Unsplash

Winter Night

Is the moon exceptionally bright? Did you or a neighbor outdo themselves with light decorations? Or maybe you’re spending a cozy night with your pets, a glass of wine, and good television. Take a picture that captures what a winter night looks like for you.

The Bakery

The holidays are known for their decadent sweets. Take a picture of elaborately decorated sweets or those that remind you that the holidays are upon us!

Texture and Textile

Celebrate the cozy textures of the season. Take an up-close picture of your favorite sweater, blanket, or scarf. Show off its details!

Family Portrait

Gather your closest friends or family—have them sit for you for a family portrait.

Labor of Love

Take a picture of your favorite hobby or craft. Bonus points if it’s one that you only do during the Winter.

Photo by Caley Dimmock on Unsplash

Winter Sky

Look up! And take a photo of the sky.

Self-Love

You’re beautiful. Capture it in a photo.

Warmth

A fire, a cup of tea, your child’s smile- capture whatever makes you feel warm.

New Addition

We acquire many artifacts during the holiday season, be it gifts (for ourselves and from others) or decorations, or a pair of lined boots. Take a photo of an object that has recently come into your life.

Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash

Candid

Take a candid photo of a person or animal that captures them in their natural state.

Any Given Morning

Although December is marked with extraordinary events, it’s important to cherish the simple ones too. Take a photo during your morning routine.

Find Balance

Winter is a season of giving food, gifts, time, and love. Finding the balance between giving and preserving can be tricky during this time. Capture an image that represents balance or symmetry.

Creating Fantasy

Decorations are a sure sign that the holidays have arrived. Curating your holiday decorations brings the holiday fantasy to life. Let’s create another fantasy with objects in your house. Stage found objects and capture the story through a photo.

In the Eye of the Beholder

Capture a beautiful scene behind a picture frame. Take an empty picture frame out with you on a walk or around the house. Hold the frame out in front and take a photo with the frame and the objects behind it.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Home

Give thanks to shelter and comfort! Capture an image of your house or your favorite place in your home.

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

Capture the smell of the season through images of raw spices, candles, flora, or a scene that invokes winter scents.

Winter Flora

Take a photo of nature in the form of a garden, a single leaf, or a floral arrangement.

Holiday Kitsch

Snowflakes, Santa, ginger breadmen—Holiday motifs surround us! Capture some of your favorite symbols of the season.

Photo by Jeffrey Wegrzyn on Unsplash

I hope you'll join me this month! I'm sharing my process of working through these prompts on various platforms (Youtube, Instagram, TikTok)! And please join our community on Facebook to share your creations with us too!

A Memorable Project for the Holidays

As I write this blog post, Bree is finishing up editing today’s video. So, keep an eye out for that sometime today!

In the meantime, I’d like to share an idea for a memorable project for the holiday season. It’s something we’re going to do for the first time this year, and it might be something that you would like to also give a try. So what is it? A book, of course!

Okay, here are the details:

This year we have a few engagements on the schedule for Christmas. We’ll be going to a get-together Christmas Eve, having brunch at our house Christmas Day, then visiting relatives later that evening. I’m sure you have your own plans as well. This year, we’ll be breaking out the ol’ polaroid camera—if you have one these, perfect. If not, and you would like one, you can find a relatively inexpensive polaroid at Best Buy, Amazon, and likely other retailers.

During our various get-togethers, we’ll be taking polaroids that we will then use to fill pages in our 2021 Holiday Book. We will also set up a “station” at our brunch where guests can decorate a page or two for the book. Once all the festivities are finished, we will take the decorated pages and polaroids to put together the finished book.

Once the book is complete, we will make copies to give out to friends and family next year (we think these will make for fun gifts in the next holiday season). If this goes well, we plan to make it a tradition—each year, a new book.

If you think this idea sounds like a fun thing to do, a good way to save memories and connect with friends and family, give it a try. See the steps broken down below.

1) Gather pictures during holiday parties.

2) Gather pages decorated by friends and family

3) Collect pictures and decorated pages into a book (make copies)

4) Gift copies of the book next holiday season

If you like this idea, and you try this project, feel free to post pics to the Facebook group!

For more ideas, updates, and more, subscribe to our monthly newsletter below!

Junk Journal with Me

Two new Junk Journal with Me videos have gone live over the past week. Bryonna also reviewed the We R Memory Keepers Book Binding Guide. Find a brief description of each along with the links below.

In Junk Journal with Me Episode 6, Bryonna writes a letter of her intentions for 2021. The writing is printed onto transparency paper and folded (following the Paper Kawaii Origami Envelope Tutorial). See the video linked below for more creative inspiration!

In Junk Journal with Me Episode 7, Bryonna practices writing with a Trustela calligraphy pen set. She also shares some journaling prompts to help inspire your own journaling. And as usual, Bryonna shares links to the tools noted in the video.

In Reviewing the We R Memory Keepers Book Binding Guide, Bryonna makes a Japanese stab bound sketchbook. She also shows how to make a watercolor sketchbook with leather cover. Watch the video below for the review.

We're Back!

We’re back, baby! After much effort, we’ve finally gotten to a place with the big studio move where we can get back to business as usual. That was kind of a wordy sentence, but I’m going with it. Grammatical considerations aside, I’m excited for the next chapter in the 1134 Press story; I hope you are too. 

We are looking to add a slightly different style of video to our YouTube repertoire. There will still be the videos that you are already used to, but we are flirting with the idea of including more process-oriented videos; these would be a little shorter and primarily focus on the construction of various papercrafts. 

This week’s video (posted Wednesday evening), is in the style described above. I think the video has a chill vibe and is good inspiration for creativity. Check it out at the link and subscribe if you haven’t already!

Thanks everybody, and we hope you’ve had a happy and safe holiday! 

Binding a Coffin Book

This week we’ve come to the final installment of our Halloween themed video series. This week’s project is an homage to the classic movie monsters. Bryonna show us how to create a decorative coffin for the Spooky Photo Album. The coffin holds a flip-book full of classic movie monster portraits (drawn by me, G.J. Sieck). Bryonna also shows a number of crafting techniques. Have you ever heard of Japanese stabbing? If not, you can learn about it in this week’s video!

Happy Halloween!!

If you would like to see the classic movie monsters being drawn, check out the video below!

Medusa and Her Babies

In this week’s video, we return to the Spooky Photo album. I was unaware that Medusa hatched babies from eggs, but I guess that’s a thing. Sounds creepy, so I’m into it—perfect for Halloween! Moreover, Medusa and her unhatched children are great inspiration for the next page of our Spooky Photo Album. There’s so much in this video. Among other crafting techniques, Bryonna shows a bit of sculpting, hand lettering, and even some painting.

Check out this latest video for even ore Halloween inspiration. Create your own Spooky Photo Album to keep in your haunted library!

Making "Happy Mail"

In this week’s video, Bryonna shows how to make a uniquely decorated and designed Happy Mail. A Happy Mail will oftentimes contain a variety of ephemera. This week’s video includes ideas and inspiration for your own Happy Mail ephemera. More paper crafting techniques are also shared.

Have you ever had a pen pal, or created a Happy Mail? If so, we would love to see your story in the comments. We hope you enjoy this week’s video; subscribe if you do!

Ghost in a Mirror

As we continue further into “Spooky Season,” with our Spooky Photo Album in hand (see last week’s video), we crank the creepiness up a notch. In this week’s edition of our Halloween themed video series, Bryonna shows how to put a ghost into a mirror. Well, not really. Actually, Bryonna makes a ghost mirror; it’s not only a really fun Halloween decoration, but an appropriately ghastly edition to the Spooky Photo Album.

There’s a good chance you already have much of what you need to create a ghost mirror. As usual, though, links to necessary tools and materials can be found in the description beneath the video. And be sure to hit the subscribe button as not to miss the next update in the series.

Halloween is Upon Us

Halloween is upon us, and that means that we’re pretty stoked at 1134 Press. Clearly, this Halloween is going to be a bit different from those of the past. That’s okay, though, because there is plenty that we can do to get into the spooky spirit right from home.

This month we are creating a Spooky Photo Album! It’s an awesome project for this time of year and the materials are easy to come by; they’re linked in the video, and you may already have most at home. Make sure you subscribe to the channel to be notified when the next video drops!

Eco Dyeing Paper for Receipt Collage

I think our most recent video might be my favorite. Bryonna tries something new this time, and the results are varied. Ultimately, something really cool is produced. Without spoiling anything for the video, I’ll just say it was quite the science experiment.

The video is linked below. Check it out for more paper-crafting inspiration, and learn some fun techniques for eco dyeing paper! Also, the handcrafted receipt dispenser that Bryonna shares at the end of the video is so cool—you have to check it out!

Making a Mini Booklet for Your Junk Journal

Last week we posted the first part in a series of videos. In the first of the series, we went through how to make a junk journal. This week, we add to it. We like to fill our junk journals with a lot of fun stuff. With that in mind, a great thing to include in your junk journal is a mini-booklet. The options are limitless, but in this week’s video we show you how to create a booklet with a window in the cover (there is also collage involved, so … fun!).

See the video below and follow along with Bree as she creates a mini booklet for the junk journal. Like, follow, and subscribe to catch all of our videos when they come out. Also, feel free to send us a message or leave a comment. We would love to see any suggestions for book projects!

DIY Scrapbooking on a Budget

Would you like some inspiration for DIY scrapbooking? How about scrapbooking on a budget? We have a new video up that will give you some great ideas. Check out the video and get some great tips from Bryonna. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share—thanks!