Master Board Book No. 2 – Handmade Junk Journal Master Board & Ephemera Book

About This Book

Master Board Book No. 2 is a one-of-a-kind handmade master board book created by Butterfly in the Attic for junk journaling, collage, paper crafting and creative reuse.

This book contains 16 large pages and measures approximately 10½ inches × 9 inches, giving you a particularly generous amount of working surface on every page.

Each page has been intentionally created with two different sides.

The decorative master-board side is constructed from many individual pieces of paper layered and glued together. These may include found papers, upcycled materials, vintage pieces, hand-dyed papers and other miscellaneous scraps gathered for their colors, textures, printing or simply because they were too interesting to throw away.

The reverse is intentionally quieter and more open, using combinations of hand-dyed papers, bubble papers and upcycled packing papers.

That gives each page both a decorative surface and a place for writing—or two very different kinds of material if you decide to cut the book apart.

Keep the Book—or Take It Apart

This is a book with no obligation to remain a book.

Keep all 16 pages together and use it as the foundation for a large handmade junk journal. The quieter surfaces provide room for writing, photographs and memories, while the existing master boards give you wonderfully layered backgrounds from the very beginning.

Add pockets.

Add tags.

Add stitching, stamping, fabric, photographs or even more paper.

Or...

Take your scissors to it.

Because these pages measure approximately 10½ × 9 inches, a single master board can provide several pieces of usable ephemera.

Cut them into journal cards, oversized tags, pockets, tuck spots, belly bands, collage strips, tabs, clusters, labels, specimen cards, small book covers or whatever shapes your project needs.

Even the cover can become ephemera.

Nothing here needs to be saved simply because it arrived in book form.

Traditional Junk Journal Master Boards

The decorative sides were created using the traditional junk journal master-board process: many smaller pieces of paper are combined to create an entirely new surface.

Some pieces began as ordinary papers.

Some are found or upcycled.

Some are vintage.

Some have been hand dyed.

And some are simply those miscellaneous scraps that paper makers tend to save because something about the color, printing or texture says, don't throw me away yet.

Layered together, those unrelated fragments begin to create their own compositions.

The video shows that particularly well in this book. There are stretches of wonderfully understated neutrals alongside pages where soft pinks, reds, yellows, blues and printed fragments emerge through the collage.

Cut across those compositions and they change yet again.

A section that was only one small part of a larger master board can suddenly become the focal point of a tag or journal card.

The Quieter Side

The reverse side of each page was deliberately approached differently.

Rather than filling both surfaces with busy collage, these sides use combinations of hand-dyed paper, bubble paper and upcycled packing paper to provide more open areas for writing and further embellishment.

They aren't commercially perfect blank pages—and I wouldn't want them to be.

Their variations in tone, texture and surface keep them connected to the handmade character of the decorative sides while giving your eye, and your pen, somewhere quieter to land.

If you harvest the book for ephemera, these surfaces can also become the backs of journal cards and tags, leaving room for writing without requiring you to back every piece with another sheet of paper.

Wonderfully Thick Pages

Layering paper onto both sides of an existing booklet creates substantial pages.

This book measures approximately ¾ inch thick, and those built-up surfaces make the pages particularly useful for ephemera.

Instead of starting with a thin piece of paper and building a sturdy foundation yourself, you already have a thick, handmade base.

Add stitching, ink, labels, stamping, fibers or another focal image if you wish.

Or simply cut out a section you love, ink the edges and call it finished.

The master board has already done much of the work for you.

About the Shape of This Particular Book

Like Master Board Book No. 1, this book began with an old advertising flyer or booklet that was repurposed as its foundation.

I no longer remember which advertisement this particular one began as, so rather than guess, we'll simply let that part of its former life remain a mystery.

As layers were added to both sides of the original pages, their accumulated thickness changed the way the book sits and closes. Pages toward the center may extend approximately ¼–½ inch farther outward than surrounding pages.

This is a natural result of building multiple layers over an existing bound piece.

The edges will not line up like those of a commercially manufactured book. You may see unevenness, overlapping layers and differences in page thickness.

Those characteristics are part of its handmade and upcycled construction.

Approximate Size

10½ inches × 9 inches × ¾ inch thick

This is a handmade, heavily layered piece, so measurements are approximate.

Your Master Board Book Includes

• 1 one-of-a-kind handmade Master Board Book
• 16 large, thick layered pages
• Approximately 10½ × 9 inches
• Approximately ¾ inch thick
• Decorative traditional master-board surfaces
• Quieter reverse surfaces suitable for writing
• Found papers
• Upcycled papers
• Vintage paper pieces
• Hand-dyed papers
• Bubble papers
• Upcycled packing papers
• Miscellaneous collected paper elements
• An upcycled advertising flyer/booklet foundation
• A cover that can also be cut apart and reused as ephemera

Every page was individually assembled and contains its own combination of papers, colors, textures, printing, marks and irregularities.

This is the exact one-of-a-kind book shown in the listing.

A Note About Handmade & Upcycled Materials

Please expect imperfection.

That isn't a disclaimer added as an afterthought—it is part of what these Master Board Books are.

Found, vintage, hand-dyed and upcycled papers can contain wrinkles, uneven coloration, printing, marks, creases, irregular edges, variations in texture and other traces of their previous lives.

The hand-built master boards also vary in layering and thickness, and the original advertising-booklet construction means the finished pages do not form perfectly even commercial edges.

If you're looking for pristine, identical scrapbook paper, this won't provide it.

If you like wondering what a torn fragment used to be before somebody glued it next to three completely unrelated pieces of paper and somehow made them belong together, you're in the right place.

Made With Journal Makers in Mind

These Master Board Books were created with junk journal makers and paper artists especially in mind.

Yes, you can turn this into a finished journal.

But you have complete permission to dismantle it.

Cut the pages.

Tear them.

Punch shapes from them.

Make tags, pockets and journal cards.

Add stitching.

Ink everything.

Cover part of a master board with something else.

Use six square inches today and put the rest back in your paper box for six months.

There are 16 large 10½ × 9-inch pages, so there is considerable handmade material here to work with.

The book is simply the way all of those possibilities are being delivered to you.

Perfect For

Junk journal making, handmade ephemera, master board projects, collage, altered books, journal cards, oversized tags, pockets, tuck spots, belly bands, clusters, mixed-media projects, paper crafting, creative reuse and journal makers who want handmade foundations without having to construct every master board themselves.

It is especially suited to makers who create journals for themselves or incorporate handmade ephemera into journals they make for others.

From the Hidden Drawer

Master Board Book No. 2 comes From the Hidden Drawer, where small handmade paper collections, journals, useful scraps and curious little things are gathered together.

These Master Board Books celebrate one of the loveliest ideas behind junk journaling: something doesn't have to begin as precious material to become worth keeping.

An advertising flyer can disappear beneath hand-dyed paper.

Packing paper can become a writing surface.

A forgotten scrap can become the best part of a journal card.

And one book can eventually become a hundred little things.

No two Master Board Books are exactly alike. Their dimensions, page counts, original foundations, colors, papers, thicknesses and personalities depend entirely upon the materials that found their way onto the worktable.

Thoughtfully created by Butterfly in the Attic.