- Garden And Hedgerow Birds
- Meadow And Field Birds
- Garden Flower Birds
- Nests And Eggs
- Birdhouses And Garden Structures
- Background Papers
- Lined Writing Pages
- Frequently Asked Questions
This bird junk journal kit gives you 28 pages built around one quiet theme: birds at rest, birds in flight, and the nests and houses they leave behind. Twenty scene pages carry a different bird subject each, from a robin on a snowy branch to a row of weathered birdhouses on a fence. Four seamless background pages fill in behind photos and covers, and four lined writing pages give you room for notes, lists and dates.
Print the set on a matte cardstock heavy enough to hold paint and glue without curling, at least 90 lb or 180 gsm. Choose your printer’s best photo or highest quality setting so the washes stay soft instead of banding, and trim each page to the journal size you use most before you start gluing anything in.
Using these images: free for personal projects such as printing, coloring, cards, journals and gifts. Handmade items that include them may be sold up to 30 pieces per design. More than that is commercial use and is not permitted, and neither is selling or sharing the images themselves or passing them off as your own. Please ask before any other use.
Garden And Hedgerow Birds
A robin settles on a snow-dusted branch, its red breast the one warm note against a pale winter wash.
Tuck a pressed leaf or a dried sprig against this page before gluing it in, right along the bramble edge where the wren perches.
The small bird sits low among thorny stems and a few late berries, so the page reads well even with something small taped over the corner. Keep whatever you add thin, so the page still lies flat once the journal is closed.
Pair this page with the Feather And Twig Pattern background later in the set: use the pattern as a facing page and let the bluebird’s fence post line up with its edge for a simple two-page spread.
The usual mistake with a birdbath scene is cramming too many ripples and drips around the bird, which flattens the whole page.
Let the water stay mostly calm with just one or two soft ripple lines near the sparrow, and give the stone basin and surrounding leaves more room to breathe. A quieter pool reads as more convincing than a busy one.
Meadow And Field Birds
Goldfinch perched on a tall thistle head, surrounded by a scatter of drifting seed fluff and two or three smaller thistles bending in a soft meadow wash.
This page asks for a lot of open sky, so give that space real attention: a warm late afternoon wash, a few streaky clouds and the swallows small and distant over the gold of the wheat.
Resist the urge to add more birds than the page needs. Three or four swallows scattered at different heights carry the whole scene on their own.
Give this page to the reader in your gift journal who loves a quiet family scene: the parent quail with its topknot leads two chicks through the grass, better suited to someone building pages about home and small routines than to a travel-themed spread.
What would this lark be singing about this morning, and what does that remind you of in your own week.
Garden Flower Birds
Hummingbird hovering beside a trumpet flower, with two more blooms nearby and a scatter of soft green leaves painted against a warm blurred garden background.
The five minute version of this page skips the full orange tree: paint just the oriole and a single branch of blossoms, then let the background wash carry the rest of the colour.
That shortcut still leaves a complete page, since the loose wash behind the branch reads as orchard light even without more detail added.
Tuck a pressed petal, a cutting from an old seed packet or a short note about a garden you remember onto this page before it goes into the journal.
Place this page facing the Oriole Among The Orange Blossoms page a few sheets earlier, so the two garden scenes sit across from each other and share their warm palette across the spread.
Nests And Eggs
Nest tucked into a forked branch holds three pale blue eggs, with a few loose twigs and a curl of dried grass set around its base.
A common slip here is painting eggs so uniform they look printed rather than gathered from nature.
Vary the speckling on each egg, some denser near the rounded end and others nearly plain, and let the grass nest sit a little lopsided rather than perfectly round. That small imperfection is what makes the page feel handmade.
What do you hope hatches this year, in work or at home, that still feels cracked halfway open right now.
An empty nest sits abandoned on a bare branch as autumn leaves drift down around it, the birds long since flown for the season.
Birdhouses And Garden Structures
Three weathered birdhouses sit in a row along an old wooden fence, each a slightly different shape, with ivy climbing one post and a small bird perched on the roofline.
Cut this page out along its edge and tear the border slightly by hand rather than trimming it clean, so the rough edge matches the worn paint on the birdhouse itself.
A tall wooden dovecote stands quiet at dusk, two doves settled on its ledges while the sky behind it fades into soft lavender and rose.
Mud nests cling beneath a barn’s wooden eaves, with two swallows perched nearby and a scatter of straw caught in the rafters above.
Background Papers
Owl peers out from a hollow in an old tree trunk, moss and a few mushrooms growing at its base beneath a dusky woodland sky.
Glue a small photo of a tree you love, or a scrap from a nature walk, over the lower corner of this page, leaving the woodpecker and the birch bark fully visible above it.
A crow stands on a mossy stump surrounded by ferns and fallen leaves, watching quietly over a soft, shadowed woodland floor.
Use this feather and twig pattern under a favourite bird photo, as a simple page backing, or as the inside cover of the whole journal. The loose scatter of feathers and small twigs keeps the palette steady across every use.
Lined Writing Pages
This scattered egg pattern works well behind a cluster of bird photos, as a liner for the back cover, or printed twice to wrap a small notebook insert. The speckling stays soft rather than busy.
A small repeating songbird silhouette works as a quiet cover page, a backing for a pressed leaf or feather, or simply as a calm page between two busier scenes further on in the journal.
Use this striped nest pattern behind a title page, as a border strip trimmed down for a smaller insert, or as the backing for a page of pressed grass or straw.
Use this page for a simple bird watching log: the date, the species seen and where you spotted it. It also suits a short list of birds you still hope to see this year.
What to Do Next
Print the full set, trim each page to your journal’s size, and start with whichever bird caught your eye first. For more ways to build out your pages, look at the vintage junk journal ideas, browse bird pencil drawing ideas for sketches to add alongside these pages, or read the complete junk journaling handbook for more on putting a full journal together.
Frequently Asked Questions
What paper works best for these bird junk journal pages?
A matte cardstock around 90 lb or 180 gsm holds the soft washes well without curling or letting ink bleed through. Avoid glossy photo paper, since it fights the vintage, hand painted look of the set and makes trimming and gluing harder.
What printer settings should I use?
Choose your printer’s best or photo quality setting rather than draft or normal. This keeps the soft watercolour edges smooth instead of banded, and keeps the muted colours close to what you see on screen.
What size should I print the pages at?
Print at full letter or A4 size for a standard journal, or shrink to two pages per sheet for a smaller travel-sized book. Trim each page down to your journal’s exact dimensions before gluing anything in, so edges line up cleanly.
Can I color or add to these pages once they are printed?
Yes. Watercolor pencils or a fine liner pen both sit well on top of the printed wash if you want to deepen a shadow or add a small detail. Keep any additions light, since the pages are already finished scenes.
What do I need to assemble the journal itself?
Beyond the printed pages, you need sturdy cardstock, a fine tip glue pen or strong paper glue, and small scissors for trimming. A bone folder helps if you plan to fold any pages, though it is not required for this set.