Table of Contents
This lake house junk journal kit gathers the whole feel of a slow summer by the water into one printable set: wooden docks, red canoes, screened porches and pine trees standing quiet around a calm lake. Inside you get 22 scene pages full of lake house life, 4 seamless background papers for covers and pockets, and 5 lined writing pages for the words that go with the pictures.
Print the set on matte cardstock heavy enough to take glue without curling, around 24 to 32 lb, and run your printer on its best photo or presentation setting so the watercolor stays crisp. Trim close to the edge if you want the pages to butt up against each other in your journal, or leave a thin white border for a handmade look.
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.
Dock and Water Pages
Two Adirondack chairs face a calm lake from the end of a wooden dock, waiting for coffee cups and quiet mornings.
Pair this page with the tiny canoes and paddles pattern further back in the set, using the pattern as a pocket liner tucked right behind this scene so the small motifs echo the big red canoe sitting on the shore.
Porch and Cabin Pages
The usual mistake with a porch page like this is cramming in too much furniture and losing the cozy feel, so keep it to the rocking chair, lantern and a folded blanket and let the screen and the dusk light do the rest.
A small stone chimney sends a thread of smoke up through tall pine trees, the whole cabin tucked into the quiet green around it, painted on a page meant for the journal’s opening spread.
Glue in a ticket stub, a pressed leaf or a short note about an early morning on the water right beside this page, leaving a little open water near the loon for whatever small treasure comes next.
Dock and Water Pages
A fishing rod leans against an open tackle box with a metal bucket beside it, the whole small still life sitting right at the edge of the dock boards.
This page suits the entry written for a whole family gathering, a cousin’s visit or a long afternoon with friends, since the lemonade jug and the stacked sandwiches leave plenty of story to tell beside them.
Try the five minute version of this page by sketching just the rowboat and the oars first, then come back later to add the straw hat and the water once the glue has dried flat.
A small family of ducks paddles past a patch of reeds with a weathered wooden boathouse standing just behind them on the water’s edge, its door propped open to the lake.
Pin this page next to the porch table scene later in the set so the kitchen window and the blueberry pie sit across from each other in the spread, breakfast on one side and dessert on the other.
Lake House Afternoons
A hammock strung between two pines sways gently over a view of the lake, a striped pillow tucked into one end for whoever claims the shade first.
What to write here almost chooses itself: a s’mores recipe, a list of camp songs or the names of everyone who stayed up past dark, tucked right beside the marshmallow sticks propped on the folding chairs.
A single sailboat drifts across open water with distant hills rolling along the horizon, its sail catching just enough wind to carry it toward the far shore.
Lake House Afternoons
Ask yourself what the last swim of the summer felt like, then write a line or two of that answer right beside the stack of towels and the flip flops left drying in the sun.
Tear the edge of this page gently before gluing it in, the way the rope itself has worn soft over the years, so the rope swing feels like it has already seen a few summers of jumping in.
A heron stands still among the cattails and reeds at the water’s edge, its long legs barely rippling the shallow lake around it.
A slice of blueberry pie sits beside two coffee mugs on a small porch table, steam still rising while the lake stays quiet just past the railing.
For a lighter version of this page, paint just the two kayaks and the grassy bank first, then add the cabin and the paddles once the main shapes have dried.
This page suits a grandmother filling a journal for a grandchild’s first summer at the lake, the plaid blankets and the window view making a gentle place to write down a wish for the years ahead.
Lake Wildlife Pages
A dragonfly hovers just above a cluster of water lilies near the dock, its wings catching the light over the still surface below.
A deer lowers its head to drink at the misty lake edge in the early morning, the whole shoreline still soft with fog and the first pale light of day.
A basket of wild blueberries sits on a weathered cabin step, a few berries spilled loose beside it where someone clearly could not wait for the pie.
Background Papers
Use this scattered pattern of tiny canoes and paddles under photos of a lake trip, as a pocket lining behind the dock pages, or as a soft cover for the whole journal.
This pattern of pine trees and gentle lake ripples works well behind a cabin photo, as a wrap for a small pocket, or as the inside cover facing the first scene page.
Try this plaid behind a cabin bedroom photo, as a lining for a blanket themed pocket, or folded into a simple envelope tucked between the porch pages.
Small lake cabins repeat quietly across this page, good for a journal cover, a divider between sections, or a backing sheet behind a cluster of dock photos.
Lined Writing Pages
Write a packing list for the lake, a note to the next guest staying at the cabin, or the rules of the family dock games on this page bordered with a simple row of dock posts along the bottom.
Jot down a paddling route around the lake, the names of everyone who fit in the canoe that summer, or a short letter to whoever borrows the canoe next.
Record the weather on the morning you arrived, a short poem about the pines, or a few lines about the first swim of the season inside this quiet frame.
Use this page for a porch reading list, a recipe passed down for the cabin, or a note about the best chair on the porch and why it earned that title.
Write a nature list of everything spotted at the water’s edge, a short note to next year’s self, or the date of the first dragonfly sighting of the season.
What to Do Next
Print the set, trim what needs trimming, and start gluing the dock and cabin pages in first so the quieter backgrounds and lined pages fall naturally between them as your lake house journal fills up.
Frequently Asked Questions
What paper works best for a lake house junk journal?
Matte cardstock between 24 and 32 lb holds the watercolor detail without curling under glue. Plain printer paper works for a quick draft set, but cardstock folds and glues far more like a real journal page.
What printer settings keep the colors looking right?
Set the printer to its best photo or presentation quality and choose matte or plain paper in the driver, not glossy photo paper. This keeps the pastel palette soft and the ink lines crisp rather than smeared.
What size should I print these lake house pages?
Standard US letter or A4 suits most home printers and most journal covers. Scale the pages down slightly in the print dialog if your trimmed journal runs smaller than a full sheet.
What do I use to color or finish the pages?
Nothing extra is required since every page prints in full color already. A fine tip pen works well for adding handwriting on the lined pages or labelling a scene page once it is glued in.
How do I glue these pages into a handmade journal?
A thin, even layer of acid free glue stick along the edges keeps pages flat without wrinkling the paper. Press each page under a heavy book for a few minutes while the glue sets for the smoothest finish.
Have any thoughts?
Share your reaction or leave a quick response — we’d love to hear what you think!
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