- Boxes And Shelves
- Mantels And Tables
- Painted And Figural Ornaments
- Family Moments
- Light And Window Ornaments
- Background Papers
- Lined Writing Pages
- Frequently Asked Questions
The retro christmas ornaments junk journal kit gathers twenty scene pages, four seamless backgrounds and four lined writing pages into one printable set built for anyone who keeps a box of old glass baubles wrapped in tissue every January. Every ornament gets its own page: the striped reflector baubles, the clip-on birds, the mercury glass teardrops, the sputnik spikes, all drawn in that bold mid-century kitsch style with rounded shapes and little starbursts.
Print the whole kit on matte cardstock heavy enough to take glue without curling, run your printer on its best photo or presentation setting, and trim each sheet to your journal’s trim size before you start gluing. Once they’re cut down, the pages slot straight into a ring-bound or stitched junk journal alongside your own photos and notes.
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.
Boxes And Shelves
Opening this page feels like lifting the lid on a real box: baubles nest in cardboard dividers in cherry red, aqua and mint, each one catching a little starburst of light.
Try tea-staining just the bottom edge of this sheet before gluing it in: a light tea wash along the border softens the printed white without touching the bright stripes on the ornament itself.
Pair this page with the ornament box divider grid background from later in this set: use the grid paper as a pocket lining behind this page so the reflector pile looks like it just came out of storage.
The usual mistake with a single ornament page is leaving too much empty space around it, so this one is built with a full painted backdrop: a dusk blue wall, a lamp glow and a scatter of starbursts keep the sheet from feeling bare.
Mantels And Tables
Good for the collector in your life who loves a quiet tablescape more than a busy tree: this page suits a gift journal page kept for recipes or table settings.
What would you write beside this one: the name of a grandmother who collected bird ornaments, the year a favorite clip-on bird arrived, or a short note about where it perches every year?
Set this page facing the mantel garland page later in this set: the bell’s ribbon loop echoes the garland’s ribbon, so the two sheets read as one spread when the journal lies open.
Three figural ornaments line up on a narrow painted shelf, a teapot, a tiny house with a lit window and a pine cone, each one finished with its own small highlight and shadow for an extra five minutes of shading.
Painted And Figural Ornaments
If you want this page to work as a keepsake rather than a scrapbook filler, glue a small photo corner to each side so a real photo of your own painted ornaments can slide underneath later.
This cluster of deep green glass grapes hangs from a short gold wire, with two smaller glass leaves and a scatter of starburst sparkles filling the space around it against a soft mint backdrop.
Keep the five-minute version simple: color the icicles and two round baubles in silver and red, then leave the branch itself a plain warm brown so the shine stays the star of the page.
A glass Santa ornament with a painted white beard and rosy cheeks hangs beside a smaller angel ornament and a striped candy cane, with a soft glowing tree filling the space behind both.
Family Moments
Keep a short caption line under this one, just a name and an age, since this page tends to become the one page in the whole journal everyone turns back to first.
This page suits whoever in the family keeps every spool of ribbon from every wrapped gift: a basket of satin ornaments in pink and mint sits beside three loose ribbon spools and a pair of small scissors, a soft wallpaper pattern painted behind.
Try a narrow fold-out for this one: score the sheet a third of the way in so the garland unfolds past the page edge, giving the long mantel line more room than the trim size allows.
Light And Window Ornaments
Sputnik spike ornaments like this one earn a whole page to themselves because their gold spikes catch light from every angle, surrounded here by small starburst sparkles and a string of tree lights glowing softly behind.
A small wreath decorated with mini glass balls in red, mint and gold hangs against a frosted window pane, with a candle on the sill below and soft snow painted on the glass outside.
The red spire topper stands tall with its silver band catching a painted starburst above it, a scatter of tiny stars and the top branches of a tree filling the rest of the sheet.
This one pairs naturally with the window wreath page just before it: glue both sheets back to back so the two window scenes face each other across a spread, warm light meeting warm light.
A tray holds loose ornament caps, a handful of wire hooks and a magnifying glass, everything a collector needs for repairing a chipped bauble, with a soft worktable surface painted beneath the tools.
Background Papers
Use this soft mint pattern of tiny glass ornaments and wire hooks as a pocket lining behind the box divider scene page, as a cover wrap for the whole journal, or trimmed down to sit behind a photo of your own tree.
This grid echoes real cardboard ornament dividers, so it works well as a pocket lining behind the reflector bauble page, as a cover for a smaller mini journal, or cut into strips for a tab index.
Pale pink stripes carry small silver tinsel icicles from edge to edge, good under a photo of a decorated tree, as a wrapper for a small gift tucked into the journal, or as endpapers for the whole kit.
Small bells and round baubles scatter evenly across pale aqua, a good choice under a family photo page, as a lining for an envelope pocket, or as the cover sheet for the whole set.
Lined Writing Pages
Use the top band of hanging ornaments as a header for a gift list, a short letter to next year’s tree trimming, or a running tally of which ornaments made it onto the tree this year.
The corner box motif leaves the middle open for a packing list of what goes back in storage, notes on a broken ornament waiting for repair, or a short memory tied to one bauble in the box.
Write a short description of the oldest ornament in your collection down this column, a wish list for next year’s box, or simply the date each new bauble joined the tree.
The small spire and scattered stars along the bottom edge suit a closing note for the season, a short thank you to whoever passed the ornaments down, or a final tally of the year’s tree.
What to Do Next
Print the set, trim each sheet to size and start with the box of glass ornaments as your opening page, then let the rest of the kit fall into place around it. For more holiday pages to mix in, the retro Christmas junk journal pages and the Christmas junk journal ideas both pair well with this collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
What paper works best for printing this kit?
Matte cardstock around 65 to 110 lb works best because it takes glue without curling or buckling. Thinner paper wrinkles once glue soaks through, and glossy stock refuses most glue sticks and pens entirely.
What printer settings give the cleanest colours?
Choose the best photo or presentation quality setting your printer offers, since the saturated reds and teals in this retro palette need full ink coverage to print crisp. Draft settings leave the colours washed out and patchy.
What size should I print the pages at?
Print at full page size on US letter or A4 and trim to match your journal’s finished size afterward. Trimming after printing keeps every border and corner motif lined up evenly on the page.
Can I color or add to these pages by hand?
Yes, a few extra gold pen dots or a light wash along one edge add texture without fighting the printed colour. Keep any added colour light since the palette is already fully saturated on the page.
What do I need to assemble the finished journal?
A glue stick, small scissors and a ring binder or simple stitched spine are enough to turn these sheets into a journal. Photo corners help if you plan to tuck in real photos of your own ornaments.