- Finding The Garden
- Roses And Rest
- Moor And Manor
- Signs Of Spring
- Growing Things
- Background Papers
- Lined Writing Pages
- Frequently Asked Questions
A secret garden junk journal gives the classic novel a shelf of its own: a neglected walled garden waking up on the Yorkshire moors, told page by page in ivy, robins and old iron keys. This kit holds twenty scene pages that follow the story from the hidden green door to the wall of wild roses, four seamless background papers for linings and covers, and five lined writing pages for the words you want to keep.
Print the set on matte cardstock heavy enough to take a bit of glue and tea staining without buckling, around 180 to 250gsm works well. Set your printer to its best or highest quality setting so the soft washes stay soft, and trim each sheet to your journal size 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.
Finding The Garden
Tuck a small paper key charm or a pressed ivy leaf right over the keyhole on this page, so the reader has to lift it to see the lock underneath.
Pair this page with the ivy leaf repeat background further on in the set: use it as a pocket behind the fork, so a folded note about who shared your own garden with you can hide inside.
Leave this one mostly bare on purpose if you are short on time: a trowel, a patch of snowdrops and a kneeling hem of a dress are enough, no extra details needed.
Write a short answer to this question in the corner: what would you plant first, if you found a garden like this behind your own wall
Roses And Rest
A beginner can keep this page simple with scissors alone, cutting it straight into a journal spread. Someone more confident can tear the edge unevenly on one side before gluing it in, so the arbor seems to spill off the page into whatever comes next.
settles nicely across a spread from the manor window page later in this kit: the pipe music on one side, the heavy curtains listening from the other.
The usual mistake here is crowding the blossoms so thick the chair disappears. Keep a clear patch of sky showing through the branches so the boy stays the page’s quiet centre.
Moor And Manor
This page suits anyone building a journal as a gift for a reader who loves wild landscapes as much as tended ones, since the moor is the garden’s wilder cousin.
Half a minute of staining the bottom edge with weak tea gives this page an aged border that suits the manor’s many closed rooms, before you even glue it in.
Glue a real seed packet corner or a hand cut paper label onto this page, then jot the name of whatever you would grow first beside the little spade.
This page works well for a reader who grew up with a swing of her own, tucked into a gift journal as a small nod to that memory without ever naming it.
Signs Of Spring
A short five minute version works here too: paint or print just the sundial with a ring of crocus colour at its base, skipping any further background detail.
Cut a small window flap over the key on this page, so lifting it reveals a tucked photo or ticket underneath, the way the key itself waits to be found.
A dry stone fountain overtaken by greenery sits well on thirty words alone, with ivy trailing from the basin down over its cracked, mossy stone edge into the grass below.
Pair this page with the ticking or paper texture background from your own stash if you have one, laid as a cloth under the basket before you glue the whole scene down.
Growing Things
Note down a short list of what is sprouting on your own windowsill right on this page, next to the trays of seedlings lined along the shed bench.
Tear this page’s edge roughly before gluing it in, as though a few petals have already spilled loose from the barrow onto the journal page itself.
The usual mistake with a window page is painting the glass too flat. Leave a soft reflection of garden green in the panes so the curtains seem to be looking out, not just hanging there.
A stretch of worn path edged in yellow daffodils carries this page easily on its own, the blooms leaning slightly toward the light and a low wall closing the view beyond.
Place this page last in its spread, facing the brick wall background paper from this set, so the tended wall and the plain one sit side by side in the same story.
Background Papers
Works well as a cover sheet for the whole journal, a pocket lining behind a scene page, or cut into strips for a border along the spine of the book.
Use it under a framed photo, as the inside lining of a pocket page, or folded into a small envelope tucked behind one of the scene pages in this set.
Fits neatly behind the robin scene pages earlier in this set, as a journal cover, or as wrapping for a small gift tucked inside the finished book.
Good as a plain backdrop for pressed flowers under glassine, a journal cover, or a pocket lining that echoes the brick walls painted throughout the scene pages.
Lined Writing Pages
Good for a spring planting list, a short letter to next year’s garden, or the date you first noticed the daffodils coming up along your own path.
Suits a longer entry about a quiet afternoon outdoors, a letter to a friend who loves gardens, or a page copied out from a favourite passage in the novel.
Works well for a short weather log, a note on the first flowers of the season, or a gift list for someone who loves spring colour as much as roses.
Fits a page about something you kept hidden and later found again, a menu for a garden tea, or a short letter addressed to your own secret garden.
Good for a note on the first sign of spring you noticed, a short list of garden chores, or a line copied from a well loved book about gardens coming back to life.
What to Do Next
Print the full set, trim it to size and start gluing pages in whatever order follows your own version of the story, perhaps alongside the garden junk journal pages or the shabby chic junk journal pages for a fuller shelf of garden made journals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What paper works best for a secret garden junk journal kit like this one?
Matte cardstock around 180 to 250gsm works best, since it holds glue, tea staining and folding without buckling or showing ink through the back of the sheet.
What printer settings give the softest watercolour look?
Set your printer to its highest quality or photo setting on matte paper, which keeps the soft bleeding edges and paper grain looking painted rather than flat or streaky.
What size should I print these pages for a handmade journal?
Standard letter or A4 suits most handmade journals, though you can shrink pages to A5 on your printer’s scaling setting for a smaller, more pocketable book.
What should I use to glue and trim the pages?
An acid free glue stick keeps pages flat without wrinkling, and small precision scissors make it easier to trim close to borders or cut clean pocket flaps.
Can I color or add to these pages by hand?
Yes, fine tip pens work well for adding journaling, dates or small doodles directly onto the lined pages and the open spaces left on several scene pages.