- Fields and Windmills
- Kitchen and Market Pages
- Garden and Potting Pages
- Canal and Village Pages
- Table and Bedroom Pages
- Background Papers
- Lined Writing Pages
- Frequently Asked Questions
A tulip junk journal gives you a whole season in one download: striped fields running to a windmill, bulbs waiting in a basket, bunches crowded into pitchers and jugs. This kit has 23 full scene pages, 5 seamless background papers for covers and pockets, and 5 lined writing pages for the words that go with the pictures.
Print everything on paper heavy enough to take glue without curling, somewhere around 160 to 200 gsm works well, and set your printer to its best or photo quality so the washes stay clean. Trim close to the edge of each page before you glue it in, so no white border shows once it sits in the journal.
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.
Fields and Windmills
Rows of tulips run in bold colour stripes toward a windmill standing against a soft blue sky, the kind of view that anchors the whole journal’s opening pages.
Pair this one with the delft tile and tulip frame lined page: write the farmhouse’s imagined name along the border and let the purple rows below do the rest of the talking.
A red roof catches the eye first, with a low stone wall, a chicken or two and a cart track leading off the page giving it somewhere to go.
Tear the top edge of this page before gluing it in, so the sky bleeds softly into the facing page and the reflection below feels like it is rippling off the paper.
Glue in a torn ticket stub or a pressed petal along the cart’s edge, something small the cart seems to be carrying toward the windmill behind it.
Wooden wheels, a tired horse and loose bunches spilling over the sides give this page plenty to look at without crowding the main subject.
Give someone who loves farm animals more than flowers this page: the lamb is the real subject here, with the tulip field just the backdrop it grazes beside.
Kitchen and Market Pages
The usual mistake with a kitchen still life is leaving the table bare behind the vase. Here the pitcher sits among a folded napkin, a teaspoon and a slice of lemon so the whole table feels lived in.
Write a short answer to this prompt right beside the vase: which flower in the house would you paint first, and why these ruffled petals over anything plainer.
A market stall crowded with buckets of mixed bunches works as the busiest page in the whole set, worth setting opposite a quieter lined page so the spread has somewhere to breathe.
Five minutes is enough to glue this one in as it is: tulips, pears and a silver goblet already sit on a velvet cloth, a complete still life needing no extra fuss.
Scattered tulip petals drift across a breakfast tray set with croissants, a teapot and a small jar of jam, the page to use for a slow spring morning entry.
Garden and Potting Pages
Use this page for a planting list: which bulbs went in, how deep, and when you expect the first shoot, with the basket and tools already laid out to write around.
Pair this with the wooden clogs and tulip sprigs background paper right behind it: the planted clogs on the scene page echo the pattern on the next sheet.
Fold down one corner of this page to tuck in a small seed packet, the watering can beside it already doing double duty as a vase on the porch step.
Tulip shoots curl inside a glass forcing jar set on a sunny windowsill, a small patient page for anyone who likes to watch things grow before they bloom.
The usual mistake here is painting the tulips too perfect and the table too bare. Weathering on the zinc pot and a few fallen petals on the table keep this one believable.
Canal and Village Pages
A bicycle leans against a canal bridge rail with a wooden crate of tulips balanced on the back, the page to pair with a short note about a slow ride home.
Give the confident colourist this page: narrow canal houses in different shades, each with its own pot of tulips on the front step, ask for care along every window ledge.
A girl in a sunhat walks a narrow path between rows of yellow tulips stretching toward the horizon on either side of her.
Beginners can keep this one simple: outline the drawbridge and planters, leave the water as a flat wash. Those more confident can add reflections and a passing boat below it.
A duck family waddles along a canal path lined with tulips, heading somewhere unhurried, a gentle page for a quiet entry about slow afternoons.
Table and Bedroom Pages
Try this spread trick: set this small bud vase page beside the double tulips in crystal bowl page, so a quiet single stem sits next to a fuller arrangement across the fold.
Ruffled double tulips fill a crystal bowl set on a lace runner, a page suited to a special date written small in the corner, an anniversary or a first bloom of the season.
A weathered bench sits under a blossoming tree with tulip borders on either side, the five minute version of a garden page when there is no time for more detail.
Background Papers
Small red and pink tulips scatter over cream paper, soft enough to sit under a photo without fighting it, and sturdy enough to line a pocket or wrap a cover.
Tiny windmills and tulip sprigs repeat across pale blue, a calm paper for a cover wrap, a pocket lining or a backing behind a busier scene page.
Delft blue tulip tiles repeat in a tight grid, ideal under a black and white photo, as a pocket lining, or cut into strips for a journal spine.
Bands of colour echo the striped tulip fields from the scene pages, a strong paper for a journal cover or for backing the busiest spreads in the kit.
Small clogs and tulip sprigs alternate across butter yellow, suited to a pocket lining, a cover wrap or tucked behind the garden section of the journal.
Lined Writing Pages
A tied bunch of tulips sits in one corner, leaving the ruled lines free for a gift list, a short letter to next spring, or notes on a bulb order.
A windmill and tulip field run along the bottom edge, leaving the lines above free for a day’s weather, a field sketch note, or a short travel memory.
Delft tiles frame all four sides of this page, the one worth pairing with the canal houses scene page, both sharing the same blue and white mood.
A row of potted tulips lines the top edge, a good page for a short menu written beneath, or a plan for which bulbs to plant come autumn.
Tulip bulbs and leaves run down one side of the page, leaving the rest open for a longer entry, a letter to next year, or notes copied from a seed catalogue.
What to Do Next
Print the set, trim each page close to the edge, and start with whichever scene pulls you in first, perhaps the striped fields or the pitcher of pink tulips, then build the rest of the journal around it. For more spring pages to mix in, see the spring junk journal kit, and for other floral sets try the sunflower junk journal or the junk journal butterflies pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
What paper works best for a tulip junk journal?
Matte paper around 160 to 200 gsm works best, since it takes glue and ink without curling or showing through. Avoid glossy photo paper, which resists pens and smears when gluing pages in.
What printer settings give the clearest colours?
Set the printer to its best or photo quality setting on plain or matte paper for clean, sharp colour. Draft or standard quality often prints the washes patchy and dulls the pastel palette.
What size should I print these pages?
Standard letter or A4 works for most journals, then trim down to fit smaller covers. Print a test page first to check the margins suit your binding before running the full set.
What do I use to glue the pages into a journal?
An acid free glue stick works best for flat scene and background pages, since it dries quickly without wrinkling the paper. Save liquid glue for pockets or layered elements that need a stronger hold.
Can I colour or add to these pages myself?
Yes, fine tip pens work well for adding journaling or small details over the printed washes. Coloured pencils can deepen shadows or petals without disturbing the printed ink lines underneath.