How To Make A Vintage Steampunk Junk Journal Border

Today I am going to use the free steampunk junk journal kit to make a border for an upcoming mixed media art piece! Tips and ideas for how to make a fun and easy collage border layer!

What Is Mixed Media

I get a lot of gals that ask about mixed media and what exactly it is! Today I am doing "mixed" media by combining junk journals and magazine collage!

The images use for this border are from the Steampunk Junk Journal kit including; tags, tickets, tabs, and border pieces I cut out and glued down using matte medium!

Walkthrough Video of Making A Steampunk Border

Things Mentioned In The Video

Free Steampunk Printable
Free Printable Book Pages - Webster Dictionary and Second Reader
Liquitex Matte Medium
Large Collage Brush
Ryan Reaveley Creative Journal
Nuvo Glue

Starting The Page

To. start the page I did an overlapping layer of vintage background papers from old book pages. If you don't have old book pages you can use scrapbooking paper or new magazine pages with a vintage glaze!

I KNOW, these digital papers are supposed to be for junk journals, but you can use them in any way you want... even for magazine collage borders!

Get your own printable junk journal pages here!

Placing The Images

I spent a fair amount of time making sure I liked how the images were arranged! Some thoughts about what I did:

First off, the main piece was going to have two huge heads with "hair" for my next tutorial so a fair bit of the background would be covered. Functionally the bottom right and top left.

With that in mind I made sure to put my favorite images in places that they would be easily seen!

Secondly, the main thing that makes a border or any collage look cool is the layering effect of many different elements.

There are EIGHTEEN different images on this page (not counting the background papers) that make this an eye catching background for next piece!

Adding The Doodles

I alway spend a fair amount of time outlining and doodling the borders of my collages and this background was no exception!

I outlined all of the collage pieces with black Posca pens and then did a bit wider border inside the images and did the dashed outline.

Mixed Media Vintage Steampunk Border Wrapup

I hope you loved this as much as I do! I feel like this turned out super cute and can't wait for you to see how it looks as an actual background in the next post!

Here are some more free printables you might love!