Boho junk journalling is the earthy, unhurried end of the hobby. Less lace and roses, more rust and sage. Dried grasses instead of ribbon bows, botanical plates instead of florals, and a lot of warm cream paper left showing so the page can breathe.
Here are 35 boho junk journal ideas grouped by theme, along with the layering method that makes a spread look considered rather than cluttered. And you can grab 120 free printable vintage botanical pages right here to cut up — botanicals are the most useful ephemera there is, because they suit almost any palette.
Everything below prints at A4 on an ordinary home printer, and none of it needs a die-cutting machine or any special kit.
Table of Contents
What makes a junk journal spread ‘boho’?
Quick answer: Three things: an earthy rust-and-sage palette instead of pastels, natural materials like jute, linen and dried grasses, and generous empty space. Boho spreads are noticeably less busy than classic vintage ones.
The restraint is the whole trick. A traditional vintage junk journal spread fills every millimetre — lace, roses, doilies, layered tags. A boho spread puts down three good layers and then stops, leaving a third of the page as plain warm paper. That breathing room is what reads as boho.
The materials tell you the rest. Swap satin ribbon for jute twine, swap pearl embellishments for dried seed heads, swap pink roses for pressed ferns, and swap the shiny gold for a matte antique brass. Same techniques entirely, different cupboard.
The three-layer method
Layer 1 — a soft background wash
Start with the whole page in one muted colour. A rust, a sage or a warm oatmeal. This can be a printed background page, a sheet you have coffee-stained, or plain paper brushed over with a very dilute wash. It should be quiet enough that you can put anything on top of it.
Layer 2 — one torn mid-layer for texture
A single strip or panel of a different paper, torn rather than cut, laid across a third of the page. The torn edge shows the paper fibres and that is doing a lot of the work. One is plenty. Two competing mid-layers is where most spreads start to look cluttered.
Layer 3 — two or three accents, then stop
A botanical cut-out, a tag tied with twine, a dried grass stem. Three at most. The instinct is always to add a fourth and a fifth, and resisting it is the single biggest improvement you can make to a boho spread.
35 boho junk journal ideas, grouped by theme
Botanical and pressed-flower spreads
- A full-page herbarium plate with a handwritten-style label tag beneath it
- A pressed fern under a vellum window so it shows through softly
- Three small botanical cut-outs in a vertical row down one edge
- A dried flower taped down with a single strip of muted tape
- A seed-packet style pocket holding botanical cards
- A page of overlapping leaf shapes in three earthy tones
- One large pressed grass stem laid diagonally across the spread
Texture and weaving
- A woven panel made from strips of two different papers
- A jute twine wrap across the page, tied at one edge
- A scrap of hessian or linen glued flat as a background patch
- Torn paper layers building up a rough left-hand edge
- A macramé-style knotted twine accent hanging from a tag
- A corrugated card strip for a completely different surface
Pockets, tucks and interactive bits
- A simple envelope pocket with a folded letter tucked inside
- A half-page flap that lifts to reveal a hidden botanical
- A row of three small tags on jute loops
- A belly band across the middle holding loose cards
- A folded matchbook-style booklet glued to the page
- A paper bag turned into a deep pocket for pressed flowers
- A tuck spot made simply by gluing a paper strip on three sides
Colour and washes
- A rust ombre wash fading from the outer edge inwards
- Coffee-stained paper with the ring mark left deliberately visible
- A sage green wash under cream botanical cut-outs
- Two facing pages in the same colour but different intensities
- A terracotta block colour panel behind a single pale cut-out
- Ink-smudged edges on every layer to tie them together
Desert and celestial
- A crescent moon cut from gold paper on a deep charcoal wash
- A simple arch shape cut from rust card as a frame
- A small cactus or agave illustration in a terracotta pot cut-out
- A sun-ray fan made from folded paper strips
- A star map printed onto aged paper as a full background
Minimal spreads for when you have five minutes
- One botanical, one tag, one strip of tape. Nothing else.
- A single torn strip across an otherwise blank cream page
- Three dried grass stems tucked under one ribbon
- A completely blank page with just a stained edge
What you actually need
Quick answer: Printed papers, a glue that will not wrinkle thin paper, something to distress the edges, and scissors. Everything else is optional.
Adhesive matters more than anything else here, because vintage-weight and printer paper both wrinkle badly with wet glue. A Tombow Mono permanent adhesive is the safest thing to layer with — it goes on dry and repositions for a few seconds. For anything heavier, Scotch adhesive dots hold a tag or a folded pocket without a trace of moisture.
For distressing, Tim Holtz Distress crayons in the walnut and rust shades will age a printed edge in a couple of seconds, which is the fastest way to make a home-printed page stop looking home-printed. And a small collection of Mr. Pen 21-roll floral vintage washi set in muted florals covers a multitude of slightly wonky layer joins.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you buy through them. I only link supplies I actually use.
What’s inside the free 120-page botanical pack
The free download above is my Vintage Botanical Printables pack — 120 printable pages of antique-style botanical illustrations on warm aged paper, sized for A4.
- 120 vintage botanical printable pages, A4
- Ferns, seed heads, wildflowers and herbarium-style plates
- Printed on a warm aged ground so they cut out without a white halo
- Print as many copies as you like for your own journals
- Delivered as a PDF straight to your inbox
Botanicals earn their place because they go with everything. The same fern plate works on a rust boho spread, a sage cottagecore page and a sepia traditional vintage layout without changing a thing.
How to age plain paper at home
- Coffee or tea. Brush strong cold coffee over the sheet, crumple it while damp, flatten and dry. The creases catch the stain and do most of the work for you.
- Tear, do not cut. Tear towards you against a ruler for a soft fibrous edge, and away from you for a rougher one.
- Ink the edges. Drag a brown ink pad or a distress crayon along every edge. This one step makes home-printed paper look decades older.
- Sand it lightly. A quick rub with fine sandpaper takes the sheen off inkjet printing so it stops looking freshly printed.
- Dry it flat under a book. Aged paper that has dried curled is very hard to layer flat afterwards.
Where to find more junk journal kits
If you want ready-made kits rather than building every page from scratch, there are full junk journal sets in the Artsydee Payhip shop, and more free pages in my junk journal freebies collection.
If junk journalling is your main thing, the Artsydee Creations Club is probably the better home for you — a brand new 50-page junk journal kit lands every week, and the whole back catalogue of kits, papers and ephemera comes with your membership.
Frequently asked questions
What is a boho junk journal?
A junk journal made in the bohemian aesthetic — earthy rust, terracotta and sage tones, natural materials like jute, linen and dried grasses, botanical imagery instead of florals, and noticeably more empty space than a traditional vintage journal.
What paper should I print junk journal pages on?
Ordinary 80 gsm printer paper is genuinely fine and arguably better — thin paper tears with a lovely soft fibrous edge and layers flat. Save the heavier cardstock for covers, tags and pockets that need to hold their shape.
What glue is best for junk journalling?
A dry adhesive runner for layering paper, because wet glue wrinkles thin sheets almost immediately. Keep adhesive dots or foam squares for tags, pockets and anything with weight, and matte medium only for pieces you want properly sealed down.
How do I stop my spreads looking cluttered?
Cap yourself at three accent pieces per page and leave about a third of the spread as plain paper. Almost every cluttered spread is a good spread that had four more things added to it.
Are the botanical printables really free?
Yes — all 120 pages. Pop your email in the box above and the PDF lands in your inbox. You can print and cut them up as much as you like for your own journals.
Final thoughts
Pick one idea, print a couple of botanical pages, and give yourself one spread this evening. Background wash, one torn layer, three accents, stop. The hardest part of boho junk journalling is genuinely the stopping, and it gets easier every time.
You can also find me on Pinterest, where every new printable pack gets saved as it goes up, and on YouTube for flip-throughs and process videos. Subscribe here if you would like the next one to turn up.
You might also like
- Free Vintage Botanical Printables
- Junk Journal Freebies
- Free Junk Journal Background Pages
- Tea Stained Paper Backgrounds
- Junk Journal Covers
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