What is junk journaling? The 'new scrapbook' trend on Long Island

Analog hobbies are all the rage for 2026, meaning less screen time and more time spent creating and socializing.

A popular trend attracting all ages  is junk journaling, or using materials that might otherwise be considered junk to create a scrapbook-esque assortment of memories, collages and visualizations of goals for the year ahead.

Mackenzie Robinson, 23, of Selden, focused on creating a "feminine collage" with calming hues of pinks, purples and blues at a recent junk journaling event at Village Vibes Co., a community event and co-working space in Babylon, where The Scrappy Hour crafting group held a Create Your 2026 crafting meetup.

Junk journaling started as a personal hobby for many crafters in their homes and has now grown into a social outing, inviting those both new to and familiar with the hobby to visualize their future together at events held across Long Island.

The activity became Robinson's go-to hobby during the pandemic and it remains her creative outlet years later, she says. "I found myself having a lot of alone time and making art was a way for me to have fun and to take my mind off the stressful events," Robinson explains.

Described as a cozy night of manifestation by The Scrappy Hour’s founders, Jordana Fox, 29, of Lindenhurst, and Morgan Remhild, 25, of Oakdale, the event involved a mix of remembering the past and looking to the future. 

Some attendees created vision boards, 2026 bingo cards, bucket lists and punch cards as ways to check off or use a hole punch to keep track of the year's accomplishments. Others filled their journals with what might be considered junk to some, but the stuff of memories to others.

Junk journaling involves using typical craft materials like scissors and glue sticks to create collagelike imagery in journals or notebooks. Think cutting up magazines, using stickers and gluing things that might otherwise be thrown out, such as receipts, flyers, clothing tags, tissue paper, wrapping paper and the like.

Fox says she began the event series as a way to "meet other crafty girls and guys on the Island." A TikTok video she posted about wanting to start a junk journaling group on Long Island reached 30,000 views. "I only expected three or four people to reply to hang out and junk journal, but our first event sold out with 60 people," she says.

Nearly 30 junk journalers attended the Village Vibes event, including Emily Alvarenga, 23, of Freeport, who first joined in at a Scrappy Hour event last October. "My friend found them on Instagram and invited me along," she says. "I was new to the junk journaling community and, honestly, their event made me fall in love with junk journaling. I've attended every event since then. I love going with my friends because it allows us to spend time together and be creative."

Alvarenga used scraps provided by Scrappy Hour to select images that relate to her resolutions, like eating healthier, traveling and spending more time crafting. "They always have really cute stickers," she says.

Like Alvarenga, Robinson had attended a previous Scrappy Hour event, as well as other junk journaling classes on Long Island, including ones at the Half Hollow Hills Community Library in Dix Hills.

Other attendees echo similar sentiments, such as Isis Rodriguez, 23, of Smithtown, who states, "I’ve always loved crafting and it helps me relieve stress." She adds that the founders of The Scrappy Hour and other similar groups help "bring women together across Long Island to promote wellness."

Fox says she sets out to "create warm, inviting environments" at her junk journaling events to appeal to all skill levels and crafters who come solo. "Our favorite thing to see is people coming in alone and then, three weeks later, seeing an Instagram story of the girls that met at the event out for brunch," she says.