If you love the black and gold aesthetic in junk journals — the drama of deep black papers against glittering gold trims, lace, and sequin details — this flip-through shows exactly the kind of supply kit I put together while making my Black and Gold Flow Journal. I pulled together two kits from the leftover materials I was working with, and here I go through every single piece so you can see what's inside before deciding whether it's something you'd use.
What we cover
A piece-by-piece look at the contents of my black and gold junk journal supply kits — fabrics, laces, ribbons, trims, papers, embellishments, and a few unusual extras — with notes on how I actually used each element in the companion journal.
What you'll learn
What's included in a black and gold journal kit — this flip-through covers the full range of materials, including:
- Multiple lace pieces in both black and gold, ranging from delicate to substantial
- Velvet and satin ribbons in black and gold
- Sequin trim in black and gold (genuinely beautiful in person — more sparkle than the camera captures)
- Gold and black paper ruffles, useful on page edges or layered onto tags
- A large piece of black fabric I used as a journal cover, trimmed to fit
- A sheer, see-through fabric with a delicate quality that layers beautifully
- Paper flowers and fabric flowers, including small ones used on the cover
- Leaf embellishments (two gold leaves)
- Gold doilies — a heart-shaped one and a small circle
- Designer scrapbook papers, including a raised velvety-textured black paper and a light gold envelope
- Tags and flag-style tag pieces
- A gold key (repurposed from a non-working USB — just the key end snipped off)
- Beads and wire
- A black and white rope-style cord
- Paper clips, including decorative ones with small dangly details, for clipping onto page sides
- A gold elastic flourish closure, the kind used for removable signature sections
- A gold lace closure piece
- A black mesh net piece
- A gold key-shaped paperclip
How these elements were actually used in the companion journal, including:
- The large black fabric piece trimmed and used as the journal cover
- The satin fabric used as an interior page layer
- The gold sequin trim used in decorative snippets
- Gold ribbon used inside signatures
- Paper clips clipped onto the sides of pages
- The elastic used as the closure mechanism for a removable section
Why watching the companion journal video helps even if you're not buying a kit — seeing the finished journal shows the context for how these materials sit together. Some of the kit pieces I had ideas for but didn't end up using (like the gold key on the cover), which means there's room to take them somewhere different entirely.
Tips & gotchas
Even if you're not picking up one of the kits, the companion Black and Gold Flow Journal video is worth watching just for the ideas. A lot of these materials — the ruffled gold trim, the lace closure, the fabric cover — are things you might already have sitting in your stash, and seeing them used in a finished journal gives you a real sense of proportion and placement that's hard to imagine from a pile of supplies alone.
On the sequin trim specifically: it genuinely photographs less impressively than it looks in real life. If you're on the fence about whether something like that would work in your projects, trust that the sparkle and texture are richer than the video makes them appear.
Gold doilies are an easy one to overlook in a kit like this, but a small circle doily or heart doily under a tag or tucked into a pocket adds a lot with almost no effort. Same goes for the gold paper ruffles — ruffled up slightly along a page edge or on the side of a tag, they read as quite luxurious without being complicated to use.
The repurposed gold key is a good reminder that small hardware pieces — even ones that have stopped serving their original function — can have a second life as journal embellishments. The key shape reads as decorative and intentional; no one would know it was once part of a USB drive.
If you're curious how all of these pieces come together into an actual journal, the companion video shows the full build. It's the best reference for understanding what these materials can become.
