At the Craft Table with Kalli

Meet Kalli, the woman who inspired so many of us to start junk journaling!

Welcome to At the Craft Table: Junk Journal Club’s newest interview series. We’ll be sitting down with your favorite journal creators, stationery brands, and local LA businesses and exploring the ways craft impacts and informs all of our lives, even in the most unexpected ways.

I was so excited to kick off our debut with Kalli. We talked about her journaling aesthetic, how grief reignited her passion for crafting, and her love of emo music. Having Kalli as our first guest was especially important, as it was her TikTok video that first introduced me to junk journaling — and I know I’m not alone in that. A quick glance through her TikTok comments, and you’ll find many people saying she’s the reason they’ve picked up this hobby. So, in honor of Junk Journal Club’s birthday month, here’s to the very first person who inspired me to pick up a glue stick and start creating. I hope you enjoy our conversation below!

We are so honored to have you as our very first guest. Before we fully dive into things, tell us, what’s at your craft table?

My number one is the JJ (junk journal), my big XL gluestick, and my star stickers. Star stickers are my go-to as they fix everything for me. For anyone who has been following along on my journey, I actually started crafting on my living room rather than at a table. However, we recently moved, and I’m excited to share that I’ll finally have a craft room. If anyone wants to follow along, I’ll be sharing updates weekly on socials!

Wait, I love this, and now I’m dying to know more about what your vision is for this new craft room!

The only thing I know for sure is it’s going to have a lot of pink. There is pink everywhere in my home. I’ve never had my own craft space until now, so I’m looking forward to going all out and making it all mine. I want the space to be colorful, and I also want it to feel like a living scrapbook itself. One of the items I’m imagining is a pegboard that I can pin art to, and on the organization front, I know that I need to see my supplies or else I’m not going to use them. So, everything is going to have to be clear.

Making everything clear is sort of genius because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten about an awesome sticker sheet or crafting tool because it got buried in a sea of supplies. For those who might be unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your junk journal aesthetic?

In three words, I would say colorful, eclectic, and fun.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve put in your junk journal?

There haven’t been too many things that are crazy. I once used an entire candy bar wrapper. The reason that stands out to me is that I’m often trying to smush things down or rip things apart, and I decided to just put the whole thing in there. I’ve also used candles, and my latest crazy addition is a parking ticket envelope!

What is your favorite kind of junk?

I feel that if you come across an actual physical ticket in the wild, you’ve won the lottery. I was once almost late to a musical because I was determined to stop by the box office beforehand and get a physical ticket, if that shows you where my priorities are. Coasters are also a good one because they’re true junk and have such cool designs on them. Another one is a good matchbook or a good thank-you bag. Honestly — what don’t I get excited about!

What are you listening to or watching when you journal?

I’m usually watching reality TV. Anything on Bravo. Music-wise, I’m a huge fan of punk and emo. I’m super obsessed with this band Hot Mulligan right now. I also listen to a lot of Bike Routes and Blink-182, and pretty much anything from that genre in the early 2000s.

I know you also started your own craft club in Chicago. Tell me a little bit more about that!

Our craft club is called Cool Kids Craft Club. It’s a space that’s for anyone. We’ve had people of all ages attend. We had a mom bring her 6-year-old daughter, which was really cute. Starting the Cool Kids Craft Club and picking up junk journaling go hand in hand for me because it all started with my grandma passing away. In my family, we are a lineage of craftswomen from my grandma down to my mom and then down to me. When she passed, it was very sudden and unexpected, and we had dealt with a lot of other health issues, including my dad having cancer. It was truly one thing after another, and to get through that, I needed something healthy to cope with my grief. Immediately, I went back to crafting. It feels like therapy in so many ways. In fact, when I haven’t junk journaled in a couple of days, I can feel myself getting a little irritable.

And so out of that came the idea for Cool Kids Craft Club. I found myself craving this community of people, and my friend had received a special lease from the Chamber of Commerce that supports local businesses, and she offered up this space of hers for a workshop. From there, I posted a video online, and Chey (livebrave2) was one of the people who responded. I asked her if she wanted to do it with me, and her saying yes was really when all the stars aligned.

It's cool because people also bring all kinds of crafts to our events. It’s not just junk journaling. At our last event, one of our members was DIYing her wedding napkins, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I feel like we're part of your big day in a way. It's incredible seeing people go through these milestones through craft.

It sounds like you stay pretty busy crafting, but where might we find you when you’re not junk journaling? What are some of your other hobbies?

I love being outside and rollerblading. I enjoy making flower arrangements. I think there’s always a crafty lens to everything I do, though, from curating my space to hosting friends. You can also find me hanging out with my dog or my husband and watching trashy reality TV shows. I also love trying new restaurants because we have the best food here. I will say I am a pretty big homebody, so I’m someone who needs a lot of alone time. I think I’ve been able to stick with junk journaling because it’s such a solo-friendly activity, and hey… my need for alone time is also the same reason I can find myself lost in a season of Love Island UK.

Before we say goodbye, I feel like craft can mean so many different things to so many different people. What does it mean to you?

It means everything to me. Being able to craft is to let yourself play and reconnect with your childhood. It’s a creative freedom that so many of us don’t get to experience in our day-to-day lives, especially if you’re working 9-5. I’m in my 30s, and I crave playtime. I think it’s so important to have time to work with your hands, and in some ways, we’ve really been losing that. Across the board, there’s this trend of people talking about grandma hobbies because we’re really yearning for that tangible experience. That’s why crafting will always be so special.

You can find more of Kalli on TikTok and Instagram <3

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