If you've got a stack of old book pages sitting around and you're not sure what to do with them, this tutorial is for you. I make three of these little journals — all at once, all from scratch — using coffee-dyed calendar pages as the base, collaged book pages covering the exterior, contact paper to seal everything in, and a beaded pamphlet-stitch binding to hold it all together. It's one of those projects where you don't need to think too hard. You just sit down, start ripping and gluing, and somewhere in the middle of it all you realise you've made something genuinely lovely.
What we cover
This tutorial walks through building a small wraparound-flap journal from a coffee-dyed calendar page base, covered in collaged book pages and sealed with self-adhesive contact paper. I show how to score and fold the cover, sew the edges by machine, assemble tea-dyed copy paper signatures inside, bind everything with a three-hole pamphlet stitch, add a beaded spine dangle, and finish with a fabric-and-brad wraparound closure.
What you'll learn
How to build a collaged book page cover on a coffee-dyed calendar page base — tearing pages from books you don't mind dismantling, laying them corner-first, and filling inward so the writing runs in different directions and no large blank spaces show through.
Why I glue and check against the light — holding the piece up to a light source after gluing each piece lets you spot any unglued edges before they become a problem later. With glue stick especially, it's easy to miss a corner.
How to seal a collage cover with self-adhesive contact paper, including:
- Starting in the middle and working outward to push air pockets toward the edges
- Listening for the sound of air leaving — you can actually hear the bubbles going
- Using a ruler (not something sharp-edged) to smooth without digging into the surface
How to score and fold a wraparound flap correctly — scoring creates a valley on one side and a mountain on the other, and the fold goes toward the mountain, not into the valley. I didn't know this for a long time and it makes a real difference to how clean the crease sits.
How to machine-sew the edges of the cover to lock the contact paper down permanently — starting at an inconspicuous spot rather than on the flap so the thread ends stay hidden. If you don't have a sewing machine, hand stitching or blanket stitch works just as well.
How to assemble mixed-height signatures for the inside, including:
- Using tea-dyed copy paper folded in half
- Scattering shorter pages among full-height ones for variety
- Leaving a small gap between the page edges and the cover crease so the journal closes easily when the signatures add bulk
Decorating the inside pages before binding, including:
- Inking all edges at once
- Sewing wiggly lines on the machine and cutting around them for shaped page edges
- Mixing plain pages with decorated ones so the inside feels varied without being overwhelming
How to do a three-hole pamphlet stitch with a beaded spine, including:
- Piercing three evenly spaced holes through cover and signatures together
- Threading gold beads onto the embroidery floss as you work the spine
- Using bead crimpers (or simple knots) to anchor a short dangle of beads below the binding so they sit at different heights and don't migrate up into the signature
How to make a brad-and-fabric wraparound closure — punching a hole through the cover for the brad, threading upcycled coffee-dyed fabric through so it wraps once under the brad and once over, and tearing rather than cutting the excess so the end has a natural edge.
Tips & gotchas
Apply glue to the full surface of each piece, not just the middle — and then check it against a light source before pressing it down. It sounds fussy but it takes two seconds and saves you from having edges lifting off later, which is much harder to fix once everything is stacked and sealed.
Avoid going too small with your torn pieces as you fill in the gaps. Very small pieces create thick, uneven layers — you end up with a lumpy cover that doesn't fold or close cleanly. I'd say don't go smaller than roughly a thumb's width.
Score from the correct side. When you drag your scoring tool across the paper, one side gets an indentation (the valley) and the other side rises slightly (the mountain). Fold toward the mountain. It feels counterintuitive because the valley looks like the natural fold direction, but folding into the mountain gives you a cleaner, crisper crease — something about how the fibres work.
Before you take the cover to the sewing machine, spend a moment smoothing out any air pockets that formed when you folded. With multiple layers — book pages, a sticker, contact paper — you'll almost certainly get at least one. Press them flat with your fingers and work them toward an edge. Much easier to deal with now than after sewing.
Leave a little space between where your pages end and the cover fold. If all your pages extend right to the crease, the journal won't close comfortably once you've got eight folded signatures sitting in there with some bulk to them.
One last thing that has nothing to do with bookbinding: a sparkle top coat makes nail polish last noticeably longer. Any sparkle, any brand. Natasa's hard-won wisdom, offered freely.
The same method works just as well with security envelopes, maps, music paper, or magazine pages instead of book pages — anything printed that you'd otherwise recycle. Once you can make the cover, you can make tags, small journal covers to attach to larger projects, or standalone mini journals to give away. This one is part of a larger project I've been building, so if you make it and find yourself wondering where it could lead — keep an eye out for what comes next.
