If you've ever wondered what to do with a scrap of calico or a stack of patterned napkins sitting in your craft drawer, this tutorial is for you. I show how to make fabric paper — sometimes called paper cloth — by decoupaging tissue paper and napkins onto fabric with PVA glue, then walking through everything I've made with the results: wraparound journals, a little pouch, tags, and a large travel-style journal with a cord closure. The fabric paper comes out sturdy, flexible, and genuinely beautiful, and the process is more forgiving than it looks.
What we cover
How to make two versions of fabric paper — one built up from torn napkin pieces, one from scrunched tissue paper — plus a detailed look at the finished projects: a large wraparound junk journal, a mini journal made entirely from page offcuts, a pouch, decorative tags, and a simple naked journal with an eyelet closure. I also show how I assembled and embellished the journals, including spine reinforcement, a wraparound cord closure, a cork and chipboard bookplate, and a quick flip-through of both journals' interiors.
What you'll learn
How to make fabric paper using napkins and tissue paper, including:
- Layering torn napkin pieces over fabric, wet-gluing as you go
- Scrunching a full sheet of tissue paper and pressing it down for a faster, heavily textured result
- Tearing and overlapping flat tissue paper pieces for a more seamless, faux-leather finish
Why smooth fabric is essential — upholstery fabrics or anything with a raised, textured surface won't take the glue evenly. Calico, muslin, cheesecloth, or any plain woven fabric with a smooth face will work. The thickness matters less than the surface.
How to mix and use PVA glue for this technique — dilute it with water until it runs easily, then use it generously. The glue isn't just adhesive here; it's what gives the finished piece its strength and durability. Skimping shows.
How to eliminate air pockets while gluing — the difference between a piece that holds together and one that peels. Any lifted area with air underneath will come apart once dry. Saturate fully and press down as you work.
How to build a faux leather finish with paint, including:
- Applying brown acrylic paint loosely over the textured surface, leaving some of the base colour showing
- Dry-brushing gold paint onto the raised edges to pick out the texture
- Knowing when to stop — or keep going — when the piece looks good at an intermediate stage
How to add surface detail with acrylic paint markers — outlining individual shapes in the napkin pattern, adding dots and accents to areas that read too flat. I used a metallic set and found them genuinely useful for this kind of fine work on textured surfaces.
How to finish a wraparound journal cover from fabric paper, including:
- Folding the overlapping edges of tissue paper back over the fabric and gluing them down for a clean sealed edge
- Reinforcing the spine with a strip of ribbon glued at the centre fold
- Attaching a bookplate with brads, then covering the backs with scrapbook paper
- Sewing around the whole cover for extra security, even when the glue alone would hold
How to make a wraparound cord closure, including:
- Finding and cutting a suitable cord or thrifted necklace chain
- Burning the cut ends of cord with a lighter to stop unravelling
- Attaching the loop end directly to the cover and wrapping the cord around the journal to close
How to make a simple naked journal — just the fabric paper, an eyelet at the back, and string threaded through to wrap around. No embellishment needed when the paper itself is the decoration.
How to build a journal from page offcuts — trimming large signatures creates scraps. Those scraps become signatures for a smaller journal. The fabric paper offcuts become its cover. Nothing goes to waste.
Tips & gotchas
Protect your work surface with a non-stick plastic sheet — a cereal bag opened flat works perfectly. PVA glue seeps straight through the fabric and will bond to anything underneath. Peeling dried glue off a table or craft mat is a headache you don't need.
With napkins, always remove the white backing layers first and use only a single ply. The printed layer is what takes the glue and shows the pattern; the backing layers just add bulk and opacity you don't want. If you're struggling to separate a piece, a slightly damp brush along the edge helps lift it cleanly.
Pre-wetting helps in two ways: brushing glue directly onto the fabric before you lay anything down gives the napkin or tissue paper something to grip immediately. If you'd rather not pre-glue, a light spritz of water from a spray bottle onto the napkin once it's in place does the same job — it relaxes the paper and keeps it from shifting while you work.
No air pockets. This is the one rule that really matters. Creases and folds in the paper are fine — they add texture. But any area sitting up off the fabric with air underneath it will peel once dry. Press everything down firmly and go over it with a loaded brush until you're satisfied it's fully adhered.
Don't be stingy with the glue. A two-litre bottle of PVA costs very little, especially diluted with water, and the saturation is what makes the finished piece durable rather than fragile. Thin, patchy glue application is the main reason fabric paper doesn't hold up.
Thicker fabric tends to look much neater on the inside of the finished piece than thin fabric does. With a thin base material, the inside can look a little rough — though covering it with scrapbook paper, or simply running a second layer of napkins on the reverse, sorts it out entirely.
If you're using cord for a closure and cut it to length, burn the cut end immediately with a lighter. Woven cord unravels the moment you cut it, and once it starts it's hard to stop.
And those are lovely. But what I've found is that the time you put into making a large piece of fabric paper really earns its keep when you keep it large. A full journal cover made from a single piece of this material is something else entirely — the texture, the weight, the way the paint catches on the raised surface. It's the kind of thing you make once and then can't stop making. The techniques here also pair naturally with tea dyeing, avocado dyeing, and any of the junk journal interior work I've covered elsewhere — the fabric paper becomes the cover, and everything else fills the pages.
