If you've been holding on to used tea bags after your morning cuppa and wondering what to do with them, this tutorial is exactly what you've been waiting for. In it, I show how to combine tissue paper, napkins, and tea bags with diluted PVA glue to create transparent, vellum-like embellishments with a genuinely vintage feel — the kind that look like they've been around for decades. Along the way I also end up making a small junk journal from scratch, because that's where the process led me on the day I filmed this.
What we cover
This tutorial covers the full process of making transparent embellishments from thin paper images — tissue paper prints, decorative napkins, and hand-stamped pieces — layered with tea bags and diluted PVA glue on a non-stick surface. I also show how to use the finished embellishments on a small junk journal, including making signatures, a pocket, a closure, and binding with a three-hole pamphlet stitch. The journal-making section is unplanned and improvised, which I think makes it more honest about how these kinds of projects actually come together.
What you'll learn
How to choose the right paper for transparent embellishments — thin is everything. Tissue paper (including printed gift-wrap tissue), single-ply decorative napkins, and hand-stamped tissue all work well. Magazine pages are too thick; the diluted glue won't soak through and you won't get the translucency.
How to separate and prepare decorative napkins, including:
- Peeling away the white backing layer to leave a single ply
- Using sticky tape to get the separation started if the layers are reluctant
- Tearing wet edges with a damp watercolour brush for a soft, ragged border
How to stamp directly on plain tissue paper or napkins using permanent waterproof ink — because these pieces will get wet during the gluing process, regular ink will bleed and smear. Stamped script on tissue paper looks unexpectedly beautiful once the tea bag goes over it.
How to set up a non-stick drying surface using a cereal box liner or a plastic bag. The finished embellishments peel off cleanly once dry — this is actually how the whole idea came about, when I tried gluing pieces onto playing cards and everything lifted off too perfectly to ignore.
How to mix PVA glue for this technique — roughly two-thirds glue to one-third water, stirred until it's genuinely runny. Too thick and it won't soak evenly through the layers.
The full layering process: glue down first, then your paper image, more glue, then the tea bag on top, then a final coat of glue over everything. Pressing and smushing the edges of the tea bag down while wet helps everything dry flat and makes peeling off much easier later.
How to work with different tea bag qualities, including:
- Larger, better-quality bags (Twinings produces notably bigger, more usable material)
- Small or low-quality bags that don't cover much on their own — overlapping two or three of them across a larger image works well and the seams are barely noticeable once dry
- The difference between lighter bags (better for images where you want the picture to show through) and dark, heavily stained bags (beautiful for abstract or decorative pieces)
Why tea bag embellishments won't go mouldy — as long as you let them dry completely before storing. The danger is sealing wet bags in a closed container. Dry thoroughly, and they'll keep indefinitely.
How to ink the edges of finished embellishments to add a clean vintage frame around the image, especially on lighter tea bags where the natural staining isn't heavy enough on its own.
That rewetting a dried embellishment reactivates the glue — which means you can adhere them to project pages using water alone. Worth knowing before you apply one somewhere unintentional, since the glue will bond again once wet.
How to sew through finished embellishments on a sewing machine — they're thin but surprisingly strong (tea bag material is made to survive boiling water), and they feed through a machine without trouble.
How to build a small junk journal using these embellishments as the centrepiece, including:
- Sewing a pocket from a tea-bag embellishment
- Adding a fabric closure sewn front and back
- Making and inserting signatures
- Binding with a three-hole pamphlet stitch
- Using tea-dyed cardstock as the cover
Tips & gotchas
Thin paper only. I can't say this enough — magazine images feel like they should work, but the glue doesn't soak through thick paper and you end up with a cloudy, stuck mess rather than anything transparent. Tissue and single-ply napkins are the sweet spot.
Permanent waterproof ink is non-negotiable for stamping. Anything water-soluble will bleed the moment you brush glue over it. I've ruined stamped pieces this way. Get the permanent ink out before you start.
Use a cereal box liner or plastic bag as your work surface. A craft mat or cutting mat will hold on too tightly — the pieces often tear when you try to peel them off. The slick inner surface of a cereal box liner is ideal, and you can pick the whole thing up and flex it to release pieces easily.
Two-thirds glue, one-third water — it should be visibly runny, not thick like it comes from the bottle. Thick glue doesn't distribute evenly and leaves patches.
Smush those edges while wet. Pushing the tea bag edges down flat while everything is still wet makes peeling off much easier when dry. Any bits that stick up or curl tend to snap or tear when you try to remove them later.
Overlap small tea bags to cover large images. The overlap is subtle once dry, and honestly it adds to the layered, textural look rather than detracting from it.
Dry completely before storing. Tea bags in a sealed box before they're bone dry — that's how you get mould. Leave them out flat until there's no question, then store away.
The glue reactivates with water. This is useful for adhering embellishments to pages — but be aware of it before you store finished pieces together, or let a wet brush drip onto something you've already placed. Glue-side-down on a wet surface means it's sticking.
They pair naturally with tea-dyed paper, fabric scraps, and inked edges, and because they're so light and thin they work anywhere you'd use a piece of vellum. The idea came from a playing card fail, and it turned into one of my favourite techniques. I hope it does the same for you.
