If you've got a small stack of envelopes and want to make a complete junk journal without wrestling with a cover, this tutorial shows you exactly how. I use four sturdy tea-dyed envelopes as the cover and pockets, add a single pamphlet-stitch signature in the middle, set an eyelet closure with twine and buttons, and embellish a few pages with scraps and die cuts — all from start to finish, together.
What we cover
The full build of an envelope junk journal: constructing the cover by slotting envelopes together, making and sizing a multi-page signature, binding with a pamphlet stitch using waxed thread, adding an eyelet and twine closure with buttons and beads, and embellishing the interior pages with paper scraps, tags, die cuts, and paperclips.
What you'll learn
How to build a journal cover from envelopes — no glue, no cardboard Four envelopes slotted together give you a front cover, back cover, and built-in pockets on both sides. The binding is what holds everything in place, so there's no fussing with adhesives or waiting for covers to dry.
Choosing and preparing envelopes for the cover Flimsy envelopes won't survive regular use — they'll rip at the pocket openings before long. Thick, sturdy envelopes (the kind you might find bundled at a secondhand shop, or ones you've made yourself from 12×12 scrapbook paper) hold up. If you're tea-dyeing them first, leave the flaps open while they dry so the sticky strip doesn't seal itself shut.
Tea dyeing envelopes and running them through an embossing machine A simple tea or coffee dip gives plain white envelopes a warm, aged tone. Once dry, passing them through an embossing machine adds texture — though it's entirely optional. Inking the edges or leaving them plain works just as well.
Making a multi-page signature from mixed papers, including:
- Using tea-dyed, onion-skin, vellum, and scrapbook paper scraps together for tonal variety
- Cutting some sheets in half before folding so not every page is the same height
- Sizing pages to sit just inside the envelope cover, then trimming any that overhang
Binding with a pamphlet stitch Three holes, waxed thread (or embroidery floss), and a needle. I eyeball the hole placement rather than measuring — center hole first, then one above and one below. The stitch goes outside–inside–outside, back through the middle, then finishes with a double knot and a small bow. The key is keeping tension tight so the signature doesn't shift inside the cover.
Setting an eyelet for the closure A small eyelet at the front flap protects the paper from tearing when the twine wraps around it. If you don't have a setter, a circle punched from cardstock glued over the spot — then hole-punched through — does the same job. I'll be honest: I set mine crooked on camera, glued a punched circle over the mess, and re-set the eyelet through it. It ended up looking fine.
Making a twine-and-button closure with beads, including:
- Threading twine through the eyelet and looping it to wrap around the front
- Dipping cut twine ends in a little glue and letting them dry firm before threading through buttons — this stops the twine from fraying and unraveling mid-thread
- Adding two buttons at different heights and two small metal beads at the bottom for visual interest
- Leaving the closure length until after the journal is stuffed, so you can judge how much slack you actually need
Embellishing interior pages with scraps and found materials This is where you make the journal feel full and personal without overloading it. I used die cuts and small flowers punched from packaging cardboard, a stamped image on tea-dyed cardstock, paper ruffle rolls sewn from offcuts, journaling spots with rounded corners, tags, and paperclips in black and gold. Nothing is glued down permanently — most things can be unclipped and moved.
How to create small tuck spots inside the journal, including:
- Gluing a die cut along the bottom edge only so it becomes a pocket on the page
- Tucking a folded piece of decorative paper partway in to display and store at once
Why trimming a sliver off the top of each envelope pocket matters Even a two- or three-millimetre trim across the pocket opening makes a real difference to how easily you can slide cards and ephemera in and out. Without it, the pocket edge catches on everything, and over time that's what causes envelopes to tear.
Tips & gotchas
When you tea-dye the envelopes, prop the flaps open while they dry. If the sticky strip seals down on its own, you lose the pocket — and some envelopes (mine included) actually lose their stickiness entirely in the process, so you may need to re-glue the flap closed anyway once everything is dry.
Four envelopes is the practical limit if you want pockets that are actually usable. More than four and the journal gets thick enough that pulling things in and out becomes a struggle — and that's without any pages inside. If you want a journal made entirely of envelopes with no signature, you have a bit more room to work with, but for a hybrid journal like this one, four is the sweet spot.
For the closure, wait until the journal is fully stuffed before you decide where to knot your buttons and beads. I set mine while the journal was still empty, and they ended up sitting too high once the pages were all in. I had to undo the knots and move everything down. A stuffed journal is noticeably thicker, and you want the twine to wrap comfortably around it — not to strain.
Before threading twine through a button, dip the cut end into a little PVA or craft glue and let it dry completely. The end firms up into something almost like a needle tip, and it threads cleanly without fraying apart in your hands.
If your eyelet setter isn't cooperating (or you don't have one), a small circle of cardstock glued over the closure hole and punched through with a basic hole punch does the job. Distress or ink the edges of the circle and it looks intentional.
Don't skip the corner rounding on journaling spots and cards if you have a punch handy. It's a small thing, but it's one of those small things that makes a page look finished rather than just filled.
The same envelope-cover structure works just as well for a gift journal — a few tags tucked into the pockets, a handful of cards, a stamped image or two, and it's ready to give. Making several at the same time (I made ten in one session) also changes the whole experience: decisions about where to place things and what to use on each page come quickly once you've worked through the first journal and know what you're doing. Batch-making is something I come back to again and again with projects like this, and the envelope journal is one of the better ones to try it with.
