If you've been saving cereal bag liners and wondering what on earth to do with them, this video is for you. I show how to fuse those inner plastic bags — the ones you'd normally toss straight in the bin — using a dry iron and a sheet of baking paper, and then turn them into journal covers, envelopes, pouches, pockets, and more. The fusing process itself takes minutes; the hard part is stopping yourself from making twenty things in a row.
What we cover
This tutorial walks through the complete plastic fusing process using cereal bag liners as your base material — including how to sandwich napkins, punched shapes, book pages, and tissue paper between layers before ironing. From there it follows the creative process through several finished projects: soft journal covers, small envelopes, sewn pouches, pockets, and even a see-through mini-journal spine. The second half of the video is more improvisational — ideas arriving mid-filming and getting made on the spot — which is very much the point.
What you'll learn
How to fuse cereal bag liners with a dry iron, including:
- Using a single opened-out bag (folded over itself) or two separate smaller bags layered on top of each other
- Protecting your surface with cardboard and sandwiching everything between sheets of non-stick baking paper
- Starting on medium heat and working up rather than burning through your material on the first pass
How to sandwich materials between fused layers, including:
- A single separated sheet of a decorative napkin (peeled to its thinnest layer for the best result)
- Punched-out paper shapes for a more textural, abstract look
- Tissue paper, sewing pattern paper, or thin scrapbook paper for colour and interest
- Old watercoloured book pages, to test what thicker paper does inside the layers
Why the shiny side of the cereal liner matters — it bonds more readily, so whatever you're sandwiching should sit against the shiny side for a stronger seal.
How to make a fused plastic journal cover, including:
- Cutting the liner to your desired cover height before fusing
- Folding in half once fused to check the shape and spine line
- Running it through an embossing folder for surface texture (optional, but it adds something)
How to add a brad-and-twine closure to a fused cover, including:
- Poking a hole with an awl or any pointed tool
- Feeding a brad through, wrapping twine or ribbon once around the cover, and knotting it off
- Adding beads to the twine ends for a finishing detail
How to make a fused plastic envelope or pouch, including:
- Fusing two panels and sewing down three sides at the machine for a simple pouch
- Leaving one edge open as an envelope flap
- Adding a continuous paper ruffle along the top edge as decoration
How to make a see-through pocket from leftover fused scraps — even small off-cuts can be sewn onto a page or cover as a transparent pocket, which is genuinely one of the more practical uses of the technique.
How to make a fused plastic mini-journal — binding a single signature into a fused cover, with a brad closure, to create a small finished journal from almost nothing.
Why fusing napkin images lets you preserve fragile paper — napkins are thin and tear easily on their own, but sealed between two layers of cereal liner they become sturdy and handleable, even if you can't write on them.
Tips & gotchas
Wash your cereal bags before you start. There's food residue in there, and you're going to apply heat to it — enough said.
Turn the steam off on your iron before you begin. You want completely dry heat. Steam and plastic fusing do not get along.
Start on medium heat and work your way up. It's very easy to over-fuse and cause bubbling; it's much harder to go back from that. If things aren't sealing after a couple of passes, nudge the temperature up rather than pressing harder or staying longer in one spot. Keep the iron moving at all times — same principle as ironing fabric, but more important here.
Better to under-do it than overdo it. If you lift the baking paper and the layers aren't fully bonded in a corner, go back and add a little more heat. If you've over-ironed and the surface is bubbling badly, there's not much to be done. Check as you go.
When you cut your fused piece, leave a little space between the edge of your scissors and the inner napkin or paper layer. Cut all the way to the napkin edge and the layers can separate with enough force. A small border of fused plastic all the way around holds everything together.
The shiny side of the liner bonds better — this one is easy to miss. Place your napkin, shapes, or paper against the shiny side of the bag when you're building your sandwich.
Don't cut all the way to the edge of the napkin when trimming your finished piece — leave a margin of fused plastic around it so the layers stay put.
And don't aim for perfection. Wrinkling, slight bubbling, and an uneven surface are part of what this material does. Fused cereal liners aren't trying to look like laminated cardstock — they have their own texture, their own crinkle, their own sound. That's either going to speak to you or it won't.
One practical note: make sure you're working somewhere with decent airflow. You're melting plastic, even if it's a small amount.
Once you've got a feel for how the material behaves — what heat it needs, what it likes sandwiched inside it — you start looking at every cereal bag differently. Colourful plastic shopping bags can go in between the layers too, cut into shapes and fused right in, building up something almost like a plastic fabric. Thicker, sturdier, with colour and texture that's entirely your own. There's a version of this that goes much further than journal covers, and I haven't come close to exhausting it.
