There's a particular kind of inspiration that comes from seeing someone else's handmade work up close — not just the finished piece, but the thought that went into every small choice. This video is an unboxing of a handmade junk journal and creative supply bundle I purchased from an Etsy shop called Sasebo, run by an artist named Dragana based in Sarajevo, Bosnia. If you've ever found yourself scrolling Etsy shops for handmade journals and wondering what you actually get — the quality, the detail, the experience of receiving something truly made with care — this is the video I wish I'd had.
What we cover
I unbox a handmade junk journal, a creative sewing kit, a snippet roll, a set of distressed buttons, a flower pin, and a set of charms — all from the same shop, all curated to work together. Along the way I'm already thinking out loud about how I'd use each piece in my own journal making, so this is as much an inspiration session as it is a haul.
What you'll learn
What a well-made handmade junk journal actually contains — this one has bookplates, a wooden charm, tassels that double as bookmarks, a fabric and ribbon closure, pockets throughout, book pages in Bosnian, painted tags, and generous amounts of writing space. Seeing it in detail gives you a clear picture of the range of elements you might include in journals you make yourself.
How to think about curated supply kits, including:
- Why a kit where everything is already in tone saves you the frustration of digging through your stash mid-project
- How to treat the kit as a commitment — pick your journal project first, then assign the kit to it, so the pieces stay together until you need them
How fabric from a supply bundle can become a journal cover, including:
- Using a single fabric piece as a cover and lining it with cardstock for structure
- Sandwiching cardstock between two fabric pieces to make a self-contained cover with a finished inside
- Using upholstery fabric for a sturdier, more textured cover on a larger journal
Embroidery floss as a binding thread — not just for decorative stitching. The purchased journal itself is bound with embroidery floss, and I show how I use it for binding alongside waxed thread in my own work.
What a snippet roll is and how to use one — this one is hand-cut fabric squares threaded through the middle with gold thread and embellished with beads, buttons, and hand-stitched flowers. It's a ready-made embellishment you can pull from to decorate inside pages — ruffles, flip pockets, little accents sticking out from a page edge.
How distressed buttons are finished — each button in the set has been individually treated, likely with gilding paste of some kind, so they have a worn, aged quality that works naturally with vintage and autumn-toned journals.
Why a certificate of authenticity matters on a handmade piece — both the journal and the snippet roll came with one, and seeing it framed this way helped me understand why that small touch changes how you hold and use something.
Tips & gotchas
When you buy a curated kit — whether it's a sewing kit, a ribbon roll, or a bundle of mixed embellishments — keep all the pieces physically together until you've committed them to a project. It sounds obvious, but the temptation is to pull one beautiful piece out and tuck it somewhere "safe" in your stash, and then you spend half the making session hunting for it. Assign the kit to a journal first, keep it in the bag or pouch it came in, and reach for it as one unit.
If you're using fabric as a journal cover and want it to hold its shape without feeling floppy, sandwich a layer of cardstock between two pieces. I've done this many times — it gives the cover enough body to function well while keeping the soft, textile feel on both surfaces.
Embroidery floss makes a genuinely good binding thread. I use waxed thread as my default, but embroidery floss has beautiful color options, a slight texture that holds knots well, and it's widely available. The journal I unboxed here was bound with it, and you can see how cleanly it works.
When you're trying to work out a cover combination — fabric, closure, embellishment — pull a few candidate pieces out and just physically hold them together. I did this on camera here and landed on a combination (fabric cover, brad closure, book plate) far faster than I would have by trying to picture it in my head.
There's something about holding a journal someone else built — seeing how they solved the closure, what papers they chose for pockets, how they balanced writing space with decoration — that quietly reshapes what feels possible. The journal I bought here, and the kit that came with it, have already found their way into a project I'm currently working on. That's the best thing I can say about any creative purchase.
