If your junk journal scraps drawer is overflowing and you're not sure what to do with the bits and pieces — the torn paper, the fabric offcuts, the leftover lace — these journaling spots are a satisfying answer. This tutorial shows how to layer scraps of fabric, packaging paper, parchment, and lace around a magazine or book image, sew everything down with a sewing machine, and back the whole thing with tea-dyed or coffee-dyed paper to create a piece that's both textured and functional. You clip them into journal pages, tuck them into pockets, or slip them into belly bands — and at the back, there's clean writing space.
What we cover
This is a quick, low-pressure scrap-busting project: how to build journaling spots from layers of mixed materials, sew them together using straight stitch and zigzag, back them with dyed paper for a writing surface, and finish the edges with ink. No particular supplies are required — the whole point is to work with what you have.
What you'll learn
How to layer scraps into a journaling spot composition, including:
- Starting with a base of packaging paper or torn parchment
- Adding fabric offcuts, mesh, lace, or upholstery fabric on top
- Placing a magazine or book image as the focal point
Why tearing rather than cutting gives better edges — rough, uneven edges read as intentional texture rather than unfinished work, and you don't need anything to be straight or even.
How to use glue before sewing — a small dab in the middle of each piece keeps layers from shifting while you sew, without committing you to a final position. You don't need to glue all the way to the edges.
How to sew journaling spots on a sewing machine, including:
- Straight stitch around the focal image to anchor it in place
- Zigzag stitch over the surrounding layers to hold everything down
- Varying between straight and zigzag passes for added texture
- Switching thread colors mid-project without worrying about matching
Why upholstery fabric changes the feel — it's thick and cushiony in a way that thinner fabrics aren't, and that difference comes through both in the hand and in the journal.
How to back a journaling spot with dyed paper — gluing coffee-dyed or tea-dyed paper to the reverse side, ripping the edges to match the front, and sewing around the perimeter to seal everything together. This is what turns a decorative piece into something you can actually write on.
How to use ink to unify the finished piece — running ink along all the edges, including over lace and parchment, pulls the layers together so nothing looks too raw or too bright against the rest of the journal.
How to use journaling spots in a junk journal, including:
- Clipping them directly onto a page
- Slipping them into a pocket
- Tucking them inside a belly band
- Folding one into a pocket element itself
Tips & gotchas
Don't stitch over the face in a portrait image. Everything else on the composition is fair game for stitching — but running a line of thread across someone's face tends to read as a mistake rather than texture. Stitch around it instead, even if that means your line wanders a bit.
Glue only in the middle before you sew. The sewing machine will hold the edges down permanently — the glue is just there to stop things sliding out of position while you're at the machine. If you glue all the way to the edges you'll lose the lifted, layered quality that makes these pieces interesting.
When the fabric scrunches or puckers under the presser foot, leave it. The bunched, uneven quality is exactly what you're after here. If you try to smooth everything flat you'll lose the texture that makes journaling spots feel different from a flat collage.
Parchment paper — baking paper works too — is worth including when you have it. It adds a papery rustling sound when the journal is handled, and that sensory quality is part of what makes junk journals feel alive to flip through.
Ink the edges last, and don't skip the lace. White or pale lace can look disconnected from everything around it. A light pass of ink over the lace softens it and pulls it into the same tonal range as the dyed paper and aged fabrics.
These spots are small, quick to make, and easy to batch — and the more varied your scraps, the more interesting the results. Thick upholstery fabric gives a completely different feel from sheer mesh; packaging kraft sits differently than torn parchment. Working through your scrap pile one journaling spot at a time turns leftover materials into something you'll actually look forward to finding in a journal.
