If you've been looking for ideas to fill your own journals — or you're curious about what goes into a handmade junk journal before you buy one — this flip-through of 23 journals from my Etsy shop is a good place to spend half an hour. I walk through everything from fully embellished multi-signature journals packed with pockets, tags, and sewing, to naked unembellished journals with nothing but beautiful mixed papers inside. You'll also see envelope books, waterfall journals, a greeting cards journal, upholstery fabric covers, and a few bundles. The goal isn't just to show what's available — it's to give you a close look at real handmade work so you can either shop with confidence or walk away with a head full of ideas for your own making.
What we cover
This is a flip-through of 23 handmade journals currently listed in my Etsy shop. I go through fully embellished junk journals, waterfall journals, a greeting cards journal made entirely from recycled cards, naked unembellished journals with mixed-paper interiors, upholstery fabric soft-cover journals with hand-stitched and beaded covers, and several bundles. I also touch on how I think about postage weight when putting bundles together, and I explain a few construction details along the way — including a note on binding types and why pages sometimes feel a little looser depending on the method.
What you'll learn
What a fully embellished junk journal actually contains — not just "embellishments" in the abstract, but the specific layered elements that build up across signatures:
- Vellum pages, paper bag pages, and laminated pieces sewn directly onto signatures
- Envelopes (including envelopes made from junk mail) sewn onto page edges with flaps that open out
- Pockets within pockets — a pocket page that itself holds another pocket
- Playing cards, library book withdrawals, clothing tags, photo album pockets, and other found objects integrated as pages or inclusions
- Avocado-dyed and tea-dyed pages sitting alongside magazine cutouts, scrapbook paper, and handmade paper
- Book pages, poem book pages, and Reader's Digest images used as base pages with extra pieces sewn on
What a waterfall journal looks like in practice — pages that step progressively larger toward the center, with a closure that attaches to the journal itself. I show a minimally embellished version where the structure and the paper do the work, and a more decorated version where the waterfall pages carry pockets and embellishments.
How a greeting cards journal is built — this entire journal is made from recycled greeting cards. I walk through the pockets, belly bands, acetate pocket pages, pull-out tags, and charm details. One of my favourite pages in this journal is the acetate pockets — they're sewn on, and the little inserts you can take out and use make it genuinely functional.
What naked, unembellished journals offer — not every journal needs bits and pieces clipped in. The naked journals I show here let the cover work carry all the visual interest: hand-stitched lace and individually hand-stitched beads, upholstery fabric (including one with organza sewn over the top), ribbon closures, and spine details. Inside, the interest comes from the paper mix — avocado-dyed, tea-dyed, plain, and textured papers together.
What a writing board does in a chunky journal — if you have a heavily embellished page underneath, a writing board placed on top gives you a flat surface to write on. I tuck one into the back of several journals here, and it's one of those quiet details that makes a journal actually usable.
How I think about bundles and postage weight — when postage is paid up to a weight limit, I fill the package to that limit. If the postage covers half a kilo, the parcel goes out at half a kilo; if it covers a kilo, same principle. This is something I've always done — a buyer paying for a weight tier should get the value of that tier.
What cereal bags and tea bags can do as materials — one bundle includes a journal with a cover made from cereal bags. Another features a journal where I used tea bags to create transparent images on the cover — the full technique was shown in a separate tutorial, but you can see the result here. Neither of these materials costs anything, and both give results you couldn't get from regular craft supplies.
The difference between pamphlet stitch binding and looser binding types — I take a moment to explain this directly. In traditional pamphlet stitch, pages are bound through the cover and sit firmly. In the binding style I use for some of these journals, pages can feel slightly more loose — not because anything is wrong, but because that's the nature of the structure. These journals are also intentionally roomy: with photographs and inserts added over time, they'll fill up and tighten naturally.
Tips & gotchas
Double-sided tape can bleed through. The oiliness sometimes comes through onto the page — I generally avoid it for that reason. There's one journal in this flip-through where I used a sticky felt product and you can see the oiliness coming through, but in that case the flower shapes it created actually looked like I'd planned it. Test before you commit to double-sided adhesives on pages that will show.
If pages feel a little loose in a non-pamphlet-stitch journal, that's not a fault — it's just the nature of that binding. Once you start using the journal and adding your own photographs, ephemera, and inserts, it will fill in. I make these journals deliberately roomy for exactly that reason.
A writing board is worth adding to any journal that has chunky embellishments. Even if most pages are flat enough to write on directly, a single very dimensional page can make writing awkward without one. It costs nothing to tuck a small piece of cardstock in the back.
When you're sending bundles, think in weight tiers. If someone is paying postage up to a kilogram, they should receive close to a kilogram's worth of value. I add smaller journals and extras to bundles until they reach the paid-for limit — it's a simple way to make sure buyers feel the exchange was fair.
If something in this flip-through catches your attention, there's a good chance I've made a video that goes step by step through exactly that element. The journals here are the finished version; the tutorials are where the making happens. Either way, I hope something in here sparks something for you.
