If you've got a stack of junk mail envelopes — the kind with the little plastic windows — this tutorial shows you exactly what to do with them. Over the course of the video, I walk through building a complete junk journal from scratch: from preparing and decorating the envelope cover, to napkin decoupage, signature assembly, pamphlet stitch binding, and all the embellishing in between. Everything is timestamped so you can jump to whichever section you need.
What we cover
This is a full, end-to-end build of a junk mail envelope journal — windowed envelope as the cover, a single signature of mixed grungy pages, pamphlet stitch binding, and finishing details including an elastic closure with eyelets, lace around the window, a tag, and a tassel. I show several completed journals alongside the one we're making together, so you can see how the same techniques look with different napkins, watercolors, and page choices.
What you'll learn
How to prepare a windowed envelope as a journal cover, including trimming it to size, deciding how much space you need above the window for a tag, and layering book pages, music sheets, postage stamps, and mark-making underneath before the napkin goes on.
How to do illegible "pretend writing" as a cover layer — using a Sharpie so the marks survive glue and water applied on top, and why writing quickly in scribbles gives a more interesting result than trying to write legibly.
Why waterproof ink matters when you're working under glue and water layers — anything water-soluble will bleed through and smudge once you brush on your PVA mixture, which is why I use a Sharpie for any writing or mark-making that goes underneath.
How to choose and prepare a napkin for decoupage, including:
- How to read the print direction before you commit to a design
- Using sticky tape to peel away the lower layers so you're left with just the single top sheet
- Why a darker or busier napkin lets you skip the underlayers entirely if you want to
How to apply a napkin to a curved or wrinkled envelope surface, including using a cereal box liner as a nonstick work surface, brushing PVA glue mixture underneath first, smoothing out straight creases while leaving organic ones, and carefully removing the napkin from the window area without tearing.
How to patch a torn napkin mid-process — lay a small piece of tissue paper over the tear, glue it down, and smooth it flat. Once everything is dry and layered, it disappears completely.
How to glue the decorated envelope onto scrapbook paper, including using a glue stick for initial placement, PVA mixture over the whole surface, and a quick-drying tacky glue on the edges — then covering with a cereal box liner and weighting overnight to prevent warping.
How to cut the tag slit in the right place — slightly above the window, positioned on the plastic portion so it doesn't get glued shut when you adhere the envelope to the scrapbook paper backing.
How to sew the cover edges using a sewing machine so the thread wraps around the outside edge rather than punching through both sides — giving the cover extra reinforcement and a finished decorative edge.
How to add an elastic closure and eyelets, including:
- Punching and setting eyelets 2 cm from the edge of the cover for strength at the opening point
- Cutting elastic to about 23 inches so you have room to work
- Tying a square knot (left over right, then right over left) without pulling it fully tight until the journal is bound and you know the final thickness
- Threading a brad through the knot to anchor it
How to assemble a mixed-paper signature, including using a template to trim pages to consistent height while still allowing for deliberately uneven edges, lining a magazine image page with tea-dyed paper so it can be used for journaling on the reverse, and folding a long page in to create a pocket.
Why pre-binding embellishing makes everything faster — pulling all the pages out of the signature before binding and doing all your stitching, stenciling, stamping, and edge-inking in one pass means you're not awkwardly working around a bound journal. If you're making a batch, you can stack all the first pages from every signature together and work through them in sequence.
How to do a pamphlet stitch binding with the knot on the inside:
- Making a hole template with three holes — centre, one inch from the top, one inch from the bottom
- Aligning pages to your satisfaction before poking holes so the needle path is clean through all layers
- Clipping the signature closed before stitching so pages don't shift
- Tying the knot tight enough to hold but loose enough that pages can still lay flat
How to make a tassel using ribbon crimps and a bail pin — layering your fibers and lace pieces, crimping them into a ribbon crimp finding, trimming to length, and attaching everything through the eyelet at the top corner of the cover so the tassel also functions as the closure anchor.
Tips & gotchas
Cut the tag slit before you glue the envelope onto the scrapbook paper backing — I've done it the other way and had to be extremely careful not to cut through to the back. And when you're placing the slit, make sure it falls on the plastic part of the window, not the paper. The plastic won't glue down, which means your tag stays free to slide in and out. If you place the slit too high, it ends up on the paper portion and gets glued shut.
Use a cereal box liner (or any nonstick surface) underneath your envelope when you're applying the napkin. Excess tissue will seep past the edges and stick straight to your work surface if you don't.
Once the envelope is glued to the scrapbook paper, don't just leave it to air-dry flat — the paper wants to curl as the moisture releases. Cover it with another cereal box liner, stack something heavy on top, and leave it overnight. This is the step that keeps the cover flat.
Slow down around the window when you're removing the napkin. That's where I've made every mistake I've made on this build. Rushing leads to tearing, and while you can patch a tear with a small piece of tissue paper and more glue, you're giving yourself extra work. If a tear does happen, just cover it and keep going — it genuinely won't show once everything is layered and dry.
Make sure all napkin and tissue paper edges are fully glued down before you set the cover aside to dry. Loose edges will eventually catch on something and start peeling — especially if the journal is going to be carried around or sold.
Align your signature pages carefully before poking your binding holes, and clip the whole signature closed while you work. If the pages shift and your needle goes through a gap instead of the paper, you'll have loose pages that aren't actually bound in.
When you tie the pamphlet stitch knot, aim for firm but not forceful. Too tight and the pages won't open properly; too loose and they shift around. I leave the elastic closure knot slightly loose for the same reason — once the journal is fully bound and I can feel the final thickness, I can tighten it to fit.
Tips & gotchas
(See section above — combined into a single tips section.)
These journals are designed to handle a variety of papers — coffee-dyed, tea-dyed, music sheets, magazine pages, lined paper — so the grungy, layered look isn't an accident, it's the point. If you want to make several at once, the batch approach I use for pre-binding embellishing makes the process genuinely efficient: do all your stamping, stenciling, and stitching on loose pages before a single one gets bound, and the whole run moves much faster.
