If you've been hoarding paper scraps, strips, playing cards, and packaging paper — waiting for a project worthy of all of it — this is that project. In this second instalment of the Mass Making & Building a Journal series, I work through five scrap-busting ideas designed to fill a box with ready-to-use journal elements you can pull from whenever you need to build a journal quickly. Each project is made in batch-production style: do all the same steps across every piece before moving on, so the thinking happens once and the making becomes almost meditative. And running alongside the mass making, I'm building a real journal at the same time — so you can see exactly how each element lands on the page.
What we cover
Five mass-make projects built almost entirely from scraps: playing-card booklets with interactive folded pages, accordion-fold bookmarks made from paper strips, scrap-paper L-shape tuck spots, layered journaling spots and journal toppers using packaging paper and book pages, and book-page pocket elements with lace or trim. In between each project I add pieces directly into the journal I'm building, so the assembly isn't theoretical — you watch it happen in real time.
What you'll learn
How to make interactive booklets from paper scraps and playing cards, including:
- Folding scrap paper in half, trimming to a rough match, and inking edges before assembly
- Cutting two long sheets, folding them so the pages extend beyond the booklet's edge, and sewing down the spine on the sewing machine with the decorative stitch facing outward
- Gluing the booklet onto an inked playing card (or cardstock) with a twine tie and small bookplate label as the only embellishments
- Deciding which side of the playing card to face forward — sometimes the plain back reads better than the face
How to make accordion-fold bookmarks from paper strips, including:
- Gluing a long strip onto a base sheet and folding in alternating directions until you reach the end
- Inking each crease before refolding so the folds read clearly
- Two variations: cutting the accordion free for a standalone bookmark, or leaving it attached to the full page so it folds out as an interactive journal spread
- Turning the folded page into a pocket by sewing down the sides and adding a decorative clip to hold it closed
Why I do all steps across the whole batch before finishing any single piece — completing one project at a time feels satisfying, but switching tasks repeatedly slows everything down. Running a production line (all sewing together, all inking together, all gluing together) means you make decisions once and then simply repeat.
How to build scrap-paper tuck spots using the L-shape formula, including:
- Pulling four scraps of any size, arranging them in an L configuration, and gluing them down onto a base
- Adding a focal point (postage stamps work perfectly here, or any small image with straight-cut edges) to unify the composition
- Sewing over the arrangement to hold everything together and add visual interest
- Choosing one focal point type across the whole batch so you're not re-deciding on every single piece
How to make layered journaling spots and journal toppers using packaging paper, torn music or book pages, lace or trim, and fussy-cut images, including:
- Using packaging paper (or any paper you can write on) as the base for journaling spots — the writing surface is the point
- Tearing the music or book page rather than cutting it, so no straight edges interrupt the layered look
- Adding a small piece of lace or fabric trim before stitching everything together in one pass on the sewing machine
- Sizing up for journal toppers: the same four-layer approach, but on a larger base, so the piece overhangs a journal cover or page edge rather than tucking into a pocket
How to make book-page pocket elements with image and trim, including:
- Folding a book page, ripping (not cutting) the exposed edge for a natural finish, and inking the front and sides
- Gluing and sewing a focal-point image onto the face, then folding and gluing the sides closed to form a shallow pocket
- Sewing a strip of lace or ribbon across the opening to close the pocket and add decoration in a single step
- Filling the finished pocket with notepad strips, tags, or folded paper to make it immediately functional in the journal
Why the interior pages of mass-made elements don't need to be precious — the hearts might be going the wrong way, there might be holes in the paper, the pages inside may not be inked. None of that matters once the element is in a journal surrounded by other things. The whole carries the parts.
Tips & gotchas
Set your sewing machine stitch length somewhere between 2 and 3. Stitches that are too close together perforate the paper rather than pierce it, and the whole thing tears along the seam. I've done it. You only need to do it once to remember.
If you're not using a sewing machine, glue everything down more thoroughly than you think you need to. The sewing holds layers together and closes edges in one pass — without it, you need the glue to do all that work, so don't be stingy.
Pick one closure material and stick with it across the whole batch. It's tempting to think, this one would look better with ribbon, this one deserves a different twine — and before you know it you've spent twenty minutes deciding rather than making. Choose your twine or ribbon before you start and don't revisit it.
When you're sorting your four-layer compositions: large pieces become journal toppers (they're meant to overhang and be seen), smaller assembled pieces tuck into pockets and tuck spots. Trying to force a large piece into a small tuck spot just makes a mess of both.
For journaling spots specifically, the base paper has to be something you can actually write on. It sounds obvious, but it's easy to reach for pretty patterned paper and forget the whole point of a journaling spot is that someone — you — will eventually write on it.
Don't spend energy perfecting the interior pages of your booklets during a mass-make session. You can add tabs, stenciling, woven ribbon, all of it — but that's for a different day. The box you're filling is for future journals, and future you can embellish then.
That's the whole point: removing the friction from the building so the making stays enjoyable. There's already a third session of ideas forming (altered paper clips came up, and there are still book pages to explore), so the box isn't going to stay full for long.
