If you've got a junk drawer full of mystery scraps, old packaging, bits of twine, and things you can't quite identify — this tutorial is for you. In this episode of the Trash to Treasure Chronicles, I pull a random handful of supplies from my junk drawer and make a complete junk journal using only what I grab. No shopping, no reaching for the good stuff. Just a paper bag, some loose pages, a button, and whatever else turns up.
What we cover
This is a real-time, start-to-finish junk journal build using a paper bag as the cover. I make signatures from scrap pages, decorate the cover with found packaging, create pockets and tags from clothing tags and greeting card scraps, bind everything with a three-hole pamphlet stitch in embroidery floss, and close the journal with a button-and-twine closure secured with a brad. The video ends with a flip-through of the finished journal.
What you'll learn
How to use a paper bag as a junk journal cover — including how to work with the flap as a natural closure base and how to cover printed bag text with collaged packaging paper and scraps.
How to make and bind a signature using the three-hole pamphlet stitch, including:
- Threading embroidery floss onto a needle and working through the cover and signature together in one pass
- Placing holes at the top, middle, and bottom
- Tying off at the middle hole and finishing with a trim
How to make a button-and-twine closure on a paper bag journal — threading twine through buttons, testing the length against the journal's actual thickness (binding first so you know how fat it'll be), and securing with a brad rather than a knot through thin paper.
Why binding before finishing all the pages matters — once the journal is bound, you can see what you're actually dealing with: how much sticks out, where you need more, what fits in the pockets. I bind partway through and then go back to finish the pages.
How to extend and embellish pages using scraps and a sewing machine, including:
- Sewing strips of packaging paper or book pages to extend a page's length
- Using a sewing machine to attach and decorate elements quickly
- Leaving pages as flip-outs rather than forcing everything flat
How to make pockets from whatever's on hand — a wavy pocket from a scrap, a back pocket from leftover material, a tiny envelope tucked inside. No template needed.
How to make tags for journaling spots — using clothing tags, greeting card scraps, and pieces of old pages as writing surfaces, and fitting them to the spaces you actually have rather than planning in advance.
Using a creativity constraint intentionally — limiting yourself to a single junk drawer pull (and sticking to it) as a practice for cutting through overwhelm and exercising the creativity muscle. I also use a timer — 15 minutes — to keep the challenge sharp, though I usually end up wanting to keep going.
Tips & gotchas
The supply limit is the whole point — don't sneak in extra materials. The constraint is what makes this kind of project work as a creativity practice. If you have too much available, the decisions multiply and the fun evaporates. Pull what you pull, and make it work.
A timer helps if you're prone to stalling. Fifteen minutes is enough to get real momentum going, and you can always keep going once it's up. The point is to start focused, not to stop at the bell.
When you're making a button closure on a paper bag, be careful about tying knots directly through small punched holes in thin paper. The knot can rip straight through. Either reinforce the holes with eyelets first, add a dab of glue and a backing piece over the holes, or — as I do here — use a brad to secure the button instead. It's a tiny cheat, but it holds.
Bind the journal before you finish decorating all the pages. I know it feels like you should complete everything first, but until the signature is actually inside the cover and stitched, you don't know how chunky it'll be, what sticks out, or where you have room. Bind it, then go back in. You'll make much better decisions about what the pages still need.
The pockets are waiting, the tags are blank, the journaling spots are empty. Everything in here came from the bin pile, and now it's ready for actual writing, actual memories, actual life. That's the whole point of a junk journal, and you don't need anything more than what's already sitting in your junk drawer to make one.
