If you've got a stack of playing cards sitting around and you're not quite sure what to do with them, this tutorial is for you. I go through several quick ways to alter standard playing cards — using clear stickers, napkin overlay, and used tea bags — and then turn them into actual journal projects: little soft-cover journals, dangly charms, a secret journaling spot, and a fold-out pocket piece. The whole thing is built around how fast it goes once you've got a method that works.
What we cover
This tutorial covers altering playing cards using three different techniques (stickers, napkin overlay, and tea bags), then shows how to build five different projects from the altered cards — including a pamphlet-stitched mini journal, dangly charms, a secret journaling spot with a pull-out insert, and a folded pocket piece. There's also a flip-through of an older playing card flip book I made, which turned out to be genuinely inspiring to revisit.
What you'll learn
How to alter playing cards quickly with clear stickers, including:
- Using fully clear stickers so the card face still shows through
- Using translucent stickers for a softer, layered look
- Trimming oversized stickers before applying rather than cutting after placement
- Burnishing stickers down to create seamless, invisible edges
Why permanent (archival) ink is the only ink that works on playing card edges — playing cards have a glossy, sealed surface, and water-based distress ink wipes straight off. I demonstrate this side by side in the video so there's no ambiguity. Permanent ink, given even a minute to set, stays put.
The napkin overlay method for altering a whole sheet of cards at once — gluing your cards down onto a backing sheet, laying a single ply of napkin over the top, and painting with a runny PVA-and-water solution. Because the solution is thin and loose, it doesn't drag or tear the napkin as you paint. You do have to wait for it to dry, which is why the sticker route wins on speed.
How to use used tea bags as a textured card alteration — gluing a cleaned-out, used tea bag directly onto the card surface and sealing it with PVA solution. I show both a flat application and a scrunched application, and having done both I strongly prefer the scrunched version — it gives so much more texture and life.
How to make a soft-cover pamphlet-stitched playing card journal, including:
- Gluing two playing cards onto a burlap-backed cardstock base as front and back cover
- Leaving spine space between the two cards
- Machine-sewing the cards to the cover using a blanket stitch so thread wraps the edge cleanly
- Trimming the cover with pinking shears, leaving an even border top and bottom
- Binding pages inside with a three-hole pamphlet stitch
- Finishing the spine with decorative trim, binding thread, and a small bow
- Adding wooden beads on a length of wire as a closure and embellishment
How to make doubled-up playing card dangly charms — backing two altered cards together face-out, letting them dry, punching a hole in the corner, and attaching a small ball chain or bobby pin loop. Simple, quick, and they look great clustered in threes.
How to make a secret journaling spot from a single playing card — cutting the card to create a pocket slot, inserting a folded paper journaling strip that pulls out from inside, and gluing the assembly onto a journal page so that from the outside it just looks like a card. The pull tab can be topped with a small cut piece for a neat finish.
How to make a folded pocket piece from a jumbo playing card — folding the card in half, inking the edges, rounding the corners, cutting small slits at the fold to create individual pocket sections, and gluing it to a journal page as an interactive pocket insert.
Why directional stickers create directional cards — something I noticed only after the fact. If your sticker design reads one way up, your card becomes one-way too. For cards you want to use either way (as a tag, a tuck spot, a journaling spot), choose stickers that work rotated 180° — symmetrical designs, non-directional patterns, or images that read the same upside down.
Tips & gotchas
The single most important material note: use permanent, archival ink on playing card edges, not distress ink. I prove it in the video — distress ink comes off with a single wipe on a glossy surface. Permanent ink needs about a minute to set, but once it does, it holds. If you only have distress ink, skip the edge inking entirely rather than fighting it.
When a sticker is larger than your card, trim it before you apply it. I show one card where I applied first and cut after, and the cut edge is visible and a little ragged. Pre-trimming takes ten extra seconds and the result is so much cleaner.
After placing any sticker, burnish it properly — go over the whole surface firmly, especially the edges. This is what creates the seamless look where you can't see where the sticker ends and the card begins. Skipping this step is the difference between "altered" and "stickered."
For the napkin overlay technique, make sure your PVA solution is genuinely runny — not just thinned a little, but actually loose and fluid. If it's too thick it will drag the napkin and tear it, especially around card edges. I always have a runny PVA-and-water mix on the go, and for napkin work it needs to be on the wetter end.
For tea bags, scrunch them before gluing, don't lay them flat. I have examples of both in the video and the scrunched ones have so much more texture and character. Flat-glued tea bags just look stuck on; scrunched ones look like they belong.
When machine-sewing cards onto a backing sheet, cut the sheet to rough size first before you go to the machine. A full large sheet is unwieldy to maneuver through a domestic sewing machine, especially when you're trying to sew around small cards with tight corners. Cutting it down first makes the whole thing much easier to control.
When trimming your journal cover with pinking shears after sewing, leave equal space top and bottom. I catch myself having left a slightly uneven margin on one cover — it's not ruinous, but a quick measure before cutting keeps proportions balanced.
A note on sizes
I work with four sizes in this video — jumbo, large, standard, and small kids'-pack cards — and each lends itself to something different. Standard cards make tidy journaling spots and little journals. The small kids' cards are perfect for charms and keychains. Jumbo cards have enough surface area for folded pocket pieces. If you can find a few different sizes, you get a lot more range in what you can make from a single afternoon of altering.
A full playing card-themed journal with interactive elements on every spread, Alice in Wonderland-style pocket pages, little card booklets on rings: there's a lot of room to go further. The altered cards I show here are the building blocks; where they end up is entirely up to you.
