If you've been sitting on a pile of cereal boxes and wondering what to do with them, this tutorial is for you. I had a whole stash built up — panels from different boxes, all slightly different sizes — and I wanted to see how far I could take them. The answer turned out to be: cover, pages, binding, beading, and a journal I'd actually use. The whole thing is made from cardboard, covered in whatever you have on hand, and bound with baker's twine using a wraparound method I worked out myself — no punching holes, no needle and thread required for the binding.
What we cover
This tutorial walks through every stage of building a full journal from cereal box panels: cutting and covering panels with fabric, napkins, packaging paper, book pages, and junk mail envelopes; lining the insides with scrapbook paper and washi tape; machine sewing around the edges; and then binding all the panels together with my wraparound binding method using baker's twine. We also cover tightening the spine with weaving, adding beads, and a flip-through of a cereal box art journal I made about ten years ago — which gives a clear sense of where a journal like this can go over time.
What you'll learn
How to cut and prepare cereal box panels — strip the flaps, bring a metal ruler to the fold, and use a sharp X-Acto knife for clean edges. You end up with flat, workable panels in a few minutes.
How to cover panels using five different materials, including:
- Scrunched packaging paper for texture, applied with a glue stick and smoothed down
- Napkin (single ply, non-printed side only) over white paint, then layered with orange and brown acrylic for a dragon-skin finish
- Fabric, using a thin layer of glue stick plus fabric glue, worked in sections
- Book pages and junk mail envelopes, collaged flat with PVA glue
Why you dry covered panels in a folded position — if you let them dry flat or open, the paper cracks at the spine fold when you try to close the journal. Fold before it sets, and let it dry that way. Same principle applies whether you're working with paper, fabric, or napkin.
How to line the inside of cereal box panels with washi tape along the spine edge and scrapbook paper cut to fit in two pieces — and why I chose papers that could theoretically be written on, not busy prints.
How to machine sew around the edges of covered panels — a practical finishing step that makes each panel feel complete rather than craft-project-in-progress. Hand stitching with a blanket stitch works too and gives more of a handmade feel; machine sewing is faster.
How wraparound binding works — the core of this video. Each panel gets its own thread: wrap around the spine, tie a knot at top and bottom, then attach each new panel to the previous one by going under the previous thread and tying through the loop. Every panel ends up with one thread on the spine outside and two on the inside. No holes punched, no needle-and-thread binding in the traditional sense.
Why you knot at top and bottom on every pass — I bound this journal twice the night before filming. The first time I was too loose with the knotting and the whole thing was floppy. Tight knots at both ends of each pass are what hold everything together. When in doubt, knot it out.
How to tighten a loose spine two ways, including:
- Wrapping a new piece of baker's twine across all the spine threads and tying bows — quick, and adds a decorative element
- Weaving a long thread over-under through all the spine threads, then reversing direction and going back — this is the method I now prefer, and it makes a real difference to how solid the journal feels
How to add beads to the spine threads — using beads with wide openings to accommodate thick baker's twine, or rolling your own paper beads if you don't have any with the right hole size. I finished mine with glitter nail polish rolled beads I made years ago; they still look beautiful.
Why panels that are slightly different sizes need a different approach — for wraparound binding, panels ideally want to be close to the same height. If yours vary a lot, I'd steer you toward the Coptic stitch variation I covered in the previous video instead. For small differences, spread the shorter panels out rather than placing two short ones next to each other.
How to add signatures to the finished journal — because each panel has two threads on the inside, you can tuck folded signatures in and remove them as you go. Pages are not glued in; they're held by the threads, which means you can add watercolour pages, junk journal pages, or blank signatures whenever you need them.
Tips & gotchas
Let your covered panels dry in a folded position, not flat. I can't stress this enough — I peel the covered panel off its backing paper before it fully dries, fold it at the spine crease, and leave it like that. Paper and fabric both want to crack or pull at that fold if they dry in the wrong position.
When you're applying glue for fabric covering, thin layers matter. I had too much glue on my first fabric panel and had to scrape it back with a scrap of card. A generous coat sounds like it should be stickier, but it just creates lumps and delays drying.
Use a needle with a big eye for the wraparound binding. I kept trying to work the thread with my fingers and it was unnecessarily painful. The needle makes going under previous threads and forming loops much easier.
Work in batches of two panels at a time when measuring thread. Each panel needs at least three spine-lengths of thread (one on the outside, two on the inside, plus enough for knotting), and I always add extra in case I want beads. Doubling that for two panels at once is a manageable length without getting into a tangle.
Tighten your knots away from the journal, not toward it. Pulling toward the project can distort the spine or, if you're finishing the last panel and you go too hard, the thread can actually cut through the spine material. Found this out on the last panel.
Leave extra thread on your very first and very last panel — longer than you think you need. The weaving at the end uses that thread, and running short on the final pass is genuinely frustrating.
Bulldog clips are your friend. Once a panel is sitting in position, clip it to the stack while you work the knots. It keeps things from sliding and lets you focus on the thread rather than keeping the pile together with your elbow.
Don't use elastic instead of baker's twine. I know it seems like it might work — it wraps, it holds — but elastic has too much give. The binding will be loose no matter how many knots you tie.
If you're working with paper beads or beads you've strung onto thick baker's twine, check the hole width before you commit to a design. Bead size matters less than hole size here.
Because pages aren't glued in, you can use it as a watercolour journal where finished pieces slide in and live there, or as an ephemera book with pockets and tuck spots added as you go, or simply as an art journal where you work directly on the panels themselves — paint, collage, stamping, whatever you're drawn to. I flipped through one I made about ten years ago while filming this, and it had embroidery, spray-painted leaves, hand-stitched pockets, and painted cereal box tags. I hadn't touched a sewing machine yet when I made it. It's a time capsule now. This kind of journal doesn't need to be finished before it's useful — it just needs to be started.
