If you've ever looked at a pile of old magazines and wondered whether they could carry an entire journal — no stamps, no stickers, no washi tape, no dies — this tutorial shows exactly what's possible. I embellished a complete junk journal using magazine images only, and the result is cohesive, full of writing space, and genuinely beautiful. Every envelope, pocket, tag, belly band, tuck spot, and bookmark you'll see in the flip-through came from the pages of cooking, home décor, travel, and craft magazines.
What we cover
This is a full journal embellishment tutorial — from how to look through magazines with intent, to building out a complete element library (envelopes, tags, pockets, belly bands, bookmarks, journaling spots, a writing board, and more), to assembling everything into a single journal that looks pulled-together rather than patched together. The flip-through at the end shows every page without commentary, so you can take it all in at your own pace.
What you'll learn
How to look through a magazine like a crafter, not a reader — you're not looking for articles. You're looking for four things:
- Full images you can fussy cut and use whole
- Partial images — a corner, a border, a background — that work as tags, bookmarks, or journaling spots on their own
- Empty or near-empty spaces (solid color sections, lightly textured backgrounds) that become the body of envelopes or pockets
- Words, letters, and phrases worth saving
How to make envelopes directly from magazine pages — pages with a clean, mostly white or solid background are ideal. I fold and glue them into proper envelopes that sit flat inside the journal; the image becomes the face of the envelope, and nothing looks cut-and-pasted.
How to turn a partial image into a journaling spot — one of my favorite moves in this video is taking a section of a face or a still life, covering the parts I don't want, and folding or backing it into a little pocket the reader can write on. You'll see this done several different ways across the journal.
How to make tags, tabs, and tuck spots from image scraps — offcuts and trimmings that might otherwise go in the bin. A narrow strip becomes a tab that peeks out from the page. A small fussy-cut image backed onto a calendar page becomes a tag with enough body to hold its shape.
How to build belly bands from a single image — both horizontal and vertical, depending on the page. A belly band is especially useful on pages where you've already run out of writing space; it adds a surface rather than covering one.
How to make a hidden paper clip from layered magazine images — I have a separate video going into the full technique, but you'll see the finished element in action here: two layers of image with a paper clip sandwiched between them, so the clip is invisible and the whole thing looks like a journal element.
How to use a fussy-cut image as a bookmarking element — laminating a magazine image onto backing paper gives it enough stiffness to function as a proper bookmark that can be moved anywhere in the journal.
What a writing board is and why I always include one — a writing board is a laminated piece of backing (in this journal, an Australian Geographic image mounted on scrapbook paper) that slides behind a page while you write. When a journal is thick and has paper clips or 3D elements, writing on the page directly means the surface is never flat. The board solves this completely, and it lives at the back of the journal so it's always there.
How to make a mini booklet element from a paper bag — a small paper bag becomes the cover of a little booklet, with a magazine image on the front. Simple, functional, adds another layer of writing space.
How to use paper ruffling with magazine images — by tearing a strip of magazine image (more on tearing below) and folding it down before attaching, you get a ruffled edge that adds texture without adding any other material.
How to keep a journal made from mixed magazine sources looking cohesive — this is the technique question the whole video is really answering. My approach: pick a color family when you start pulling images, and stick to it. In this journal I worked in blues and grays, which meant images from a travel piece, a home décor spread, and a cooking magazine all sat naturally next to each other.
Tips & gotchas
Sewing is optional for everything. I like the look of a sewn line on tags and booklets, but every single sewn element in this journal could be glued instead. If you don't have a machine, or just don't want to get it out, glue works. Don't let the sewing put you off attempting any of these elements.
Back flimsy magazine images before you do anything else with them. A lot of magazine paper is too thin to hold up as a journal element on its own — it creases, it wrinkles, it won't stay open. I backed most of the images in this journal onto old calendar pages that I'd tea-dyed. Once they're backed they become sturdy enough to fold, sew, clip, and handle repeatedly.
When you tear, tear toward yourself to get the white edge. Magazine paper tears differently depending on direction. Ripping toward you exposes the white core of the paper along the tear — that raw white edge can then be inked for a decorative finish. If you want a clean tear without the white, rip away from the part you're keeping. I find the white-edged torn look more interesting, but now you know how to get either.
Not every page needs to be embellished. I say this partway through and I mean it. Some pages in this journal I simply left alone — beautiful paper, nothing on it, ready to write. A journal stuffed so full that there's nowhere to sit with a pen quietly hasn't served its purpose. Leaving some pages bare is intentional, not unfinished.
Use pockets, belly bands, and tuck spots on pages where you're running out of writing space. The point of an embellished journal is more writing space, not less. Whenever I added an element to a page that was already full, I made sure it was a pocket or a band that creates extra surface rather than covering what's already there.
Use the same color family across all your magazine sources. This is the practical answer to "how do you make a magazine journal look cohesive." You don't need to find images that match — you need images that live in the same temperature and tone. Blues and grays from a travel spread, a cooking spread, and a home décor feature will all read as belonging together if you're consistent about what you pull.
A laminated writing board is easy to make and genuinely changes how the journal works. Next time you're running a sheet through the laminator, tuck a spare image in the pouch alongside whatever else you're laminating — the extra space would otherwise be wasted. Mount it on cardstock and you have a writing board with almost no extra effort.
Once you start seeing magazine images as envelopes and bookmarks and journaling spots rather than just pictures to paste, a single cooking magazine becomes a full embellishment kit. The leftover images I didn't use by the end still had words like best kept secret and diversity is beautiful sitting in them, already perfect for a hidden journaling spot in the next journal. The supply is basically endless, and it costs nothing.
