If you've been hoarding little scraps of paper — offcuts, torn strips, punched shapes, leftover bits from other projects — this tutorial is exactly the right place to put them. I show you how to turn those scraps into whimsical house-shaped tags for junk journals: fun to make, genuinely eye-catching, and functional because they have a full writing surface on the back. They tuck into pockets, clip onto pages with a paper clip, or sit in tuck spots — anywhere you'd use a regular tag, these do the job with a lot more personality.
What we cover
This tutorial covers designing and assembling paper house tags from scrap pieces, gluing and machine-sewing the layers together, backing the tags with cardstock for a clean reverse side, and finishing with eyelets, ribbon, washi tape, stickers, and other embellishments. I walk through four houses on camera from first layout to final cut, then show a full flip-through of every tag I've made so you can pull ideas from the variety.
What you'll learn
How to build a house tag from paper scraps — no templates, no special shapes required. The base, roof, windows, and door can be any scraps you have: tea-dyed watercolor paper, strips torn from scrapbook paper, punched shapes, even the end strips from large paper rolls.
How to design without overthinking — I keep coming back to this because it trips me up every single time. The endless combinations of roof shapes, window styles, colors, and embellishments can stop you before you start. Working on one house at a time and giving yourself permission to just place things and see what happens is genuinely the skill here.
How to use a glue stick as a positioning tool before sewing — you're not relying on the glue to hold everything permanently. A light tack from a glue stick is enough to keep pieces in place while you take the tag to the sewing machine. The straight stitch provides the real adhesion.
How to machine-sew around tags and individual elements, including:
- Sewing around specific pieces (windows, doors) before backing the tag
- Sewing all the way around the outside edge to attach the backing layer
- Playing with thread color — white on top, black on the bobbin gives a two-tone outline effect that shows up especially well on darker paper
How to back a tag with cardstock or paper — this hides all the stitching on the reverse and gives you a clean writing surface. It doesn't need to be cardstock; any paper works. The backing layer goes on before you sew the final outside edge, so the sewing locks everything together at once.
How to cut cleanly around tricky corners — when you get to a sharp inward corner (where a chimney meets a roof, for example), cutting in one continuous arc is hard. Instead, cut in from one side, stop at the corner, then cut in from the other side so the two cuts meet. Much cleaner than trying to turn scissors in a tight space.
How to use an eyelet and ribbon as a chimney detail — setting an eyelet at the top of a chimney and threading ribbon through it creates a smoke effect that's simple and genuinely charming. This is one of those small details that makes a tag look finished rather than assembled.
How to add a tag topper or hanging element — ribbon, fabric, or a looped strip at the top of the house works just like a conventional tag topper and gives you something to tuck or clip.
How to embellish with what's already on your desk, including:
- Washi tape layered over scrapbook paper for extra color and texture
- Sticker dots arranged on red paper to suggest a mushroom house
- Stamps (a "dreams" stamp, for example) used as a door or wall detail
- Doodling with a white pen or Sharpie for window details and outlines
- Heart punches, circle punches, and sticky dots as windows
- Lace, fabric scraps, and stickers added at any point in the process
Tips & gotchas
Take a photo of your layout before you start gluing. I normally do this on my phone, and it's saved me more than once — once you start moving pieces to glue them down, it's easy to forget exactly where everything was sitting.
A glue stick is genuinely enough to hold everything in place before sewing. Don't reach for anything stronger at this stage. The machine stitching is what locks the layers down; the glue is just keeping things from sliding while you handle the tag.
Work on one house at a time. I say this in the video and I mean it — the possibilities really are endless with this project, and if you try to lay out four houses simultaneously you'll quickly find yourself paralyzed by decisions. Finish one, then start the next.
When cutting out the finished tag, inward corners and tight points (especially where a chimney shape meets the roofline) are easier to cut cleanly if you approach from each side separately and let the cuts meet in the middle, rather than trying to turn in one continuous motion.
Backing the tag with cardstock or plain paper isn't just about hiding the stitching — it's what gives you that writing surface on the reverse. It also stiffens the tag slightly, which helps if your base paper is on the thinner side. You can use tea-dyed paper here too; it doesn't have to be white.
If a house isn't working — too messy, wrong proportions, clashing in a way that isn't charming — adding a strip of washi tape, a sticker, or some doodling can sometimes rescue it. But sometimes the best thing is to leave it. A slightly chaotic house is still a whimsical house.
Tucked into a pocket page, clipped to a folio spread, or layered into a tuck spot — they carry both visual interest and functional writing space, which most embellishments don't. Once you've made a few and found the scraps you're naturally drawn to, the houses start coming together quickly. I tend to make mine on the larger side, but small ones — really tiny — would be just as satisfying and would fit into even more places in a journal.
