A junk journal is a book you make yourself out of paper other people would throw away. There are two ways to get one: bind it from scratch, or rebuild a notebook you already own.
Both are below, start to finish. The from-scratch version takes about ninety minutes and costs almost nothing.
What you need
| Essential | Why |
|---|---|
| Paper — roughly 20 sheets | Any mix: printer paper, book pages, brown paper bags, envelopes, sheet music, maps |
| A cover | A cereal box, a file folder, a damaged book cover, thick card |
| Waxed thread or embroidery floss | About four times the height of your book, per signature |
| A large needle | Tapestry or darning; the eye needs to take the thread |
| An awl, or a pushpin and a cork | To make the holes |
| Glue stick and liquid glue | Stick for flat paper, liquid for pockets |
| A ruler and a bone folder | A butter knife works instead of a bone folder |
You do not need: a guillotine, bookbinding board, PVA specifically, or anything that requires a purchase before you begin.
Step 1: collect, for a week
Before building anything, put a shoebox somewhere visible and fill it for a week. Junk journals made from bought paper look like scrapbooks; the ones made from collected paper look like junk journals.
What to keep: envelopes and their linings, tickets and receipts, tea bag tags, packaging with good print, brown paper bags, sheet music, maps, damaged book pages, wrapping paper scraps, catalogs, luggage tags, stamps, the backs of business cards.
A week gets you enough for a book. A month gets you enough to be selective, which is better.
Step 2: make the signatures
A signature is a small stack of folded pages. Your book is several signatures sewn together.
- Sort your paper into five piles of four sheets each. Mix textures within each pile — a book page next to a brown bag next to printer paper.
- Fold each pile in half together, all four sheets at once, and crease hard with the bone folder.
- Trim the edges roughly, or do not. Uneven page edges are a feature here, and a deliberately ragged fore-edge looks better than a badly cut straight one.
Five signatures of four sheets gives you eighty pages, which is a good first book.
Step 3: punch the holes
Make a template so every signature matches.
- Cut a strip of card the height of your pages.
- Mark five points along it: one an inch from each end, one in the middle, and two evenly between.
- Open a signature flat, lay the template in the fold, and pierce through all four sheets at each mark with the awl.
- Repeat for every signature using the same template.
Five holes is standard and forgiving. Three works for a small book.
Step 4: sew
The simplest binding that holds is a pamphlet stitch per signature, attached to the cover. Here it is for one signature:
- Thread the needle. Do not knot the end.
- From inside the fold, go out through the middle hole. Leave a six-inch tail inside.
- Go back in through the hole above it, then out through the hole above that.
- Skip back down past the middle to the hole below it, in. Then out through the bottom hole, and back in.
- Return to the middle hole from the outside, coming out inside next to your tail.
- Tie the tail and the working thread in a square knot around the long stitch that runs across the middle. Trim to an inch.
Repeat for each signature, sewing each one through the cover at its own set of holes. Space the signatures evenly along the spine and mark the cover before you start.
If this is your first book, sew one signature and stop. A one-signature junk journal is a real thing, it takes fifteen minutes, and you will learn more from finishing it than from abandoning a five-signature one.
The no-sew version
Take a discbound notebook, remove the discs, and rebuild it: pull out the pages you do not want, punch in your collected paper, add pockets and tags, put the discs back.
This is genuinely the better route for most people. You can add and remove pages forever, it lies flat, and there is no binding to get wrong. Our 5x7 discbound notebook works as a base, and a larger disc set gives you room for the bulk that layered pages add.
Step 5: the first three pages
Do these three before anything else. They set the book up and they get you past the blank-first-page problem.
Page 1 — the ownership page. Your name, the date you started, and one line about what this book is for. Nothing decorative.
Page 2 — the ugly page. Make a page badly on purpose. Too much glue, clashing colors, a crooked photo. The book is now imperfect and you can relax, which is worth more than any technique.
Page 3 — the pocket. Fold a rectangle of patterned paper, glue three edges to the page, leave the top open. Now the book holds things, which is what makes you pick it up again.
Adding pockets and tuck spots
A pocket: cut a rectangle an inch wider than what it will hold and two-thirds its height. Fold a quarter inch along the bottom and both sides, glue those three flaps to the page, press under a book for ten minutes.
A tuck spot: glue a strip of paper along its bottom edge only. Ten seconds, and it holds tags and slips.
A vellum flap: glue a sheet of vellum along one edge so it lifts. Handwriting underneath stays readable and the page gains a layer.
If you would rather not cut your own, ready-made vellum pocket dividers punch straight in and hold their shape better than paper ones.
Five mistakes
Too much liquid glue. Pages buckle and the book stops closing. Use the stick for flat paper, liquid only for pockets, and press the book overnight after a wet page.
Buying supplies before starting. The book you make from a shoebox of collected paper will be better than the one you make from a $60 kit. Collect first.
Making all the pages before using any. Build three pages, use them for a week, then build more. A finished empty book is a craft project, not a journal.
Pulling the thread too tight. It tears the fold. Snug, not tight.
Starting too big. Five signatures is ambitious for a first book. One is not a lesser version.
What to buy once you know you will keep going
- Vellum. The cheapest thing that most improves a page.
- Die cuts. One or two per page, no more — see die cuts.
- Washi tape. Hides every glue line and untidy edge. Washi tape.
- A starter kit, if you would rather have it all matched: our junk journal starter kit is notebook, vellum pockets, die cuts and washi together.
- Storage, once the shoebox overflows — paper and washi storage ideas.
Start the shoebox today
Put a box on a shelf and put today’s envelope in it. Next weekend, fold four sheets, sew one signature, and make the ownership page.
That is a junk journal. Everything after it is more pages — and 25 page ideas covers what to put on them.