A junk journal is a handmade book built out of paper that was already in your house — envelopes, receipts, ticket stubs, wrapping paper, book pages, packaging, old letters. You bind the scraps into a book and then use it: for writing, collecting, sticking things in, or nothing in particular.
The name is doing it no favors. Junk journals are not messy or throwaway. "Junk" refers to the raw material, not the result, and a finished one is usually the nicest book on the shelf.
Junk journal vs scrapbook vs art journal
These get used interchangeably and they are not the same hobby.
| The book itself | What goes in | The point | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junk journal | You make it, from found paper | Anything, including nothing | Making the book is half of it |
| Scrapbook | Bought, uniform pages | Photos, arranged and captioned | Preserving a record |
| Art journal | Usually a bought sketchbook | Paint, ink, collage | Making images |
| Smash book | Bought, blank | Whatever, unplanned, glued in fast | Speed and no rules |
The dividing line is the book. In the other three you buy the book and fill it. In a junk journal the book is the project, and quite a lot of people never write a word in theirs.
What counts as junk
More than you think. Start saving these and you will have enough for a book in about three weeks.
- Envelopes — the single most useful thing, because an envelope is already a pocket. Security envelopes with patterned linings are the ones people hoard.
- Book pages from a damaged paperback. Text makes a good background for almost anything.
- Sheet music, maps, old letters, postcards
- Packaging — tea boxes, cereal card, the tissue paper inside a clothing order
- Tickets, receipts, boarding passes, stamps
- Wrapping paper, paper bags, wallpaper samples
- Brown kraft card from any parcel, which is the best free page material there is
How to make one, step by step
1. Decide the size before you cut anything
A5 or half-letter is the usual first choice: big enough to work on, small enough that a book takes an evening rather than a month. Whatever you pick, every page gets trimmed to roughly that — roughly, not exactly. Uneven page edges are a feature.
2. Make the signatures
A signature is a small stack of pages folded in half. Four to six sheets per signature, four or five signatures per book. Fold each stack, press the crease with a bone folder or the back of a spoon, and set it aside.
3. Build in the pockets and tuck spots
This is what makes it a junk journal rather than a stack of paper. Glue an envelope to a page along three sides. Fold a page in half and glue the edge to make a flap. Tuck a smaller card into the pocket with a tag sticking out.
Do this while the signatures are still loose and flat. Adding pockets after binding is much harder, and it is the thing beginners most often wish they had done first.
4. Make a cover
Cereal box card wrapped in fabric or paper is the standard first cover and it is genuinely fine. Cut two pieces slightly larger than your pages, cover them, and leave a gap of about half an inch between them for the spine so the book can close over its own thickness.
5. Bind it
Three options, easiest first.
- Ribbon or elastic. Lay the signatures in the cover, run a ribbon down the fold of each and tie it at the spine. Takes five minutes, holds fine, and you can add signatures later.
- Pamphlet stitch. Three or five holes down each fold, sewn with waxed thread. Neat, strong, and the one most people settle on.
- Discs. Punch every page and clip them onto discs. Not traditional, but it means pages come out and go back, which is a real advantage for a book you are still adding to.
What do you actually put in it?
This is the question that stops people, usually after the book is finished and looks lovely and empty.
There is no correct answer, but the ones that get used tend to have a job:
- A travel book. Tickets, maps, menus, a paragraph a day. The pockets earn their keep immediately.
- A memory book for one year, one child, or one house.
- A commonplace book — quotes, cuttings, things worth keeping, no order.
- A gratitude or morning journal where the interesting pages make you want to write.
- Nothing. Plenty of people make junk journals and give them away, and the making was the point.
Five things that go wrong on the first one
- Buying supplies before making anything. The first book should cost nothing. You cannot tell which tools you need until you have hit the problems they solve.
- Too much glue. Wet glue on thin paper buckles it. Use a glue stick for paper on paper and save the wet glue for card.
- Every page decorated. A book where every spread is busy is exhausting to look at and impossible to use. Leave half the pages nearly plain.
- Not letting it dry flat. A junk journal doubles in thickness as you add to it. Close it under a heavy book overnight after any session with glue, or the cover will never sit shut again.
- Waiting until it is good enough to use. The first one is practice. Make it, use it badly, and make a better second one.
The three things worth buying
Once you have made one from nothing and know you like it:
- Washi tape. Does more work than anything else — it attaches things, it hides a bad edge, and it comes off. Start with two or three rolls, not a set of forty.
- A glue stick that does not wrinkle paper, and a small bottle of PVA for card and fabric.
- Stickers for the pages where you want a focal point and cannot draw one.
Ours are in washi tape and sticker sheets. Junk journal supplies: what you actually need goes through the full list and what to skip.
Where to go next
Ten beginner washi tape ideas works just as well on a junk journal page, and how to store stickers and washi is the post you will want once the collection outgrows the drawer.
And if the disc binding above appealed, planner discs 101 covers sizes and counts, with discs in planner discs and ready-made books in disc-bound notebooks.
Everything we make for junk journaling — laminated vellum pockets, die cuts and washi — is in junk journal supplies. If you would rather not assemble the first one piece by piece, the Junk Journal Starter Kit is a notebook, pockets, die cuts and washi together.