How to Upcycle Junk Mail – Junk Journal Colouring Book

This tutorial is all about how to reuse the envelopes from your post, junk mail or otherwise and turn them into a junk journal style colouring book for kids, personalised with their favourite characters!  

In truth, you can use this tutorial to make a junk journal notebook for yourself but I made this one as a gift. 

I used some cutouts from my son’s Thomas the Tank Engine magazines to decorate my junk journal cover so I could gift it as a blank colouring book to my nephew who is nuts for Thomas! 

This is also a great boredom-busting activity for kids to do with you. 

Great for when schools are off and you are looking for activities to fill the time!

Materials Needed – Junk Journal Colouring Book

• Envelopes
• Thin cardboard wrapper roughly the size you want your finished book to be. (I used a rectangular chocolate bar wrapper that was made of cardboard).
• Embroidery thread
• Large Sewing Needle
• Scissors
• Mod Podge 
• Magazine cut outs of the kids character of your choice 

Step 1: Cut your Cover to Size

I used the cardboard wrapper from a large dark chocolate bar as the cover of my colouring book.  I cut it at one side and removed the excess flaps so that I just had a front and back cover and the spine.  

Mine was a thin rectangle that was a bit smaller than the envelopes I used for the pages but you could use a cereal box or something larger and cut it to exactly the shape you need.

Step 2: Cut your Envelopes to Size

Even if you’ve signed up for paperless bank accounts and bills you still inevitably receive lots of junk mail in these white envelopes (designed to make the inside look more important than it is!).  

These are what I collected to use for my junk journal colouring book project.  

I also used one that had some red on it just for a bit of interest.  You can play around and use whatever type of junk paper you have.  

The important points are:

• make sure there is still enough blank space on the paper or envelope you are using so that it can be effectively used to colour or write notes.
• The paper should be large enough that you can fold a seam for the spine of the book – see below.

I cut the raggedy tops off my envelopes, then cut the remaining part to fit my cover.  

I also opened the seam at the sides but not at the bottom of the envelope.

If you are using envelopes like I did you will likely end up with parts of the clear address window still included.  

I think it adds to the recycled charm of it all but if you don’t then you could try using other types of junk mail instead of the envelopes.

Step 3: Bind your Junk Journal Colouring Book

Here is how to bind your junk journal colouring book:

• Open up all of the envelope pieces and your cover as if you were looking at the middle page of the book.
• Double up some embroidery thread on a large sewing needle and double knot one end.
• Start threading by piercing through all of the paper and cardboard with your needle at Point A in the image above.
• Follow the arrows and thread outside the cover to point B, then pierce through to bring your thread back to the inside and make another hole very near your first one back at A.
• Thread outside to point C making your last hole to bring your thread back in and tie it to the thread back at A to finish off.
• Snip off loose ends.

There are some more photos below to help illustrate.

If you are making this as a notebook for yourself you could stop here.  

I continued on to decorate mine so I could gift it as a personalised colouring book.

Step 4: Decorate Your Cover

I’ll admit it – I buy too many kids magazines for my son.  He makes the eyes and he gets one.  

But for this project, I convinced him to let me cut up some of the ripped pages to decorate this ‘colouring book’ for his cousin who is as mad for Thomas the Tank Engine as he is!  

I used mod podge to create a little Thomas collage on the front and back cover.  

I put a bit of cardboard in between the cover and the rest of the junk journal pages while it was drying, just to make sure they didn’t stick together.

Step 5: Start Colouring!

The only thing left to do is set the kids to colouring!  

I gave this junk journal colouring book alongside these upcycled personalised name crayons as a bit of a colouring set gift for my nephew Nate.  

If you liked it, Pin it!

Check out our tutorial on how to upcycle broken crayons into personalised name crayons here.

Other Posts you might like:

• Junk Journals: What are they and how to make them!
• 35 Fun Things to Do with Old Books – Donate, Upcycle, Decorate!
• DIY Cardboard Bookshelves (Make a Kid’s Bookcase!)
• How to Make Kraft Tags from Upcycled Cardboard
• Easy DIY Magazine Holders Made from Cereal Boxes!
• 29 Fab Ways to Upcycle Tin Cans!