What’s Old is New Again: Create Your Own Upcycled Journal
With Kat Kirby
October 22, 2025
Unleash your inner bookbinder! Transform forgotten books into unique journals bursting with character, personalized treasures ready to capture your stories.
Let’s create new journals from old books! (Or even new books).
Using a hard-covered book, you will learn how to successfully deconstruct it by removing the text block.
We will then reinforce the spine and create signatures (groups of papers to form the pages).The signatures are not just any old papers: I have a large selection of carefully curated book pages, maps, sheet music, yearbook photos, and more for you to choose from. And of course you might want to bring some of your own to use or share.
Using a variety of bookbinding tools, I will show you how to stitch in the signatures, and create the inside covers.
Choose a book whose cover you like, as we will not be covering the covers, but rather leaving them as they are, or decorating them.
Once the books are created, I will share a few of my favorite ways to embellish the pages, including pockets, tip-ins, tuck spots, and more.
You will leave this workshop with a true, one-of-a-kind treasure book!
Upcycled and Embellished Books Timeline
| Time | Activity |
| 9:30 | Get settled, introductions, talk about materials and tools needed. |
| 9:45 | Show examples of upcycled books. |
| 10:00 | Talk about and demonstrate the process of deconstructing books and tools used. Consider Safety using sharp tools. Work slowly. |
| 10:15 | Students deconstruct their books and reinforce the spine. Break. |
| 11:00 | Discuss signatures, types of papers, how many pages, what sort of papers they want to use, how many signatures. What will they use their book for? Do they want blank pages as well as sheet music, yearbook pages, vintage ledger paper, magazine pages, scrapbook paper. Students measure their books and the width of the spine. |
| 11:15 | Begin collecting papers. No cutting or tearing yet. Put papers in order, in signatures. Fold individually or all together. Talk about trimming the edge if needed (“crawl”). Measure for punching holes in spine and pages. Talk about having a cover for each signature for a consistent look. Create a template for punching holes. Talk about using a book-binding cradle, or phone book, or catalog etc. |
| 11:30 | Begin creating the signatures, being sure each page is the right way up. Mark top with a paperclip. Start punching holes in spine and signatures. Reinforce the spine with paper, cardstock, or fabric to make it more durable. Place signatures under some sort of weights during lunch to flatten them out. |
| 12:00 | Lunch break until 1pm. |
| 1:00 | Demonstrate how to sew the signatures into the spine. Talk about different needles and threads. Discuss the idea of stitching so that there are beads dangling from the spine or not. Start inside if they don’t want beads, or start outside if they do. Check they’re the right way up. |
| 1:30 | Students sew in their signatures. Use a bone folder for sharp creases. |
| 3:00 | Books should be finished now! |
| 3:00-3:30 | Discuss the process of creating this book. How do they want to use it? (writing/painting/collage/lists, etc) Clean up work space and set up for the Gallery Walk. |
| 3:30-4:00 | Gallery walk, where each artist shares something about their book that they are happy with. Closing circle. |
Kat Kirby kat4clay@gmail.com katkirby.com
Leader
Kat grew up in New Jersey, in a family that valued art and music, and learned from an early age that creativity and self-expression are keys to a fulfilling life. She believes in the healing power of the arts and creative self-expression. Kat is a retired Board Certified, Registered Art…
Learn more about Kat Kirby