If you aren’t following me on TikTok, you probably aren’t aware that I made a Christmas junk journal out of a greeting card to document December 2025. I was inspired to do this after stumbling upon the Dephemerember 2025 Challenge (thanks 49Dragonflies and Luise Heinzl), which focused on compartmental making this year. I loved some of the prompts, and the piece-by-piece concept took the pressure off of ensuring I didn’t fall behind on the December “not daily” memory keeping I intended to do for 12 days before Christmas.

I did a flip-through of the journal in two parts. Here are some of my thoughts on the journey of making my own journal from scratch:

1. Making a no-sew journal is definitely easier than a sewn-bound alternative, but it comes with other challenges.
My original plan to have a cute, coquette journal bound with tied lace would have worked if I had fewer pages. I thought twine would work better when I realized the lace was way too mobile to hold the pages, but it didn’t. Thankfully, I had come across a YouTube video by Nicole over at Relax. Cut. Glue., which gave me the idea to use a large rubber band to hold my 28 folded front and back pages. Did I need that many pages? No. I didn’t intend to have more than about 14! Which brings me to my next point…

2. PSA: Each folded page you add to the journal=4 individual pages.
For some reason, I thought each folded page was 2 individual pages, forgetting I could journal on the front and back. I laughed it off and decided I could just use the journal for Christmas 2026 to fill whatever I didn’t use. The journal became so thick by Christmas day that I had to come up with a solution to hide the pages I couldn’t use for fear that I would ruin the journal if I continued working it it this season and next. Since I had already journaled on one half of each folded page, I couldn’t just pull out the other half. I ended up using a paper clip to pin the unused pages together.

3. Don’t forget pockets!
I forgot to add my pockets as a bottom-quarter-folded front and back page, so I ended up attaching makeshift ones to the inside front and back cover. They definitely came in handy, so I’m glad I didn’t decide to just forget about them after my initial mistake.

Enjoy the Christmas 2025 junk journal flip-through! I hope they give anyone still working on Christmas 2025 spreads some fun inspo.

Part 1:

@thewhisperbox

Replying to @highbrenny_ Turns out I’m going to have to upload a part two of this Christmas junk journal flip through tomorrow! Enjoy my babbling about some of the #dephemerember prompts I took inspiration from and some things I added to spreads off camera! #junkjournal #junkjournaling #scrapbook #scrapbooking

♬ Antique, old, happy and bright solo piano Jazz in ragtime style(1242384) – ricca

Part 2:

@thewhisperbox

Replying to @highbrenny_ Part two of my Christmas junk journal flip through! The shaker globe that I almost forgot to show was also inspired by a Dephemerember prompt. #scrapbooking #junkjournaling #junkjournal #junkjournalideas #scrapbook

♬ Pop beat BGM / long version(1283324) – nightbird_bgm