Free Mini Zine Template
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A very long time ago I posted a video to YouTube on how to make a mini journal from just one sheet of paper, but I realized today I never made an official blog post tutorial about it!

Yesterday someone had commented on the video that said it would make a good reference to print out, so I decided to make you a printable template you could use as well!

You could either print out the printable to cut and fold and decorate it just as it is – or you could use this as a reference to make and plan your pages for any kind of paper.

Here is a preview of the reference sheet I made for you to print out at the bottom of this page – be sure you use the high-res download links below to print, the images we show on our website are optimized so the website loads faster and aren’t the best for print-quality!

Printable Zine Template Preview
Printable Zine Template Preview

This printable version is great also because it shows you after everything is cut and folded what makes the cover and inside pages which lets you design the pages before folding it if you like!

Yes, Commercial Use Layered PSD + Editable Version Also Available!

While I was making this printable reference sheet, I also thought it would be really neat to have some layered Photoshop templates ready so I could design more mini-printable one page journals to share with all of you!

And then, of course, as good ideas always inspire more good ideas, I thought maybe the editable layered .PSD template and instructions I created would be useful for those of you who also like to design + sell journal printables!

I’m all for little shortcuts like that so you can have more fun designing + making the creative stuff instead of trying to write technical diagrams + instructions!

One Sheet Paper Instructions
Diagram Instructions for How to Make a Journal From One Sheet of Paper

How to Make a Mini Zine Journal From Just One Sheet of Paper

It’s actually very easy to make these, even if folding paper isn’t exactly your strong point! (I am not that good at folding paper either!)

1. The first step is to fold your sheet of paper into 8 sections.

I usually do this by first folding it in half lengthwise to make the first crease, and then folding it again in half in the other direction to make the second crease. Then, I fold that in half again to make it so there are 8 sections of the paper when you unfold it.

When you crease the paper, you’ll want a nice strong crease – you can use a scoring board or bookbinding tools but I usually just use my handy dandy trusty butter knife to crease my pages.

2. Make the Cut

When you have the paper unfolded, you will basically be making a cut in the middle as shown in the diagram here. The easiest way to do this for me is to fold the paper back in half and just cut on the fold.

3. Pinch the corners to fold into a mini book!

This part is kind of trickier to master, but with some practice you can get the hang of it to make bunches of these without too much trouble.

With your hole cut in the middle and your paper folded again lengthwise, you’ll want to take the edges of the paper and push them towards one another so that the part that we cut starts to come forward.

Pinch together the corners of the middle pages that pop out and now you have a mini journal ready to fold into a book!

Why These Journals Are Awesome!

There are a lot of reasons I like these little mini journals, but since we are doing the stash-busting challenge, I have found these journals are AWESOME for using up old junk mail papers or even magazine pages or even scrapbook paper or other kinds of papers you might have!

This method of making a mini journal is also a great option for when you have blank sides or “ugly” sides of paper you don’t want to see, since the back sheet of the paper is completely out of sight once they are folded up.

There’s also all kinds of neat things you could do with this method because the way the paper is folded into itself – you can just glue it together with a glue stick or you could even turn them into mini tuck spots for tags and that sort of thing.

So fun + really easy to make once you get the hang of them – which is why this little reference sheet is perfect for you to print out and use over and over again for any time you want to make these!

And of course, there’s no rule that says you don’t just print out the sheet and then paint or collage over it to make your own mini zine journal too!

Download The Mini Zine Journal From One Sheet of Paper Template Here

Free Mini Zine Template
Free Mini Zine Template

You can download the free Print-Ready PDF template using the download button below. That’s right, no sign-ups or secret libraries here – that’s a pain in my ass to set up and probably yours too in trying to download stuff you just want + need now! 🙂


I hope you enjoy this free printable and of course, if you make anything with this I would LOVE to see what you create! It’s always so inspiring! Share your projects in our Facebook group or tell me about it the comments below!

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One Comment

  1. Your template and instructions are brilliant and I enjoyed making some zines this summer when I was travelling. However, now that I am back in Europe, I am struggling to make the template work on A4 (and could not find a way to scale or otherwise tweak). Would you have an A4 version that is available? Or a tip on on how to use this one?

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