I’ve been making journals & books while waiting for election results, holiday food to cook, and finales of shows.
These paper bag journals were inspired by the Paper Outpost on YouTube. I glued 2 lunch bags together, covered with stenciled paper, and filled with the typical junk papers.
I had ordered some paper way back at the beginning of SIP, and it arrived protected in this corrugated sheet. Hmmm, what can I make with that? I covered thick card stock and scored it to make a wide spine. Inside I added kraft paper, water color paper and only a few sheets of scrapbook paper.
Junk paper is everywhere! Junk mail, catalogs, magazines, maps, ends of paper pads from school/work, painted book pages, your kids’ homework, stuff saved from road trips and vacations, brochures, and more.
I live in San Francisco so I grab foreign newspapers and cooking magazines from different markets, menus, free tourist maps and brochures.
If you have a friend who works in an office (or you work in an office), save security envelopes, ledger paper, graph paper, blue prints. If you know an interior decorator, ask them for samples books of wall paper - but you can sometimes buy these at hardware stores (or they might give them to you free.)
If there is a free or $1 bin at your library, look there. If you know a teacher, ask them for leftovers.
In pre-COVID days, garage sales often had various paper items that could be salvaged for journals like these. Outdated calendars, writing pads and old stationery, etc.
Printers used to get lots of paper sample books. Those are good, too. Product packaging can sometimes work.
