ScavengerCraft

Disclaimer: This is NOT a bookbinding how to! I had no idea what I was doing, I’m just glad it worked. This project exists because I refused to let something beautiful be the single-use product it was designed to be, and I just hope someone out there finds inspiration from this.

Welcome to the first documented ScavengerCraft project! Not the project I was planning to start with, but so it goes. This was an entirely spontaneous “I have no idea what I’m even doing” project fueled by sheer audacity and maybe one episode on bookbinding I saw on How It’s Made some months ago. It had no right to go as well as it did, and I’m very pleased with the end result.

I, like many, have an unfortunate habit of collecting pretty journals only to feel like nothing is good enough to write in them. When I first bought this journal, maybe four years ago, I got locked in the mental trap of trying to figure out what the right thing was to use it for. I was finally able to escape the trap by considering something that felt vaguely blasphemous: Fill it up, then strip the cover and reuse it. I tested a small corner spot to see how easy it would be to pull to pieces when the time came, and found it quite ready to come apart. Which, in hindsight, was not great from a “feeling good about the finished quality of the item I spent too much money on” standpoint, though ideal from a “how can I dissect this for parts later” mentality.

Well, I finally filled the journal. Time to commit crafting crimes and give it new life!

Thicker craft paper for structural support, thinner decorative paper I’ve been stashing for an embarrassing amount of time, some cheap-ass spray glue, and it’s now a very serviceable slipcover for future notebooks! I even managed to save the leather bookmark strip, it came right off the original notebook and readily stuck to the new one.

Like I said, no idea what I was doing. It may not last in this current iteration. If it comes apart, I’ll just try again!