Smoked salmon boxes made into a junk journal. I've been saving the boxes for years, stashed them away every time we finished off a smoked salmon with cream cheese and crackers. We would get them every now and then when they were available at our local Big Lots store, but the price for one is outrageous even in discount...
The packaging style of the company changes over time. It went from being the basic fish you see on the pages within the book, to being the more adult looking fish on the outside cover of the book, suddenly to change to the style of the first page of the book which you can see in the lower left bottom corner of the panel above. By personal taste, I liked the cover of the adult fish most, and that was the only one made of thicker cardboard, making it perfect as a cover.
I had been collecting bits and ends of stuff through time, saving even the smaller scrap pieces from the salmon boxes which I had to cut down to size. All of the scraps served well as accents and add ins to the book once I sat down to make it. You'll notice the tabs on certain tags and decorative strips on little add ins and pockets were all scrap pieces from the boxes.
Recently I got a few sheets of camping themed paper specifically for this project, helped add some interest to the theme which started as an emotion and yearning for the great outdoors. That's right, I made the book according to my mood, wanting to be near clean, flowing waters, surrounded by trees and fresh air. The Alaskin, mountain, camping theme was further inspired by the television show "Twin Peaks" (a rather quirky mystery series that takes place somewhere in Washington). The book basically reflects my longing to go on an adventure, and possibly do some fishing. :P
I was giddy when I found I had so many small things that fit the project; the only challenging part was stenciling papers to fit the theme. I wanted water waves and wood grain, but found painting with stencils isn't as easy at it looks. What papers I did make I used, and what I didn't use I'll be using in a possible second smoked salmon book. The benefit of stenciling my own papers is that I got to experiment with different kind of mediums; everything from paint, chalk pastel, and homemade brown ink spritz. Some of the experiments were added to this book for fun.
The fun bits added on, range from food nets to serve as fish nets, a little washi tape, a salmon can label, and the dangles of stuff on the spine. I used red and blue yarns of different kinds, the army twine key chain was made by my brother, the torn black net was from the net bag I used for pockets in the book, the clear hook was a hanger from sock packaging, the black hanger hook displayed in the top middle of the panel was a panty hose hanger, and the buoy was an extra thing that I can't recall origin of, I just found it interesting and kept it in my collection of nick knacks, thrilled to have finally used it for something so fitting. The beaded end was added to look like water drops, and to prevent the thread from coming loose.
Tips, I used scrapbook paper to cover the insides of the book, the edges of the cover and some of the elements within were distressed with a red or blue ink pad, and the paper of the cover was sealed with Liquitex gloss varnish.
The thing that really made the book if you ask me are these fun fish cards I assembled as print outs using old fish images from Graphics Fairy. The postcards are simple obviously, the other ones I put together so you can score down the center where they connect, fold, then cut out for a double sided note fish. For those who think these look fun, I've included the assembled pages above for printing.
That is so creative!
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