How to Turn Potato Chips Into a Sketchbook

When my friend Mindy sent me a fun little gift box of potato chips (which were invented in her town, Saratoga Springs, in 1853–read funny history here), I was smitten by the cute box (photo below). Then I opened the box, saw the foil inner pouch and had to try to draw it (sketch above, on a red cloth).

The box was charming, a replica of their original packaging from 1853. I remembered seeing  journals created from packaging on the fabulous Make a Book a Day blog where Donna Meyer binds and posts a new book almost every day. In August she did a whole series of recycled packaging books, from KitKats and Snowballs to root beer books.

So I grabbed a sheet of Stonehenge Kraft-brown paper and the excellent Gwen Diehn book Real Life Journals: Designing & Using Handmade Books to find out how to make a pamphlet book and got started.

As usual, the most challenging part for me was the measuring, which I screwed up several times. I was able to use the top of the box and one side it was attached to for the front and half the back cover, and then cut out and glued on another side to complete the back. Then I glued a piece of marbled grey Canson paper to the opposite side to hide the seams and give it more support.

If you’d like to make a pamphlet book here’s a tutorial on Rhonda Miller’s blog, My Handbound Books.

Before sewing, I trimmed the fore edge of the rather fat signature so the folded sheets would be the same size when nested together. The book is 6″x4″ with 24 sides (12 pages made of 6 sheets folded in half) and I’m enjoying using it for sketching people in cafes and on the subway. It’s just the right size for secret sketching.

Oh…and the potato chips were quite tasty too! Thanks Mindy! What can I make a sketchbook out of next?