Scuba Anything Book

I have a delightful, free-spirited friend who commissioned me to make an Anything Book just for her. She had the perfect package for me to use as the cover: a Durex box.

The front cover of Scuba, an Anything Book created from a Durex box.

It's a great choice for an Anything Book because it is just over 5 inches each direction. That means there is room to add in photographs with just a little bit of trimming.

This was a fun project from start to finish. I used the bright blue of the package as inspiration for many of the pages and trims.

I used a mixture of soft and hard materials for the outside trim.

I used 1-inch book rings, so that means there were approximately 50 inserted pages for a total surface of 100 pages. Because of the square size, most of the pages are full size and there is little layering. There are inserted items like a luggage tag, product tags, and a shipping tag.

The Ultimate tag comes from a product and overlays a brochure cut from an IKEA store catalog.

I chose the name Scuba from the name of a color on a blue paint chip inside. Plus, this name gave me the giggles. I suppose that scuba gear is a bit more bulky than a raincoat, but you get the idea.

The name Scuba comes from the color name on this paint chip.

Each two-page spread is color coordinated to create a background for adding treasures. I include an archive quality glue stick with each book, along with an ultra-fine tip permanent marker. The marker is perfect for writing on most of the pages. You can also attach things with clips, staples, or anything else you can imagine.

A vellum page lays over the ruby slippers paper. 

The recipient grew up in Kansas, so the reference to the Wizard of Oz was another bit of humor I added to the contents. The vellum page adds depth and allows her to create something interesting over the ruby slippers paper.

The small white item is a coin envelope that open on the other side. It overlays a menu from a local restaurant.

I inserted several envelopes including an air mail envelope, two coin envelopes, and an upcycled return mail envelope to give her space to tuck away treasures within the pages.

The edges have tabs made from an assortment of papers and ribbons.

Within the pages are 4 journaling sections designed for writing longer entries. These are blank pages designed for writing. Of course, like everything else about the Anything Book, the recipeint can use it any way she wants.

Each Anything Book gets a unique bar code identifier along with a signature and the book name.

The book left with a large rubber band around the edges to hold everything inside and to keep the covers together.

I'm thrilled with how this turned out. And the recipient was equally happy with her Anything Book.