Scrapbook... no, wait...

This is my "Scrap" book. See, I got these lovely fabrics at the Deseret Industries a while back, and I've been thinking for a while how lovely they look together. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think they're a great combo. So I've been trying to think of a beautiful way to use them all together, and couldn't think of anything. Except this, and I'm not sure it if counts as beautiful.

You may recognize the pink fabric from my Mother's day book. All of the fabric for this book was made into book cloth by me. I especially love the beige fabric (the lowest part of the book in the first picture), because it reminds me of 80's prom dresses that you find at thrift stores. You know, the silk moire that looks like wood grain? It's classic. I actually picked up a couple more colors the other day (yeehaw!).

You can see in the picture below that some of the pages are different sizes. It gives the book a more handmade feel, and gives me an opportunity to give all those poor lost scraps of paper a home. They are all very similar in size, and it doesn't harm the strength of the book (or the aesthetic, for that matter).

 I'm happy with the result. The thread is a nice minty green that goes rather smashingly with the blue floral print. On the inside covers I used some rescued dusty pink lokta paper. I can't believe what some people will try to throw away. And at the same time, I can't believe some of the stuff I try to keep, haha sigh.

Check the book out on my Etsy site.

Pretty in Pink

Here's my latest book. It is bound with the case binding technique, which is fun, and is made with some of my favorite homemade book cloth. I found the material for this book cloth at DI about a week ago (I celebrated school being out for the semester by buying myself some DI fabric and a cute outfit... and a couple of pairs of shoes... and a leather scrap coat... ok, ok, and a book, all for under $30! I love thrifting), and just made it last night, which was so fun. Anyways, I have a couple of other fabrics that I think would look lovely with this fabric, I just have yet to figure out how to put them all together.

Anyways, I had fun making this book. I tried out a new way to glue the tapes down on the inside of the covers. I started by figuring out where they would go, traced around them, then cut out a few layers of the book board, just like I would if I was embossing. Then, I glued the tapes into their designated spaces, and voila! They didn't show up after I put the end paper on! I'm happy I finally tried this out after Sister Simpson suggested it a while back. Especially since the tapes I'm using are really thick, and would look awkward under the end papers. I think this method makes the book look a little more professional.

I listed this item in my shop hoping it will make a good choice for a Mother's day gift. I dunno. It's pretty, and I think it would be a sweet idea. Too bad I have no idea what to do for my mom. It was simple when I was living at home. Me and the sibs would go pick some springy flowers and make her a very classy breakfast in bed (even taking her order! haha). But now I'm not at home. I wasn't last year either. No idea what to do.

Well, my next project I'm working on is a cord bound book that I'm going to use some of my hand marbled paper and upcycled leather for. I tore apart a perfectly good coat from DI for the leather. I am a villain. More on my villainous ways next time.

Butterscotch

This is a traditional style coptic stitch book I made yesterday. I'm especially excited about this one because it is covered with some of my very own homemade book cloth! Yay! It's actually the same stuff that you can see me make in my video tutorial, here.

I love all the beautiful colors that are in this fabric. It has every color of the rainbow except for green. That was nice, because it left a lot of options open for end paper. I decided on a beautiful butterscotch colored lokta paper, which is almost the same color as the thread. I think it goes nicely with the plaid fabric.

I did switch it up a little with this one by alternating how far onto the book board the stitches go. You can see it in the next picture. Overall, this was a fun book to make, and it was a lot quicker to do normal style. Coming up with variation patterns is hard for me. It takes a while to decide what will look best, and then there's the whole process of poking holes in each signature without the help of a universal template. Grr.

Make Your Own Bookcloth, yo.

Here's my groovylicious video I did for Art Business. It's about making bookcloth, which is kind of fun. Enjoy!