10 Books

 

Great news! I now have 10 books on my Etsy! Whoo! Actually, there's this part of me that says, "that's so lame, you should have 50 by now!" and then I find myself agreeing. It really is a lame milestone. I've been pretty slow about getting books made and posted. I do have 8 more books in the works though!

Anyways, here are some pictures of the two books I posted yesterday. The first is a longstitch book. I used recycled brown leather and some of the pink fabric from the pretty in pink book. I think it turned out great.

 

Had fun braiding the wrap around tie.

 

The next one is another cord bound book. This one also turned out great, and would be a good idea for a Father's day gift.

In honor of my 10 book milestone, I thought it would be fun to list 10 of my favorite books, in no particular order.

1. The Twelve Days of Christmas, Illustrated by Sheilah Beckett
2. Cinderella, Illustrated by K.Y. Craft
3. Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley (heck, insert any book by Robin McKinley here, and it'll work)
4. The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
5. The Wheel of Time Series, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (o.k., o.k., I know it's not one book, but you can't really read one without the others, can you?)
6. The Fablehaven Series, by Brandon Mull (ditto)
7. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
8. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (question: is there anyone out there who has read this book and not liked it?)
9. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling (and again, with the series)
10. Ferdinand the bull, by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson

Well, I guess that's it for today. Be sure to stop by my shop to take a look at my newest additions! There will be more coming soon! 

How to Destroy your Iron

It's called heat n' bond. No, I didn't ruin my iron, but I came close. A couple of days ago I tore down 20 sheets of Mohawk superfine and assembled it into text blocks. Of course, there was some leftover paper (a lot of it), so I made that into a couple of text blocks as well. I haven't done a longstitch book in a while, so I decided that would be fun. This morning I whipped out my iron so I could line a piece of leather with some of that pink fabric that I used for the pretty in pink book. This isn't very thick fabric. As I was bonding the fabric to the piece of leather I was using, I noticed it was becoming harder and harder to push the iron around. I took a peek, and was shocked to find that the heat n' bond had melted partially through the fabric and was making its way onto my iron! Gasp! Thankfully, the damage was minimal, and I was able to continue after I located my new ironing friend, teflon paper. I got it from the local screen printer the other day. It's pretty much awesome. Anyways...

I now have two books that are ready to take pictures of and post on my Etsy. I just have to wait for a day that isn't quite as gray as it is today so I can take some (good) pictures.

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.

More Cords

I made another cord bound book. This one went a lot better, I think. Firstly, I didn't trim the leather too short, which made it look more finished. I may need to look into paring down the thickness of the leather in the places I'll be folding it underneath itself. Maybe so it won't look so bulky. The first point also plays into my second. Because I didn't trim the leather too short, I was able to make the endpapers the right size and not have to fudge and cut things like I did on the last one. I guess I'm glad I made the mistake in the first place so I could learn from it.

The cover paper I used for this book was some flocked damask paper in a dark rosy magenta color. It's really pretty paper, I've just been looking for a good opportunity to use it. Ever since I bought the black leather coat I've know this would look good.

I used red and black endbands on this. I would like to learn how to make my own endbands so I could match colors and whatnot. It's kind of annoying to me that the only endbands I have access to have really ugly color combos, or the colors themselves are ones that are really hard to match to other materials. Yellow and black? Really? Gold and red? When am I going to use that? Anyways...

Inside the book I used white lokta paper. I left the raw edge on the endpapers because I thought it would go nicely with the torn edges of the text block. I actually tore the end of the endpaper on the back cover. It was fun, because all those beautiful fibers stuck out. It reminded me of my mom's old mulberry paper that she would use for scrapbooking. Good times.

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.