Merry Christmas

I just finished a little Christmas bookbinding project where I bound together some previous year's Christmas cards. I don't get very uptight about saving cards, but I also don't like to throw them away. Sometimes I will cut them up to make gift tags but there are always some with letters written inside or other reasons why I want to keep them. So I decided to make a book, at least it will be easier to keep them in this format! They are just sewn onto the ribbons with a layer of PVA on the spine.


Let me know if you have other creative uses for old greeting cards! And have a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday too!

Books by PrairiePeasant

Laura, known online as PrairiePeasant, is a bookbinder in Winnipeg, Manitoba. We have met through our memberships in both the Etsy Bookbinding Team as well as the Trans Canada Etsy Team. Much of Laura's work involves using eco-friendly materials to produce eco-friendly journals. Laura told me, "I love the challenge of finding usable materials at thrift shops and garage sales and I love using old maps and unloved books in my work." This unique journal is part of her Anatomy Series: The covers are reclaimed book board and the images on the covers are pages from a vintage medical textbook. From her Rebound series, using the covers and some pages of a discarded reader, she transforms an unloved book into new, cheery, and colourful journal: Laura also has a second Etsy shop called PrairieThreads where she has her eco-friendly fibre arts, like these awesome little knitted stockings, made using 100% salvaged yarns, recycled from previous projects and treasures found in thrift shops. You can check out more of Laura's work by visiting her Etsy shops (just click on the images above and there's still time for Christmas shopping, espcially if you're ordering within Canada!). I also highly recommned Laura's blog at PrairiePeasant.blogspot.com. She documents so many of her creative projects, including bookbinding, calligraphy, quilting, knitting, and many other things she is doing!

Check this out

Super nicey blogger, rikrak, over at therikrakstudio just did a little feature on my shop, showing off a little collection of mine! Check it out for a chance to win one of my weekly planners.

Marbling again

Just want to share some recent marbling attempts. I have just started trying to mix my own marbling paints using acrylics and this has introduced some new challenges (compared to using pre-mixed paints purchased from the professionals who actually know what they are doing!). But after much experimentation, some good results were still possible. So much practice required, so little time!