More books from boxes

I just have to show some books I recently made by request using fun boxes. Because, not only is it fun to have all the products that are advertised on television, it is even more fun to have notebooks made from the boxes.

The Graty and SlapChop combo, of course.



The Snuggie, and yes, the Snuggie for dogs.

Six journals

When I was preparing for the local craft market that I mentioned previously, I prepared the signatures and the covers for these six journals. I had the covers made, pressed, dried, and the signatures were folded and pressed and I took them with me to the sale to work on if there was any downtime. I got only two of them bound while I was there, each are sewn with four rows of chain stitches, or the small-c-coptic sewings. Now I've finished the others and added the buttons and ribbons.

Collecting the mail

I've been collecting used mailing envelopes from a few different sources and recently realized that the collection had grown almost out-of-control. I save the envelopes to make journals, where the envelopes are used as the pages. With my current supply, I was able to make seven journals, with some envelopes left over. So I started with stacks and stacks of these: And finished with these: The covers are decorated with various bits and pieces saved from old mailing materials, like this one which uses a green security pattern for the decorative paper embellished with some clipped postal marks and stamps from Japan. Or in some cases, the embellishments are printed directly onto the envelopes, like this junk mail sweepstakes example. And all of them have envelopes for pages, with all the security patterns, plastic windows, and stamps in tact to make for a very interesting journal-keeping adventure.

Snow Storm Hardcover Journal

I made this journal a couple days ago for the Trans Canada Etsy Team's February Challenge. The theme of the challenge is Snow since we still have lots of it around the country, even if it was scarce for a few days in Whistler! Visit the TCET blog to vote for your favorite item in our snow-inspired challenge (hint: pick "D"!) This journal has a white leather spine and the covers are finished with beautiful Japanese Chiyogami paper that has fine gold and silver bursts that remind me of whirling snow during a blizzard. There are 256 pages of gorgeous snow white cotton paper with torn edges.

And a little more repurposing

I have two more books made from repurposed materials to show you before I move on to other things.

This first one is a hardcover book, using reclaimed bookboard in the covers. The spine material is cut from a discarded pleather jacket. The paper on the covers is from a red paper bag, and the pages are all cut from brown paper bags. (And it's just a pretty red book, very nice to share today on Valentine's Day!)



This next one is made entirely with discarded paper. The cover of the book and slipcase are cut from the cover of a large sketchbook. This is the "Crossed Structure Solo" binding structure. The pages are all from the recycling bin and include previously used papers that are still mostly blank, as well as some lined pages from discarded notebooks, etc.

Repurposing materials for bookbinding

A while back, I asked Pegg, fiveforty.etsy.com, to help me come up with some ideas for making books with repurposed materials. Pegg is a weaver, and so she wove two book covers for me to play with. This first one is woven plastic - this is the kind of plastic that comes wrapped around products at grocery stores before they are unpacked and shelved. Pegg collected the plastic at her local grocery store, took it home and wove it on her loom. Then I used it to make a photo album. Pegg also made another one for me, using lotto tickets. She cut them into strips, stitched them, then wove them together to make this book cover. It made a very sturdy book cover and I was able to case in a text block (consisting mostly of reclaimed papers in reds and blues) and have a wrap around cover with a button closure. Thanks for working with me on these projects Pegg! Check out Pegg's recycled textile rugs, woven using pre-used sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, etc in her Etsy shop, atFiveForty.Etsy.com.

Happy New Year

Somehow it has become 2010 already. The last few weeks have blown by in such haste that I hardly noticed the passage of time. In spite of my near silence here in blogworld and my little hiatus from Etsy over the holidays, I was working on a few things. So until I get some new projects underway, I'll share some books that I did in the Autumn and leading up to the holidays, for customers and friends, which didn't get mentioned here previously.

This custom steampunk journal was made for a writer who wanted a special journal in which to write her own steampunk-style fiction.


A model Nag Hammadi blank book, with exposed papyrus in the covers (although I used some Old Masters paper from Saint-Armand for the pages, rather than papyrus).


Two hardcover autograph books for my niece and nephew who are planning a trip to Disney World.


A red leather journal featuring the High School Musical cast on the inside, a hardcover chain-stitch journal with a soccer motif, a tan leather journal with a bead closure, and a set of box-board notebooks made from a Don Julio Tequila box.


I have big plans for the new year... well, I resolve to finish some of the projects that I started last year, and the year before...

Halloween Challenges - I need your votes!

This week, my halloween books are looking for votes! The Bookbinding Etsy Street Team is having its second halloween challenge for the BEST Zombie Award. I made this tunnel book for the challenge: Trapped Inside a Haunted House. You can vote for this book (or whichever book you like most) over at the BEST Blog. AND - the Trans Canada Etsy Street Team is also having a Halloween challenge this week! Same idea, except that this team consists of a wide range of artisans and crafters, not just book artists. So the collection of halloween items is wonderfully wide-ranging! For this challenge, I submitted my Macbeth journal which has the witches' chant on the back cover, printed onto some of my handmarbled paper - and an illustration from an old storybook on the front cover. So now hop on over to the Trans Canada blog to vote for this book (or whichever item you like best, of course!) If you leave comments on either of those blogs, there are little surprises to be won by some random commenters, so be sure to leave a comment in both places! Happy Halloween...

Miniature book swap

When I was at PBI this year, a small group of us decided to organize a recurring book swap. We agreed to get the book, "More Making Books by Hand" and work our way through the projects in this book. So for each swap, we are making a small edition so that we can send a book to each person in the group and we'll get a book from each person in return. And they are all miniature books, so nothing larger than 3" in any direction. The first swap was completed a couple months ago and now I'm working on the second project, I need to have the edition done by the end of the month. But here's what the first swap looks like - this is one book from each person - mine is the second from the left, with the green and brown marbled paper on the cover.


They all have content too, since we're giving each project a theme and this time we were supposed to do something that would be a self portrait, without using a picture of ourselves. The results were incredibly wide ranging! Much fun. Can't wait to see the results of the next swap.

My favorites

Hardcover pamphlets are one of my favorite things to make. I made a few recently. This one with the rice fields on the cover is my favorite of this batch. This particular book is being sold to raise money for Cancer Research in support of Jay who is raising money for the Weekend2EndCancer event in Ottawa. The rice field picture is a page from Jay's 2008 calendar. Her calendar was full of gorgeous Japanese scenery and she sent the photos to me thinking that I might be able to use them (yes!), so I made this one in support of her fund raising efforts. I used lime green leather on the spine and the pages are a mixture of various colourful papers. Over at the Book Arts Forum we just did a Pamphlet Book Swap so I made another for the swap and sent it off for Jackie. (Still eagerly awaiting my return book, I think it is coming overseas so I must sit patiently!) Jackie's book has two fabrics on the cover and again a mixture of different papers for the pages. Then, just for fun, I made four more in different colours, available on Etsy.

The Morgan's Paper Anniversary

The Morgan Conservatory ( morganconservatory.org ) in Cleveland, Ohio, is having its paper anniversary this weekend, celebrating its first successful year. Congratulations to them!

In preparation for this anniversary event, handmade papers made at the Morgan were given to artists far and wide, and the artists were asked to do something with it, then send it back to the Morgan for a silent auction this weekend to raise money for the centre.

This is what I did with my sheet of handmade paper from the Morgan. A journal, made with a crossed structure binding, and a matching pair of mini book earrings, and a little book pendant on a chain. They are all stamped with my original "Man and Wife" hand carved rubber stamps. All packaged prettily in a wooden box which I customized a bit to make the little compartments. I hope everyone had a great time at the event!

Celebrating Autumn Journal

The Trans Canada Etsy Team issued an Autumn Challenge a while ago, and now all the entires are online for voting! So go over to the team blog (transcanadaetsyteam.blogspot.com) and vote for #11! or #13! er, I mean, go vote for your favorite! This is my Autumn journal (#11 when you vote!) I cut a circle out of the front cover to create an enclosed window. The back of the window is lined with a piece of real birch bark, and then a small red maple leaf was placed inside before I sealed it over with a plastic transparency sheet. The birch bark is from that tree in the campground where I camped this past summer and there were big pieces of bark peeling off so I brought a bit home with me. The little red maple leaf, I picked last Fall from a tree near my house and pressed in a big book all year. The marbled paper on the covers is some that I hand marbled myself. There is also some handmade paper that I made, as the paste-down on the inside of each cover. My other submission for this challenge is this sheet of marbled paper - #13 when you vote!! Vote here: transcanadaetsyteam.blogspot.com And if you also leave a comment over there after you vote, there is a little giveaway for some lucky commenter (not here, over at the TCET blog)

Got fun boxes?

Well, if you are the sort of person who saves boxes because you think they look really cool... then you could make them into journals. I made this batch of books for a friend who has a tendancy to accumulate and save boxes. Definitely some fun things going on here. You followin' me camera guy? And another batch made from boxes that I had accumulated:

Back to School: Weekly Planners (and *free* book pendants)

Now I have weekly planners, as well as the monthly and daily planners that I mentioned before. Some people are very particular about their planners and it can make a big difference if you have space to write every day or not! My favorite planner is the "weekly" variety like these ones. These particular planners are 13-month agendas, starting Sept 2009 and ending Sept 2010. This is one designed to my own preferences concerning size, format, page layout, etc. So whether you like daily, weekly, or monthly, these might just work for you! And for the next month, I'm going to give away *free* mini leather journal pendants with every planner. Woot! Kinda like these ones:

Bookbinding in the bush

As I've mentioned before, I have a rather different approach to the "travel journal" concept. Rather than taking a blank book with me when I go away, I travel with no book, just a bag. I collect papers, postcards, tickets, maybe some random notes here and there, and end up with a bag of loose papers and brochures and other related paraphernalia. Then when I get home and get organized, I transform the paraphernalia into a book.

Recently, I made one of these "travel journals" for myself, using papers and materials that I collected over the summer with my family. We didn't have a big vacation, just a bunch of smaller weekend-type-stuff, but there are lots of memories to be kept nonetheless. I never seem to have time to make books for myself so this time, before we went on our last camping trip, I packed up everything I needed and took all the materials with me so that I could make the book while we were camping.

The camping/bookbinding studio:


I completed the book in a few hours, all the same day. It was dark when I was doing the last of it and I was working by the light of the campfire and a flashlight...so the case is a little crooked... and the whole thing has a lot of swell due to the nature its content...but that's ok.


I had a plan for this book beforehand, so I knew what I had to bring with me. The cover has real birch bark on it - collected during a hike earlier this summer. But the little window in the front cover was unplanned so I had to be resourceful finding material to use for the window pane. I ultimately settled on some cellophane-type-stuff from a cracker package. Why bother with the window? Well, the day before I made this book, Raland (my dh) discovered wild mussels in the waters by our campsite so he collected a big pot of mussels, boiled them on the campfire and ate them. Rather to his surprise, unlike cultivated mussels, wild mussels have pearls inside them and he nearly broke his teeth on every one of them. Ah, the memories! It was amusing... so I saved some of the little pearls and put them in this little window so they will rattle around in there forever... or as long as that cracker-box cellophane survives.


Inside the book, the content consists of all the papers and ticket stubs and whatever else I had. They are organized chronologically, and related stuff is grouped together of course. I wrote a few details on shipping tags and stuck those into each section.


I used some larger papers to create pockets in the middle of each signature, so the loose bits like ticket stubs and the shipping tags, etc, are tucked into those pockets. There are also a few pages that fold out, and stuff like that.

Opening Action

I was introduced to the concept and importance of "opening action" in a class with Gary Frost at PBI this year. I had never thought much about it before, but it made me very happy to learn about it and to learn why it is good and how it happens and all that good stuff. It also answers some questions that I've been asking myself. The questions I've been asking myself are primarily concerned with exposed spine bindings like the chain stitch binding and some other similar sewings where the spine of the book is so often left unlined, but which historically would have been lined. I have made some of these chain stitch bindings (popularly termed "coptic") because they seemed to be very common and I thought I should keep up with the Joneses, so to speak. I was never happy with how the covers were just sewn on and just laid there, dead. I wondered if this was really alright, and how durable it would be, and wondered if I was missing something. To show you what I mean, I made this little video of an exposed-spine chain stitch binding with a very dead cover: It is dead because it has no relationship with the rest of the book; as if the cover and the book are entirely separate objects. In my class with Gary Frost, he talked at length about the "opening action" of books: the opening of the cover should facilitate the opening of the book. The cover and the text block should function together. In this class we made a book that demonstrated the opening action really well so I am beginning to understand what is happening. I decided to try infusing life into this chain stitch binding with the dead cover. This is the result, showing the same book with opening action: Achieving the opening action just requires a few extra steps and ultimately a covered spine. I prefer a covered spine anyway. The whole point of a book's covering is to protect the textblock, and an exposed spine isn't very well protected, is it? For those of you who are now thinking, "oh no! the book won't open flat anymore," do not worry, it will still lie flat. I made a couple of these chain stitch bindings with opening-action-improvements; however, I don't particularly like sewing the chain stitch binding so I started sewing onto raised cords instead, which, I think, is a more suitable binding for various reasons. And the raised cords look really cool. The book shown here with the really dark brown cover is made from wooden boards given to me by Simon over at Paper Curious when we swapped a while back and I'm keeping that one. The others are made with wooden covers that my Dad prepared for me, thanks Dad! He made them using a variety of hardwoods: teak, oak, cherry, and maple.