Bloggers' Crafting Weekend - The Plan so far...

An update for those who are attending our Bloggers' Crafting Weekend, from 25th - 27th November.

Also a heads-up for anyone who missed the Invitation first time round and might still like to come along - it's likely that there will still be a couple of spaces available, if you get in touch with me!
 Follow this link for more details.

The Current Plan

At the moment, this is the plan for our weekend.  Changes can be made, ideas can still be incorporated and nothing - except the YHA mealtimes - is set in stone.  If you have a clever idea for something we might all enjoy, do please say so!

Friday 25th November

Arrivals from around 1pm onwards. 
We have booked the a classroom/conference room, separate from the main hostel.  This will be our Craft Room base for the weekend, where we can set up our stuff and all meet up, to craft, chat, eat cake etc!

Friday Afternoon
All meet up and say hello!  We can then start Crafting and having fun, until dinner time, when we'll all eat together in the YHA dining room.

Friday Evening
Craft as much as we like, until we are tired and want to sleep - at which point, we can go to bed and sleep!!

Saturday 26th November

Breakfast in the YHA dining room.

Saturday Morning
Crafting and chat etc in our Craft Room
A Visit to a nearby Interesting Place is planned for the morning - a couple of hours or so of exploring somewhere in the interesting Ironbridge area.  Anyone who doesn't want to go, can remain in the Craft Room and craft all day!

Lunch
Buffet-style lunch together - everyone will bring a little something to share for lunch - and of course, there will be Cake!

Saturday Afternoon
Crafting and chat etc in our Craft Room.
During the afternoon, I am hoping to offer a short Bookbinding Workshop, to anyone who wants to join in.  I am still sorting out details, but I will show you how to make a nice book to take home  - something you will be able to make again by yourself.  Any preferences for type of book - please let me know!

Dinner
We will all have dinner together in the YHA dining room.

Saturday Evening
Our Craft Room will be available for anyone who wants to get together and craft.  Craft 'til bedtime, if you wish!
The hostel also has a lounge with a tv and a games room, so you can go and enjoy these facilities if you prefer.

Sunday 27th November

Breakfast in the YHA dining room.

Sunday Morning
Crafting and chat etc in our Craft Room

Clair has offered to do a short Gift-Wrapping demonstration/tutorial:

"If anyone's interested, I would absolutely love to do a quick demonstration of how I approach my gift wrapping. I like to use my own scrapbooking supplies and I'll often make use of smaller scraps, so nothing is wasted - it's a great way to personalise your gifts for special people or special events!"

I will forward the information Clair has e-mailed me, to all who are signed up for our weekend, so you can decide if you want to join in and gather up any materials you wish to bring along.  If you haven't seen Clair's clever skills at gift-wrapping, have a look here or here, try this post, or this one, to see some of her fabulous hand-made embellishments!  I'm sure this wrapping demo will be great!

Anyone who prefers to, can carry on with their own crafting projects - nothing is obligatory, we are there to be with friends and enjoy ourselves.  No-one will be offended if you prefer to do your own thing!

Lunch
Buffet-style lunch together

Sunday Afternoon
We have to check out of our bed-rooms in the morning; however the Craft Room will be available for anyone who wants to stay and craft, until around 5pm.   Some people will need to head off home, especially those with a long journey to make, but anyone who wishes to can stay on until the end!

Sunday Night
Crawl into your own bed, hopefully feeling that you have had a lovely time, with plenty of photos to scrap!

Anyone who hasn't booked yet, but now wants to join in?  Get in touch - I think there may still be spaces!

We will be in touch with those attending very soon.

Pat A Cake, Pat A Cake, Baker Girl!

I made a nice page on Sunday.  I was so pleased with the "photo strip" effect on the page in this post, that I used it again. Almost the same template for the layout too - just an extra big photo, rather than the vertical photo-strip.

Pat A Cake - My little great niece's first attempt at making scones. 

Apart from weighing the ingredients and being shown the "rubbing in the butter" part, she did these all by herself.

They tasted great - I know because she saved one specially for "Auntie"! I ate it with some of the jam that me & Keri-Anne made together.

I used a little bunting stamp, and a plate of buns stamp, which I coloured with pastel marker pens.

I raised the stamped images (and the photo of the plate of scones) on foam pads, to give a bit of dimension and interest.

Quite pleased with this page. And it shows you can do a "girly page" without using pink paper!

Fun on Fursday 7 - My Favourite Cat Channel

A bit of fun, to make you smile - the newest video from the amazing Simon:

Hope it makes you smile!

Wednesday Worktable 12th October - Books Again!

A quick peek at what is going on in my studio this week...

Well, a fair bit of admin actually, but that's not very interesting, so...

A Guest Book, completed today.  It's covered with Liberty print Tana Lawn fabric (made into bookcloth), with the design "Strawberry Thief", by William Morris. This is the purple colour-way, which is my favourite.  I used damson coloured tussah silk for the bound edges, fraying the edge to make a black fringe.  The covers have a hinge and are bound in a Japanese-style stab stitch, with black linen.

There's a silk dust-wrap under the binding, to give a decorative edge. I really like this effect - it gives the appearance of a "spine" on the book, yet you still have the lovely oriental-style binding patterns.

The book covers are lined with art paper (by Murano), in a slatey, grey-brown colour.  There are 24 pages (48 sides) of white 200gm - med. weight - cartridge paper, which is great for writing on.

This one's in my Etsy shop now, but this...

this is still In Progress!

Here's a clue:

Under all those boxes, are the covers for a new book, being nicely flattened!

It's going to be Great!

Ten on the Tenth - Top Ten Crafting Injuries

A post for my blogging, bookbinding and scrapping friends!

We all love to cut, stick, trim, punch, stitch, tear, layer, draw, write, plan, print, photograph and create. 
We all love to craft - especially with paper and fabrics.

But often, our dedication to our Craft can result in personal injury.

We all know the risks involved in our Crafts... yet we bravely go forth and create, regardless of the personal dangers...

Top Ten Crafting Injuries

10) Stubbing a toe on a box of crafting equipment - OW! (Observer Wince) Factor: 1/10

9) Pricking a finger on a sewing needle - OW! Factor: 3/10

8) Papercut... on fingertip - OW! Factor 3/10, on knuckle - OW! Factor 5/10

7) Dropping a box of equipment on your foot - OW! Factor 4/10

6) Banging your head on the desk, while picking up a dropped item - OW! Factor 5/10

5)  Burning fingers on heat tool - OW! Factor 6/10

4)  Trapping finger in die-cutter - OW! Factor 7/10

3) Cutting hand with craft knife - OW! Factor 8/10

2) Hair loss, due to frustration - OW! Factor 9/10

1) EARTHQUAKE!

Speaking from Personal Experience.... OW! Factor - 11/10!

For more 10 Things on the Tenth, see Shimelle's post today!

A Big Batch of Books!

I've been busy recently, making more books.  A couple were for presents, one was a commission and the rest were stock for my Etsy shop. 
Photo Gallery coming up!

Birthday Scrapbook-Card, for J's 14th Birthday on 26th September. 

(already posted this here, but thought I would like to include it in this post too)

A large (A4) sketchbook, as a Birthday Present for J.

(also posted on the above link!)

A Mini Book in Coptic Stitch, for a friend's daughter.

It is covered with a Cath Kidston designed paper, with a bubblegum pink lining of smooth art paper. The pages are white cartridge paper (smooth drawing paper) and the binding is in hot pink linen thread. I hope she likes it!

A Large Guest Book, with a Japanese-style stab-stitch binding, for a Wedding, Engagement etc.

This cover paper, with lovely birds and butterflies, has been so popular this Spring and Summer.  Birds are still popular for weddings etc, so I thought I would update the colours a bit, to make books that are more suitable for Fall or Winter events. 

The edges of the covers are embellished with a silk tussah fabric, which is a shot silk, in turquoise and russet.  The turquoise threads are the heavier, more dominant ones, but the russet shows up nicely from certain angles. 

I used a contrasting shade of linen thread to stitch the binding and made a matching tassel from threads of the turquoise and russet silk. 

I added a silk dust-wrap round the bound edges of the pages, to give the book a "spine" and protect the pages from dirt.

Then I chose a Murano paper in a soft, marled-effect aqua shade, for the linings of the covers.

This book is quite large, measuring 11.75" x 8.25" / 28.5cm x 21cm - approx A4 size.

I think it was pretty successful overall and I'm quite proud of this one!

Another book in the same paper.  This is a Coptic-style binding.  The book is smaller - it's around 9" x 6.5" in size.

I used the same cover paper and the same aqua marled paper for the linings.  I also used the aqua paper to make section wraps, for the sets of pages. You can see that it gives the book a really nice appearance at the bound edge. 

The binding is a Coptic Stitch style of binding, stitched with 6 needles, in deep turquoise waxed linen thread.

The pages have folded spacers, as well as the section wraps, so the book has lots of room at the spine, for inclusions, like tags or photos.  It's not really a photo album, as the pages are made with medium-weight drawing (cartridge) paper, but it would take some photos or tags quite well, so long as it wasn't over-loaded.

The colour-scheme I used most in the summer, was with red cover linings and red linen binding.  I also made a couple of books with chocolate brown linings and brown thread.  I really like this new colour-way though - much softer and more seasonal for autumn and winter.

Another book that I'm very pleased with!

Another Coptic-stitched book.  This has a 10-thread Coptic binding, in two colours - ivory and deep moss green linen.  The cover paper on this book has also been very popular this year - birds are definitely "in"!

This book also had section-wraps, in soft peach art paper.  There were 10 sections, of four pages (2 pairs) each, making this quite a deep book for a Wedding Guest Book.  This one is not designed to hold photos - or not more than one or two anyway.  The pages are of medium-weight cartridge paper, in an ivory-white colour. 

The binding has a stepped pattern, to emphasise the deep green threads.  I really like this stitching design, but it takes 2 hours to sew, as it's very fiddly - even with my new curved needles!

If you're interested in the process of making a book like this, I posted about it here.

The customer who bought this book, on Tuesday, also bought a custom label.  I came up with this design for her, using cut-out pieces from the cover paper.  She was very pleased with this - and it should have been delivered today, so I hope she'll be even happier, when she sees it "in real life"!

And finally...

Today I made this book and listed it for sale.  A Japanese-style stab-stitch binding, with the same cover paper and art paper for lining and edging the covers. 

This is a thinner book, having just sixteen pages of nice, crisp white cartridge paper, in a slightly heavier weight than the previous two above. 

The pages have folded spacers, but I decided that the white folded edges would look nicer under the binding, than coloured wraps. 

The binding is a stab-stitch side binding, in deep moss green thread. 

Overall, I think I have been a bit busy recently! I'm rather pleased with this latest batch of books.  Making more tomorrow - they are already planned!

I am currently writing the third part of my "The Binding Makes the Book" series of posts - see Part One here and Part Two here...  Part Three will cover the Japanese-style stab-stitch bindings that you can see above and probably some other side-bindings too.  I'll carry on with the writing and post it as soon as possible.

Meanwhile,  I hope you enjoyed looking at my latest stash of books, while you wait for the Next Exciting Installment!