Baby Journals

In my WOYWW post on Wednesday, I showed a photo of two pairs of covers for Baby Journals.  I had a commission to make one baby journal, but made two sets of covers, to give a choice for the customer and also spares for a second book.

I have finished both books.  The commissioned book went in the post yesterday morning and the other book was completed yesterday evening and is now up for sale.

This is the Commissioned Baby Journal:

Front Cover 

Back Cover 

Hard covers of Peter Rabbit paper, lined with turquoise blue art paper.  Pages are medium weight Bockingford watercolour paper, hand bound in eight sections, in Coptic stitch, with deep turquoise linen thread.  There is a label on the front cover, mounted on paper to match the cover linings. 

And the other book:

 Front Cover
 

Back Cover
 

Hard covers of Peter Rabbit paper, with same turquoise lining paper.  Pages are crisp, white laid-texture text paper.  Hand bound in eight sections, in Coptic and French stitch, with soft moss green linen thread.   Can be personalised with a label, similar to the commission book.

This would be lovely as a journal, or sketchbook, as well as a great Guest Book for a Christening, Baptism or Naming Day, or a book to record good wishes at a Baby Shower.  

The book is for sale here, if you would like it! 

Thanks for reading! 

Wednesday Worktable - 27th May 2015 - More Cards and a Book

Hello, thanks for visiting my blog! This is my contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at JuliaDunnit's Blog. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing.

However, this is a Special WOYWW.  It's the Sixth Anniversary of Julia starting this meme. Three Hundred and Twelve Weeks of WOYWW - We're celebrating (a bit): 

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Last Wednesday I posted about some cards I had made.  Several people left such kind comments, so first of all, here's the Card-making Desk now:
 

A very messy desk!  With three newly completed cards (and one just being started). It's covered in inks, punches, paper, stamps (not seen), buttons and bits... 

Quick photos of the cards:

A 4" square card, with floral paper.  I stamped it with a stitch pattern stamp and added the ric-rac and buttons, to give a sort-of sewing theme

I like this "Life is a Journey..." stamp.  First effort, using a nice patterned paper, a copy of a vintage atlas map and some butterflies.  

This is "Life is a Journey..." card #2.  I have had the bi-planes paper for ages and it just seemed a good match. Another bit of a map and another butterfly.  But I reckon this would be a nice card for a man - what does everyone think?

And then there is my Bookbinding Table:

Two pairs of book covers for Baby Journals (customer gets to choose which ones she wants for her commission book), silk bookcloth for an edge trim, a folded set of pages for the journal... Then there are some of my tools, glue, various sketchbooks and notebooks, my trusty radio... Oh, and in the top right corner there - can you see my fabulous zombie-head pin cushion, from the wonderful fionaT?  

And in case you're wondering about the lego - it's a squaring-off jig (much cheaper than buying one, and just as square!)

So, that's my contribution this week.  Thanks for visiting.  Do come back soon, if you'd like to see the finished Baby Journal.

If you'd like to see what everyone else is doing and join the Six Year Celebrations, pop over to Julia's and have a look.  Have a good week, everyone!  

Wednesday Worktable - 20th May 2015 - Card Making

This is my contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at JuliaDunnit's Blog. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing.

This is my desk this morning: 

It did start out very neat, but I've had a busy session of card-making - and it shows! 

It's been a long while since I made any cards. I rarely seem to have time now, although a few years ago, I made just about every card that our family sent.  However, Mister LizzieMade bought me a craft magazine on Monday, with a set of stamps included and I just had an itch to try a few cards for a change.  

The top tray of my bookbinding tool-kit is on the right there - useful for the craft knife, paper scissors, bone-folder and other bits & pieces.  

To the left are some kraft card blanks, plus a few nice pens that I keep handy.  There are some circle and scalloped-circle punches, lots of little ink pads, some glitter-glues and pearly paints, pva glue, a glue roller... 

And in the middle, the butterflies and a motto I stamped last night, ready for a new card, which you can see to the left of those butterflies.  

A tray-full of stamps - these are all my favourite cling-stamps (plus a nice wooden birthday stamp). 

I'm still fiddling with this one - I nearly always make it up as I go along and I'm not quite certain what elements will be on that piece of paper, ready to be a card. Perhaps tonight I will have time for another play. 

These are the three cards I have finished so far:

A butterfly meadow birthday card - made with some of the new stamps. 

A sewing-themed card.  It doesn't have a motto yet, as I'm not sure who/what it will be for.  I'm quite pleased with it though.  

"Let your Dreams take Flight" - a lovely wish for someone.  I think this will be a birthday card. 

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That's my contribution to the WOYWW Story this week - thanks for reading.  

If you would like to see some posts about my recent book-binding, look here.  You'll find another link at the top of that post, to show the previous batch of journals etc. 

When you're finished here, why not pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see what else is going on in the crafting world? 

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And Lots More Books: The Commissions Update!

My previous post had an update of some books - and one more business card case - that I made in the last few weeks, for my online shops.

I've also worked on several commission books and this post is to show you those.

Commission One - An Italian-themed Holiday Journal: 

Anne chose raspberry red leather, ivory binding thread and a wide ivory ribbon to tie her book.  She specially wanted the ribbon to tie vertically, as shown in the photo.  I used a variation of a traditional Italian Longstitch binding to stitch the pages.  It looks rather nice...

Inside, the leather is lined with red mulberry paper, but each cover has half of a map of Northern Italy, from a vintage atlas.  The map was chosen online by Anne and I purchased it for her.  

I made a label for the inside of the book, using a copy of part of the map, printed onto vellum paper, with the title "Italy 2015" (the label is not attached in the photo). 

* * *

Commission Two - An Artist's Sketchbook: 

Danielle and her twin sister have their 18th birthdays in May.  She asked me to make a special sketchbook for her sister, who is a keen artist.  

Danielle chose a rich brown leather for the covers.  This was lined with red mulberry paper and we decided on a fastening with a simple red cord to wrap round a metal button.

The pages were of Murano paper, which is an artists' paper designed for drawing with pencil, pastel, charcoal and other dry media.  It has a slight texture, giving it a good "tooth" for the drawing media used.  Danielle chose several shades of ivory, cream, grey and charcoal for the page sections.  I also added some loose sheets of glassine tissue paper, to be used between pages, so the drawing doesn't smudge, until it can be fixed with spray.   

The pages were sewn with a cross-stitch, in red linen. 

* * *

Commission Three - A Book of Shadows: 

I was commissioned to make a book, by my sister.  She asked for a Book of Shadows, for her friend's birthday.  

The covers are black leather, lined with purple mulberry paper.  The book ties with a black organza ribbon.  The cover is hand painted in silver, with a traditional Book of Shadows design, of a Pentacle, along with a black cat and symbols to represent the four elements.  

There are forty pages of hand-made Indian cotton-rag paper inside.  The book is sewn in a decorative longstitch, with purple linen.  

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Commission Four - A Present for Jen: 

Finally, I commissioned myself!  I wanted to make a gift for the birthday of a very lovely lady, who is a skilled artist and produces the most beautiful papercut art.  She goes by the name of Jen and you can see some of her work here - My Papercut Heart. 

Jen designs large and complex paper cuts, which are all hand-drawn on plain paper, before being copied to the sheets from which they are cut.  We chatted about drawing paper recently and she commented that she'd been sticking A4 sheets together, to make a sheet large enough for one of her commission pieces.  So, it was pretty obvious that I should make a Large sketchbook!  

A3 (16.5" x 11.75") Sketchbook.  This has hard covers, in a Nepalese Lokta paper with a screen-printed "Kongpo" design of a garden - a very special sheet, that I bought some time ago and saved for a "special project".  Well, this was just the right project, as I was able to show the whole of the wonderful design on these book covers.  

The edge trim is a saffron yellow silk and the covers are lined with a matching saffron coloured art paper.  The book is sewn with a Coptic style binding, in double rows, with ivory linen. 

The pages are sewn in several sections, so there are plenty of sheets that open out to A2 size, for Jen's large and complex planning drawings.  Hopefully, she won't have to keep tearing out sheets and sticking them together, to have enough room to plan her next masterpiece! 

I wrapped the edge of each section with brown art paper, to give a bit of space inside the book and also to add a nice contrast to the golden silk edge-trim.  I added a small hand-tied silk tassel to the front of the cover, along with a silk-mounted label, with "Jen" printed in an oriental-looking font. 

I'm happy to report that Jen was very pleased with her birthday present - and I'm still smiling! 

Update Report: Lots More Books!

I haven't posted for weeks again!  It's been busy and I have neglected my blog, in favour of working on quite a few new books.  Here's a photo-summary of what I've been doing:

Firstly, another Business Card Case.  This time, it has a hand-painted design of flowers and birds.

It's lined with two colours of mulberry paper.  I quite like this one!

Then, here is what I did with the leather and dandelion-print paper that I showed in my previous post:

The dandelion paper is a lining for the covers of a new journal. 

The covers are a honey-beige coloured leather.  

There is a hand-made ceramic button and matching linen thread tie fastening.  

Sewn in longstitch, with aqua linen thread, to match the button.  

Pages of my favourite cream text paper.

Next, a Spring themed journal, in golden wool-felt, with purple suede lining and edge-trim, with a green satin ribbon trim and tie-fastening.

The cover is made of suede-leather and felt, so it looks and feels very rich and soft.

 The two sections of paper are stitched with a cross-stitch, in purple linen. 

Then a Sketchbook:

Blackcurrant leather sketchbook, with 30 pages of drawing paper and 10 pages of watercolour paper. Sewn with a decorative longstitch, in light grey linen thread. 

The sketchbook is lined with a deep pink paper, patterned with birds. 

I also made two more rainbow-themed hardcover journals. 

Pink Indian paper, with a gold-printed scalloped design, highlighed with purple glitter. 

There are ten page sections, each section having a different colour on the outside and white pages inside.  

This journal has a collage design paper on the covers... 

The pages are of the same Indian cotton-rag paper as the previous journal. 

Both books are sewn with a coptic style stitching, in bright hemp cord. 

I've also been working on several commission books and a very special commission of my own. There are so many books in this post already, that I think I'll post those next time!

 
Shameless Plug:
If you'd like any of these books, they're all for sale - you can visit my online Folksy shop here, or if you prefer, find my Etsy shop here.