Christmas Present Orders

I'm getting orders now, for Christmas Gifts.  It always makes me smile - someone likes my work and even wants to share it with somebody they love! 

This package is off to Buxton, in Derbyshire. The very lovely customer ordered three things - they will have some happy friends, come Christmas Day (or I hope so, anyway!). 

This is what's inside....

A Leather Journal, with green linen longstitch binding, handmade porcelain button and hand-twisted cord fastenings, lovely cream text paper pages and yellow lokta paper lining.

I hope this will be enjoyed, as it was one of my favourites! 

One of these 6"x4" notebooks.  Kraft card covers, wrapped with "luggage labels" paper, nice cream paper pages and a kraft paper envelope to present it in. 

and... a Pair of 6"x4" notebooks, with covers of double-sided, stiff scrapbook paper. Each has lovely "Three Candlesticks" paper pages, bound with red linen thread and a ribbon tie. 

I do hope these are well-received - both by the buyer, and the people they are given to!  

More Leather Journals

Someone asked a question yesterday, in comments, about the leather journal currently on my binding table. She wondered if it was an Art Journal.   I replied that it could be, but she might prefer one of the leather-covered sketchbook journals in my online shop.

So, I thought I might show you some more leather books that I've been making recently.  I really have been enjoying myself, as I bought a stock of beautiful leather pieces and have been working with these, to create some new journals, with bright, cheerful coloured linings and binding threads.

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Please Note: You're welcome to share or "pin" my photos, if you like them.  However, if you do, Please will you credit me as the maker and link back to my blog - or my shop?
For a start, it's just polite and secondly, it may bring me a sale or two - thank you so much! 

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Some journals and sketchbooks, with leather covers, colourful linings and longstitch bindings.

Grey leather sketchbook or journal, with purple linen longstitch binding and magenta mulberry paper lining. Contains white sketch paper. 

Chestnut brown leather sketchbook or journal, with white sketch paper pages.  Hand bound in longstitch, with golden linen thread.  Lined with hand made lokta paper, with a design of leaves or ferns. 

Purple leather sketchbook or journal, with white sketch paper pages.  Hand bound in longstitch, with golden linen thread.  Covers lined with magenta hand made lokta paper. 

Golden brown leather journal or sketchbook, with cream text paper pages.  Hand bound in longstitch, with red linen thread.  Lined with red hand made mulberry paper. 

Navy blue leather journal, with wrap-over cover.  Contains cream text paper, hand bound with green linen thread.  Covers lined with golden yellow hand made mulberry paper.  Book fastens with hand made porcelain buttons and hand-twisted wrap-round cords. 

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Those are the five larger journals or sketchbooks that I have made recently.  They could all be used as art journals, though those with sketch paper might work out better; the cream text paper is gorgeous and excellent quality, but it might still not be ideal for wet media.  The sketch paper should cope okay with paint etc, as well as pencil, crayon etc.

I also made some smaller books:

Golden brown leather sketchbook, or art journal, with wrap cover.  Contains both cartridge drawing paper and  artists' watercolour paper. Hand bound in longstitch, with red linen thread.  Fastens with a red cord and button.  

Grey leather pamphlet-style notebook or journal, with cream text paper pages.  Hand bound with deep blue thread.  Cover lined with hand made lokta paper, in deep blue, with a design of leaves or ferns. 

Deep navy blue leather journal or notebook.  Lined with marbled paper by artist Rhonda Miller. Contains cream text paper.  Hand bound in longstitch, with smokey pink thread.  Stitching has a decorative crossed-stitch pattern.  

These, along with other leather and paper-covered books can be purchased, should you wish to buy.  Look in my Folksy online shop, to see what is currently available (or follow the link to my Etsy shop, if you prefer). :-) 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I've been making recently.  Thanks for reading!  

Retro Vintage Style Notebooks

A quick post to show some work I've been doing. 

First of all, a commission book, which I finished today:

A Guestbook for a Baby Shower.  As you may have guessed, it's for twins!  The lady who ordered this had made beautiful invitations, with her own artwork, which she showed me when we were discussing the label for the cover.  I suggested that her work could be used to make the cover label too, as it was so nice.  So, the artwork here is all her own and I have just cut things out, mounted pieces on foam pads and matted the "Twins" label on the grey chevron paper.  I gave her a choice of several layouts and this was the one she chose. 

 

The kraft covers are lined with similar chevron-covered paper and the pages are a rainbow of different colours.  I think this will make the mummy-to-be very happy!

 

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I've also been making some fun little notebooks for my online shop.  The paper covers are from a range called "Happy Days", by Papermania.  I found this during the week, when I was in town and immediately thought of these notebooks. 

I filled them with some lovely white "Three Candlesticks" writing paper (anyone had some of that? It's crisp and really nice, with a "laid" texture and a watermark that's very distinctive).

The main colours common to all papers, are the green and red, so I have used thin satin ribbons in those colours, as pretty tie closures for each book.

 

There are three pairs in the shop just now, with more on the way (see below!).   If Papermania have names for these designs, I don't know them, so I used my own names for my pairs of notebooks:

 

"Cherry Pie" - with a little cut-out can on the cherry paper cover, to make it a nice set.

"Hello You" - labels with little friendly messages, plus a very '50s style floral.

"Sew Lovely" - a design of sewing tools, dresses & machines, and the second cover has a design of paper dressmaking patterns.

 

These four are "in progress" just now - waiting to be hand-stitched with nice red linen thread and to have their ribbons added.

 

 

Incidentally, if you should want to buy any of these, they're available from my Folksy and Etsy shops....

If you buy from Etsy, you can use a Coupon Code "Blogfriends10" at checkout, for a 10% discount (which applies to all purchases, not just the notebooks).

If you prefer to buy via Folksy - or just direct from me - give me a shout and I will "reserve" items for you, with the discount set up on the reserved listing. (End of shameless plug!)

This pair are not in the shop.  I have made them as a gift - they'll be in the post on Monday morning!

Wednesday Worktable, December 12th : More Leather!

I'm joining in with WOYWW at Julia's Stamping Ground. Go and see what everyone else has been making (well, after you read my post, eh?)

I'm having a burst of successful sales, in my Etsy and Folksy shops!  This week I took three packages to the PO on Monday, three more on Tuesday and there are four waiting to go tomorrow (Thursday), as the PO was closed this afternoon. 
It seems that I should go out often too, as that appears to be when the customers sneak in and buy stuff!  Imagine, I can be a shopkeeper and make sales, without actually having to be on the premises! 

And this...

...was whisked off its (virtual and actual) shelf within half an hour of listing it... by a Person we all know well (but I won't divulge who that is, as they may not want me to!).  

Still, it's always lovely to have something bought by an online friend - it kind of gives you the "warm fuzzies" to think someone you know appreciates your work (even after getting all the gory details on my blog!). 

So the red leather chapbook is winging its way across the miles, to an undisclosed destination, to be a Christmas Gift for someone nice. 

Which makes me smile.

 

And I also sold a second leather journal:

This black leather and mulberry suede journal sold yesterday.

It's filled with a whole rainbow of paper!

 

 

The "thing for red" has given way to a "thing for leather" now!  I made three more chapbooks and a mini journal, which I have listed for sale today.  Wish me luck!

Another journal, from the same black leather piece.  I bought a large piece of Italian upholstery quality leather and I love it!

I used a rather gorgeous glass bead as the fastening.  It's black glass, with a green and aqua dichroic section in the middle.  I used teal suede strips to fix the bead to the front cover and as a tie to fasten it, attached to the back cover...

 

...and I used green Austrian linen thread for binding, to pick up the green in the bead.

It has 48 pages of that gorgeous cream laid text paper that I've recently acquired; I have lots and lots of it and I'm quite excited, as it's possibly the best text paper I've ever been able to buy - paper being expensive, especially if you buy it in packs of 500 full-size sheets (almost A1 size - around 30"x20", or around 80x55cm - that's pretty big!)

 

Then I made a second deep red chapbook.  This one has a strip of black leather, as decoration and for fastening, with another of those lovely metal Celtic Knots.

I used black waxed linen cord for binding..

The black leather is also on the back cover; it tucks through at the outside edge, so it can be wrapped over to the front and round the metal button.  (Don't you think that the leather strip looks a bit like a belt?)

I stitched the metal embellishment on, to keep the black leather strip in place on the front and to create space for the fastening tie strip to tuck beneath it.  It looks a bit untidy in the photo, but in real life it looks fine.  Who said that cameras never lie, eh?

 

This book is also filled with crisp, cream laid text paper.  Lovely!

 

The last of the chapbooks is my favourite.  This is made from the most gorgeous piece of Robins Egg Blue lamb leather.  It is amazingly soft and supple.  A bit thinner than the Italian calf leathers of the red and black books, but still nice for a limp leather binding. 

Because it's such lovely leather, I kept the overall thing quite simple - this is the back.

I attached a long glass bead to the front, as a fastening and plaited up some deep turquoise linen thread, to make cord for attaching the bead and wrapping round from the back cover, to close the book.  

I used the same deep turquoise linen to bind the book...

...and filled it with my favourite cream paper!

 

That's my little set of leather chapbooks. 

 

I also made this...

...or rather, I completed this little book, which I posted about the other day.  It was made up to this point...

...and I made a leather wrap-round fastening for it.

Now it closes neatly, with the leather strip wrapping right round and tucking under at the front.

I love this saffron coloured linen for the binding!

I think it looks quite smart like this.  

Of course, it's only a little book - just 3.5 inches high. 

But it still has 40 pages of great paper inside and I love it to bits!

 

I still have itchy fingers, to make more journals - watch this space!

 

And on another subject, I should be posting soon about James' new sports interest...  when the photos are ready!

 

Thanks for reading!