A Bit of a Thing for Red...

I've been busy bookbinding recently, even if I haven't blogged much.  The situation with my mum's health, has meant I have had to close my order book for the complex, bigger books and albums, that I was making up until the summer.  In an effort to keep the business running, at least in some measure, I'm fitting in as many smaller books as I can. 

 

I posted yesterday, about a batch of card-covered notebooks - many with rainbows of coloured pages.  These have been such fun to make! 

 

However, I've also made a number of other books in the last couple of weeks - and looking back, it seems that I currently have a bit of a "thing" for Red!

A ribbon-bound Japanese style stab-stitch notebook, size approx 6 x 4 ins.  Covers are in a deep red-purple marbled paper, which I "collected" recently, when exploring paper sources on the internet. 

The first book has a brother! 

This one is bound in black linen thread and has a deep maroon suede strip to wrap the bound edge, beneath the covers. 

Both have 60 pages of white paper and a hinged front cover. 
 

I love the gold marbling on this paper, but the shades of red, purple and magenta in the marbled paper are just beautiful too!

 

* * * 

 

A floral Japanese stab-stitch book, with a hinged front cover.  I found this paper when out for the day, in Cambridge.  It was so pretty and I immediately knew I wanted to use it for a book like this. 

 

The bound edge has a deep red-mauve suede embellishment on each cover.   It has 40 pages of paper, which is a medium-weight cream paper, with a lovely texture. It would be a nice guest book, I think. 

 

Not quite a "red" book, but certainly on the redder side of purple!

 

* * *

 

A pamphlet-style or "chapbook" journal, in a deep red leather. 

 

This is such gorgeous soft leather, that I left it completely alone - no lining, no adornment, other than the lovely Celtic Knot, which I used as a fastener, along with a charcoal suede strip. 

 

It's bound in a single section, with black linen cord and filled with some gorgeous cream laid paper that I bought for making text blocks. This comes in great sheets (A1 size) and I folded and hand-tore the pages of the book, to give a nice torn edge detail.

 

It feels great to handle and the cover is kind of soft and floppy - which just adds to its charm really.  I love this one and want to keep it - occupational hazard I suppose!

 

* * *

 

 

 

An addition to my "set" of five hand-embellished wool felt journals. 

 

This has a warm red felt cover, lined with so-soft deep grey suede. 

 

It's embellished with applique in red suede, black & moss green silk, plus two pieces of Liberty Tana Lawn, in the "Strawberry Thief" design. 

It has embroidery in gold and silk threads, plus three semi-precious stones and a heart-shaped nacre button. 

 

I made a knotted suede button and twisted linen cord, for the fastening (seen in the final photo).  It has 40 pages of lovely hand made paper, with the fab naturally deckled edges, plus "inclusions" of red rose-like flower petals and green leaf pieces.  I bound it in a Longstitch, using black linen. 

 

* * *

 

 

And still on the Table, is this little mini-journal.

 

It's made with the same red leather as the chapbook journal above.  But it is small - barely 3" high! 

 

The paper is also the same cream, laid paper, as the chapbook.  It translated beautifully, to this mini-book form.  I decided to make the book up with a longstitch binding, with six sections of pages - each with four pages, making 24 in total (that's 48 sides of paper). 

 

I like the shape of the wrap-over piece, which is why I haven't cut it off, but left it as a wrap cover.  However, I'm not sure what sort of fastening to give it.  It does need something... could be a button, or a single tie - leather strip, linen cord, or ribbon? I'm mulling over a few ideas and will try some options out.  It's such a sweet little book - I hope to finish it tonight!

 

* * *

So, there's a bit of a peek at my current "red trend".  Along with the Rainbow books, it's been pretty bright and cheerful at my binding table recently!

 

(Just in case you're interested, most of these books are for sale in my "LizzieMade" shops, at Etsy.com and Folksy.com ;-)   

 

 



 

Storytelling Sunday, December 2012 - The Non-Weekend and the Birds

This post is part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday for 2012.  Read her story for this month, at her blog "From High in the Sky" and follow the links to dozens of other great stories!

 This is the last "Storytelling Sunday" of 2012, so I really wanted to join in. But what story to tell? I have been so busy recently and couldn't think what to share... 

Well, there's been a lot of laundry round here lately.  I've been very busy with household tasks, both for us and for my mum.  But doing those dull old jobs does give you time to organise your thoughts, even if you don't have time to write them down!

 

Anyway, not much blogging here recently, but I thought I'd share a quick story about our Non-Weekend - and also show you who visited our garden.

 

So, the weekend.  We had planned to do this:

 

 

 

But Mr LizzieMade woke up on Saturday with a headache and sore shoulder, so going into the loft was not a likely event...

 

We went to the local farmer's market and bought nice cheese, fresh eggs and veggies, a doughnut (for the ever-starving-teenager Boy's lunch), plus more art equipment for his increasingly-expensive school art studies - a set of decent acrylic paints this time. 

 

Then soup for lunch... by which time, Mr LizzieMade's face was swelling up a bit and looking rather red.  He said it hurt behind his ear.  It did all look a bit sore...  He used an ice pack and some muscle rub on the shoulder, then went to bed for a nap. 

 

He declined my offer to photograph him for my blog, so there is no photo for you!

 

So, no Christmas decorations on Saturday, eh? 

 

Sunday morning - bright and cold.  And Mr LizzieMade had a red swelling all up the left side of his face, which hurt him.  The sore shoulder seemed to have recovered, but the face problem was worse.  We called the doctor's and were put through to the out-of-hours service, who asked us to go down to the weekend clinic at the local hospital (not A&E, but a doctor's service).   Sooooo... off we went, leaving the Boy to do the dreaded homework.   

 

They gave Mr LizzieMade a prescription for anti-biotics.  After a visit to the pharmacy (in Sainsbury's - very handy on a Sunday), we came home and decided there'd be no visits to the loft on Sunday either...

 

* * *

 

So, instead of Christmas Trees, I made these:

 

Two nice A5 sized notebooks, one with a kraft cardstock cover, the other one covered with pearly ivory cardstock.  Both filled with a rainbow of pastel papers - in ten colours!

Some kraft card notebooks, like Moleskine books, with cream paper and sewn with red linen thread. 

And a batch of Rainbow Notebooks, with eight colours of bright paper inside and kraft card covers.  All fit nicely into an envelope, so they can be posted, or given as a present!

 

A bit of cheerful fun on a wintery weekend afternoon.

 

* * *

 And next weekend, perhaps we'll do this:

..and this too!  

 

 

* * *

And the Garden Visitors?

 

Not very clear photos, but a small flock of Waxwings settled in our apple tree, to eat some of the remaining fruit.  Davey counted at least seven, though I think there were more at one point. 

They obviously love the apples. 

Sadly I couldn't get a better photo than this, as going outside would have scared them away...

 

* * *

So, that was the story of our Non-Weekend.  As you can see, we managed to do quite a lot in two days, even if not all as planned!

 

And just to let you know that Mr LizzieMade seems to be recovering nicely.  He worked from home yesterday and went out at 6am (!!) this morning, to travel to Tunbridge Wells to a client's offices.  When I messaged him (a bit later than 6am!) he said he's feeling much better. 

 

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Frosty Festivities Blog Hop - Another Make to Share!

Hello! Welcome to my post, which is part of our "Frosty Festivities" Blog Hop.  Our theme is "Winter" and my contribution is below.

You should have landed here from Lisa-Jane's blog.  If you didn't come from there and you want to follow the whole Hop, then it started at Jennifer's blog (and it ends there too!). 

There is also a complete list of every blog, in order, just at the bottom of my post.

* * *

Remember, if you follow the entire Hop and leave a comment after each person's post, go back to Jennifer's blog to let her know.

If you do, you'll be entered in the draw for a great prize of items from these two collections: Basic Grey Aspen Frost and Carta Bella Winter Fun items, worth over £25.
All entries must be received by Monday the 19th of November at 10.59pm GMT.

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Paper Drops Christmas Decorations

My previous post was instructions for making a string of little paper hearts:

 

 Of course, these could be made as Christmas Decorations too!

Pretty, eh? 

Do you see the little shapes in the middle of those banners?  Sort-of tear-drop or leaf shapes? 

I thought you might like to make some of these too.  They're simple and enjoyable to make and they look very effective, either hung individually,  or in a long string.

 

To Make the Decorations

 

You need a few paper strips.  Mine were about 8" long and 1" wide.

    

Fold each strip in half, as shown.  

Choose two strips that you think look nice together. 

Decide which will be the Inside strip and which will go on the Outside.

 Cut about 1/2" from Both ends of the Inside strip

so it will be 1" shorter than the other

Mark about 1/4" from the folded edge of each strip and make a hanging hole

(I used a tiny hole-punch, but you can use a big needle, an awl etc). 

 

On the Inside Strip, apply about 1/4" deep strip of glue to one end...

...and on one side in the centre.

Fold the strip and press the glued parts together.

 

Now apply glue to the Outside Strip, at Both ends and both parts of the middle, as shown.

Carefully fold the Outside Strip round the Inside Strip, with the cut ends together. 

Press the glued cut ends of the Outside strip onto the same (ie. cut) ends of the Inside strip, as shown.

Now, press the folds together...  

...then press the glued parts at the top as shown.

Gently push the ends in, to curve the strips and open them out... 

...so you get a nice curvy shape like this.

(try not to be too forceful when you push, or they end up wonky!)

 You can put a hanging loop on each shape, using a piece of thick thread, or fine ribbon.

These ornaments look pretty hung on their own.  They can be hung from the Christmas tree too.

Or you can make a long string, like this. 

Space the ornaments evenly - mine are about 4" apart.

I used a medium-weight linen thread to string them together.  

Lay the ornaments out as you go, to get the right spacing.  

Use a dot of glue over each hole, to secure the string in the right place

and prevent the ornaments sliding around.

 

Then hang them up somewhere where you can admire your work!

 

 

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I hope you enjoyed my post and fancy having a go at your own ornaments.  Why not combine them with some of the heart-shapes, for an interesting decorative banner?

 

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Your next stop on the Blog Hop is Louise: www.scrapbook-me.blogspot.co.uk, so remember to "hop" over there - after you've left me a quick comment, of course - so you'll be entered in the prize draw!

This is the entire Blog Hop List, just in case you need it:

Jennifer

Abi

Daphne

Jacky

Jemma

Jenny

Jo B

Jo S

Julie

Kirsty

Lisa-Jane

Lizzie (you are here!)

Louise

Mel

Rinda

Sarah

Sian

Jennifer (don't forget to leave a comment, to let her know when you've been all the way round and left a comment on every blog!)