I Made Some Books

A few weeks ago, during one of my jewelry-making breaks, I gathered a bunch of my books on how to make books.  I spent 2 days making the 5 books you see in this photo.

Clockwise from upper left:  spiral bound book with clear acrylic covers and random papers, variation on stab binding, spiral bound book with gorgeous green paper on the covers, large black stab bound album type book, small lime green book.

The small lime green book is what most people would picture when the word "book" is mentioned.  As you can see from this photo, I need to work on aligning my signatures (book sections) when making this sort of book. 

For the stab binding variation book, I selected some of my own marbled paper for edging the covers.

One of the most fun things for me about making books is selecting the papers for the covers and inside plates.  I love working with all the colors and patterns available.

Journal Sale !

I've decided to have a sale in my other etsy shop, A Peaceful Life.  I have 16 spiral bound journals listed there.  The sale is Buy One, Get One Free!  That deal is hard to beat.  Shop, make your purchase and I will refund the appropriate amount through paypal.  Easy peasy.

Here are a couple of the journals listed:

 Abalone Journal 

 

Leaves Journal

 

Spiral Bound Journal

I spent a few days last week making some more of my little blank books. They are great fun to do and they give me the opportunity to go through my extensive collection of decorative papers. This also provides a much needed break from the jewelry making.

After making a few books with fun papers, I found some notes I had made a while back, on clever ideas for covering these books. The best idea involved randomly gluing together monopoly money, collage style. I have several old monopoly games that I found at yard sales over the years. I knew I was buying them for a reason, I just didn't know what the reason was until I came up with this idea.

I even had enough to cover the inside plates. This one is a keeper -- it won't be for sale. But I have plenty of little books listed in my "other" etsy shop, A Peaceful Life.

Blank Journals

About a year ago, I purchased a Bind-It-All machine, which ... well, binds books. I've been making these sweet journals and giving them away to friends and family because, what the hell am I going to do with twenty (or more) of these things?? I've sold quite a few in my "other" etsy shop, A Peaceful Life.

Making these books has given me the best reason to buy lots of beautiful papers. I really can't believe the variety that's available. Here are a couple of my favorite little books, all available for sale.

Little Blank Books

I've been very absorbed in making these cute little spiral bound books. Ever since I purchased my Bind-It-All machine at The Stamp Attic last fall, I've been trying to develop a book style that is easily repeatable. Well, I finally succeeded. It's given me an opportunity to use some of the wonderful papers I've been collecting for the past few years.
The first book features paper I ordered from New Zealand. I love all things "ocean" and this paper really spoke to me. The next two photos show the cover and the inside plate of the same book. The cover paper has several different colors of fiber and paper inclusions. I love the way it all marbles together. The inner plate is handmade (not by me) paper which incorporates leaves.

These books (and more to come!) are for sale on my second etsy shop, APeacefulLife.