Things of Nature

Hello Friends! A quick post here to share my latest creation. I'm pretty excited about this one because I made it using my brand new Kutrimmer 1071 paper trimmer! I've wanted one ever since I used one at a bookbinding bookcamp in Athens, but the cost was prohibitive. But, I found a brand new one on Ebay last week for a great price and the seller just happened to be within driving distance, so I was able to pick it up and get started using it right away! 

I made all the flowers on this project, and all but the two tiny pink ones are made from the same stamp and die set. The flowers were all stamped onto patterned papers, die cut, inked along the edges, then shaped. There is a close up of the flowers at the bottom of the post.

I've always liked making boxes, but with my new paper cutter, that can cut right through book board, I like it even more. Cutting the parts for the box only takes a few minutes now, and requires very little effort, unlike cutting it by hand with a blade.

Here's a look at the inside. Actually, it has a set of cards inside it now, but they are all cards I've posted before, so nothing new to see there.

The spine of the box is covered in bookcloth with a strip of patterned paper added over that.

Here's a close-up of the larger flowers. You can see the centers much better here. I love how the dark pink one turned out! I used micro beads in the center of that one. The yellow and pink flowers have Stickles centers, and the purple one has a large rhinestone.

These are the smaller flowers. The yellow flower is filled with beads and glitter, and the purple flower has Stickles on the edges of all the petals. The butterfly die cut was covered in Ice Blue Inka Gold, then I heat embossed it with UTEE.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this. You'll probably be seeing a lot more handmade boxes (and books) in the future now! ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Tiddly Inks Challenge #166: Don't Be Square
613 Avenue Create Challenge #143 : Anything Goes
Penny Black and More September Challenge: Anything Goes
4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #265: Sparkle & Shine
Craft Your Passion Challenge #281: Always Anything Goes

~Hugs,

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The Wonderful World of Boxes

I love making boxes and books! It's so satisfying to be able to design something from scratch, build it, and have a finished product that is well-made, sturdy, and attractive. And, it sure is nice to be able to decorate a box without once having to consider how heavy or thick an embellishment is!

I made this box to hold a card set that I made last year. I did make a box for the set when I first made the cards, however, it wasn't really deep enough, and envelopes wouldn't fit inside with the cards--not very convenient for a card set! This time, I get the measurements perfect. 

I used the May 2015 Week 1 Viva la Verve sketch to decorate the top of my box. The sentiment is stamped onto a piece of canvas that was left over from the box spine fabric, and it is distressed with distress ink, stamps, and a little water. I also stamped a few distressed spots in Pumice Stone Distress Ink in several places.

A side view.

I made this clay embellishment a couple of years ago. It started off as white, but I colored it with Inka Gold. I started with a base of Champagne Inka Gold, then to get the green into the crevasses, I added a tiny bit of water to some Green-Yellow Inka Gold and painted with it. The Copper was rubbed on dry. 

The spine of the box has a strip of the same cardstock that covers the top and bottom of the box.

This is the inside of the box. 

I added glass marble feet to the bottom of the box, then because these are a little slippery on furniture, I used a standard hole punch to punch small circles of craft foam, then glued them to the glass marbles. The foam dots also help with uneven marbles--no more wobbly boxes!

That's all for now. Have a Wonderful Week!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Viva la Verve May 2015 Sketch Challenge: Week 1
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create Challenge #122: Anything Goes w/Optional Feminine
Robyn's Fetish Challenge #262: Anything but a Card
TCP Tuesday #289 Inspiration Challenge
Paper Issues: Chalk One Up With Your Own Style

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Bookbinding Bootcamp at Smokey Road Press

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had taken a bookbinding class. It was with Margot Ecke at Smokey Road Press in Athens, Georgia. I finally got around to taking photos of the projects we worked on and wanted to share them with you. If you are interested in bookbinding, I'll have information about the class at the end of the post. (Picture heavy post)

This is the set we made. We learned to make five different bindings as well as the box! As is usually the case with my photos, some of the colors are off (the red is a deeper shade), but it's pretty close. We went on a little field trip to buy our papers, so everyone's set looks different. 

The black book on the far right of the set was bound with a Butterfly Stitch and the cover is plain black, so I didn't take a picture of it. The next book (the purple one--it is NOT hot pink!) was bound with a Coptic Stitch, and it has two mica windows in the front cover.

I love how the stitches come out of the edge of the covers rather than wrapping around it. And, look at how neat those chain stitches are! Even though I had made journals with a Coptic Stitch before, I was never completely pleased with how the stitches looked when I was finished. Now, I know the secret! ;)

Here's a look at the spine with the book open. Coptic stitch is one of the easiest stitches, and is my favorite of the bindings we did in class. It's neat, sturdy, and downright purty!!! ;)

Here is a close up pic of the mica windows that are on the cover of the Coptic Stitch book. I stamped the owl, from the Paper Sweeties Tree of Life Add On: Spring stamp set, onto a piece of dictionary text paper, colored it with Copics, cut it with the matching die, then coated it with UTEE and heat embossed it. The other window is the same text paper and it has microbeads and flaky glitter in it. The windows are covered in tiny pieces of mica. This could be done with acetate, but mica is far superior in every way.

The green book is bound with a Historic Longstitch. The button was a plain wooden button and I used Inka Gold to color it.

The brown book is a Historic Longstitch Variation. I have wanted to learn to do decorative stitching on spines for awhile, and it turns out that it's not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. It just takes concentration.

The red book is one of my favorites. The paper has gold leaves embossed all over it, and I was able to find an area where I could have just one leaf right in the middle of the cover. It is bound with a Longstitch. Again, not as hard as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, though--none of these books were what I would call easy, but they are totally doable, even if you've never bound a book in your life!

My week at Margot's Bookbinding Bootcamp was AMAZING! OMGosh, if you have ever wanted to learn to bind books, this is the class for you! Smokey Road Press is a letterpress, binding, and design studio (there are letterpress classes, too!), so everything you need is right there at your fingertips, and you don't need any bookbinding experience at all. Take a minute to read Margot's resume, and you'll see that she is quite accomplished in her field, and teaches all over the country, but what it doesn't tell you, is that she is also a fabulous, patient teacher and one of the nicest people you could ever want to meet. I am lucky that I live so close to Athens that I could commute, but it would totally be worth a week's vacation to stay in Athens for this class. One of my classmates actually flew in from Texas for the class, and this is her second time to take it!

Now, doesn't everyone look happy? This is Heidi, Marc, and Margot. Margot is the professional, but she turned us all into pretty darn good bookbinders before the week was over. I never think about taking pictures until the last minute and Ava, the fourth student, had already left by the time I thought about it. Sorry, Ava! ;(

Well, thanks for hanging out with me to the end! If you can't tell, this was an exciting time for me, and eventually, I'll probably take the class again. Not because I didn't learn anything, but because it was so much fun! Who knows, maybe I'll even see you there!

In the meantime, Margot has another Bookbinding Bootcamp in June, if you are interested.

Thanks for hanging out with me till the end. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about what the bootcamp was like.

Thanks for stopping by, and have an AWESOME week!

~Hugs,

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Faux Leather Blank Book & Slipcase

I'm back with another blank book, and this one has its own slipcase.

I needed a masculine thank you gift, and while I'm not sure how many men use blank journals, I thought it might work if it was made of leather. Unfortunately, I don't have any leather, nor do I even know how to cover a book with it, but I did have some paper with a nice leather design on it. Visually, it really does look like leather! 

This is what the book looks like inside the sleeve. The sleeve measures about 5" x 6", so it's fairly small. The book slides out easily if you turn the slipcase upside down, but I added a ribbon pull to make it easier. When you pull the ribbon, the book comes right out.

I also added a ribbon bookmark.

When you buy a book nowadays, the endbands along the top and bottom of the book are just pieces of twill tape with a border on one side that is glued to the ends of the book. On this book, I made my own endbands by sewing them onto the pages, over a strip of leather. This helps hold the book together, protects the spine if the book is on a shelf and gets pulled out by tugging on the top of the spine, and it looks good, too.

I lined the inside of the slipcase and the inside of the front and back covers of the book with a nice bargello patterned paper, then used turquoise colored paper for the pages. There is a piece of thin brown cardstock on the outside of each signature (folded group of pages).

On each of the brown pages, I stamped various designs and inspirational sayings in Rich Cocoa ink.

I hope it's "manly" enough, but if it isn't, perhaps the recipient's wife will enjoy it!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Valentine's Day!

~Hugs,

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Getting Serious with Books & Boxes

Hi Friends! I hope you are all staying warm, wherever you are today! I haven't been active in my craft room (or my blog) much since I started homeschooling my daughter, but in my last post, I did mention that I have been working on my bookbinding and boxmaking skills. It's quite different than making cards because, at least for now, I'm focusing on the construction and not doing much in the way of embellishing. But, I am enjoying it, immensely! 

This project is a clamshell box with a French Link Stitch blank book inside.

This is what it looks like closed up. I am using bookboard to make the box and the book covers, so these are very sturdy, unlike my usual chipboard boxes, which, while nice, are delicate in comparison. The biggest problem I have with using bookboard, though, is cutting it. It is thick and dense, so I was having to use a razor knife and ruler and cut it by hand, which, frankly, is exhausting. But, in my frustration with it, I found a good cutter that will actually handle this type of board, and, it wasn't too pricey--the Zutter Kutter. I had problems when I first got it, but I got in touch with the company and they were extremely helpful. Now, it cuts great! I'm planning to post a video on the correct way to use the Zutter Kutter in the next week or two.

Here's a look at the book and box, together. I found this paper at Hobby Lobby. It's heavy, a bit glossy, and the designs are beautiful.

Here, the box is open. The spine is made of bookcloth rather than paper, so it will stand up to a lot of openings and closings. 

Since one side of the trays are left open, it is possible to have the book fit inside snugly and still be able to remove it easily. You can see how the top tray is slightly larger than the bottom tray so that it completely covers it when closed.

The bookcloth spine is a piece of canvas that I backed with tissue paper so glue wouldn't seep through.

The stitching over the ribbon is called French Link Stitch. The end stitching is Coptic. I like having decorative papers along the outside of the signatures when the spine is left open.

This type of binding allows the book to lie completely flat when open. Each signature (group of folded pages) has a decorative, die cut piece of paper folded around it. Sometimes I prefer the white pages to show in the spine, but it seemed too stark for this particular book.

I used Neenah 24lb. linen texture writing paper for the blank pages. 

This was a great project to work on. I learned several new things while making it, such as backing my own cloth, and making my own wheat paste. Between YouTube, blogs, and instructional books, easily found at the library, you can get quite a bit of information, but, I want to learn more.

I have been searching high and low for bookbinding and boxmaking classes that are fairly close to me and that won't break the bank, and I finally found one at Smokey Road Press in Athens, Georgia! Yay! I've never been there, so I can't say what the class will be like, but just based on the photo of the books and box we'll be making, it looks like it will be a fun week! The website says there is also a retail store, which I'm hoping will have bookbinding supplies, so I may be taking a trip there next week, just to check it out. If I do, I'll give you my thoughts on it. If you are interested in this class, it is small--only 8 people, so don't wait too long to sign up!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create #108: Anything Goes--Create Your Own Challenge (Patterned Paper, Die Cut, Solid Color Paper, Stitching, Ribbon)
Fresh Brewed Challenge: January-FAVORITES (Book & Boxmaking)

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