For Scott

Scott is my friend. He is off to a new job, working with farmers, so I made this for him. Similar to the multicolored journal, it uses green/brown tones in colored cardstock for paper. Multi-coptic stitch binding. I pasted collage from his new job onto the inside covers for added personality and the cover opens up so you can see a giant tree across both sides. So nice.

Multi-Colored Journal

I had a travel journal once that had multi-colored paper thick enough to paste ticket stubs, etc in and it is still one of my favorites. It was the inspiration for this one and I have come to love the multi-coptic journals made with hard colored cardstock. Cover is bookboard and decorative paper. This one went to Hillary, which makes me happy. I am going to make more of these!

Biology Book

This is just a journal but I gave it to a biologist so I made it with gorgeous leafy paper. Don't ask me where the connection is- I just like it. It is that nice, acid free paper that I ripped down myself with fancy edges, and I used the Multi-Coptic stitch. It takes a lot of time but it is gorgeous and sturdy!

To Rant and Rave

A friend of mine just had a very hard thing happen to her so these journals were made rather fast to give her something to rant in, remember with, and reason around. Both longstitch with leather covers. Two different patterns. I am realizing that it is easier to sew through leather when you punch the hole through the leather with the awl just before sewing through it. One at a time, not all together in the beginning- I break less needles this way.














The pattern on the blue one I just kind of made up while looking at a photo. I need more longstitch patterns...

Camping Journal

This one was for the camping lover in my family (hi mom)- and she needed a journal. Homemade boxes and sacks go hand in hand with the history of homemade books so I made this book to fit in the waterproof bag I found at a craft fair in my great city. (I did not make it myself but it was handmade by someone local- so I think it still counts.) It also has great retro camper images on it. I am proud of this one because I used the Japanese Stab Binding- and I taught it to myself. It is incredibly easy. It is fairly obvious that your holes for the binding MUST be flush- no compromises or arguing. This one was my first and I had to finish it in the car on a surprise Christmas trip home- so it is a bit off. It looks like I did it while I was drunk. Alas! I had someone help me drill the holes through with a drill and that made it a lot faster than using an awl- but not as accurate, so there is your compromise, I guess. Used nice acid free paper that I ripped down myself- so it has those handmade edges. And I printed out some camping/nature quotes on bottom of the pages in a nice faux, handwritten scrawl- some funny and some sentimental (Thoreau meets Dave Barry). Cover is made with a sturdy decorative paper that folds over to enclose the first/last page.

Put it in the bag and take it on a hike. Introspection should happen on the top of a mountain.

Travel Journal

I made this for my cousin who just went to India. Used plain white paper but inserted one folio of colored card stock for each signature to insert some color- like a rainbow (I am a sucker for the bold color spectrum- so pure). I had this weird shaped piece of leather so I used it as the cover. Took the colored card stock out of the inside of the signature on the first and last signatures- and put them on the outside to give the book a little more sturdiness and endurance while traveling (both red). Used a longstitch pattern similar to the pamphlet stitch- very basic. I wrapped the end of the leather around the book and used a big button as the clasp- with a slit in the other side of the leather. This looks very cool but the leather piece pretty much came this way. I just cleaned up the bottom end so it was flush with the paper. Fairly funky- one of those risky presents that was successful. Hope she is having fun out there....