Fun with Books

Well hello and welcome readers.

Have a treat to share with you. Ihave been making a lot of books lately. My binding techniquewas that of coptic stitch which I find very relaxing and enjoyable. 

As I needed a new book for psychology I saw it a better use of my time to make one rather than buy one. Also I was able to use the type of paper I like. 

    

For the two books above I made the books a little smaller than that of A5 as I wanted a convenient size for note making. The top book is made with 70gsm bleedproof paper printed with a dot grid for drawing and typography.

    

I also made this sketchbook using the large stack of tea stained papers and the box of a Diablo III collectors edition. My plans are to do some more of my typography in this book. 

After showing the first two books with comic covers I had a request to make one for some one. After some backwards and forewards regarding covers I ended up making this. 

     

I also have two handmade books for sale on my webstore.

You can have a look at the books in my flip through on youtube.

A Birthday Card and a Book Cover

I made this for a new friend who has had a birthday recently. 

I also passed on one of my hand bound books as I have SOOO many of them and as this friend does draw I thought she might like it. 

I actually made this book cover well over a year ago and did not like how it come out. To resolve this I coated the entire cover in gesso and started again. 

I found a crimson spray in my stash and totally love it so using that and some black ink, I ended up with a VERY moody end result and loved it. 

Now because I use sprays which are essentially ink you cannot seal the surface with matt medium or anything like that as it just rehydrates the ink and starts moving it around which was what happened the first time I did this cover. SO, what did I use? Hair spray.... and THEN sealed it with matt medium which worked a blast. 

 I had to relearning coptic stitch to bind the book because I haven't made a bound book in a while. Interestingly enough I seemed to have improved on the method a bit and I have no idea why or how. I am just going with it. 

 

Let me know what you think by asking any questions.

Photo Journal #2

Hi Crafters

Back in March I showed you my first coptic stitch bound photo journal which I was very proud of and really enjoyed the entire project from making the book to filling it and completing it. I had to do it all over again only this time I wanted to make it bigger. Little did I know HOW MUCH BIGGER it would be.

Here is a video of me talking about the project and going through the second photo journal.

I hope you have enjoyed this and are inspired to maybe give it a try your self.

Leave a comment or any questions.

Multi Media Book Covers

Hello all you crafters out there. 

A few  months back I gave a new technique a try. After watching a youtube clip (which if I find will tag to the end of this post) and felt it was so simple that I could give it a go. The only thing is I am not a golds and shiny fan, proffering darker tones. To achieve this I used black Gesso and followed the technique in the clip. 

I am very happy with the outcome with the first attempt. Let me know what you think.

Photo Journal #1

At the end of semester last year I decided to start a photo journal for my school holidays, to make sure I didn't sit around doing nothing with my time. I am an instagram user and although I thought it great to take digital photos and post them on line, I liked having a thing to hold and flip through.

As a result of learning how to do Coptic stitch (the youtube tutorial I used it at the end of this post) and binding my own books I decided to go through my vast paper collection and make a photo journal, some thing similar to a smash book but with out the need to by the manufactured products.

I am not lucky enough to own a zink printer (although I wish I could afford one), I created a photoshop A4 template and would add my instagram pics to this then print it out and cut out each photo with my trimmer.

 

The book ended up so large that it needed a closure, which ended up being a nice little buckle I have in my collection.

I really enjoyed doing this process, mostly because I am a visual person and having a visual representation of what I was doing was so much nicer than just journaling my day. As this book became full I make another book and bound it with Coptic Stitch and have started adding things too it.