Book 34 - "Ethan Allen" - Recycled Vintage Book as Journal - Coptic Binding

Book 34?? What's with that? Well, in the wind-up to posting the final couple of books in the year-long challenge, I thought I'd better look back over the whole past year and make sure I hadn't inadvertently skipped any days. And sure enough, way back in February, I just skipped right over a day. So, to be honest with you and myself, I needed to fill in that day.

So, Book 34. Here's another recycled vintage book made into a blank book/journal. I'm not sure of the exact date of this book since there was no copyright or publication date anywhere in the book. But from the cover illustration, I'd put it at about 1900-1910. The strange thing is that the illustration--two boys in sports outfits and gear--has nothing whatever to do with the content of the book, which is a history of Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont in the 18th century. Go figure. Maybe it was part of a series for boys and they all had that cover. The condition is pretty good, but there is one spot on the cover that is slightly blistered (where the book cloth has come loose from the board beneath. If I had a fine needle syringe, I could probably shoot a bit of glue underneath and glue it down again.

Since the bright red accents on the cover design stand out so much, I decided to play off that and use red thread for the binding. I also alternated green and red paper tape on the spine folds of the signatures for an attractive pattern on the exposed spine.

It came out looking pretty good.

Book 352 - The Boys Book - Recycled Book Journal -Coptic Binding

This book is so cool looking. Even though it's not really old (as witness the scholastic website printed on the back cover) it looks old. It's a book that is supposed to show boys how to be the best at everything that boys like to do. I think it makes a great journal. The intense cobalt blue with silver printing on the cover is really eye-catching.

As per my usual style, I slit off the spine and made a bookmark from that part. I taped over the cut ends of the front and back covers, poked holes, folded up a bunch of signatures--these are a really neat astro-bright white paper with tiny confetti-colored flecks in it--and poked holes in those too. I also added blue washi tape to the spine fold of some of the signatures to create a colorful pattern on the exposed spine binding.

The single-needle coptic binding is done with white waxed linen thread.

Cool little journal!

Book 331 - "Rocky Road" - Recycled Candy Package Journal - Slit Spine Binding

Gee, what a surprise. Another recycled candy box journal!

So we got a new kind of candy for the store. But not NEW. Rocky Road used to be my favorite candy bar when I was a kid and I didn't even know they still made it until we saw it in Sam's the other day. Had to grab it. And of course, I had to grab the box for a book.

After I cut a single piece of the box big enough for a smallish journal, I lined the piece with heavy card stock. I creased it with my bone folder and folded it to create the spine. I folded the signatures and punched the sewing stations. Then I cut slits across the spine to correspond to the stations. I stitched it with a variation of the long stitch binding through the slits.

I don't quite have a handle yet on this stitch. I'm constantly having to stop and talk through the binding in my mind to get it right. And as you can probably see in he pix, it's still not exactly right. Need some work on this one.

But the graphics are fun. And I added a big square chocolate brown vintage button for a closure.

Book 323- Burgundy Leather Journal/Blank Book w/ Long-Stitch Binding

The leather for this leather journal/blank book is simply yummy. It's soft but not too thin. It has some natural wrinkling that gives it great character, and it had a nice natural raw edge from the hide I wanted to keep.

I cut the leather so the raw edge would be at the front edge of the wrap-around. The 112 pages are hand-torn 70 lb paper in a creamy off-white with a subtle fleck through it--very nice.

After reinforcing the spine with an extra strip of the leather, I punched the holes for sewing stations and bound the pages with a long-stitch binding using lavender waxed linen thread. I used an x-stitch pattern for a nice effect.

To close the book, I added a thong of the burgundy leather long enough to wrap twice around the book and loop through in front. I tied a triangular piece of jasper stone at the end as an accent.

Nice journal.

Book 290 - "Dogopoly" -2 - Recycled Game Board Box Journal/Blank Book - Single Needle Coptic Stitch

Can't seem to get away from coptic stitch journals and board games. I do love this "Dogopoly" game--a Monopoly clone for dog lovers. This one actually uses the lid from the box the game came in, which shows a smaller version of the entire board. Cute, no?

I cut the board image from the box cover and lined it with a pretty pearly moss green textured card stock. For the back, I sandwiched a piece of tag board between a piece of white card stock for the inside and another piece of the green. I folded six signatures, poked half-a-dozen holes for sewing stations and bound the journal with a single-needle coptic stitch, or chain stitch binding, with black waxed linen thread.

Done. And cute.

Book 281 - Mmmm, M&Ms Recycled Packaging Journal-Slit Spine Long Stitch Binding

It was candy restocking time in the store, and there was this empty M&M's Peanut box.... I guess you can imagine what came next.

Out came the scissors and the x-acto knife. I cut one large piece from the top of the box, glued on some heavy raspberry pink perlescent card stock to the back for looks and strength, scored it well with the bone folder and folded it at the spine. I then covered the spine with bright red duct tape and cut slits across the spine for the sewing stations.

I folded six signatures of white text paper, poked the holes and stitched them with a long-stitch binding through the slits I had cut in the spine.

Unfortunately, when the spine was folded I realized I had scored it a bit too narrow, which made the journal not want to close flat. So I made the strap from a double layer of the red duct tape to wrap around the book and closed it with a piece of industrial strength Velcro.

Mmmmmm.......

Book 271 - The Waltz - Japanese Stab Bound Storybook from Blue Shop Towels

Another pretty silly book for you. But first, the genesis...

I was looking around the studio trying to decide what to make a book out of when my eye landed on... a roll of blue shop towels. If you've never used them (and you should; they're great), they are extra thick, soft and very absorbent blue paper towels. The operative word there is paper towels. Paper, as in what books are commonly made of.

So I had my material; now I just needed to decide how to use it. I became captivated with the idea of these towels' extreme absorbency and wanted to use that as a motif throughout the book. Played around with variations on the word "absorb," even cracking the thesaurus for ideas. And the more I played with the words, the more they started to turn into a story, or a vignette from a romance tale.

       I'll tell you a secret (come close. I'm whispering). I used to write historical romance novels, 
       most of them set in the Regency period. So writing this sort of stuff came pretty easy to me.

The final result was an 18-page story I hand-wrote on pages cut from blue shop towels and bound with a Japanese stab binding with goldenrod yellow linen thread. The cover is simple brown card stock. Each page of the story has one variation of the word "absorb" in it somewhere. The text was written with a fine-tip black marker so the ink would absorb into the page.

The "dedication" of the book calls it a homage to Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, he of the "It was a dark and stormy night" fame. His style has become synonymous with bad writing. There's even an annual Bulwer-Lytton contest to see who can write the worst opening paragraphs for a story. So I was trying really hard to write this badly. I'm pretty sure I succeeded. Below, after the photos, I'll copy the entire text of this charming little tale for those who care to punish themselves with it. BUT Caution: If you hate bad writing, just pass on this.

This is not really much of a book. The cover is particularly awful because it won't lie flat. It looks sort of like a camp project. But I did get to try out the material, and it does fill up a day's book requirement.

OK, for those of you still with me, here it is....

The Waltz -- An Absorbing Tale

(In homage to Edward George Bulwer-Lytton)

The ball was crowded and merry and noisy, the dancers fully absorbed in flirting, flashing, dipping and swaying like mating peacocks. He would leave, he thought, leave this silliness behind. He turned to go.

The door across the room opened and she was there. A princess. A queen. A fairy so incandescently beautiful that she absorbed all the light in the room.

He blinked. His head buzzed. Silence fell, though he could see the musicians played still. But so absorbed was he in his enchantment, so ensorcelled by her beauty, that he saw, heard, smelled nothing else. Only her.

The music rose, breaking the spell, setting him free from his immobilized absorption long enough to think.  To know he must get closer. To her.

He edged slowly in her direction, softly, the noise around them absorbing the slight swish of his feet on the dance floor. She heard nothing as he drew near.

She was surrounded by lovesick swains, all of them fully absorbed in rapturous reverence, composing bad sonnets to her beauty and intoning them in their high-pitched, nasal, whiny voices.

He frowned. Young puppies. He knew they were, in truth, more in love with their love, more absorbed in their own emotions than in the flesh and blood of her. The real woman.

Close now, just behind her, he leaned toward her, breathed in, absorbing the delicate scent of her perfume. A heady aura of lilacs and lemongrass assaulted his senses.

He closed his eyes. He breathed. So absorbed in the magic of her scent, of her aura, of her, he almost forgot himself. He shook himself from her exotic spell, stepped forward and bowed.

"My waltz, I believe," he intoned, reaching out to her.
She blinked, smiled,  began to glow.
"Why yes," she said in a voice so lovely he thought she must have absorbed the music and made it sing back out of her mouth. "It is."

Everyone and everything else disappeared. The air absorbed the yapping voices of the putrid puppies trying to adore her. They simply disintegrated, leaving only her. And him. Them. He placed his arm around her waist. She placed her small hand in his. They began to waltz.

They danced as one, not thinking, never counting. Simply moving. As one. The music absorbed all thought and movement, digested it and sent it out again to flow in perfect harmony and synchronicity as they glided across the floor.

They gazed deeply into each other's eyes, two souls absorbed in the magic of becoming one. Lilting, swaying, almost swooning, they waltzed on. The silk of her gown whispered to him. The beat of her heart whispered too. He answered its song with his own.

Alas, the music ended, fading to a sigh, then to silence. Slowly, the world came back into focus, piercing their total absorption with each other. Other dancers, musicians, chandeliers, colors and sounds became real again. But still they stood. And smiled... secret smiles meant only for two.

"Gillian." A voice. A cruel, intrusive voice to speak the name of such a piece of heaven. A man, a monster, who was now glaring with focused absorption on the angel. "We are leaving now," the monster said and put out his hand.

And with a whispered, almost silent, "Thank you," she turned away, took that ugly hand, lifted her chin and walked away, leaving him with nothing but the scent of lilacs and lemongrass, trying to absorb the essence of her into his very pores.

He sagged. She was gone. No. It could not be. It must not be. He would not allow it. He WOULD see her again. He had absorbed her spirit into his soul. They were one now.

He would see her again.

AAAAaaaagh!

Book 254 - "Peter and the Moon Trip" - Recycled Children's Book as Journal

Another kids' book. This one is just too cool--"Peter and the Moon Trip." The illustrations take me back to "See Dick Run."  They are so good I had to include a few of them in the finished book.

If you been following this blog, you know the drill on this by now. I cut the book block out of the pre-loved and slightly tatty book I slit the spine down the center and trim/even. I covered the cut edge on the covers iwth some light blue Washi tape, then punched the holes/sewing stations.

The signatures are made up of 35 sheets of Neenah 24 lb Classic Laid paper in light cream. The sheets were folded into seven sigs, then the sewing stations were punched on sigs and covers. The spine edges of the signatures were then wrapped with Washi tape--which also held on the appropriate illustration.


I decided to go back to the single-needle coptic binding on this. I think it's a bit faster and there's no getting a handful of needles mixed up. The binding is stitched with natural linen thread.

Book 253 - "Dark Harbor" - A Recycled Children's Book - Blank Book-Journal--Double-Needle Coptic Stitch

Another recycled children's book tonight. This one is a young adult novel called "Dream of Dark Harbor." I picked it up because I loved the mysterious illustration on the cover. This was another "pre-loved" book from the Goodwill. The cover shows a few spots of wear, but I don't think that detracts from the finished book.

I cut out the rather tattered book block and slit the spine down the middle.I turned the cut edges over and glued them down, then clamped them to dry. Then I lined the inside of both covers with textured black cardstock.

The pages are a 24 lb creamy beige paper with a parchment like mottled look to it. I folded eight signatures and stitched the book with the double-needle coptic stitch, again using six needles for the six sewing station.

I really need to do about a dozen more of these multi-needle coptic bindings before I will really "own" it. Every time I start one, I have to rethink it all over again. not the middle part of actually stitching the signatures, but the beginning and end. I seem to have trouble remembering the order and feel like I'm reinventing the wheel all over again.

So expect more of these...

Books 251 & 252 - Amate Paper Mini-Journals w/ Banana Paper Pages - Long-Stitch Binding

Here's a pair of little mini-journals with hidden long-stitch bindings. I made one yesterday and liked it so much I made another one today--same cover paper, different color and lining.

I love amate paper, the Mexican paper that is made from pounded tree bark. I bought quite a lot of it when I was in Mexico in May--took up half my suitcase getting it home. I love the swirling look and the feel of it. The covers of these journals feature two different colors of amate paper--one dark brown and one light natural. Though it is thick, amate can be a bit fragile, especially when folded, so I knew I was going to have to reinforce it at any folds. I used strips of heavy cardstock to reinforce the spines, and also covered the spines after stitching, creating a hidden long stitch binding.

The dark book has darker brown lokta paper on the spine and fore edge and light hand-made paper as the inner liner. The lighter book has the same dark brown lokta paper on the spine and fore edge as well as inside for the liner. I love using lokta paper. Despite the fact that it is lightweight, it is quite strong. It is also very flexible, handling almost more like fabric than paper.

I wrapped the cover over the fore edge to the front so I needed a closure. I used dots of adhesive Velcro. I would have preferred to use brown but didn't have any. I may go back over these with a brown marker so they don't stand out quite so starkly.

These little journals measure 4" x 5 1/4" and are approx 3/8" thick. The pages are a wonderful natural banana paper that makes a perfect complement to the amate covers.

Quite a nice little pair, I think.

Book 250 - "Wake Up!" - Energy Drink Recycled Packaging Journal - Long Stitch Slot Binding

Perhaps this little recycled packaging book was inspired by the other night when I was obviously asleep while I was posting my book of the day. So much asleep that I forgot to post the photos. Let's hope I can stay awake tonight long enough to add the photos to this post.

We've carried Red Bull and Monster energy drinks in our store for awhile, but several people have asked us for these little 5-hour energy boost drinks. So when we found we could buy them by the case at a reasonable price, we went for it.

The colors and graphics on the box were bright and sunny and... "wake-up-y," so I figured they'd make a good book.

I cut one side off the box and lined it with black cardstock for extra strength. I scored where the folds for the spine would be then folded them over. I made 8 signatures of 5 sheets each for a total of 80 pages (160 both sides). After punching the holes for the sewing stations in the signatures, I cut corresponding slits in the spine.
Then I stitched the book together with a modified long stitch binding with black linen thread.

 I'm still not convinced about this binding.It is really difficult to keep the threads that show on the spine lined up neatly and keep the tension correct. And even when it's done well, I don't like the look of it as much as a regular long stitch binding sewn into individual holes.

But it's still fun to see what can be done by recycling cheap store packaging into nice books.