Book 357 - Western Pulp Fiction - Classic Images Reversible Notebook/Journal

This reversible notebook/journal uses some classic imagery from 1950s pulp western fiction.

I have long loved pulp fiction imagery. It's just so immediate. It pulls you right into the moment of action, like good writing should. So I love using this imagery in my books.

For this 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" notebook/journal, I used two images and I reversed the one on the "back" so that the journal essentially has two fronts. You can use it either way. After printing the double image on heavyweight matte photo paper, I sprayed it with an acrylic surface spray to protect the finish. I needed a slightly rounded spine fold to accommodate the thickness of the two signatures, so I scored the inside center of the cover three times, about 3/16th of an inch apart on each score. Then when I folded it without boning it down hard on the creases, it was a bit rounded

I folded two signatures of 70 lb cream paper and stitched them both through a single set of sewing stations in the spine with a five-hole pamphlet stitch using a heavy waxed linen cord that feels almost like leather. I left the ends of the cord long enough at the center hole that I could wrap it around the book and tie it shut.

Nice notebook for a man, I think.

Book 309-314 - Pocket Notebook Collection - Moleskin Style - Running Stitch Single Signature Binding

Here's a collection - six neat little pocket notebooks. I got this idea when I noticed sellers on etsy were buying classic little Moleskin journals and simply decorating the covers with drawings or stamped art. I heard that voice in my head saying, "Those are pretty simple. I can make those in a jiff."

But of course, I don't do truly simple very well. So I spent a few hours trolling through my thousands of image files looking for what to put on the covers, sizing them, cropping them, playing with the colors and contrast. I think I came up with quite a range of styles.

I printed the images on letter-sized card stock, two images per page, so each notebook ends up 5 1/2"x4 1/4", more or less. I folded text-weight paper into a single thick signature, creasing it very well, then trimmed the fore-edge to get a clean edge. I punched holes 1/2" apart all down the spine and sewed the signature to the cover with a running stitch, down the length then back up again so that the stitch line is solid.

I creased the whole thing again very well, rounded the corners with an X-acto knife, then put them under heavy weights overnight to crease and flatten them even more.

These are actually pretty neat little notebooks. After showing them to Allen and a couple of other friends, the general consensus was that the pulp fiction cover ("Women in Crime - I had Nothing to Lose but my Virtue") was the best. I have lots more of these pulp images so I'll probably make a bunch of these to sell. They're fast and cheap to make so they should sell well.

Book 244-A Group of Little Blank Booklets - Ribbon Bound w/ Pamphlet Stitch

Today's "book"  is actually seven (count 'em-7!) books. I did a group of seven pamphlet stitch booklets, but they were so quick and easy, I just felt too guilty counting them as seven days so here they are, Day 244.

I was in Jo-Ann's craft store the other day, rooting around in the piles of scrapbooking papers, looking for likely papers for books. I found a few pads of 5x7" paper in pretty patterns. I also found one pad of cardstock with peel-off adhesive backing. That just screams "quick and easy" so it was too hard to pass up.

For each little booklet, I took a sheet of the pretty paper, found a coordinating color cardstock, peeled off the backing paper, and stuck 'er down. A few needed a tad bit of trimming. This became the cover. Then I scored a line in the center where the spine would be and folded the cover in half and boned it down. I cut some ivory text paper to size, folded 12 sheets in half, nested them into a single signature. I poked a pair of holes in the spine and a matching pair of holes in the cover and bound the whole thing with a piece of very narrow satin ribbon in a coordinating color.

After tying a knot to keep the binding from coming loose, I tied a pretty bow, knotted that, then wrapped the remaining ribbon around  the book and tied a second bow to keep the booklet closed.

These little booklets are pocket sized, so handy for odd notes, phone numbers, jotting down quick ideas. I also think they would make very nice bridesmaid gifts or wedding favors.

Book 243 - Another Hard Cover Journal w/ Hidden Long Stitch Binding

This pretty little hard cover journal uses the same kind of hidden long stitch binding as yesterday's book. This is a structure I can see myself doing a lot of when I'm in a "production-for-selling" mode. It looks neat and professional while still having the "hand-crafted" mojo to it. It's not terribly difficult to make. The key is in having lovely papers and paying attention to the neatness of the finishing.

For this one, I used a gorgeous piece of black-and-white Chinese character paper and a piece of acid green bookcloth for the spine. The three signatures are stitched to a separate piece of the green bookcloth which becomes a hinge to glue the book block onto the prepared cover. Then the end papers are glued down over the hinge. For the end papers here I used a card stock weight paper with a nice pearlized and textured finish.

I'm pretty sure this general structure will become a staple in my books-for-sale inventory.

Book 233 - A Small Guest Book/Housewarming Gift - Recycled Wallpaper Blank Book

Here's yet another recycled wallpaper book (I seem to be enchanted with the idea, don't I?) I think this little cutie would make a great housewarming gift. It's the perfect guest book for an entryway table.

For this one, I used a cute die-cut wallpaper border of a row of townhouses with palm trees. To make it stronger, I lined the strip with a piece of burnt sienna wallpaper and cut out the roofline edge. The book has three signatures with a total of 54 pages (108 counting both sides). I used a pale gray text paper for the pages. All three sigs are sewn in a pamphlet stitch through a single set of holes with blue waxed linen thread. The thread is knotted at the top of the spine with a small key charm attached.

I actually think this little guest book is quite precious.

Book 232 - Small JOurnal from Recycled Wallpaper - Butterfly Binding

This little blank book/journal is also made from a recycled wallpaper sample and bound with a butterfly stitch. It's like a pamphlet binding but with five holes. The single signature has 26 pages (52 both sides).

This time I used a piece of wallpaper border with a pretty banana palm design. I laced a green ribbon through the spine and covered it with a palm leaf green piece as an accent. Again, the wallpaper was not heavy enough by itself to serve as a journal cover. Plus there was writing on the back. So I backed the wallpaper with a piece of maroon card stock for a clean finish inside.

A very simple little book but nice, I think. Good size for a purse.

Book 231 - Recycled Wallpaper Journal/Blank Book-2-Sewn-as-1 Binding

This blank book journal has a hidden 2-sewn-as-1 binding. And yes, it's another one of my recycled wallpaper wonders in a nice bamboo pattern.

Before we get to the book... I know I'm way behind on posting lately. Mom care-taking time that is more intensive than I expected combined with major computer problems have put the kabosh to my postings. But I HAVE been making books. I have 5 or 6 ready to post right now and will add them over the next couple days... if this stinking computer cooperates. My sister's old Mac is in serious need of some TLC. For a couple days it would not upload any photos from my camera's memory card (even erased about a dozen of them in the process of trying). I have to unplug it to reboot at least once a day when it freezes up. And last night there was no internet connection at all. Extremely frustrating.

BUT, less computer time meant more book-making time! And I scored another book of wallpaper samples this week. Funny, I almost didn't bother to pick it up when I saw the style. It is SO not me.. in terms of home decor. I'd likely never put any of this stuff on a wall in my home. But once I started really looking at it, I realized it had some tremendous book possibilities. It's been fun finding new ways to use it.

So today's book is the first from the new find... a really simple journal with two fat signatures bound with a 2-sewn-as-1" binding. That's what Alisa Golden calls it in her incredibly useful book, "Making Handmade Books: 100 Bindings and Structures." (If you don't have it, you can get it at the link in the top left column.)

Since the wallpaper by itself was a bit thin for a cover, and because it had some printing on the back, I glued it to a piece of coordinating wallpaper for a liner.

For this simple structure, basically, you fold your cover in half with a deep pleat in the center. You then open it up, lay your two signatures on either side of the pleat inside the cover, and stitch through all the layers with a single row of stitching. I used a simple three-hole pamphlet stitch for this one.

Then I decided to make the binding hidden, so I covered the spine with a strip of the same coordinated wallpaper as the liner. Stuck it in the book press for a couple hours and Aha! A nice, neat, simple little journal/blank book with 36 pages (72 both sides) of felt finish cream paper.

As they say at Staples... That was Easy!

Book 216 - A Pamphlet Book of the Flores Mine - Chloride, Arizona

This little pamphlet book with a historical photo of the old Flores Mine here in Chloride, Arizona, came about as a last minute necessity. Earlier tonight I was putting together five gift basket raffle prizes for the Chamber of Commerce for a Sunday event. All the items in the basket are "Chloride" in some way. The basket was nice but it just seemed to need that one more item to make it feel abundant. Allen asked if there wasn't something I could make for it.

Well... what do I make? I make books. Lots of books. So I thought a few minutes and came up with a book idea that would say Chloride, would be cheap to make, would be fast to make, and would look nice. We have quite a nice collection of old photos from Chloride (which is, by the way, the oldest continuously inhabited mining town in Arizona). The picture of a bunch of miners arranged outside the entrance to the Flores mine is my favorite.

I sized the photo and printed it out on beige cardstock. I folded nine sheets of text paper in half, then had to trim about  1/4" off the fore edge so the book block would not be wider than the cover. I nested the pages inside the cover, poked three holes in the whole bunch, stitched them together with a pamphlet stitch with brown hemp cord. I tied off at the top with a tail long enough to tie on a dangling flintstone arrowhead.

Done.

It took me about 10 minutes to find the photo, size it, tweak the contrast and sepia color, and print out six copies. It took about another 30-40 minutes to fold, trim and stitch all six copies and tie on the arrowheads. I ended up with five books for the gift baskets and one more for today's book here.

So I really made six books today, but I'm only counting one (which means I still have a few to make up).

Book 213 - A Pamphlet Stitch Journal/Blank Book/Guest Book with Olive Branch

I'm excited right now because this pretty pamphlet stitch journal  made with hand-made paper and Mexican amate paper cover is the first book I've made at my brand new workbench! Solid oak, just the right height, 4 drawers, a shelf for large paper. I love it! I've had it for a while, but it's been in a very large box waiting for me to make room for it. Today I did and tonight Allen and I put it together.

I felt so good standing there being able to simply reach for any tool I needed and it was right there, available! No digging in boxes looking for it. What a concept!

OK, enough about the workbench. The book is nice too. This is almost an exact replica of a book a friend used as a guest book/good wishes book for a party she threw for me several years ago. Everyone wrote lovely thoughts in it and I still have it. This book is a very simple structure. The lusciousness of it is all about the paper. The pages are a thick, wonderful hand-made paper with leaf inclusions. It's hard to photograph the texture, but it is really yummy. The cover is a piece of wonderfully swirly Mexican amate bark paper I brought back from San Miguel. The binding is a simple pamphlet stitch with the addition of wrapping the stitching around a small branch from our olive tree at the spine. I used deep red embroidery cotton, left a longish tail at the top and threaded on a pale red bone bead as an accent.

This would make such a pretty guest book on a hall table for all your visitors to sign.

Book 167 - Pamplet Stitch Hand-Made Book with Hand-Made Paper

For today's hand-made "book-a-day" we have something... dead simple. The basic pamphlet stitch book is surely the quickest, simplest stitched book structure you can make. But done with nice materials, it can still be very pretty and functional.

For this pamphlet stich book I used a lovely piece of hand-made paper for the cover. (Note: I didn't make the paper. I actually bought it at an Office Depot in central Mexico.) The book has a single signature of 10 sheets folded into 20 pages (40 counting both sides), stitched with burgundy colored raffia and tied at the spine. I added a narrow strip of Tyvek to the spine area of the cover for strength, and the knot/bow has a drop of glue on it for stability.

The end paper is a piece of hand sponge-painted paper I did years ago. It's been sitting around the studio ever since asking for a function.