Book 275 - "Dogopoly" Game Board Album - Screw Post Binding

This is too cute! It's another game board book, a photo album this time, but it's the game that makes it really fun. I found this game of "Dogopoly" in a thrift store and grabbed it so fast my shopping cart spun around. It's set up like a Monopoly board but with everything to do with dogs. Instead of streets, you buy breeds, from the cheapest  Chihuahua to the most expensive Great Dane. Instead of houses and hotels, you build fire hydrants and doghouses.

I cut the board so that the original center fold was intact and used that for the hinged cover for a side binding. I originally planned to do a Japanese stab binding but then remembered I had some screw posts (bookbinders' posts) that would work well.

The album pages are heavy card stock, alternating black and brown and folded double at the hinge for extra volume at the spine, so the album can still take the thickness of photos.  The screw posts mean you can add or remove pages.

In the middle of the front cover was a rectangular box marked "Good Dog." It's where you put game cards like the Chance and Community Chest cards in Monopoly. I used a piece of black mat board to make a small frame inside the box and slid in a photo of my own sweet little dachshund, "Star."

This is Allen's favorite book I've made for a while (I think it's the picture of Star, who is his baby.)  I like it too.

Book 234 - Another Housewarming Gift/Guest Book - REcycled Wallpaper Book w/ Long Stitch Binding

OK, it's more wallpaper, the same townhouse border I used in the last book. But this welcome journal - guest book - housewarming gift is a different style. This time the border strip of townhouses is not die cut. I glued the whole strip onto a piece of dark blue textured wallpaper and lined the whole cover for added strength with another piece of paper in a cloud pattern.

This is a larger book than I usually make -- notebook size. I used 11"x17" gray text paper folded into signatures for the pages. Four signatures and a total of 40 pages (80 counting both sides). I printed out the word "Welcome" in dark blue ink on wheat colored paper and glued it to the bottom left corner of the cover.

The guest book is bound with a long stitch binding with blue waxed linen thread. The guest book feels a lot more substantial than you'd expect from simple wallpaper.

I think this would be way cool on an entry table for guests to sign their names and comments.  A nice remembrance of friends and family.

Book 190-Japanese Stab Bound Album/Sketchbook

Here's another Asian themed Japanese Stab Binding similar to the one from a few days ago. The pages are full-sized 8 1/2"x11" cardstocl so that this could work as a photo album, a sketchbook or a journal.

The covers are davey bookbinders board covered with a really pretty decorative paper in a raspberry color embossed with gold butterflies. The spine is covered with black bookcloth. The binding is done with variegated ribbon. It seemed just a tad plain so I added three Chinese coins as an accent.

I could make these books all day long. Simple, elegant and pretty.