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 358 - Vinyl Record Journal - "Cabaret" with Liza Minelli - Coptic Binding

I loved "Cabaret" and thought Liza Minelli was simply magic in it. I love the music, too. So I was delighted to find a vinyl album of the show in a thrift shop. It was perfect for one of my vinyl record journals.

I cut the record to size with a band saw and smoothed the edges on a belt sander. I also sanded the fore edge corners of the covers into curves. Then I cut two pieces of the cardboard record jacket for the back cover. On the back is a picture of Liza on top of the word "Cabaret" in red lights. The inside back lining is a black and white picture of her.

For the pages, I used a cream-colored paper with lint flecks, folded into eight signatures. I tipped in bright orange end papers to repeat the orange color from the record label. I also rounded the fore edge corners of the pages to mirror the corves of the covers.

I drilled the stitching holes in the covers and poked holes in the sigs with an awl. The book is bound with a single-needle coptic stitch, also called a chain stitch binding.

This is a great journal, clever and very well made, if I say it who shouldn't.

Book 356 - "Motor Boys" Recycled 1906 Book Journal - Coptic Binding

This recycled book journal is made from a fabulous find--a 1906 novel for boys called "The Motor Boys in Mexico" by Clarence Young. It was part of a whole series of books about the Motor Boys, apparently playing off the idea of the then relatively new motor car as a source of adventure. Apparently there were a whole bunch of these series of boys' books--the back pages of this book had ads for many of them. In fact, I liked those pages so much, I incorporated several of the ad pages inside this journal.

As usual, the covers were sliced off the book, the spine carefully removed and the raw edges tape bound. I lightly waxed the cover to preserve and improve its finish--although it is in wonderful condition for being more than a century old. I punched holes for sewing stations, folded sigs and punched holes in those too and covered the spine fold with the same green tape as the spine edge, incorporating a few illustrations and other pages from the original book. The book was bound with a chain stitch binding--a single-needle coptic stitch--with white waxed linen thread.

I made a bookmark from the book's spine by folding back the cut edges and covering the entire backside with green paper tape.

This is really a lovely journal.

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 341-342 - Six Pack Series - Inning Two - Recycled Beer Packaging Books - Coptic Bindings

Inning 2 in our game of recycled six-pack container books. Today's inning features two blank journals bound with the single-needle coptic stitch binding.

The Alaskan Amber journal was actually the first beer six-pack book I made. I loved the ship graphic (an ice cutter, I assume) and the bright red background. I cut the largest part of the six-pack, the front and back panels, trimmed them and then backed them with some gold metallic textured cardstock with a nice weight. That makes the cardboard stiff enough to bind well.

The Budweisser six-pack is a lot more familiar to most people. Bud is one of our best sellers (and this one is a slight cheat since it's from a 12-pack, not a six). I lined the trimmed cardboard with more of the heavy metallic-finish card stock, in silver.

The pages for both books are a camel-colored text weight paper folded into signatures. I bound the Alaskan Amber book with red waxed cotton thread. For the Bud journal, I used doubled thread, one strand of red and one of black.

Nifty little journals. And two more down.

Books 337-339 - Six Pack Series - First Inning - "Blue Moon"

Beer books! Or at least, beer (and other) six-pack books. More of my infamous recycled packaging.

We recently started selling beer in our store. One day, while taking bottles out of six packs to put in the color for individual sale, I noticed how many of the six pack holders had really cool graphics. And in the final sprint to get the last of my 365 books finished and posted, I needed ideas quick. So I started cutting.

This is the first posting in a series of books with various types of bindings I've been making the last couple of weeks--all from six pack containers (well, one is from a 12-pack, but who's quibbling?).

Today's entries are all from a single six-pack of Blue Moon beer, a Belgian White Wheat Ale.

The first book used the large flat front and back of the six-pack. It's a blank journal bound with a single needle coptic stitch. I backed the covers with blue metallic-finish textured card stock. For the stitching, I used a double strand of waxed cotton threads in two shades of blue for extra interest at the spine.

The second book, a mini-jotter notebook, is the same structure as the first but much smaller. It's made from the two small panels that come together at the side of the six pack. It is stitched with dark blue waxed cotton thread in a single-needle coptic binding.

Finally, I used the two small panels from the other side of the six pack to make a French door book. It's actually two small coptic-bound books stitch to a single back made of chip board and lined with metallic card stock. The "French door" opens to reveal two little notebooks side by side, opening in opposite directions, one stitched on the left, the other on the right. Hard to explain, easy to see in the photos. The book closes at the front with a chain-stitch cord that wraps around a square opalescent bead.

This series makes me think of Victor Hugo. Whenever he started writing a new book, he always bought a new bottle of ink. When he finished writing "Les Miserables," the bottle of ink he'd bought at the beginning was empty. He told his wife he should name the book, "What There is in a Bottle of Ink."

So I guess today's post is "What There is in a Six-Pack of Beer."

Book 335 - "Pioneers on Early Waterways" - Recycled Children's Book as a Journal/Blank Book - Coptic Binding

The recycled book I used to make this journal/blank book originally retold tales of people on the early waterways of America, stories like young Sam Clemens (who later became Mark Twain) as a cub pilot on the Mississippi and tall tales of Davy Crockett. The stories were illustrated with pen and ink illustrations I wanted to save.

After cutting the spine off the book and removing the book block, I bound the raw cut edges of the covers with brown patterned tape. I carefully trimmed several of the illustrations from the book and used two of them--both showing river boats--as end papers inside the front and back covers. Then I trimmed more illustrations and taped one to the front of each of the eight signatures I'd folded up. The brown patterned tape folded over the spine edge of the signature makes for a nice pattern on the exposed spine of the book.

After punching holes for the sewing stations in the covers and sigs, I bound the journal with a single-needle coptic stitch binding with brown waxed cotton thread.

I also used the original spine of the book to make a bookmark. It's not in the photos below because it's buried somewhere on my desk and I couldn't find it to photograph. But It IS here and as soon as I clean off this mess, it will show up!

Really!

Book 332 - "The Ghost of Windy Hill" - Recycled Hardcover Book Journal-Coptic Binding

I love the look of this recycled children's book journal. As soon as I saw the book in the thrift shop, I grabbed it. The Ghost of Windy Hill was written in 1968 by Clyde Robert Bulla.

Making it was the usual drill: Cut off the spine, fold the cut edges back and tape them, this time with green patterned washi tape to pick up the green of the type on the cover. Bone the tape down very well inside and out. Fold the signatures; in this book there are eight.

I wanted to include some of the illustrations from the original book, lovely black-and-white ink wash illustrations by Don Bolognese. I tipped one in at the front of each signature, using more of the washi tape to hold them in and wrapping the tape around the folded edge of the signature to create the color pattern on the exposed spine.

I stitched the book with a single-needle coptic binding in light green waxed cotton thread.

I took the narrow spine I'd cut off the book, folded the cut edges over and taped the back to create a book mark for the journal. Nice.

Book 329 - Lighthouse Journal - Blank Book with Recycled Wallpaper - Coptic Binding

This pretty lighthouse journal is a virtual repeat of a book I did earlier (Book 239). But I liked it then and I still do. And I had another piece of this cool lighthouse wallpaper border and the beige map wallpaper and I wanted to use them again. So it's a repeat. So sue me.

I like making these coptic stitch journals. Now that I finally "own" the stitch (after having to re-read the instruction for at least the first 12 books or so), they are easy to make and you can be really creative with the covers.

For this lighthouse journal, I used Davey board for the covers, so they are nice and rigid. I covered the boards with rusty brown mulberry paper for clean and pretty edges. Then I tore the image of the lighthouse from a piece of wallpaper sample and glued it to the front cover. I glued the piece of nautical map wallpaper to the back cover and tore out some pieces of wallpaper with smaller lighthouses for the end papers.

I used light tan mottled paper for the pages and blue mottled paper for the fly leaves. I also used some small strips of the blue to wrap around the folded edge of some of the signatures to form a pattern on the exposed spine.

I punched holes in everything for the stitching stations and bound it using a single-needle coptic stitch (chain stitch binding) with light blue waxed cotton thread, to pick up the blue in the sky of the image.

Pretty. And I'm sure I'll make more very similar ones. So there!