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Bookbinding Technique

Did you ever participate in an exercise in which you close your eyes and proceed to fold a piece of paper based upon the oral instructions given to you?  At the end, when you open your eyes, you discover your piece of folded paper does not look anything like your instructor's.  The participants burst into laughter when they see how each of them interpreted the directions differently and no two pieces of paper are folded the same.  And then there's always the one who did it perfectly......  

Well, that's what last night's little art activity reminded me of.  Although I must say all of us Prairie Art Stampers were able to master this paper folding technique.  Our member, Ann, brought us a fantastic book binding technique that she learned in a book.  She is a master crafts(wo)man at making German stars so it didn't surprise me that she would know lots of other paper folding.  No glue.  No scissors.  No tape.  Just fold and assemble and you have a book. 

Here are some photos that I took during my assembly of my little book:

As you can tell, we had color coded papers to help us learn how to assemble.  When I got home, I pulled out DD1's Heidi Grace papers and a matching sticker and popped on a new cover that matched the yellow and pink.  The cover now is heavier card stock( but I was still able to crease it)--and no need for a cardboard insert.

You can cover the spine, use beautiful patterned papers, stamp, embellish, etc.  The examples Ann brought were all stunning.  I immediately determined this is a great way to use up all of those left over papers and stickers sitting in my craft room.

What's New and What's Not....

I haven't been crafting/posting or blogging for quite some time.  But it's still on my mind!

You know you're a crafter when you buy your peaches for the box they come in--not thinking about the tasty treats but rather how you're going to Modge Podge the crate looking cardboard box and use it for something...

 

Then a stop at a second hand store netted these.  One person's discards is a crafter's treasure:

I thought of my blogging friend Lynne's beautiful fabric and lace projects and couldn't pass on these upholstery fabric swatches.  Won't these make stunning backgrounds?  I think the red and green ones will come into play for Christmas projects. 

I won the Heartwarming Vintage/Crafty Secrets dress form and CD3.  They arrived in the mail.  The 3-D dress form is flat on the back side.  We stopped in a store, and a stock boy walked by us carrying a boatload of misc. stuff.  My dh said to me, Look, he's carrying one of those dress forms.....  My altered one will be revealed in January as one of my design team projects.


Also arriving in the mail was my stamp plate that I won at Rogue Redhead Designs for my challenge entry.  I really want to make something soon with my new Floriculture plate for the next RRD blog challenge.

I keep looking at all the challenge sites but they'll just have to wait.  I have a deadline looming on the horizon for the wedding guest book that has priority attention.

And of course I'm working quietly and secretly on projects for the upcoming Gecko Galz Blog Hop in October.  Did you see the badge at the top right corner?  Save the date.  You won't want to miss this!

Speaking of secrets, I've been asked to join another design team and happily agreed.  More on that when the time comes.....

Heading to my Prairie Stampers Club meeting so tomorrow I should have a post of what we make this evening....

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Here's a card that I made at Stampin' Up Club (design by the Stampin' Up demonstrator).  It's in the mail to my sister.  Have a great day, sis!

Clean and Simple in Green

Shar has me started on the clean and simple look.  Over at her Rogue Redhead Designs blog, her most recent challenge, Rebel Challenge #13 Distressed Greens,  is to use the color green and some distressing (along with stamping) 

Voila! Here are a couple of gift tags for wedding presents. This little Studio G wedding cake stamp that I picked up at our recent Prairie Stampers Club garage sale came in very handy. (Unfortunately I didn't use a RRD stamp for this little project.  But while visiting the RRD site, I did purchase her latest release, Nature Notes, and can't wait to get the plate!)

The wedding invitation used mossy green paper and brown grosgrain ribbon.  I found matching green ribbon (which turned out to be the color of the bridesmaids' dresses) and then searched for some brown wrapping paper for the gifts.  My little gift tags followed the theme.

My distressing is with ink, using a green Studio G chalk to edge the card as well as some Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and Tea Dye.  On one of the tags, I also used my distress blade to rough up the edges.  

Image is stamped with Archival Ink in sepia and colored with Copics E37 sepia and YG03 yellow green.

Keeping it clean and simple, one card is stamped and folded, then glued onto a brown square.  The other is layered into a traditional card.  I punched a hole in each tag and attached them to the gifts with the brown ribbon from the wedding invitation. 

It's August ?!?!??!?!

Happy August First!  

Today marks the start of  a new topic at Unruly Paper Arts blogozine.  This month we're working on art journaling.  My Unruly column will be posted there on August 3rd, linking to my post here.  In the meantime, please check out the table of contents for the month and the two Reader Art Quests that are up and running today at UNRULY PAPER ARTS.

Art Journaling is a new venture for me.  These literally are my first two art journaling pages.  I spent a long time on them, trying to create a cross between art journaling and the smash book concept.  I wasn't sure how I liked the outcome so I tossed it for my Unruly column, creating something totally different to include in the article.


But since this is my personal blog, I'm posting them here just to see what you think.  Blue: It's a Color, Not a state of mind.

I love a children's book, My Many Colored Days, by Dr. Seuss and thought I'd create my own small journal about color. (If you are not familiar with this book, here is a link to a review that I found fascinating from the perspective of both writer and illustrator: HERE,)


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