For Fun

Bitty Binding

When I'm working on a project, usually I'm up and down, cut this here, press this there, rounding, backing, stamping, and various other -ings! It's not necessarily strenuous, but sometimes it's a nice treat to sit down and be able to make something from start to finish with all of the tools and materials at your fingertips! That's just what I got to do yesterday with this little Sweetheart book charm.

New in the Shop: Trinket Box featuring Liberty London Fabric

I have a new box in the shop and it started out as most of my "for fun" projects do. I sat down with all of my favorite things and started playing. In this case, that button and those charms found their way to each other and I paired them with Liberty London's Fairford pattern for a happy little match.

Here's what happened next! Click on the photo to see a larger version in a new window.

Paper Weaving

 Toward the end of last year I commissioned Rhonda, a bookbinder and paper marbler, to hand marble a slew of paper for one of my custom projects. I needed the paper to make endsheets for a series of guest books. Her work was beautiful and I couldn't have been happier with the result.

 In order to turn the marbled paper into endsheets, I mounted it onto a thicker paper that is sure to be durable for the repeated opening and constant use the books will receive. Each set of endsheets was made oversized and then trimmed to match height and width of the pages of the book block.

Above are the neatly trimmed marbled endsheets in action! I just loved the look of all of the trimmed strips neatly lining my recycling bin, and I couldn't toss them. I also couldn't just let them sit in a drawer for too long without playing with them!

Soon, my paper fiddling turned into paper weaving!

And more paper weaving.

And more! Once I stopped with the marbled paper trimmings, I had a knack for it and didn't feel much like stopping. I picked up some Japanese paper scraps and got cooking!

I plan to mount these little checkered pieces on tissue and then see what happens from there! I'm leaning toward incorporating them into the tops of boxes. Whatever I do, I'm sure the result will be posted here eventually.

Hatch Show Print

I had been hearing about Hatch Show Print for a long-long time, because it's an awesome shop and it's been around for a long-long time! Back in April, Josh and I drove through Nashville on our way to Kansas City, and we made sure to stop by and pick out a couple posters.

Just great, huh?

Something about all of those shelves on the left wall seemed magical. Maybe because of the striking resemblance to the wand shop in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter?

The colors in this "TYPE" monoprint called to me. I was tempted to blow our new carpet budget on it but managed to refrain.
 I highly recommend stopping by to take in all of the posters on their walls! If you won't be in the area any time soon, here's a link for their website where they have some work for sale, or you can even order a custom poster.

Racing Rivals, Illustrated by Josh Holtsclaw

Image courtesy of Amazon and my talented husband
My husband illustrated a children's book and it's on shelves today! Hooray! We called ahead just to be sure, and we're headed to Barnes and Noble tonight to pick up a few copies. I'm excited to take one apart and fancy it up into a hardcover version.

I'm writing from a new city! We moved to Kansas City, MO about a month ago and have been settling in quite nicely. The bindery is almost in tip-top shape and I have a few projects under my belt in the new space. I've had my camera out and have been snapping away, so I'll have plenty of photos to share in the weeks to come.

Paper Souvenirs from India

My friend Caroline recently returned from a trip to India where she spent time traveling with two of her friends from college. I couldn't wait to hear her stories when she got back, so I eagerly went over to her place as soon as I could. I felt like a little kid at story time as I sat cross-legged on her couch listening to her adventures!

They did so many amazing things. They had daily cups of chai and dined on delicious food everyday, rode elephants, explored the jungle by foot, rented a house boat, went to antique markets, saw amazing sights, visited paper stores, and came back home with lovely henna hands.

And look! She brought treasures to share! The Hindi-English newspaper bag held all of these lovely goodies.

Hand printed and quilled cards, envelopes, a wooden stamp, and a folding paper star. Absolutely my kind of treasure!

Thanks so much for sharing your tales and souvenirs, Caroline!

Little Leather Library: Rebound

I was eying a stack of Little Leather Library books as I was browsing a vintage shop with my mother-in-law around the holidays, but decided that they could find a home with someone else, because I was looking for a little text block that I could put a new cover on and it wouldn't feel right to take the books apart when they were functioning just fine, otherwise! We ventured toward the back of the shop, at the promise of a sale section, and low and behold there were a few of these books that were falling apart with their covers detached! My mother-in-law scooped them up, and away she sped to the register. On Christmas morning I had three little broken books to unwrap, and they are such treasures!

I've started working on the book in the photo in between projects. I took the sewing apart and reinforced and re-hinged some of the pages with Japanese tissue. The paper on the left will be made into endsheets, and the leather on the right is for the new cover. The poems inside are so sweet, it'll be exciting to finish the binding so I can sit down and read all of them!