How to have a productive day.

1. Get a good night’s sleep, for once.
2. Get up early at a reasonable time.
3. Pack husband off for his hydrotherapy so you don’t keep stopping for cups of tea.
4. Forget about chores.
5. Get in your workroom, start something and wait for inspiration to strike.

Things not to do:

1. Try to sew through a pin.
2. Decide to take your sewing machine in for repair, having
3. forgotten it is the Friday before the Easter holiday so the M3 will be very very very busy.
4. Think about the bill.
5. Go to your favourite Eastleigh cafe as you happen to be passing – but they do do good coffee and even better chocolate shortbread at The Point.

The results of this include:

1. A sample of Dorothy Simpson Krause’s drumleaf binding, which I last showed you looking like this.

As before, it is made from a fairly random selection of papers, but the result is very pleasing. The book has a nice heft, and looks very neat [at least for me!], and as you can see from the hand page – no stitch – so good for full page images.

Krause gives instructions for a more complex cover, but as it’s a sample I made a simple card cover, getting the wriggle room right this time. I would probably never have tried this if I hadn’t started exploring ideas for using my photos in books, but I’m very pleased I did.

After that I got distracted from the experimental stuff, as I came across a picture of a blanket stitch binding where the hole in the spine extended into the covers – like this. And this sugar box threw itself at me saying ‘me, me, me’ – so how could I resist?

The last time I tried a blanket stitch binding, I followed Alisa Golden’s instructions, but she mentions that her version was adapted from Keith Smith – so this time I went straight to the source - ‘Non-Adhesive Binding’. [Perhaps it was a reaction to all that gluing in the drum leaf binding?]

For once – I found Smith’s instructions much easier to follow than Golden's. I think part of the problem is that the ‘blanket stitch’ isn’t done the way I normally do it, but this time I got my head round that and managed to do it the bookbinding way, not the blanket binding way.

Flushed with success, when we got back from our slow trek up and down the M3,  I made three [count them – three] books in quick succession. mind you, they were a lot simpler than the ones I made in the morning.

First up, another book in a matchbox. The strip I'd cut off the cover of the drumleaf book told me it wanted to be an accordion – and I decided it could live in a matchbox. As it looked a bit like a night sky, it got some moons and stars punched in it, and a smear of confetti paint.

What I can’t show you is the very satisfying way it leaps out when you open the matchbox, like a Jack-in-the-Box.

Then I pinched an idea from Craftzine, but without the charming drawings. Or the neatness.

These matchbox and button books raise a problem, of course. I’ve managed to put most of my sample books in a sketchbook, because they have been relatively flat, and my sketchbooks tend to b.u.l.g.e, but I don’t think I can get buttons or matchboxes in. Perhaps I need a sketch box?

 

Speaking of bulging – for a little light relief I made some autumn leaves. The instructions were in my file, and once I'd found the origami paper, they were quick to do. There was a reason for it – apart from coming across the instructions.

I thought I might be able to add them to some of the litter pictures – leaf litter?

And finally – a very quick variation on a one sheet book. I think this needs colour on the inside, some holes, and possibly some stitch – but that will all have to wait till tomorrow…