Making Book Again

 A couple of years ago I mentioned making a journal here in my blog. Making Book and Need a Journal

It's nearly full. Only 3 pages left to fill.  I don't write every day, but I sometimes write a lot or I sometimes write big.  So anyway time to make another.

This time I used a graham cracker crumbs box. 

I decided to make this journal more square and this box was squarish. 

To cover the covers, made from the crumb box, measure the paper 1/2 -1 inch larger all the way around.  Score the paper where it should fold over the cardboard.

Glue, but don't leave it like this. Smooth it with a foam brush or your fingers.

Center the cardboard on the paper and smooth it. Then fold up the sides and the top and bottom edges and smooth.  Using the bone folder helps.

Next I cut a piece of paper to fit the inside of the covers except for about 1/4 inch all around.

(I missed a few photo opportunities throughout the process. Please don't consider this a true tutorial.)

This is the inside of the other cover.

The outside back cover.

The front cover.

The signatures with stitching holes poked.

 About halfway through the stitching process.  I love the colored cord.

 Finished.  In this photo you can see the curved needle.  It makes the sewing up easier, but a straight needle can be used.

Ready now for recording anything I might need to say.

Here is the book I absolutely love for making books.  Very easy to follow directions.

A peek inside.  Coptic Binding is the binding I'm more familiar with.  But I have made a couple of other kinds.

I made this one using a glued binding.

I found this idea on YouTube. HERE . Sea Lemon has some very nice book making tutorials.

That is all for today and, really that's enough.

Ta Ta,

Oh no, not again

Yes, it's true.  I've been idling.  All week. Well, since I got home.  The first two days were all about the fire, unpacking from the trip, packing up things I might to take if evacuated, unpacking once the danger passed. Thank the Lord, I didn't need to evacuate.  Many did and many lost homes and property.  No lives lost.  Here is how the  fire started:  vehicle in dry vegetation.  How awful must that person feel to know his/her carelessness caused so much destruction.

The rest of the week I have no excuses.  I just idled like the idle rich.  Are the rich really idle?  The heat has been trying.  Vegging in front of a screen doing "whatever" with a fan and the air conditioner was all I could manage.  That is until I came to my senses.  Thursday evening.

Couch potato.  A person who leads a mostly sedentary lifestyle.  Originally meant watching TV and eating snacks, now this includes computer and video game playing.  I looked this up on Wikipedia and it wasn't pretty.  Very, I repeat VERY, hazardess to one's health.  I want to be healthy.  I think this is true of most people.

So I got back on the walking track I started the first of July. Going before or just at dawn makes it easier.  Here's the view August 2nd.

Then yesterday, Sunday, it was cloudy and the temperatures stayed in the 80's.  Here's the view from almost the same spot.

This a road near my home that is fairly level.  Good for me as I get dismayed if there are too many hills.  Once I've been walking regularly, the hills won't tire me so much.

My problem is almost all of my favorite things to do are sedentary. Sewing, knitting, reading, weaving, mixed media art, book binding.  But I also like gardening and dancing so there you go.

Wait. Did she just say bookbinding? 

Yes.  And I have mentioned it before.   See it here .  Only I called it "book making" which sounds vaguely illegal.

This is a binding called coptic stitch binding.  Just now I'm trying, for the first time, a glued binding.  I saw a great tutorial on YouTube using a Junior Mints box for the cover.  Watch it here. But look out for advertisements.

I'm writing this while the glue is drying, so I will show the finished product another day.  Now for some dancing.  Be thankful there are no photos of this.

It's a simple skirt

When the owner arrives I will try to get a photo of her in it.  It needs hemming so also waiting for her for that. Oh, yes and I haven't seen her since January.  Once again I.m sorry about the quality of the photographs.  I tried several times to get a decent one.

This skirt is from Favorite Things and the pattern is called Cute Skirts.
It's pretty easy. There are eight panels to cut from a single pattern piece, then a front waist band and a back waistband casing.  Mine is the basic one, but there were three variations.  I added a pocket in the right seam because I like to have one.  Three panels sewn together make the front and five make the back.  The back has elastic and the front a smooth waist band.

My next projects are 2.  I'm making myself a corset,  alas there will be no photo of me wearing it.  Also  I am making a couple of  books.  One is from a project by SeaLemon.  Here is the link to the project she made.  It's on my Pinterest board. Junior Mint Box book.  This link takes you to a little tutorial. but you can just look at the photo if you care to.

Excuse me, did she say corset?  I beg forgiveness if I have mentioned this before.  I am training to be a volunteer at the Gold Discovery Historic Park and so must have period clothing.  So I took a corset class and we are supposed to finish it this weekend.  In the mean time, I have been a slacker so have to do some catching up.

The mower men have arrived sounding like giant bees on drugs.  I'm thankful they are willing to do this as I would never, EVER use Round-Up on my land.  (A short rant).  

This is part of my yard in early spring.  The grass is now a foot taller and fading to brown.  I can do before and after photos when the guys are done.  Also this was taken a few years ago and there is more fence..

It's Wednesday and a lovely one, a day the Lord has made. I am rejoicing in it.  

         Ci vediamo presto is Italian for 'We'll see each other soon.'

I Needed a Journal

Hands up those of you who keep a journal, a diary, or just keep the occasional note on your life.  When I was about 10 or so, I received a gift of a 5-year diary.  This was a small book and each page was marked off into 5 sections.  Each section being 2 inches of the page.  I was supposed to write my thoughts downs in those tiny spaces.  Oh, I tried. Some days it was easy enough to write " got up, went to school, kicked Billy for pushing me, had fried chicken for dinner."  but most of the time I needed more space.   I kind of gave up on that, but I loved the tiny key I could lock it with.

Years fly by and soon I am sixteen going on seventeen.   My mother decides she wants to take a trip around the United States.  Before we go, she suggests I take notes about all the places we visit.   I decided a plain school notebook would be find.  Lots of room to write and I didn't really need a key.

Upon returning from my wonderful, exciting, stupendous trip around the land that I love,  I continued writing.  There were things I didn't want my mom to read, but I still didn't need a key.  She told me she would never read my diary and I trusted her.

However, when I got married, I didn't want my husband to  read it so I burned it.  What a complete nut I was.   It would have been interesting reading to recall my thoughts from ages 16 to 21.  Some times I think of it with regret, but mostly I just get on with it.

Forward to many years later.  It's 1986.  I have my husband and three wonderful children, I've turned 40 and I am not writing much of anything.  I even gave up writing letters.  The occasional greeting card, maybe.  I'm working in a pre-school teaching 4 year olds to get ready for Kindergarten.  Carolyn, one of my students gives me the gift of a "blank book".  Consequently, I took up journaling again.  In 1992 I started nursing school.  One semester we were required to keep a clinical journal and turn it in to the teacher. She commented and then turned it back to us.

As I wrote more and years happened, I got other "blank books" and filled them up.

L-R

From Carolyn, clinical journal, a not-so-blank book.

So now. Present day.  I have one page left in my current journal.  I said, "I need to go shopping for a new journal."  My rational self said, " You can just make one, you have everything you need. You don't have to spend money."   I'm thankful for my rational voice.

First I took thirty-six pieces of printer paper, some bright ones. I folded them all in half, then stacked them in groups of 4, making a group of 8 pages.  (One folded page is called a folio, a group of folios is a signature)

 

Signatures.

I stacked the signatures up and put a heavy book on top to flatten them.  I don't have step by step photos as this isn't really a lesson.  I made the covers from a cereal box

This is a replica of the box I used.  I cut the front and back a bit bigger than the folded pages.  Then I covered them with some nice paper I had. Using other paper I covered the inside of each.

 Inside back cover.

Back cover.

Inside front cover

Front cover.








Then holes must be poked.  I used an ice pick over a phone book.  There are no photos of that process.

This is the book unsewn.

 Sewing.  A curved needle.  One must be careful.  It's easier to stab oneself with a curved needle than it is with a straight needle.

Sewing back into the center of one of the colored pages.

At last, sewing on the back cover.  My palm was a bit tired of getting poked.  I've made a book using a straight needle, but it's harder to sew through the signatures. Note the curved needle just making it look easy.

Finished sewing.  The back of book.

From the front.  Yay!

Inside the front cover.

This page is really a nice bright green.  Not a good representation of color.  You can see the stitching.

 

All finished and ready for daily jottings or the occasional poem.   Did she say poem?

The grass in my yard is up to here.

It's still a lovely shade of green
Presently  the green will  go
So I must find someone to mow. 

Oh, sorry.  I only have to look out the windows to see the truth of these  poetic lines.

May the Lord bless you today and every day.