The Names of God--More Handbound Journals

The fabric I used for these journal covers are the names of God in a chalkboard style, The pages are blank inside. The books are identical except for the color of thread, elastic, and patterned paper. Two of them are for gifts, but I had extra bookcloth left over, so I went ahead and made a third one. 

Size: 4.75" x 6"

# of Sections: 10, with 4 folios in each

# of Pages: 160

Stitches: Coptic, Kettle, Gathered Long Stitch

Closure: Elastic

Cover Material: Cotton Fabric

Thread: Linen 

The patterned papers on the inside of each of these books is exactly the same except for the color. The polka dot paper covers the first and last sections just to add a little more interest to the spine.

The polka dot patterns line up on the outer sections, and I made sure to fold each of the polka dot folios down the center of a line of dots so that I could get as much color on the spine as possible.

If you are looking for 1/4" colored elastic, I found lots of different colors at The Ribbon Retreat. They have excellent customer service, as I accidentally ordered 1/8" elastic initially and they took it back for a store credit so I could turn around and order the 1/4" elastic quickly. This ribbon is much thinner than I am used to. It has a smooth texture and a looser elasticity than the thicker, ribbed elastic that I found at the craft store. I was afraid there wasn't enough spring to this elastic, but it actually works perfect for a book closure.

One more book left to share with you soon--a traditional casebound book.

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Flower Power Coptic Book

I was never a "flower child." Even as a young child, I was probably too conservative to have fit in with that crowd. But, I did enjoy the fun flower art the movement inspired. The flowers on this book remind me of that, in design and color. I used matching orange, pink, green, and white paper to make the twelve 16-page sections (192 pages total). 

This book looks very similar in construction to my address book, with it's French Link and Long Stitch Weaving, but the thread is wrapped twice through the cover here. 

When I first saw books whose covers were attached with two threads, I thought they just went through each station of the cover twice. Oh my gosh, was I wrong! This stitch requires 9 steps! But, according to Keith Smith, in his book, Exposed Spine Sewings, this particular attachment (Type 5 Board Attachment Lark Spur, page 217) has "ideal" hinging action, so the extra work was worth it.

The inside cover

Since this is a small book (4" x 5.25") I had less weaving to do, but I packed it much tighter than on my address book.

And, here is the cover to cover pic. Because this book is covered in paper rather than cloth, the recessed grove for the elastic, on the front cover, is easy to see. Oops! I see now that I forgot to make grooves on the back cover for the small bits of elastic there. =$ Not to worry, though. I think my "signature" on all my books will be to include at least one purposeful mistake, just so there is no question that it is handmade. I just need to make sure I don't "sign" a book in too many places at once. ;)

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Custom Handbound Address Book

If you saw my last post, and actually made it to the end, you know that I have been working on a project for myself--a new address book. I almost gave up on it before I ever got to the binding part because getting the pages printed right was so difficult, but I persevered, and here it is! (Lots of photos!)

Most of my books are approximately 4" x 5", but this one is larger--5" x 7".  It is bound very similar to my journal from Monday, with a groove for the elastic band and Coptic and French Link Stitches over tapes, but I added Long Stitches with weaving, also.

Since this book has a longer spine, I was able to use wider ribbon for the French Link stitches, and I had a fairly large area for the long stitches. 

Here's a better view of the spine, especially the weaving. Weaving like this is simple, but given that I had 2" of Long Stitches to cover, and the thread was not very thick, it took awhile. And, since I don't have a lying press, I had to hold the book between my knees and sit all scrunched up while I worked on it, which did not make my neck happy at all! What a relief when I finally got to the last row!

I covered the inside covers with a calm, dark green paper. I like pink, but can only take so much of it at once. You can also see the first divider. I used white 65 lb. cardstock and added die cut tabs. The text on the tabs was made with a label maker. The black and white strip is Washi tape. I love how it looks, but I mainly used it to cover the part of the tabs that is glued to the divider. It didn't look too good sitting there all naked. ;D 

The best part of making your own address book is getting to put anything you want in it and leaving out things you don't need. These are the sections in my book. There are 15 in all, and I divided them by wrapping every other section with a cardstock folio. In all, each section has 12 pages--a total of 180, not including the dividers. You might be wondering if I'll ever get around to showing you the actual pages, right?

This is my title page. The pretty floral paper is a digital paper by Juliana Kneipp, called Old Sweet Times. Unfortunately, she no longer makes or sells digi paper, so I don't think it is available anymore. I used this particular image because it was only a border. Since I was printing this on my printer, I didn't want something that was going to drink up all my ink.

The entire book was created in Word, using tables. Here's my Personal Information page. I used that same floral image on every page in the book, adding a text box over it for the tables I made for the information. 

One of the things I really wanted in this book was a place to put things like the paint colors we've used, and major appliance information. I don't need to access it very often, but when I do need it, I can never find it. On the facing page, there is room for favorite babysitters, restaurants, theaters, parks, and libraries. 

The actual address section has 6 pages per letter, with room for 4 addresses on each page, except for a couple of combined sections (t,u,v and x,y,z). I can't imagine ever having more than 24 addresses under one letter of the alphabet, so I think I'll be able to use this book for a long time.

The last section is just a place for notes. All the pages in this section are set up the same, but 4 of them have a blank writing area, 4 have a lined writing area, and 4 have a grid writing area. You never know what you'll need to write in there. It probably looks like the text on every page in this book is printed in a different color. It's not. I can never get photos with lots of white to turn out right--especially when there is a lot of red in the photo, too. 

I see pics of handmade books with the pages fanned like this. Why? I have no idea. But, I figured I'd do it, too. :D

And, this is my favorite shot of a handbound book with an exposed spine. One that shows both covers and the spine at the same time.

After working on this for several weeks, now I need to fill it with information. I hope I can bring myself to actually write in it! I might need to work on my penmanship first. ;~/

Hope you are having a stellar week! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm entering this book in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create #148: Anything Goes
Color Throwdown #367 (CTD#367)
Craft Your Passion Challenge #286: Always Anything Goes

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Coptic & French Link Journal

I've been making books again! This one was stitched with Coptic Stitch and French Link Stitch over velvet ribbon, and I used it to learn to do a couple of things I've never attempted before, in anticipation of making my next book.

I love all the intense color on and in this book. Not only was it fun to work with, but it made for easy photo editing--no white. The three rows of skinny black stitches are Coptic stitches and the wider stitches over the ribbon are called French Link Stitches. I probably should have either made the French Link Stitches wider or reduced the tension in them so that the ribbon wouldn't have wrinkled, but it's not nearly as noticeable in real life and it doesn't bother me much, so let's just say I did it on purpose...for artistic reasons, 'k? ;~)

There are nine sections, each with six folios, which comes to 216 pages. I would have had green paper in there, too, but couldn't find the right shade. I went with the green ribbon on the spine to make up for the lack of green paper. 

Here's a good look at the front of the book. The ribbons are threaded through the book cover, which I've done before, but on this book, I took the time to cut graves on the inside cover so that there wouldn't be any lumps under the end papers. This is the first time I've added an elastic band as a closure on a book, and I love how it turned out. Like the ribbons, I cut graves on the inside back cover to hide the bulge where the elastic is attached, but I went a step further and cut grooves into the length of the front cover for the elastic to sit in. I did the same on the outside of the back cover, also, so that the elastic is nearly flush with the cover. I didn't make that up on my own, though. I saw it here. Siuyuett also has a fabulous mini documentary about bookbinding, which takes you from start to finish in about 5 minutes. If you have any interest in bookbinding at all, I highly recommend the video.

Here's a look at the groove I cut for the elastic. Can you see it? It runs from top to bottom about 1/2" from the edge.

And, here you can see that the elastic is barely visible from the side when it is in place in the grooves.

This is what the inside covers look like. Most people who make Coptic stitch books just sew around the edge of the cover. Back when I went to the Bookbinding Bootcamp at Smokey Road Press we learned to tunnel through the side of the bookboard so that the thread doesn't have to wrap on the outside of the cover. I still used the wraparound technique, but I like this one better.

And, finally, a look at both covers and the spine all together. Thanks for staying with me to the end!

I've been anxious, for a couple of weeks, to finish a custom address book I'm making for myself. I wanted a particular color thread and had to wait on it to get here. Well, it arrived today! So, now I'm off to sew it together tonight. Unlike this book, though, it has a LOT of white in it, so even after I finish making it, it may take some time to get the pics edited. I hope you'll check back in a few days to see it.

Have an awesome week!

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