diy book-binding.

If you couldn't tell from my last post, these past couple of days have been uber hectic. Good hectic, but still very hectic. So, 'xcuse the lack of blog posting, and the lacking that will be happening in the next couple of days (I'll be in Vegas!)...

BUT! I was able to get some R&R in today before the big 4-year-anniversary trip with the boyfriend, and while I was supposed to dedicate the day to cleaning out my car and packing up a bag of clothes and toiletries... I ended up spending the day crafting. Big surprise, huh? I did a little research on a little-monster-of-a-machine I will be investing in soon that will be bringing a WHOLE new spectrum of product to my shop (I'm giddy just thinking about it!), then a little doodling and sketching for future projects, and then got carried away with learning how to bind mini-books...

I know...
Random.

I've always been really fascinated with the whole craft, and while I'm not a big fan of regular novel reading, I am a big fan of understanding how they're physically put together. I'm in no means about to invest in some big book-binding machinery -- I'm already all over the place as it is! But, I am finding even the simple DIY journal binding to be very addicting. Who knows... maybe I'll throw a few in my shop someday... and with my new mystery "monster" coming in... the possibilities are endless. Anyhoot, it's a little rough because I was more excited about testing it out with the materials I had on hand than getting it perfect... but here are the results:

Inside book pages

The fabric was recycled from an old IKEA pillow case!

So... what do you think?!

I'm hoping to experiment more with journal/book binding once I get some needed tools. And you know what this calls for: an excuse to make a trip to Joann's! I've always loved fabrics, and maybe I'll have a reason to use them now.

Anyhoot, this is all credit to the numerous book binding tutorials I browsed on youtube, but this one in particular by micheleva was simple enough for me to get the basic ropes around how to do it but awesome enough for me to say I now know how to make a basic journal:

As an added hint for the future collab projects I have stirring up currently... this new experimenting will help with some "stuff" I'm whipping up with Jennifer Chung... Nice.

OK -- I'm off to a night of packing! And even though we'll be in Vegas while it all happens... happy early 4 years, babe. I... "kind of like you... a lot." (;

xoxo,
Steppie
http://steppie.etsy.com