Handmade Notebook from Scratch with English Rose Garden Collection

Hi Meg's Garden Lovers! 

I'm Mabel and I'm back this time round with a handmade notebook that I made from scratch.

The notebook is measuring 4.5 x 6 inches tall with a book spine of 1.5 inches thick. I simply cut 2 pieces of 4.5 x 6 inches chipboards and a 1.5 x 6 inches chipboard for the book spine. 

I choose Meg's Garden's A Bouquet of Roses (P6429) patterned paper from the English Rose Garden Collection as the book cover. All I did was to glue down the chipboards, leaving a small gap in between each chipboard such that I have the space allowance to fold it later. If my description is too vague for you, you can check out a video tutorial HERE! I finished my book cover by using Roses and Lace (P6428) from the same collection in the inner side. 

This is a notebook that I wished to carry it around with me, hence I did not want the front of the cover to be bulky and delicate. I chose to embellish my book cover simply with a round doily as well as some laces.

Moving onto the inserts of the notebook, I had stack of white printing papers measuring 8.25 x 5.75 inches. You need not follow my measurements! I would suggest you choosing the measurements of your inserts and preparing them as your first step. Book cover can be prepared after the inserts are done. 

I grab 5 sheets of papers and fold them into half, forming a signature (a group of pages). I made 6 signatures, washi-taping the folds and started binding.

I'm doing French link bookbinding with hemp cord. As the strings are thicker, it's harder to bind. I would suggest beginners to start with waxed threads. The process might be slightly complicated, hence you can check out the link HERE for more information.

After my inserts are done, I simply glued down the last page to attach the pages to the book cover. I started embellishing the first page by fussy cutting from the French Garden Collection. 

List of Supplies Used

Meg's Garden

English Rose Collection A Bouquet of Roses (P6429)

English Rose Collection Roses and Lace (P6428)

The French Garden Papercrafter Mini Pack (20122)

Paper Lace Doilies Circle 15

Puffy Paper Flowers (puffies)

Small Roses Ivory 1cm (ivory 1)

That's all for this blogpost. 

Thanks for reading! :)

Forgotten Meadows Long Stitch Book

Hey all you create creatures out there reading my blog post today.

I got something new and oh so awesome for you. Well, I think it is awesome none-the-less. 

Now I have tried my hand at book making for a while and have done many coptic stitch and other binding methods before. This time I tried long stitch. I am so impressed with the outcome, I had to show you all. 

 There is a youtube clip at the end of the post that shows the whole process of making the book and it was a lot of fun.

I decided to use the Forgotten Meadows Collection and make a leather bound journal with the Long Stitch binding method. There are a few different tutorials out there, but I used this particular tutorial which seems simple and easy to do.

The two library card I put at each end of the book. Which I filled with tags and some of the journal cards that come in the kit.

I printed out three copies of the book pages from the kit. I used the line page to print of the back of all the pages too as I will use this book for notes while out and about.  

The book was the be for note taking while I was out so I didn't want to add any flowers or balky embellishing.  The book closes up nicely and will be very handy in the future. 

Remember to watch the video to see the making of the book and the final project.

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope you like the project.

Please leave a comment or any questions.

A Shabby Chic Sherlock book by Watson

Hello crafters and readers!

So I decided I wanted to do some thing shabby chic'y with my Sherlock Book by Watson and this is what I came up with.

The aim shabby chic, the method of achieving this is done using.

laces
BUTTERFLIES
paper and fabric flowers
ribbon
metal gear embellishments, Tim Holtz gears
Metal Corners
Stamps