Above are the pages of one of the two tiny books included in the bento box,

These are from the other book, the two little books were made while doing an on line class with Seth Apter in June the class was Mini Book Madness, great class.

I have a quick flip through video but for some reason it doesn't want to upload on to the blog. 

I'll try again, but I haven't had much luck tonight.

 

One more Tin

I didn't like the lid graphics on this tin so rather than sand it off or paint it I decided to cover it with textured paper.

 

Decorated the inside of the lid then added the tea stained and dyed concertina folded book into the tin.

Pages are decorated with small collages and some fabric scraps are stitched on for texture and added detail.

 

Another Box with a water colour paper concertina book inside.

As well as collecting tins for the bento box project I collected some boxes, this one is very plain but a good size and fits in well with the other collected items. Simply decorated.

The book is tea stained watercolour paper folded up at the base to form a pocket.

The pockets have a tag made to size and simply decorated with a small collage as a cluster on each tag.

The top of the pocket has some machine stitching along the edge, zigzag.

 

Small clipboard created for the bento box project, plus another tin with a concertina book inside.

This is the clipboard that I made for the project, using the teabags from the paper dying process. I gathered a few together and machine stitched across the top, then stamped the pages with some text. I then covered a small mounting board from some picture framers waste with some scrapbook paper and attached the pages with a bulldog clip.

More examples of the stamping onto the teabags.

I find I like to use up scrap bits and pieces rather than throw things away, like the teabags.

once they are dried out the staining leaves great marks.

The images don't have to be text on all the pages, its was just my choice on the day that I put this together.

I must have been playing around with some other dyes this day, that could explain the colour on this page, sometimes mistakes like this have a good result.

This is another of the saved tins for this bento box project. I didn't feel the need to decorate the outside of the tin as it looked like it had had a rough time and had aged beautifully anyway.

The inside of the lid needed some sprucing up with a little collage.

This is the concertina book enclosed in the tin, with every tiny page collaged.   

 

Music Junk Journal, Flip through

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Next junk journal made, music theme this time.

there is still some embellishing to add, tags, journal cards etc.

using isolation to complete some unfinished book projects

Quick flip through of six handmade journals.

These are some more journals that I've been working on during the studio down time, finished off some that had the covers created last year.

Quick Flip through, show and tell, small books

Mark making using plastic doilies etc.

Tea staining papers can be a lot of fun when layering different things over the pages during the drying process. I have found the best results on warm to hot days, I guess the quicker drying time, the better the end result.

Sequin waste, part of a plastic doily, and a cardboard embroidery thread organiser.

these can leave interesting marks.

Large plastic doily layered over two A4 pages, results in a lot of patterning transfer.

There are many different patterns in these doilies to choose from for different results.

This is a particularly large one.

Queenscliff book making class.

 I was lucky enough to get a spot in Liz Constable's class in beautiful Queenscliff, on the Bellarine Peninsular. It was four fantastic days of creating interesting pages to make nine awesome little books.

 Queenscliff is utterly beautiful with the most amazing views, buildings, cafes and shops.

Below is a selection of the students books created in the four days, contained in little bookcases made by Liz herself.

I had found an old singer drawer in a second hand store in town, that the books fitted in perfectly although it held more than nine books, so I made more after I returned home.

The class was so much fun, spending time with so many creative women.

All of us creating such great work.

I have one more empty drawer to fill and have already started making the pages to include.

The class was thoroughly enjoyable and very informative, Liz lives and teaches in New Zealand

her business is Book Art Studios. 

concertina style book with a little extra added per page.

A quick video of this experiment creating a concertina book with something different on the pages.

progress images of collage for steampunk Tome

Here are a few progress shots of a collage page included in the steampunk tome,

I would like to have a video of it all but there is a lot of wasted decision time that can be a bit boring on video. 

First I stencil on a face, side profile (Jane Davenport faces stencils), then some cogs, there are lots of brands available, using ink. Then I dry brush some Gesso over the stencilling to knock it back a little. Set aside and allow to dry.

Then to add some colour, I added some Acrylic paint with a card by scraping a thin layer over the dry gesso

Add some more stencilling over the dry paint, using a darker ink, add some stamping in black and white in random spots to create some detail interest.

Paint the face in a skin tone.

Add some embellishments, paper flowers and die cut and painted cogs, placing aware of the centre fold line. 

Once this page was placed in the book, the other side was embellished with a pocket.

Progress images of the steampunk Tome

Creating the cover I decided to use a Seth Apter's Die of the large cog, I used the die again to cut another cog in heavy foil or shim to use under the zipper layer.

also used some cog die cuts to add some interest to the back cover 

I created the faux leather attachment by following tutorials on you tube, adding stamped images, a zipper, and some hand stitching.

Then auditioned various embellishments, adding and removing bits until I liked what I saw.

It took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but once I was happy I attached the bits and pieces,

The title label was still empty until I finished, looking back I think I would have been better off embellishing the cover last, after all my text block was fitted. Having such a heavily decorated cover makes it difficult to work in.

Steampunk Journal

Here it is finally, a quick flip through of me latest Tome, i will include another post of the progress images, creating the book and one of the collage pages. 

Book Stack

A few book that I have been working on recently, replacing text blocks in some and building some from scratch.

Book stack look

A quick look at the book stack books, some have had the text bloak replaced and some have been built from scratch.

Steam Punk Cover for new Journal

Here is my next Journal Cover, not sure if Im going to keep this one or sell it, once I get my Etsy store set up. With all the books and Journals that I do make, it is getting harder to hold on to all of them. I really don't have all that much to record in journalling, I guess that's why I include so many small collages on the pages in mine.

Flip Through Envelope Book

Quick flip through. This envelope journal created from watching a tutorial on you tube from bohemian crafting.
Hope you like it.

Latest Book with flip through on youTube.

This book was created for a friend with a preference for mauve as a thank you.

hope you like it.