Leather Journals

(Black and Tan - Passport leather journal on top

 and Brown - Notebook leather journal on bottom)

These are some of the leather journals I started working on this week using

  Eileen Hull's Scoreboard Passport XL die and Notebook L die.
The tie closures were made from extra leather and a pair of sharp scissors.
I like my leather books and ties.
My favorite of the two dies is the Notebook L die because its so easy to make a book. All you need is a cover; either with leather or heavy chipboard/cardboard, three hair elastic and three small tablets. I make my own tablets using a portion of the Passport die to make my pages. I general use paper but the ones I'm keeping I used file folder paper or watercolor paper because I plan on painting and stamping on these.
I purchased bulk bag of leather from HL, I had no idea what sizes I was getting. I could only make 4 brown leather book covers using the Notebook L die. I stopped with four black and three off-white covers using the Passport die. I have more scraps of leather, it will take three pieces to make one leather book cover.
 I used my 5x7 inch Gel printing plate to paint 1/4 piece of file folder before die cutting the pages using the Passport die for my little books inside. I generally use 4 to 5 pages for each book when using heavy paper or for writing I use 10 die cut copy paper sheets.

Sewing a Signature and Making a Cover for Signature

Sewing A Signature

Judy Cantrell

I was asked if I could sew a signature 7 years ago this month! Here is my Sewing a Signature YouTube video and then come back to see how I made a YouTube video for a Signature cover  from 7 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pT7CSAlhYU&t=4s

If you don't want to open the link here is a tutorial how I made the Signatures and Book Cover:
Sewing signatures of the book start off as loose pages. Small holes are punched through the center fold of each signature, and then the signatures are sewn together with stitches to form a book. Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded signature pages and then attaching a book cover. 

A book sewn with signatures will hold up much better than a glued book.

When you finish sewing you signatures you might consider making a book cover. This is what I came up with and it's so simple.

This is a diagram how I covered my 5 1/2' by 5 1/2" pages. Adjustments will be needed in the width of cover and seams for both edges if you are adding more signatures.

 Last week, after making the multi-color example, I made another signature book using the same 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" page size but this time I used a heavier paper with two pages and 5 signatures. The thicker the book the more you need to allow for the spine and right edges of paper.

Instructions:
Cut, score and fold each cover piece. Set aside.
Hold a penny down on cardboard, draw around the penny to make 6 circles, cut out and punch a very small hole in center. Brad two sets of circles together. Punch hole in center of back flap, glue one circle on back as reinforcement. Add one set of circles to flap. Cut a 5" length of wax thread, tie a single knot into the circles on flap. See sample below.
Punch tiny hole in back cover, place one of the circles on inside back as reinforcement,
attach one set of circles with a brad to the back cover.

Adhere back page to back cover and then bring the fold and spine around to the front. Do not add adhesive to spine and "fold to front." Add two strips of red line tape to "Fold of Front" don't take the protective cover off yet.
Add adhesive to front page adhere to front cover, remove film from red line tape and press down on front cover.
You will see how to do all these instructions including how to do the closure in this video.
The cover needs to be finished off before adding the closures.

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Thanks for looking and have a nice day!

Thanks for Looking on my blog! I appreciate your comments! I'm still having trouble seeing double. Sure hard to stamp and color inside the lines. I've always love making books and they are forgiving when I can't see well. 

Felt Flowers

I couldn't stop making felt flowers when I started making my needle keeper books; https://wwwstampedimpressions.blogspot.com/2019/07/felt-needle-keeper-book.html. I need to find a way to use my felt flowers, since 100 or more are left in these colors. 

Flower Card

My recent purchase; a 3-D Embossing folder called; lumber, and it feels like wood when embossed on a single piece of card-stock.
After using 3-D lumber embossing folder, the card-stock was inked it with distress oxide and set aside. Two of the die-cut flowers from wildflowers stem #2 and a die-cut flower from funky floral #3 were used on this card along with some of the die-cut leaves from wildflowers stems #2. The card front was applied to a folded pink card. I made a bow using waxed thread and crochet thread and applied to my card. Embellishment added to funky flower to finish. 

Watercolors were used to color flowers with stems while two of the stems were die-cut using dark green card-stock. 

Felt Needle Keeper Book

Hand Made Needle Keeper Books 

These are some of the needle keeper books I've finished. 

Needle Threader and Needles with snap closure 

included with each needle keeper book!

These needle books would make a perfect gift for anyone. Each needle keeper book includes three layers of die cut felt and hand sewn die cut felt tags to house the threader and needles. One snap for a closure. Each needle keeper book is approximately 3 1/4" x 4 3/8" in closed position. 

Let me know if you would like to purchase one of my needle books.