Like I mentioned in my last post, this weekend I was busy bookbinding. Cutting paper, gluing, selecting paper, sewing, you name it. I had my tunes going on and I was having a wonderful time. I got 11 books done and have a few others in various states of progress.

A while back I mentioned making a book with library pockets. I have made one of those before but I wanted to use my walnut ink stained pockets for this but in the end decided they didn’t look as good with the paper. Besides I figure the way the book is now, anyone can still make it more their own but stamping on it, collaging it, or just dabbing some ink from an ink pad on it. Here’s the finished result:

I’m calling this my keepsake book as the pockets are perfect for storing away ticket stubs, little photos, gift cards, and all sorts of ephemera. I do have some paper which I think will work perfectly for those ink stained pocket books so I’ll be making that one soon.

And, in case you are wondering what happens when things don’t go according to plan… Well, that happens too. Sometimes I cut a board not quite straight, or I miscalculate how much decorative paper I’ll need. Usually though it’s the gluing that gets me. My husband laughs when I tell him I had a “bad glue day” but I swear they exist.

Take a look at this keepsake book on a bad glue day:

A lot of times I can salvage a book but not this one. Just as I was gluing down the last pocket, I don’t know what happened but it didn’t quite align on the board. I tried pulling it off (as you can see here) but that didn’t help anyway because I had glued all the pockets and one pulled another and so on. Ah well, I did learn how to work around this the next time so at least there is that.

Next up for my bookbinding adventure I want to use some gorgeous Japanese Chiyogami paper Christine sent me for my birthday. I already have a book structure in mind so let’s see how that goes.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was very nice as we got to spend quite a bit of time at the bookstore checking out magazines and books. Unfortunately, I found out that Simple Scrapbooks and Ascent, which are two publications I check out occasionally, are folding. That’s such a bummer. I know there are other magazines that publish similar content but still it’s always nice to have more variety but I guess that’s just the sign of the times.

Anyway the rest of the weekend was pretty much spent away from the computer and at my work table. I did quite a bit of bookbinding so I’ll be adding more postcard journals in the shop and another new little book structure to add but more on that later.

Speaking of handmade books, while I was at the bookstore I found a new book on artist books, Book & Art: Handcrafting Artists’ Books by Dorothy Simpson Krause. There were a couple of techniques in this book that I’d like to try my hand at one of these days, like gelatin monoprints and drumleaf binding so I’ll be adding this book to my library of books on bookbinding. You can also check out the writer’s site to see some examples of her beautiful books.

Other than that, I’m still reading the books from my current stack. I hope to finish the P.D. James book soon as that’s for my mystery book group discussion coming up this week. Oh and speaking of book discussions, Danielle has come up with some wonderful selections for the next Slaves of Golconda read. Check ’em out and hope you’ll think about joining us.

Alright off to read!