Homemade Sign

Last week a friend of mine came back home after about a month in Europe. Another friend and I were thrilled to pick him up at the airport and we decided it would be fun to make one of those cheesy welcome home signs you always see in the movies. 

It began with a sketch of what the sign should look like. This also helped me catch spelling and logistical mistakes before we went large-scale.

Then, to the big blank page...

The plan was to have a faux bunting feel so I made a template triangle then traced it to get all the other triangles. Since we were being cheesy, I wanted the sign to have a playful/childish look so the triangles were free-hand cut with an X-acto making each one a bit different.

We just used glue sticks and my trusty bone folder to attach everything.

The letters were all hand drawn and colored; again to keep a playful look.

The finished sign was a hit! Sadly, I do not have an image of Sergei actually happy to see it, but it helped him find us, I swear.

Journals Galore!

Though I've been making simple book structures for years, in 2011 I learned how to bind multiple signature hard cover books. As a result of this new skill, I got my first-ever commissioned job and I've decided that all my relatives will get journals for the holidays. Here's a chronicle of the journals I've been making over the past few weeks.

 All books start out as folded paper

My friend's daughter is a freshman in college and enjoys journaling so I was asked to make a journal for her. I got to use bright colored and patterned materials, which made this project a lot of fun.

First, all the pages had to be trimmed down,

then they were sewn together. I used a link stitch so the spine was a bit wider, in case anything was going to be glued inside in the future.

I added bright end bands and a marker ribbon for added flare.

After lining the spine, it was time to make the cover...

The spine cloth and corners get added first. My friend asked that the spine and corners were different, to maximize the colors on the book.

Some grey hounds tooth, Japanese paper completed the cover.

All that was left was to glue in the book block and voila, a finished journal. (the newsprint hanging over the edges was a temporary blotter to absorb the moisture from the glue)

While I was shopping for materials for this journal, I found some other great papers and couldn't resist buying them and putting them to use in books for my relatives.

Sewing the yellow argyle book

Yay, argyle journal complete!

I had some leftover orange book cloth so I decided to make a shiny green and orange journal.

I think the turned-in corners look like fish tails!

The finished book...

with some hot pink end sheets as a nice surprise when the book is opened.