Heather's Guide to Turning Mistakes into Style Elements

Hey guys, we all make mistakes, but you can fix them and take your book to the next level in the process. Here are two books that i messed up on... but you'd never know if i hadn't told you, huh?

This clamshell box had a couple of glue stains on the front, so i added the 3 citrus decals to the front as well as the ribbon that matches the sweet-bound book inside the clamshell. the ribbon and the decals make the entire style of the box more cohesive. You can make decals from cut-outs of existing prints or design your own by cutting shapes from solid colored paper.

Here's my coptic binding. See those ties on the front edge of the book? Yeah, i totally punched my cover holes all the way through both covers before i realized that i had them stacked the wrong way. Way to go, Einstein! Now you have to start ALL OVER! Not so fast. I duplicated the holes on both sides of the covers and i tied extra waxed thread into bows. These keep extra notes from slipping out on the go, or slide a pencil in between there and you've got yourself a great little Journal gift!

Don't think you have to give up and start over when you make a mistake or two. Just use your happy little brain and create an aesthetically pleasing solution!
Hope this helps,

Love, Heather!
(Evans)

Sweeeeeet

I made this sweet binding using maps I got from Mr. Grape in the library and left over linen tape I had. I also made my fabric hinges using tissue paper heat-n-bonded to muslin, which is an idea I stole from Rachel. Then I had a small amount of fabric from my hinges left so I decided to make a really small clam shell box. And yes, that is an ipod shuffle in it, so you can get the idea of the size.

Good ol' punching tray





























What the flatback binding looks like inside.

















My kit of bookbinding supplies.

This is my book. I took cross-stitch sheets and bound them coptically with double-thick covers. On the front is a cross-stitched cat that I created. Inside is the story of the "Crooked Man", which is a tradicional nursery rhyme. This is my final project and my favorite book because it was my most creative.

Coptic

Here is one of my coptics. I really loved this paper, and the way working with dark thread turned out. I like the knob too, even if it is a little impractical. It's cute. -Betsy Sieber

I loved the coptic, so I made 2 of them. one coptic, one sweet binding, and my flat back(not shown) are all matching to go into my clam shell. I had a lot of fun making these crazy patterned books!

Children's Book

I wrote and illustrated in children's-book-fashion the love story of my husband and me. I made the book for our future children (I am expecting our first baby now). I wanted the book to be able to survive the destructive little hands of kids, so I made each page out of binders board. Because of this I could not use any of the binding techniques we have learned in class (no signature to thread in and out of). So I invented my own single-sheet binding.

Needlepoint Flatback

Here's my flatback book. The cover is made out of a hideous needlepoint housewarming gift I got back in May.

It's got six signatures because six is rather a good number. Especially where I come from.

It probably would have been a better idea to laminate the needlepoint first, before attaching it to the cover (I used an iron-on heat and bond deal to attach the yarn to the board) to eliminate the possibility of edge fraying and falling off. Next time.

Here's another shot of the front and back:

book press

There is one way to press a book, and more than one way to use one.


If you've ever taken a Shakespeare class at BYU you recognize this book. It's a good one in many ways, both for containing the complete works of William Shakespeare, and being large enough to press just about any book...although you probably viewed this as a downside if you had the class, I know I did at the time. At any rate, a book/stack of books and a board, like a drawing board, are very helpful in pressing ones books

I had some trouble with this one, and though I LOVE my flatback i think i should have gone smaller on my first attempt :)

scrappy scrapbook

daisy shell box

l  I had alot of fun with this one!

i made a matching baby book sweet binding to fit inside... also covered in daisy's :)

Green Coptic

I wanted to do a book out of mostly recycled materials so I made this. I made the bookcloth out of an old rice bag and the pages are made out of old newsprint and paper grocery bags. The paste downs are from pages in a magazine. I ended up really liking it though I admit that it was a little bit difficult to work with the burlap sack.

In case you are wondering, yes that is Barack Obama and yes that is David Archuleta's signature.
--Matt Dinger (you won't recognize my name from my blogger id)

my favorites

Here are some of my favorites from this semester.



An almost all pink book for a favorite 3 year old. It was just by chance I found some great pink paper. The end papers didn't work quite how I wanted because the paper was a little too thin, but it was a fun experiment anyway.




This is a modified sweet binding. Instead of using a whole panel of binders cloth around the first and last signatures, I used only strips, and it was of the same wallpaper as the covers. I loved the effect of the twist in the ribbon. I watercolored the edges of the paper.




And this little matching set is just too cute. They are quite small, and the paper on the covers really is shiny like it appears in these pictures. The eyelets on the coptic are actually pieces from an old necklace that I never wore anymore. (It is fun to figure out how to use stuff I already have!)

Christmas Gifts

I decided that because finals are crazy and Christmas is just around the corner that I would use some of these projects as an excuse to make gifts for friends and family.  I decided to use a sweet back bound book as a journal for a friend (with a button and thread as a decorative closure) and using the clamshell box as a handmade box to hold family photos.  

Here are my favorite books... I am glad I took this class!

 my pretty floral sweet binding
 I had fun carving the cover on this coptic binding
 green aerial maps in flat back binding
 covered with khaki skirt scraps
 brown and yellow maps (with a few green accents) in coptic binding...
covered in soft microsuede

Just plain cute

I learned how to recover a tiny Book of Mormon! It was a lot of fun. I gave it to my sister-in-law for her birthday and she said she loves to just sit and look at it. I made this sweet binding with a hook and loop sort of enclosure; I used a fabric covered brad used for scrapbooking instead of a button.

Comic Coptic

For my final project I decided to bind some Spanish Superman comics that I had on hand. I covered the front and back with Superman scrap booking paper and stitched the book with blue thread. Some of the comics were a little thicker than others and I debated whether or not I wanted to take some of the pages out of the thicker ones. I ended up leaving the comics in their original condition so some of the signatures are a little thicker than others but it ended up not making a huge difference in the binding.

Comfortable Creativity

So, I always thought that I have a creative side. It seems that at times, my creative side is best expressed when I am comfortable with something. Here is a photo of my first flat back. I have to admit, I like the half tattered edges. Now onto the joy of filling it with ideas and designs, my thoughts spilled out onto pages and now into seams hand sewn and pressed in bone.