Longstitch Leather Journal

This month's Whimseybox contained an 8.5x11" scrap of suede leather, a packet of metal studs, and a link to download instructions for a studded leather wallet. Sadly (to me, anyway), Whimseybox is moving away from a box of random, fun, open-ended craft supplies and towards a project-in-a-box, based on feedback they've received. But they are still encouraging people to use the materials for whatever they want, too. (Not like they could stop anyone--but they are encouraging people to share what they make with the box supplies, regardless of whether they make the intended project.) I have no idea what I might do with a packet of metal studs (anyone want 'em?), but I decided the scrap of suede meant I could try out this longstitch bookbinding tutorial at Tortagialla: The Blog.

And here is the finished result.

It kinda makes me want to squeal with glee, to be honest. After I finished it (and it was a two-day process; more on that in a minute), I came upstairs and was all, LOOK WHAT I MADE!! Even to the kids, who were suitably impressed--as I am with their creations, so it's only fair.

Anyway, you may know this about me by now, but one of my favorite parts of a project is figuring out solutions to design problems. If you clicked over to Linda's tutorial (and you should, really), you'll see that hers has a flap from back to front to hold the book together. This piece of suede was soft and floppy, so it needed some sort of closure, but there wasn't enough for a whole flap like that. Since it started out the size of a sheet of letter paper, I decided to cut paper in half and fold those half-sheets in half to make the signatures. This meant I could trim a two-inch strip of suede, and I used about six inches of that for the closure strap.

Once I had that strip, though, and I tried to put a needle through it, I realized that wasn't going to work. There's a reason that shoemaker in the fairy tale is always banging away. I looked at the bookbinding supplies on my art table and realized I had the answer right in front of me--my bookbinding awl. I lined the strip up on the back of the larger piece and banged through both pieces at once to make sewing holes. Then I sewed them together.

That all took a bit of time, and was noisy, too. Once that was done, I could glue a piece of cardstock to the suede piece, as Linda suggests, to give it a bit more sturdiness. Then I had to let it dry overnight which was really, really hard. That was Saturday night. Sunday we went to the beach and part of me just couldn't wait to get home and finish up the book; that had to wait until after dinner, though.

Following the tutorial, I sewed in the signatures. I did three, and I could probably add a fourth (nothing's stopping me...I can add to the book at any time; isn't that kind of cool?). This is what the binding looks like.

I used the linen bookbinding thread I had in my my box of bookbinding supplies. It's a little thin against the suede but hey, not bad for experimenting. This is what the inside looks like.

I used some sketch paper from an inexpensive sketch pad that was on the paper shelf. It's heavier than printer paper and a little rougher. I wonder what I'll use this book for?

Back to the first picture so I can tell you about the closure...

I'd originally planned to use a button. I tested this by cutting a slit in a scrap piece of suede and making sure I could get a button through it. But once the button was sewn on--accomplished by banging two more holes through the suede and its cardstock backing--I couldn't maneuver the button through the slit. There wasn't enough wiggle room. So I rummaged through my button jar for a toggle. That's why the slit is a little bigger than it needs to be, and not as neat as it could be--I'd already cut it to fit the button. But for an on-the-fly solution to finagling a closure given the materials at hand, I'm pretty pleased. And I used almost every bit of the leather that I received.

Ha! Look what I made! We have a shoe repair shop in town....I'm wondering if they ever have scraps of leather they're looking to get rid of??

How To: Make a Scrappy Recycled Notebook

This whips up so quick, yet it's so cute. The idea of using duct tape to cover the staples comes from Amy Karol's sketchbook tutorial (my kids and I each made one of those, and they're great for travel), and folding paper over so the printed side is on the inside is all over the place, but closest to me, it's in my copy of How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith. I wanted to do something quicker and easier than stab binding though, so I combined the ideas.

Materials: Sheets of 8x11.5" paper printed on one side (stuff you'd be comfortable recycling, not stuff that needs shredding); 8x11.5" card stock printed on one side; metal ruler (to help tear); x-acto knife (if you don't want to tear; also for the duct tape); duct tape--I used sheets because it's neater; stapler; binder clips (not shown); bone folder (also not shown, and optional)

Select 4-5 sheets of the paper (this is going to depend on how strong of a stapler you have) and tear them in half. If you want it neat-neat, cut it along the ruler's edge rather than tearing. You'll end up with 8-10 pieces of paper. Tear or cut a piece of the card stock in half, too.

Fold your sheets of paper in half with the printed side inside, and do the same for the card stock. (If you don't have any card stock to recycle, use new sheets. Perfectly fine.) All the print should be hidden now, so you just see the blank sides. Make sure your folds are nice and crisp. Your fingers should be fine for this with the paper, but a bone folder helps with the card stock. Arrange your folded paper in a pile (if you have some colored sheets, you might want to arrange them in a certain pattern, or maybe that's just me) with all the open edges to the left. Place one piece of folded card stock on the top and one on the bottom, open edges also on the left. All the folded edges should be on the right.

Make sure it's all lined up evenly, then place a binder clip around the side with the folded edges (this is where your book will be open) to hold it in place. Use a piece of scrap paper between the clip and the book so the clip doesn't leave marks. Using your metal ruler and a bone folder, gently score a line about 1/4" in on the raw edge side. This is your mark for the staples.

Staple it three times, one in the middle and one near each end. Just eyeball it; they'll be covered up soon anyway.

Slice off a piece of duct tape to fit. The sheets have a grid on the back, so it's easy to cut a straight line with the ruler and x-acto knife.

(See that little bit of card stock hanging off the bottom? I sliced that off right after I took this photo!) Again, I just eyeballed the width of the duct tape. You want enough to cover the staples plus some; mine are about 3/4" inch or so on each side of the book. Peel off the backing, line it up, and cover your front staples. Then bring it around the edge and cover the back staples.

Voila! Isn't that a cute way to recycle some one-sided paper? We have piles of it. Most of it came home in my sons' backpacks from the school office--I have doubles of a lot of notes, too! Now that you have your cute recycled notebook, you can decorate it any way you'd like.

I decided I wanted a leaf stamped on the second one, so I cut and carved one. I'm thinking these would make good gifts, too, for grocery lists or jotting down ideas. How will you decorate your quick & easy scrappy notebook?

Handmade Holiday Plans: Two Months

Holy cow, do you realize Christmas is two months from today? Today!! My three-year-old gasped with delight when I said this out loud. In the hopes of creating some accountability, I'm going to share some of my plans for handmade gifts. If I get even some of this done, I'll be happy.

(But first of all, a reminder: if you want to make a lovely and simple Advent calendar that really doesn't take that long, you have plenty of time to make my wool felt countdown calendar, pictured to the left; the tutorial is here.)

So, I have the countdown calendar ready, at least! I've also begun some embroidery. I've stitched three of the four pine cones I transferred. The plan is to turn these into sachets with some pine needles inside. The first is pictured to the right there.They're all a little different, and I was making good progress until I got distracted by a completely frivolous knitting project. (That should be done soon and I'll share photos then!) These will go to family.

I also need loads of teacher gifts. When you add up the classroom teachers, aides, specials (PE, music, art), the people in the office who make things go, the speech therapist... it ends up something like a dozen or more. I have three pairs of my go-to Evangeline mitts already knit (not those three; one of those went to my niece, but I've since knit a white pair). Last year I gave a pair to each of the boys' teachers. Since my oldest has the same teacher this year, I only need one pair for a teacher. But I'd like to give a pair to the administrative whiz who actually runs the school, and another to the speech therapist, and probably one to the school nurse to round it out fairly, which means I need to knit another pair. By the time all my kids are out of that school I think I'll have knit everyone something...

But I also want to make some recycled books, similar to these, using all the paper, printed only on one side, that comes home from school. I've been saving it for a while now and, especially since I get lots of notices twice (sigh), I should have enough to make a notepad for every teacher/aide/etc. I want to fiddle with this basic recipe a bit, and hopefully post a tutorial, too.

Then there are these cute bookmarks we made for teachers at the end of last year (the how-to post is on my other blog here). My daughter loves bookmarks--she puts them in every book she gets her hands on--and she wants to make more, so I said we could make some in Christmasy colors and she could give them to extended family members. Who doesn't need a bookmark? We need about thirty, minimum, in our house.

Speaking of crafts with kids, I like when my kids can be involved in making something for family members, including their cousins. We want to make some recycled crayons in fun shapes for the two youngest cousins, so that's on the list too. I also saw this recipe, via Pinterest, to make a plasticy rubber from milk and vinegar. Knitters, you've heard of casein needles? Casein is milk protein. This, apparently, is how it gets out of milk and into something hard enough to knit with. I'm curious if we can use the same candy molds I bought for making crayons to make little plasticy figures to either play with or just to have. File this under Experimental Gift Ideas!

And since I have those candy molds, did you see Whipup's tutorial on making beeswax polish? There's a nice photo of some molded beeswax shapes along with a suggestion that you could use candy molds to make Christmas ornaments. We can buy beeswax at one of the famers' markets, although maybe I should tuck this idea away for next year. (I've been pinning whenever I see something likely.)

Source: Etsy

And then there's the stuff I'd like to make for the kids. My two youngest like to have handknit wool socks in their snow boots (who can blame them?). I still haven't sewn my daughter's butterfly/caterpillar pillowcase. I saw these adorable felt pretend envelopes on Etsy (via Pinterest) and I really do think I can make them myself--although Missprettypretty's shop has some beautiful things in it, go take a look. My daughter looks for mail for her every single day, and I think she'd love some pretend envelopes--I'm tempted to make detachable address labels and stamps, too.

Source: Etsy

Oh, and if you're looking for gift ideas, look what Wendi just put in her shop--kits to make embroidery pendants. I think these mini patterns would look really sweet on bookmarks, too. (This is just the flowers; she also has a geometric design set and a set of ladies. Go look.) I ordered a set, thinking I wanted the frames for something else I had in mind, but I might be too tempted to use these sweet patterns in them after all.

Sadly, that's just part of my want-to-make list. I have two  months. I'm going to work on posting something weekly--after Halloween. We'll see how it goes. Right now I need to cut a freezer paper stencil for one kid's Halloween costume and figure out a ribbon belt for the other. Thank goodness my sister gave my daughter a ladybug dress-up outfit for her birthday... all she needs for Halloween is black pants and a red shirt!

What's on your handmade holiday list?

Scrappy Notebooks

We have so much 8x11.5 paper used only on one side floating around; don't you? I'll often give it to my daughter to use to color on, and sometimes I'll actually find a piece at the exact time I need something to take a message down or write a note to school on, but much of it ends up in the recycle bin. That's not as bad as throwing it out, but surely I can do better?

How about making notebooks!

I collected sheets of paper printed only on one side, folded them in half, ripped along the fold, then folded them in half again with the printing on the inside. The book is bound with the open edges on the left and the folded edges on the right, so each page is blank on both sides. Follow? I've seen this in more than one place, but for this book I was following directions for the Slack Stab-Stitched Recycled Book in How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith. I used Kraft Paper card stock (I'm a bit in love with this stuff at the moment) for the covers.

The binding is a sewn stab stitch. As the name says, it's slack, so that the book will open flat. I love the look of stab stitch, but I don't always like how it chews up some of the page. The slackness, at least in my attempts, can cause the stitching to look a little sloppy when the book is closed. I tore my pages and cover, rather than cutting them, so the books have an all-around relaxed look. I stamped the covers in about five minutes flat. You can tell I didn't take my time with it,  yes?

My daughter was ready for me to be done already, it was time to start the sauce for dinner, and these are books made of scraps otherwise destined for the recycled bin... for my own use, perhaps sloppy covers for my scrappy books isn't such a bad thing. The ball of yarn and sea star stamps are both hand-carved, and I've been wanting to pair that ball of yarn with "knit notes" on a notebook for a while. The "summer plans" notebook will hold just that--the list I make with my kids each year that covers what we'd all like to do, see, visit, and make during the seemingly very short time they're not in school.

Speaking of school, I used several recent notes from school when using these books. It occurred to me that if I had kept every single notice that came home this past year--and some I get twice--I could make a recycled notebook for every single teacher and then some, sending their notes back to them in a usable form. It's too late for this year, but I think I already know what part of next year's teacher's gifts will be... (which is pretty funny, considering I have no idea what I'm doing for this year!)

Pretty Things

So many pretty things coming this way lately. Last weekend, at my boys' school fair, I scored some yarn at the silent auction.

I don't usually bid on auction items, silent or otherwise. This yarn, organically grown and dyed using natural dyes (onion skins for the yellow, indigo for the blues) at Shalom Orchard, was valued at $90 with a suggested minimum bid of $40. I can't buy $90 worth of yarn on a whim, no matter how pretty, so I walked on by. Later in the day I checked back and saw there was only one bid, for $10. (It's supposed to be a fundraiser, not a yard sale, but what can you do? The mitts I donated went for $6--somebody actually wrote down the auction-wide minimum bid of $2. You try not to be insulted, I guess.) At any rate, I couldn't let this yarn go for $2.50/skein, so I wrote down the suggested minimum, and nobody bid more. It's beautiful yarn, four 4-oz skeins of sportweight. That's got to be enough for a sweater, I'd think. Anyone know how many yards 4 ounces of sportweight is?

Things are a-blooming here. Check out this iris!

The kids and I went outside to draw and paint them, of course.

My niece was a little bummed that she wasn't eligible to try to win the giveaway book, so I made a few more in a different color. This gives me more practice, plus I'm interested in how the books hold up and under what sort of use.

One is for my niece, another for her mom (my sister), and the third, I think, will be a teacher gift.

Finally, last week (maybe?) I made a couple more cuffs.

I bought four fat quarters of coordinating fabrics (I have blue and green in this swirly print, too, and I can't wait to embroider it with some ocean-inspired doodles). The freehand on the purple was embroidered with some shiny rayon floss (you'll have to scroll down; it's listed alphabetically). As is my habit, I went ahead and worked with it and then Googled it, finding out how difficult it's supposed to be. Well, it's not the same as cotton, but it wasn't that hard. I knotted the ends and dabbed the knots with some tacky glue before I sewed it all together.

I used normal grey/silver cotton floss on the red and purple one. I was experimenting to see if there was a huge difference. It's not huge, but I do like the shiny rayon. I used the machine to sew these together, also an experiment. I still like doing it by hand, especially for the final closure. I was going to use buttons and a loop on these, and thought the loop would be more durable if sewn with the machine, but I like the snaps much better and I'd rather sew the loop by hand anyway, so I have more control over its length and placement.

June has exploded a bit on me, looks like, but I hope and plan to carve out some space to make more pretty things. How about you?

Giveaway: Win This Book!

Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day is here! Welcome to those of you visiting for the first time!

Here at Salamander Dreams, I'm offering a handmade book--one that can be used over and over. Did you ever get a beautiful blank book and feel like you didn't want to actually use it? I've solved this problem by giving this book pockets instead of pages.

This is an accordion-style book with six pockets. You could put anything you want in those pockets--photos, coupons, receipts--but I admit I've been thinking of it as an inspiration book. Tuck those random things you find into the pockets, so you remember that exact color blue you saw in the magazine when you're standing in front of bolts of fabric at the quilt store. Or tuck a bit of your yarn so you can match buttons. I don't know about you, but I have a few too many notebooks lying around, yet still, I tend to write things down (an idea for a project, yardage needed for a sweater) on random bits of paper. The solution? Pockets. (Well, I suppose the solution for lots of people is an iPhone, but my phone only makes calls, plus I like pretty paper!)

Normally, accordion books open out like, well, an accordion, but I've given this one a delicate ribbon binding, so it opens like a typical book.

And, of course, one ribbon on each side extends so you can tie it shut. The book is made with paper-wrapped book board and bookbinding paste. It's meant to be used, but I don't know how it will survive if it lives in the bottom of your bag. (It wouldn't hold up living the bottom of my bag, but I have three children and my bag is approaching that of Mary Poppins.) The book measures 5 1/4 inches wide by 6 1/4 inches tall, with pages measuring 5 1/2 inches by 5 inches, with 3-inch deep pockets.

I will ship internationally! For a chance to win, leave a comment here by 9 pm EST Wednesday, May 25. If you'd like, tell me something that inspires you. (I love color! Very inspiring.) Make sure you leave a way for me to email you. If your email address isn't part of your sign-in (for instance, your Blogger profile), please leave it in your comment. I'll also announce the winner Thursday so check back in case I have trouble contacting you. The winner will be chosen randomly, and nobody related to me is eligible (but if you're my sister, I'll make you a book anyway!).

If you like what you see, I hope you consider following me here or on Twitter. It's not a requirement to enter this giveway, but when I decide to start making so many books I need to sell some, you'll be the first to know. Good luck! And thanks for visiting.

~amy

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(Re-Post) Procurement of Supplies

For a while I had a string of jobs that all contained "procurement of supplies" within the long, open-ended job description. Honestly, isn't that such a fun duty? That's what my daughter and I set out to do today. Her room is ready for curtains, but the local stores have a limited selection and a high price, so I decided we needed to head to the cavernous fabric store about 45 minutes north of here, where cotton fabric is just $5/yard ($2 in the bargain loft). My daughter found purple fabric all right. It's not quite what I'd have chosen, but it's not my room, and I do think kids ought to have control over these sorts of choices.

It's covered with tools. She's ecstatic.

This store doesn't offer fat quarters, but with prices like that, it's cheap enough to gather up your own. Mindful of time and budget, though, I didn't. I simply went for a yard of this:

As you can tell from the buttons, I have plans for it. I was only going to get a half yard, but at the last minute I decided, Oh heck with that extra $2.50. Let's get a whole yard. (That stop by the button section cost me an extra $10, by the way. I didn't photograph the silver skull & crossbones buttons I got for my sons, or the five button cards my daughter just had to have. Letters, numbers, ducks, ladybugs, and fish, all terribly cute.)

Since we were already up near the city, we swung by Utrecht. I order most of my art supplies online or pick up what I can at craft and hobby stores, because the actual art supply stores (there are three of them) are all in the city, 45 minutes away by car and with challenging parking situations. It's not always easy to get to one of them. But I wanted some paper for bookbinding, and that's the sort of thing you really need to buy in person. See?

That charcoal one is actually for my daughter. I'm not sure what she plans to do with it, but she'll let me know.

I was super lucky and found free, one-hour parking right across the street from the art store, and right next to a hardware store that's been there for nearly 100 years. Do hardware stores draw you in? Especially independent ones? I checked with my daughter and she agreed we should go look (after putting the carefully rolled-up paper in the car). We ended up with a plastic funnel and an aluminum scoop for the sandbox, some nightlight bulbs (seems like we go through those like water here), some foam-tipped paintbrushes (which may have a date with that charcoal paper tomorrow; we'll see), and some free stuff.

That piece of fabric over on the left is a sample--this hardware store also does interior decoration, apparently, not just paint and wallpaper but fabric, too. I have something very specific in mind for that piece. The other two books--books--of sample fabrics were also free. I asked if they ever sold the sample books when they were done with them, and I was told exactly where I could find the discards and that I could have whatever I wanted. They just give them away! (Did you know this??) I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those sample books, but I'm sure my kids and I will come up with something. They're heavyweight, with some sort of backing--I don't know if that's because it's all upholstery fabric or because samples are always reinforced--whatever the reason, it definitely expands the possibilities of what we might do with them. I'm so glad I asked.

Also? Now that I've procured some supplies, I'm signing up to participate in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day. I just haven't decided yet if I'll be using that pink fabric or some of that paper to make my giveaway...