Rainbow Journals with Suminagashi Marbled Paper

I want to show off some lovely pastel rainbow journals I made using Boko Undo Suminagashi inks (affiliate link) – and before you leave a comment, YES they are very light in color once they dry! If you are looking for bold, vibrant colorful marbled paper, you need to try a different style of marbling […]

Saved by the Bell Journal

Summertime memory: coming back from the beach during the heat of the day to eat ice cream sandwiches and watch “Saved By the Bell” reruns at my grandparent’s house. And now I live in the same house! But…no TV…and also I’m lactose intolerant now, so no ice cream. But hey, one out of three ain’t […]

Marbled Woven Spine Journals

Paper from West Palm Beach While I didn’t marble the paper on this book cover myself, I won’t forget where I bought it from. It was a hot afternoon in September and we were driving past West Palm Beach for a follow up appointment for my husband’s Lasik eye surgery. We planned to stop at […]

Mysteries of the Cosmos Journals

Inspiration strikes… The thing I love most about these journals is how well the two black and purple papers go together, even though I aquired them years apart. This is certainly a case of me being inspired by my materials. When I get stuck, or run out of bookbinding ideas, a quick trip to (one […]

Marbled Circle Artist Book

I’m so excited to unveil a new style of handmade artist book. It features a luxurious Japanese silk book cloth cover, with precision circle inlay that features stunning, one-of-a-kind marbled paper. I like the idea of a book containing a hidden surprise, so I used the same beautiful paper for the inside endpapers as well. […]

Golden Cranes Journal

This is a very special journal I made all in one go. By that I mean, I was “in the crunch” for at least 8 hours putting the finishing touches on it, adding gold leaf, cutting out birds with an exacto knife, hand-painting in tiny bird beaks. Also somehow I managed to make it without […]

What’s a Temari Ball? It’s featured on this journal!

These handmade Temari Ball journals are kind of meta-handmade, because not only is the Chiyogami cover paper handmade in Japan, the colorful toy balls on the cover are also a depiction of a beautiful Japanese handicraft called Temari (手まり) Balls. Temari translates as “hand ball” and supposedly were sometimes used in games, but the idea […]

Blue Cranes and Peach Clouds Twin Journals

This gorgeous crane paper is one of my new favorites! A big flock of white cranes flies across clear aquamarine sky, with golden swirling clouds. The aqua color perfectly compliments the other paper I used here, a vintage chiyogami pattern of golden clouds on a peach sunset sky. If you look closely you can also […]

Waves and Blue Cherry Blossom Twin Journals

Don’t you love how the cherry blossoms coordinate on the two pieces of paper I used on the covers of this “twin journal” ? If you use chiyogami or yuzen paper as often as I do, you start to see trends and themes emerge. (All of a sudden I just pictured someone talking about the […]

Lay Flat Journals in Bright Bold Colors

Feast your eyes on the rich, saturated colors of these beautiful lay-flat coptic stitch journals that I finished last week. In addition to Japanese Chiyogami paper, I also made a couple journals using some of my favorite new papers featuring hand marbled and hand stamped designs. While their patterns are totally opposite, something about the […]

Bookbinding Tutorial: Mini Book Necklace

I saw this cute mini book necklace tutorial when Amber from MakingMyRent on Etsy posted it to the BEST [Bookbinding Etsy Street Team] page on Facebook! Too cute – and nice tutorial too – here’s a sneak peak at it, but to see the whole thing, visit her original post: Mini Book Necklace Tutorial.

Awesome Handmade Books: Long Stitch Bookbinding

So with so many bookbinding fans out there, I thought I would do a weekly roundup of some of my favorite handmade books out there on the internet, many of which I’ve conveniently rounded up on my Handmade Books + Journals Pinterest board. This week: Long Stitch Bindings! Mon Aide-Memoire Longstitch Journal by A Yen […]

Awesome Handmade Books: Japanese Stab Bindings

So with so many bookbinding fans out there, I thought I would do a weekly roundup of some of my favorite handmade books out there on the internet, many of which I’ve conveniently rounded up on my Handmade Books + Journals Pinterest board. This week: Japanese Stab Bindings! Spectrum of Japanese Stab Bindings by ErinZam […]

Interview with SueGray Fitzpatrick, Wax Seal Jewelry Maker

Every time I take a look at jewelry maker Suegray’s etsy shop I am overwhelmed with how awesome it is – I love wax seals (I’ve used one to wrap up my wedding invitation orders). Sue makes fine silver wax seal jewelry, utilizing her large collection of antique wax seals, the type used to seal letters or officially […]

Coverless Coptic Stitch Book with Eyelet-set elastic

Doesn’t that stack of folded signatures in the second photo look grand? I used acid-free card stock left over from a big project – I really over stocked on it a couple years ago when I had a class on concertina bindings. Unfortunately I discovered that the card stock was also too heavy for the […]

Illustrated Octopus Miniature Book

This Octopus Miniature Book is one of my most popular posts – here I’ve polished up the photos, which show the illustration process of adding color to the octopus drawing.

Look what I made today! A hand tied glass fishing float net!

//EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: Hi everyone! – my main thing is bookbinding! This is the only glass fishing float net I ever tied in my entire life, and I’m not interested in doing more, and I’ve given this one to my mother-in-law, so you can’t buy it – however, if you want to do a […]

Something for Her + Something for Him Treasury

  Treasuries are curated lists of items on Etsy, and I thought this list called Something for Her + Something for Him that features my Red Deer Journal was particularly nice!

Merry Fishmas! Christmas Card Craziness

  *Whew* it has been a WHIRLWIND for me the past month or so – as of today I’m so proud to announce that I have 174 sales in my stationery etsy shop – 20 sales in the past week! wow! I introduced nautically themed holiday cards to my collection about halfway through November, and […]

Paper Triangle Giveaway! {ended}

Hey you craft-happy cardmakers, collage artists and scrapbookers – Last month I made a post about how I just recycled my little miter triangles from bookbinding, because even though they are so fancy, I couldn’t think of a use – well several of you chimed in and said you’d be able to make a use […]