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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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ã¾ã‚Š) Balls. Temari translates as “hand ball” and supposedly were sometimes used in games, but the idea […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Suminagashi is a gorgeous type of paper marbling invented in Japan over 1,000 years ago. I wrote a post a while ago when I taught a suminagashi marbling class at Clark University and you can see every step of the process. Basically you float rings of black sumi ink (I really like using this Yasutomo […]
It’s tutorial Tuesday! I am sharing great bookbinding tutorials I’ve found around the web on Tuesdays – today’s tutorial is about a mysterious sounding bookbinding style called “Secret Belgian Binding” – This binding was invented in the mid 1980s by Anne Goy, a Belgian bookbinder. She was looking for a Western version of the traditional […]
I love Washi Tape! A friend from Japan sent me a huge care package of washi tape, a thin Japanese masking tape with designs printed on it ( you can even get washi tape on Amazon)- I used the tape to create this pretty striped pattern on raw book board, and then sealed the whole […]
It’s tutorial Tuesday! I am sharing great bookbinding tutorials I’ve found around the web on Tuesdays – today’s tutorial is about making an accordion book photo album – a lovely gift to give to friends or relatives. This lovely tutorial was made by Carrie who writes at Making Lemonade: freshly squeezed ideas for home and […]
These blue chart journals are always a huge hit at craft shows – before my Christmas fairs this year I made at least 10 and they all sold out! The bathemetry charts I used are underwater topography maps and show the elevation of the sea floor – the local NOAA office was going to recycle […]
It’s tutorial Tuesday! I am sharing great bookbinding tutorials I’ve found around the web on Tuesdays – today’s tutorial is about a very popular but tricky style called chain stitch (also known as coptic stitch). This step by step tutorial by Shelly at Cat-Sidh has tons of photos and detailed directions though – click on the […]
I made this book specially for a friend who went traveling around the national parks out in the West and wanted to document her trip. I wanted a woodsy feel so I went with raw book board – I also did a little hand-drawn woodgrain pattern on the inside with black and gold pen. The […]
It’s tutorial Tuesday! I am sharing great bookbinding tutorials I’ve found around the web on Tuesdays – today’s tutorial is about long stitch binding and was created by Sarah at the blog Are you Flowin’Â – it shows you how you can use all different types of paper that you have been hoarding to make a […]
I live in a tiny town next to the ocean on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and one of the perks of living here is that I know plenty of people who use nautical charts day to day and so I have lots of fun creating things out of charts donated my way. This is a […]
Hi all! Here’s a list of my Holiday Craft Shows for Ruth Bleakley’s Handmade Journals and Stationery (plus my alter ego Concertina Press!) MBL Holiday Bazaar Thursday, November 29, 2012 10-4 Swope Building – Upstairs 5 North Street, Woods Hole, MA free admission Come to the charming village of Woods Hole, Thursday, November 29 from 10 – […]