Spring Sale!

I'm having a spring sale in my shop to make room for new collections, including the vintage encyclopedia journals, coming soon! Check out the SALE section for 25% off selected items, including books like the ones above.

Artists Books

I have always been interested in artists books, and over the years have created several on a number of different topics, which I plan to list in my new Etsy shop. This one, created a couple years ago, is on the theme of God's faithfulness. It is a concertina structure, with an acronym of Faithful, listing character qualities of God.


In the valley of each fold are cut-outs in the colors of the rainbow, another Biblical symbol of God's faithfulness. This modest little artist's book is the first I've listed in the shop, with more to come. Someday, I would like to start a collection of artist's books. Alisa Golden, who writes wonderful bookmaking books, makes hundreds of artist's books incorporating text and printmaking techniques, and I would love to own one of her pieces. Her work is something to aspire to!

Limited Edition: Recycled Encyclopedia Journals

I've been working on a new series of books for the shop: journals made from 1947 encyclopedias. This will be a limited edition of 10 journals, with similar covers and bindings, but each will have unique papers for the inside.


These covers are just gorgeous, you don't see nearly this quality in books these days. If you're interested in one of these journals, email me at bibliosophy@gmail.com, and I will reserve one for you! This first one is for a friend, but the other 9 should be finished in several weeks. Each will have 128 pages of cream-colored text-weight paper and measure 8 x 10 inches.

Flag Book Tutorial

Over the course of this year I hope to create more bookbinding and craft tutorials to share with you. Here's the first; a flag book! This book was made out of the pile above, using the greeting cards we received on the birth of Baby. You don't need any special materials for this project, just a ruler, utility knife, scissors, some glue, and your paper. If you enjoyed my tutorial, please let me know at bibliosophy@gmail.com. Have fun!


Bookbinding - Flag Book Tutorial

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-To Guides & DIY art crafts

Vintage Valentine

I was brainstorming with some other ladies on a forum about how to organize/display vintage valentines, when I remembered I had already created a book with that theme. This flag book was made using vintage postcards, most around 100 years old, that I had collected. I designed this book so that the backsides of the postcards with the writing, stamp, and postmark would be visible, because I think this is the most interesting part. The writing is legible, and it's fun to read the notes and imagine what people's lives were like back then. I get the impression that they used postcards 100 years ago like we use the telephone or email; a lot of the letters are just one or two sentences to arrange a vist or an appointment.

If you're interested in making your own flag book with ephemera or other scraps of paper, check out this great PDF tutorial.

And the winner is....

Sunnymommie! If you could please email your address to bibliosophy@gmail.com, I will get the book in the mail to you!

Thank you to all who entered, it was so encouraging reading all your kind remarks. And thanks for checking out the blog, I hope many of you will come back and visit often. Now I get to have fun checking out all of your great blogs!

Giveaway Day!

Today I'm participating in a many-blog wide event called Giveaway Day, sponsored by sewmamasew. So my offering for the event is this handcrafted journal from my Etsy shop, with ceramic covers, and an embossed star design. The book is coptic bound with teal Irish linen thread, and measures about 3 3/4 inches x 4 inches. To enter to win, just leave me a comment, and I will randomly draw a winner tomorrow! For all those outside the United States, I'm sorry, but I can't swing international shipping right now.

Mini Book Ornaments

These (not the best picture) are some miniature book ornaments all packaged up for a swap I'm in. As you can see from my Etsy shop, books are my thing, so I thought it only appropriate to make some minis and turn them into ornaments. They are kind of like my Booklet Brooches, but larger, with blank inside pages. I am hoping that people will get creative and write Christmas memories, draw pictures, add small photographs, or collage in the pages to make them personal tp their family. At least that's what I would have wanted to do with such an ornament as a child! Maybe, if I really get motivated there will be some for sale in the shop soon.

Hot Drinks for Hot Mamas Apron Swap

This is the apron I sent to my swap partner Tammy for the favorite hot drinks swap. She loves coffee, and I found this neat coffee bean print fabric and geared my complementary fabrics to a mocha/cappicino-like color. I also sent her some coffee cup cozies, and one of my handbound books with a vintage food print on the covers.

Christmas Progress

Saturday I finished these, the last three of my four remaining Christmas present projects. They are leather bound picture albums, with decorative paper accenting the covers and endpapers.

Every year we go back and forth on how to handle Christmas presents in the family: there are no grandchildren yet (the first, ours, is due in January), so we haven't been able to use the no presents for adults rule yet. For ourselves, we are trying to keep gifts to a miminum and be very intentional and thoughtful about what we give. This year, I'm hand-making all the gifts except one, and to me, that makes a gift very special. I hope our family recipients agree!

How do you handle gifts between the adults in your family?

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway a couple posts below!

Green Bookmaking

This book was created for a challenge: to use only, or mostly, recycled materials in a book. All of the materials in this one are recycled except for the pretty green cover paper.



The inner pages are made from Trader Joe's grocery bags, as are the endpapers. It has a buttonhole binding with leftover scraps of Irish linen thread in natural, green, and red to match the book. It's up in the shop now!

Playing with Clay

Finally, I'm making some more clay book covers! These clay covers were what first got me into bookbinding, but I haven't made a new batch for quite some time. It was fun to try some new patterns and decorations on the covers, and I have high hopes for this group. The firing process is so unpredictable: sometimes the covers warp in the bisque fire, and sometimes they warp in the glaze fire. And sometimes the glaze doesn't turn out right, and sometimes the covers just crack! So there are a multitude of things that can go wrong, but overall, I usually get at least 10 sets that are usable.

It Really is the Best

The best granola that is. I was pretty skeptical at first, but after eating it for breakfast, mid-morning snack, mid-afternoon snack, and before-bedtime snack, I'm convinced. The recipe is Andy's Fairfield Granola, from the "Feast" cookbook by Nigella Lawson. DH loves it too, and diminishes my supply rapidly by large handfuls. Today's batch is really for him, because he's been working so hard; we may go through the whole supply in front of the tube watching the Olympics!
The granola, as one of my new favorites, is destined for Christmas presents this year. Now, I just need to start collecting some pretty little containers to wrap it in.

Really, do try it, it will become a habit.

I'm taking a little break from bookbinding while I finish up this quarter's Masters classes, so I'm enjoying some extra cooking and knitting in my breaks. What I should really be enjoying is some extra cleaning...oh well!

Dragonflies...

This is one of my newest books. I love the turquoise colored paper with the gold dragonflies. This is also my new favorite binding: exposed spine sewing on leather tapes. I think the leather tapes on the outside look really cool with the contrasting stitching thread. Haven't decided yet if this is going up on my Etsy site, or at a local gallery. The funny thing is, this is the same paper (in a different colorway) that I used to make my very first book, 5 years ago!