Midweek Get Over Hump Day with Reading Related Crafts

I know that during the week, about wednesday, I start to get a bit blah. Just not enough crafting time, too much work, Friday’s knitting group is just looking too far away. I’ve heard my fellow crafts people say the same thing. I’ve decided to start posting midweek for the month of December and see how it goes (not the week of chistmas though, i’ll be on the road that wednesday). If it goes well, I’ll continue into next year. By doing this it will give a nice midweek crafting break to you and to me. By doing it for you, I will make sure to do it for me too. I’m working with a theme for this week and the next, then I might cover the theme one month at a time starting in January, doing mini-midweek posts to cover a part of that theme. When I started researching for this week’s post I started to realize how much there is about any particular topic and I think 4 mini posts would do more for a desperate midweek crafting emergency.

Reading is this midweek post’s theme and I will most likely cover it again soon, just because there is so much to say, link to, show and tell about it. I started by making a ton of bookmarks with my friend Carolyn, and then tried my hand at rebinding a book, just to see how it would go.

In the process of this I found a lot of great tutorials as well as etsy sellers and I want to share those with you too!

Here’s my shot of trying out rebinding a book, well not a regular book, a daily planner actually. I have been needing an 08 calendar for awhile now as my January is starting to fill up. I’ve been on a tight Christmas crafting budget lately though and just didn’t feel right about spending $14 on a new one because I can’t wait until the after new year’s calendar sales. What’s a lady to do? I dug up about all the tutorials I could find on book binding, picked up a cheep-o daily planner for the dollar store, brought out my glue gun and gave it a whirl. I think it turned out pretty snazy. Here’s the process and result:

It even has a great little loop for my favorite pen and a velcro dot closure (leftover from making bibzilla bib kits for November’s clm). Now I’m not going to go into detail about how to bind a book because there are just so many great tutorials out there on the topic. Here are my favorites that I found:

This one is probably the closest to what I did, mine on a smaller, more hot glue gun usage scale: Rebind Your Magazine into a hardbound book
Mini-zine Tutorial
Vintage Envelop Accordian Book Tutorial
ReLoaded Moleskin Sketch Book – really great for putting new pages into interesting old hard covers
Make Your Own Mini Hardcover Edition – love this little book idea
About the best make your own book tutorial i found hands down
Five Stitch Binding Method
“quick-and-dirty technique for binding a book”
Office Paper Book Binding
Mini Fold/Cut Notepad
Quick Binding with Rivets – really amazing finished product and a really like the idea of binding your own portfolio
Beautiful Envelop Book – this tutorial has great pictures and really clear, complete instructions
Hardback Book Tutorial
Results of Binding – a tutorial on what they would do different in addition to and comments on the above tutorial. They really give you a good idea of how to bind for your specific needs.
Make Blank Books – great illustrations on stitching technique used in binding

Here are some shops that I like that sell handmade books:

LALA Dex Press
Straw House Books
Penguin Love
Presents for Pirates
KreativLink
Pebblestone Papery
Dirty Dish Pottery
The May of Teck Club
Moon Bindery
Green Chair Press

There are so many shops and tutorials out there that it was hard to not have a list 1000 links long. If I missed you or someone whose stuff you love, post a comment and link up!

Now on to bookmarks! My friend Carolyn and I had so much fun last Saturday night crafting up a bunch of these. Look at this slew of them!

It was so easy how we made them all too!

You need:
Laminate, self sticking or a laminater if you are lucky enough to have one
Cardstock
Eyelets and eyelet setter
Glue – hot glue, glue stick, elmers
Magazines, scrap booking paper, fancy scissors
Ribbon

We cut down the card stock into 2 1/4 x 6 3/4 retangles, went nuts collaging, put an eyelet into the top, laminated it, punched the eyelet setter through the eyelet again to clear it out, tied the ribbon to it and then a vintage button or bead to the end of the ribbon.

And that is seriously it! I couldn’t believe how easy and fun of a project it was. We came away with the want to make more and will most likely get together again to do just that…. or refashion some old books into journals and sketchbooks (she writes, I draw, something for each of us). The bookmarks make great books and for any friend who loves to read, write, or draw the combo of a handmade journal and a bookmark works wonders for a Christmas present.

I didn’t really find too many book mark tutorials, but there are a bunch of great shops on etsy that sell them. I have bought from these two wonderful ladies and am so happy with my purchases. They are both of great quality and really cute design: Kibbles N’ Knits and Grandmother’s Jewelry Box.

Here are some from my favorite’s list:
RagTrader – great bookmarks, but also wonderful jewelry
Pretty Jewelry
Apple Juice
Barbra Ann Tubbs
Archipelago Arts
My Zoe Bug

Here are some sellers from Carolyn’s favorite’s list:
Melonie Jane Books
Scrap Like Crazy


And that is the midweek post! Like I said about the handmade books, if you have a link, leave a comment and link up. I know that there is so much out there to look at and explore and make. Hope this helps get you over your mind week blues so you can make it to your weekend crafting! See you all Saturday!

++Kristin++

ps – there are new items in the shop (pencil clutches, woowee!) and I will be adding new things here and there throughout the week.