Leather Books

Yesterday was a very happy crafting day :D
My son has wanted to make a Midori-style leather journal for a while now. When we were on holiday in September we found a marvellous fabric shop which sold some amazing pieces of leather, from tiny little bits right through to full hides and the colours on offer were great, too!  I was very restrained with my purchase and only selected a small thick piece of brown (I did let a fat quarter of grey reindeer printed cotton jump into my arms amongst other things).
So this is my first attempt at a Midori-style leather journal:

 I know the edges are supposed to be neat but I just love the shape of this and the flappy-ness of it so I'm keeping it this odd shape.  I think I need to stiffen the inside at some point but I doubt I'll use it (it's too nice!!) so there's no rush for that...

and following on from this I made these teeny tiny little leather covered books...

 just gorgeous with their elaborate silver corners on the front

 and their thick pages inside

and a ragged little leather pocket tag book...

 ...which is waiting for some dark tags to be conjured up for inside and a little bit of decoration

. ...♥... .

A Little Book of Pockets

Little Book of Love

This beautiful little book is made with pockets to tuck pretty little things into.

The front is decorated with a snippet of vintage lace and a tiny key tied with an organza ribbon.

The book ties together with thin crafters thread through two little heart-shaped lock embellishments.

Inside are 6 little card hearts with ink-smudged edges, just lovely to write a little love note or special date on.

The back is finished with a heart lock and a small heart-shaped button.

. ..♥... .

Another Little Handmade Book

This one is covered in a blue and beige scrapbook paper and finished with a vintage-style plate, turquoise wooden heart-shaped button and pearly beads.  The little padlocks on the front and back cover relate to the fastening string to tie the book closed.

The spine is decorated with giddy little ribbon ties in organza and ric-rac braid knots.

The pages are old school maths book pages.

and the signature ties are finished off with little paper hearts and tags.

Handmade Book

I made this book a while ago and added the finishing touches recently.

The cover is made with a scrapbook paper printed with postcards and old letters.  It is decorated with a newsprint frame, tiny jigsaw pieces and a wooden heart button...

with the signatures tied through the spine with cotton twill ribbon knots.

The pages are made up from craft papers, handmade papers, 

pretty card, old book pages, vellum and doilies.

The signature ties are finished with little charms of acorns and a leaf...

...pretty buttons...

...and a tiny tree and flower charm.

. ...♥... .

Handmade Book

It seems all the good cameras in the house have gone away on holiday without my knowledge so I'm using my old digital camera with it's low pixel count but as it's a personal project just for me these images are only for show.
I finally finished my little handmade book.

(Front cover)

(Back cover)

(inside pages)

The pages are made from old book pages, vellum, scrapbooking papers, handmade paper and various other bits of paper I have in stock.

I finished the page section ties with buttons and tiny charms.

. ...♥... .