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

. ...♥... .

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.

. ...♥... .

Personal Scrapbook

I had a special request to make a personal scrapbook for an 18th birthday present recently.  

On the front cover I used soft lavenders, lilacs and pinks, with skeleton leaves in dark cerise and a dried rose.  The name letters are cut from lilac glitter card and stuck on purple shimmer card...

...the second page was all connected to the actual birth date.  There are details on the star sign Pisces, information on birthstones, star stones, birth flowers etc.  The hanging tags in the middle are all famous people who share the same birthday (although born in different years) and there's a gold envelope with Oscar winners for the year she was born.  In the bottom left envelope pockets there's a small newspaper with top stories from the year she was born and also stories from her birthday in history...

...followed by a page devoted to angels, with angel quotes and sayings, scrolls of angel quotes and poems, 

 

and lovely pictures and tags of angels...  

...then a couple of pages all about Hannah.  With childhood memories and things she loved... 

...and a mini photo album tied in between the two larger pages... 

...and a page to inspire...

...followed by a page devoted to her beloved family dog... 

...then a wire~work family tree, with little envelopes of family quotes... 

...before finishing with a page of butterflies... 

. ...♥... .

Personal Scrapbook

A while ago a friend asked me to make a small personal scrapbook for her sister. This is the front cover, with a sister quote and a framed B for Barbara.

The first internal page is all about her birth sign, Cancer. The hanging tags give details of famous people born under the sign of Cancer and the little trunk is filled with various pictures of the star sign. There is also details of birthstones, starstones, ruling planets etc.

The next page is all about the year she was born. There is a mini newspaper with major news events from that year, details of the No 1 single and album for the day she was born. The hanging tags mark world events in history which occurred on her birthday date. One of the little envelopes has a birthday card in and the other has a list of Oscar winners from the year she was born.

The next page shows name meanings for her and her partner, followed by a page about their children.

Then I did a family tree and a page with sister quotes.

I know the pictures are not very clear but they were taken a long time ago with my old camera.

There are all my favourite embellishments throughout this project and I really enjoyed doing it.

I will share more of these scrapbooks in the future.

...♦...