Hey folks, whatabout ye all? I hear parts of England and Wales are getting some beautiful sunshine. Any chance of you shoving some of it my Northern Ireland way then??? I swear it has rained constantly over my wee bit of Northern Ireland since June!! Nimbus came in this morning looking 2 stone lighter and like a drowned rat!! Now my cat is a long haired fuzz ball and isn't afraid of water or the rain really as it doesn't get in contact with her actual skin because she's so furry and her coat is extremely thick.......but this morning....Well, our poor wee baby was soaked through and her fur was drenched......BUT....the daft cow was sitting IN THE RAIN!!!! She has a wee house that she can go in to when its pouring but oh no.....Nimbus wants to sit in the rain! Lol. Daft cat. Then she came in and proceeded to try and dry herself off on Scrubby's leg! He had to actually towel dry her she was so soaking.....she was dripping on the floor and that would never do, heehee.
This is what she is meant to look like....isn't she pweetie! I love her to bits but she is a bloomin' handful! She's just turned 3 and I swear she is going through her terrible teenage years, lol, the little madam!
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| Here is my beautiful little brat, heehee. She actually doesn't look quite as furry here but this was her last summer when there was actual sun in Northern Ireland for a week or 2 and she cast tonnes of her coat. She didn't cast half as much this year......do you think she knew the weather was going to be rubbish this year? OMG.....my cat is a weather guru!!!! |
Anyway enough of me waffling about my fur-baby. I did show these briefly on my giveaway video. These are the books I made for the giveaway, so Karen and Brenda should be getting these in the post very soon. I hand bound them myself of course.......all my books are hand made/bound by me unless I say otherwise. Heyyyyy.....Even I'm allowed a lazy day once in a while, heehee. So just know that if you see a journal, notebook, altered or decorated book etc on my blog, its going to be made completely from scratch by my fair wee mitts unless I am having a lazy day and just alter a bought book. But I'll fess up and tell you if its a bought book....I promise, teehee. And for those who are new to my blog.....if you wanna know how to make your own handmade journals, check out my tutorial section on the right. It should be under Bookbinding Tutorials. Being able to make a book is certainly something I am very proud of and just love to create something that hopefully will be treasured for years to come.
Anywhoodles, I wanted to make them completely functional and usable so I didn't want to over embellish the front so they could be written in comfortably. I needed to create something that could be removed from the book. So in these creations I was able to combine my passion for bookmaking with my obsession of flower making.......I was in crafty heaven with these two, lol.
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| I made these beautiful flowers using lace. You all know me and my obsessive flower making so these journals had to include one of my flowers. I added some of my stickpins, with marabou feathers and some wee pearly bling sprays that I was kindly given as a freebie from Discount Crafts. Link no longer in service |
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| As you can see the flower can be removed from the book so you can write in it easily. Then you can see the hand bound book is free from "fussy stuff" and can be written in easily without any obstructions on the front cover. |
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| I made an elasticated belly band and glued the flower onto a square of felt. I then sewed another piece of felt around the belly band and on to the flowers felt. I dyed the elastic belly band with Vintage Rose Tattered Angels Glimmer Spray. Belly bands are a great idea for books, because if you are like me I stick bits of paper, photos, wee notes etc in my journals so they end up bulging with bits of paper etc., falling out of it! So with the belly band, it keeps everything in and keeps your journal closed. |
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| This is the 2nd book and the flower is similar to the above using 2 layered cream lace I bought from DiscountCrafts1 on Zibbet. |
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| I love this beautiful flower centre. I bought a massive bag of old vintage jewellery and this was an old brooch. Well I had to use it on this flower, it was perfect. |
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| Oh Im now obsessed with seam binding. I bought some recently and its gorgeous. Thats what I used here as the flower tails along with laces and some wee pearl strings. |
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| The journals are all hand sewn and bound by me and I inked the page edges with Vintage Photo to give them that vintagy feel. I hope Karen and Brenda enjoy using them. I loved creating them. |
Thats it from me for today folks. I hope you are all fine and dandy and "keepin 'er handy" as we say around my part of the woods, lol.
Toodles Noodles.....Loops xx
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