Going Green

Well not in the way that most of us think of when we hear the phrase, but all my projects this week have involved the color green. I also have a project in my head for the next local book arts swap that will involve green....
Up first are my wonderful new wrist warmers, I made them from some sage green fleece I had around the house and used a blanket stitch on them. The blanket stitch took forever to sew around all the openings on them plus the side seam but I'm happy with the results. I didn't want the seam on the inside of the warmers so the blanket stitch solved the problem and looks nice. The photo I took with iphoto using the colored pencil effect, which it doesn't really show too much detail on the warmers I rather like it :)

Next on the green list is the book I made for my nephew! Monday I became an Aunt as my brother welcomed his son into the world. I didn't want to make a book that was overly baby looking and found some fantastic earth toned card stock packs at Ben Franklin. I cut up 4 sheets of each of the lighter colors and some spacers and made a stab bound album. Which despite the structural issues with the binding remains one of my favorite for photographs. The pages are 6"x12" which should give them lots of room to use the album for a scrap book if they so choose. I really like the dimensions of the book and am thinking I might make a second using the darker colors for my Etsy shop. The linen book cloth I bought for another book I had been working on the last few days but it was the perfect choice for this book as well.
The last book I was working on is fun case bound book but I must of had glue dripping from my elbow (or who knows where else) as I have two glue spots on the front cover and one on the inside end sheets as well. I'm pretty disappointed that a) I made such a mess out of an otherwise awesome book and b) that I didn't notice that I made such a mess of it until after I pulled it out of the press. I'm still trying to decide if it's bound for my shop as a straight to sale item, or if I would actually use it if I kept it around. I'll give my disappointment a little while to fade while I chew it over and see what I come up with.

And now for something completly different!

I finished the hat in question in my last post, and it's awesome. I'm hoping it fits Dan's head as it is a perfect fit to mine.... He wanted a huge poof ball and while you can't quite see it in this picture it is massive! Making the poof ball took me almost as long as the hat did, but it was worth it.
I know that I said I might have a prize if you can tell me where the hat is from but I can't resist putting the name in the tags so it will come up in searches. That being said the name won't give it away unless you know what it's from... so feel free to leave a comment if you know where the hat is from or if you did the google leg work, either way you'll earn some geek points with me :D

I spent some time yesterday working on photographing a new fold up album that has a fantastic cherry blossom paper that makes we wish for spring! Actually the weather here has been much like spring lately and it's a little scary. Normally by this time of the year we've had pouring rain for at least a month or so and it's been very very dry. On the days the fog burns off it's sunny and almost 60!

I'm almost done with a new leather notebook as well, I just can't decide how I want to finish the it. I'm on the hunt for some buttons I have a vague memory of purchasing, I cleaned my studio last week and now I can't find anything! However it is good to see the carpet again and I bought myself a stereo system for my studio as I am enjoying spending much more quality time in there. I've also been struggling with a concept for the exchange theme for my local book arts swap this month, it's ravens or crows and everything I keep thinking of is super complicated. I'm headed to the craft store shortly so hopefully some inspiration will strike!

Sunday Girl

It seems that Sunday seems to be the day I'm finding myself having some breathing room to do the things I need to be doing that aren't school realted and some of the things I actually enjoy doing! The lovely new book to the right is one of those things I enjoy doing! This book is a wonderful treat for the fingers as the fabric is silky and soft, but as it's embroidered (not by me) it also has a wonderful texture.

I also cleaned my bathroom (yes I'm human after all) and spent a good portion of time today tearing my hair out trying to reconstruct and dust off my resume- It needed a good dusting, I had one version that had been updated to a .doc file but all the rest of my resume related files, job histories, references, and the like were all in .wps files. I also lost another patch of hair on trying to start my statement of purpose.

This frantic spur of work was brought on by a wonderful symposium I attended yesterday on the University of Oregon campus at the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum. It was the Conservation Symposium Northwest 2008. I sat in for the first three sessions and had lunch with some bookarts friends. I was totally engrossed in the discussions of the ethical and moral dilema's presented in treatments and the treatments themselves. It was a moment of, Yes! I am really excited about this!

After that I called my Mom and worked on finishing up some covers for the folded brag books. They need to be reinforced and I need to match ribbon to them but I really like a lot of the paper and mat board choices I made :D
I also listed another mini frame album earlier in the week, this one is purple and out of no where I had a flash back to childhood tv shows and named this book "The Purple Pie Man". I'm trying to be more creative in the naming of my books and stop giving them descriptions for titles. We'll see how long it lasts....

Mmmm Studio Time

I finally got some studio time in the other day and just finally gave my Etsy store a little life. I just listed the first in a new line of mini photo albums.
I don't know why but I just have a thing for anything in miniature form.
These little books are 3.25" tall and have 4 little frames inside to hold photos. I was feeling rather bright and chipper so the one with the cherry ribbon got listed first. I have 3 more completed and even photographed. I just need to finish getting everything ready for Etsy's image requirements and they will be going live.

This morning also brought completion to a leather journal I had started ages ago. I still need to photograph it before it will go live. Now that I've had my fun I need to crack down and get to the homework. Just wanted to share my excitement in my new line of photo albums!