Long stitch bindings - travel journals

When I'm travelling I have to have a journal to jot down notes, observations, thoughts, anything that takes my fancy, plus space for photos and memorabilia. 

I have started to make my own journals for this purpose and prefer to use long stitch bindings with soft wrap around covers.... The covers protect the book without making it too heavy. Long stitch binding allows plenty of room for photos and memorabilia. This particular journal is about 6"x4" with a suede wrap around cover. The cover is made from the sleeve of a suede jacket I found in a charity shop in Italy. And that ribbon is Nova Scotia tartan, as that is where is started my trip. 

This book was a bit of an experiment... I love to mix papers, especially for a travel journal, so this book was a "test run" with various papers... Plain, lined, patterned, scrapbooking cardstock, transparencies, and even a piece of craft foam! 

The papers are all roughly 6"x4" when folded. The patterned paoers are ideal for adding photos and bits and pieces that I've picked up as I travel... maps, bus tickets, flyers and leaflets, coasters, business cards... even a Canadian Maple leaf! 

And this beauty is my favourite for printing photos to add to my journal. This little Instax Share printer is slightly smaller than my journal... so it's easy to travel with. I can print photos straight from my phone, and because it is a "Polaroid" printer there is still an element of magic and surprise, I'm never quite sure how each picture will turn out. 

Here are some recent photos I shall be adding to my journal, sorry it's a poor quality shot... The light isn't the best this afternoon. 

Kusudama

While I was home over Christmas, I had time to make a complete kusudama ball. 

Half way there...

 

Finished!

I enjoyed the process of making this, it was a little time consuming and fiddly, but I finished the entire ball over two evenings in front of the TV. 

A new trick

Paper Flowers

Instead of packing this evening (I leave tomorrow morning!), I decided it would be a good time to browse Pinterest... Dangerous, I know, and my procrastination skills are second to none, so not only did I spend maybe half an hour browsing, I then decided that I had to know how to make these pretty paper flowers I kept seeing. 

I enlisted the help of my house mates (as the tutorial I found was in Japanese, and they just happen to be Japanese), and we set to work making these flowers from an old book of mine. Now, normally I am completely against destroying a book for any purpose, but this particular novel was dreadful, badly written, ridiculous story etc, I never want to read it again and I couldn't inflict it on some poor soul who may unwittingly pick it up. 

They're a bit of a fiddle to make when you first start, but actually the folding is very simple, 5 small squares of paper folded and rolled make one flower when glued together. 

I think we've given that poor old book a lovely new life in these flowers... Apparently, if one makes enough of these flowers, I believe 12 is the number, they can be glued together to form a ball...maybe next time

The Finished Book

And here is the little journal that I made the other evening...

I just love this paper with vintage travel posters... 

If all else fails... Make a book

Or just fold some paper! 

 

Seriously, for me this is heaven... Folding and cutting paper until I have stacks ready to be sewn into text blocks, later to become journals. 

This afternoon I was feeling rather down, not sure why but I was miserable and mean... I went for a long walk to try to get rid of excess energy and bought a load of paper!

I came home and just started folding and cutting, 

folding and cutting each piece of paper... 

Hours went by in a blur. Look at that lovely stack of folded paper all ready to sew!

I was in the flow, folding and cutting paper and later measuring and sewing it into text blocks. 

I feel like a different person now, so much more energy, I'm recharged, revitalised, inspired, so many ideas and possibilities... all from folding a little paper. 

Denim

I have been wanting to make some denim covered books for a while now, the idea has been percolating until last night when I found an old denim skirt and got out my embroidery cotton.

Turned out that hand stitching the cover was rather time consuming! 

But after a few hours of solid sewing, and some now very sensitive fingertips, the cover was complete! 

All I had to do was add in the text block and a tie closure, a matter of minutes, and simple stitching.

I like the contrast of the rough edges on the inside, it makes it feel more usable to me, the journal isn't perfect, so the notes, thoughts, sketches etc... don't need to be perfect either. It takes the pressure off! 

A couple of gifts...

Before I left Verona I wanted to make a couple of little books to give to my teacher and flatmate. 

I had a bit of black bookcloth that I'd brought with me from England, but wanted to make them a bit more personal.  I had been searching Verona for a cartoleria which sold nice papers, but never found one, maybe there are some further out from the centre. I got some paper from an art shop for the text block, but had no decorative paper for the end papers, so I decided to get a little creative... To me the symbol for Verona has got to be a heart, it is the city of love after all!  I embroidered a little heart onto the bookcloth, and kept the end papers plain... Nice and simple. 

And these are the two finished books,  they're about 5"x 4". 

I had a fun time trying to gather enough heavy things to weigh them down over night while the glue dried! We ended up with every book in the house stacked up on top of these little notebooks!