bookbinding

the amis and baby blanket took a back seat today to something i've been wanting to learn for ages.

bookbinding!

You see, i've been working on getting jack's photo album going. i got all the photos form sutterfly, they're all sorted/dated, but the book i had origianlly bought...yuck. well not yuck really cause it's a nice album, but not for this. the paper is black and it's 12x12 format which isn't the look that i want for jack's baby album. so i started looking around at ready made ones and was going to get a kolo album. so, i'm at the paper source (i've always loved going in there to admire the papers and fantasize about what i could make) and i'm looking at their different albums--the kolo line, the paper source books (which are really lovely, but the cover paper was too feminine). the prices were a bit high for me $60-$85. ouch!!

so the nice girl (sorry i didn't get your name) whose helping me wade through all this says if i know someone who knows bookbinding, they have a kit and i can choose my own cover paper, binding cloth and inside paper color(black or cream for the insides). i'm like how hard can this be? so she runs it down to me, sets me up with all the stuff i need, i pick out my cover paper and bookcloth... (this is so exciting) and she gives me a cheat sheet of instuctions on how to put it together. the instructions are given to people who pay for their bookbinding workshop, but this girl was hooking me up. thank you thank you thank you.

i couldn't wait to get home.

i get home and an hour and a half later...tada!! a fucking beautiful photo album, deserving of monkeylove's photos. ilove it!!!!!!!!!! and it cost me $57 including tax for the guts and tools i needed instead of $86 for one album. next time i'll only have to spend about $30 for the guts.

bookboard with bookcloth attached

the 2 covers with the bookcloth joining them

cover papers, before being attached

cover papers attached and looking mighty fine

finished book

isn't it loverly?!!

the only thing they didn't have was self-adhesive photo corners, so i'll get those at michael's tomorrow and start putting this bad boy together.

this was a great project. can't wait to make "nut muffin's" baby book. i think i might make some smaller journal with stuff i have around the house (i.e. all that scrapbooking paper that never gets any use!!) i'm also making some small things to start selling on etsy. i want to get a few different things together and then set up a store.