Handmade Sketchbooks

Every time I see a post on book binding or handmade notebooks I always feel really inspired. I finally put the project on my to do list and this is what I came up with.

I really wanted my books to have a mix of papers to make things more interesting, and each one unique. I started by going through my over flowing drawers of paper and picking out pieces to use as the pages. I've got cartridge paper, lined paper, coloured paper, squared paper, sugar paper, patterned paper, tracing paper and more.

I cut all the paper into A5 sized pieces and then folded them in half to A6 size. My tip for doing this is to fold them against a stack of post-its so the edges are alligned. It doesn't have to be post-its though, anything with a raised, flat edge will do, eg, a book, a box.

I then cut some card for the covers. I made them a millimetre or two bigger than the pages. I used Amazon cardboard envelopes which I have a fair few of as I love the quality of the card.

I arranged all my pages into books, making sure to have a good mix of all the different types of paper.

In my first attempt I used staples to attach the pages together but I didn't love how it turned out, so I tried sewing the pages together.

I started by marking four dots, about 3cm apart, along the fold of the centre page. Then I took a drawing pin and pierced four holes through the whole stack of papers. You can't see from the photo, but I had a lump of blue-tack on the other side of the paper so the pin had someting to go in to instead of my table top. I put a scrap piece of paper over the blue-tack so that it didn't stick to my book pages.

I then used one of the pages as a guide to pierce holes in the cardboard cover.

Then I used cream coloured sewing thread, doubled up, to sew the pages and the cover together. I arranged it so the knot would be between the last page and the cover as this would be covered up later.

Next I covered the card cover with something a bit more attractive. This was a chance for me to use some of the really colourful fabric I have in my stash.

I cut the fabric about an inch bigger than the card cover and cut the corners off. I used PVA glue to stick the fabric to the cover, one side at a time.

I then glued the first and last pages to the inside of the cover to cover up the edges of the fabric. This is also how the knot gets covered up.

The last thing to do was trim the pages so they all appear the same size when the book is closed. 

And before I knew it, I'd made all of these!

I really enjoyed making these books. I love the mix of pages. Much more interesting than page after page of blank white.

I hope I've explained my process well enough. Let me know if you have any questions!

Christmas Colouring Book

I'm very excited to share this project that I've been working on, on and off, for almost the whole year.
A Christmas Colouring Book!

The book has 30 festive illustrations to colour in, including some drawing prompts and discussion starters. I would say this book is aimed at children but suitable for adults. I know I had fun trying it out.

Like the other books I've produced, I self-published this book using Create Space and it's available on Amazon. The paper is matte so it's perfect for colouring pencils.

I've managed to get the book finished and printed ready for my first Christmas craft fair of the season this Saturday. To appeal to present-buyers I've put together a gift pack which includes the colouring book, a set of colouring pencils and some colour in stickers which are illustrations taken from the book.

Pretty legit I think!

I can't wait to see how they go down at the fair tomorrow!

The Toot Fairy Book

 A little before Christmas my boyfriend Andrew decided he wanted to write a children's book (inspired by my previous literary endeavours I'm sure!) and I agreed to do the illustrations.
He played around with a few different ideas but knew he'd struck gold when he suddenly came out with, "How about 'the toot fairy'?"

 With the help of a couple of friends he wrote the book and then it was my turn to do the hard work and get the illustrations done.

With my previous two books I did all the artwork by hand. I drew the images and then coloured them using water colour paints. But for this book we knew we wanted a bolder, brighter look so I coloured the images on photoshop.

 

 I put the pages together in photoshop, adding the lines of text.

Then we sent it off to be printed! We're self-publishing the book using Create Space and it's available to buy on Amazon.

 So if you have a little kid in your life, or even a big kid, that likes fart jokes check it out!

And have a look at my previous books If I Lived There and Louisiana Ludgate and the Lollipops

My Second Book

I made another book!

May I present to you 'Louisiana Ludgate and the Lollipops'.

I got the idea for this book before I'd even finished my first one, but I waited until the summer holidays to start working on it. I did the bulk of the illustrations in one week, but then I went on holiday and hadn't finished writing the story and found it hard to get back into it, which is why I've only just finished it now.

Writing this book was more difficult because I decided to make it a rhyming book, something which seemed like a good idea at the time. It was easy to start off with but then it turns out rhymes which would be acceptable in a rap song won't cut it in a children's book, so there was a bit of re-writing that I had to do.

But back to the illustrations, which was the fun part! This one is my favourite.

I used the same technique as I did with my first book; drawing out the picture, painting with water colours, then adding detail with colour pencil.

This book is available to buy on Amazon. Check it out!

Felt Doll

Remember when I made a book? And then made a doll of the character of the book?

Well I made another version of the doll because the first one was too tricky to replicate.

For the second version I made it a bit smaller and used felt so I didn't have to deal with turning the parts inside out.

The dress is made from some fleece I found at the Scrap Store. It was the perfect colour and there was quite a bit of it.

I took a while trying to decide how to do the decoration on the dress. In the first version I used fabric but that wouldn't work on this smaller scale. So for the dots I painted them on with pink fabric paint and for the lines around the edges of the dress I sewed on pink embroidery thread.

I made a paper pattern for this doll so I'll be able to make lots and sell them alongside my book at the craft fairs I'm doing in a few months.

My book is still available to buy on Amazon if you're interested.

Character Doll

Remember how I made a book that's now for sale? Well I've also made a toy version of the main character to act as a mascot when I'm selling the book at craft fairs. 

This was the first time I've made a toy like this so my method involved a lot of trial and error.

I made a paper pattern for each of the body parts and then got sewing and stuffing.

Sewing the limbs to the main body was pretty tricky and things looked a bit creepy for a while.

I used felt for the hair and shoes, and drew on the eyes, mouth and nose.

I used the only purple fabric I had for the dress and stuck on little pink dots to match the illustrations.

I love how this little doll turned out and I think she will look great sat next to a pile of books for sale.

Book for Sale!

Remember when I made a book? Well it's now for sale!

I've self-published the book with Create Space which is an American company I found via Youtube.

I ordered 25 copies to start with and they arrived yesterday. I've already had a few orders!

Including some requests for signed copies!

Create Space gives you free Amazon listings so my book can be purchased from there.

Check it out!

I made a book!

That's right: I wrote and illustrated a children's book and turned it into an actual thing I can hold!

At the moment I just have one copy, but I'm looking in to ways to get it mass printed.

As a teaching assistant I read a lot of children's books and I always pay attention to the illustrations. At some point I started thinking 'I could do that,' and the Easter holidays were the perfect time to try.

I started with a rough idea of the story and started sketching idea's for the pictures.

The illustrations were painted with water colours and I used colour pencils to add more definition on the images.

I scanned all the original paintings and opened them in Photoshop to resize them and edit them a little bit. Then I added the text. I kept the story pretty simple because my focus was the illustrations and, as anyone who knew me while I was doing my dissertation at uni can tell you; I am not a writer.

I searched online for the best option for printing my book and settled on Cewe photoworld because they were offering £15 for new customers. Printing it as a photobook was fine for one copy, but when I come to print more I will look elsewhere as it'll be too expensive.

The printed copy turned out great and I've already read it to my class at work. They seemed to like it.

And here's the blurb for anyone interested in what the books about!