How To Make Artist's Books: Book Recommendations

March 5, 2015

My friend Nancy suggested that I do an occasional book recommendation for book artists, origami enthusiasts and paper crafters. Since I was a blogger in need of a post it seemed like a good fit. So here is my first list of books on book arts. These are ones that I return to time and again for structure and content ideas. You can get them at your favorite online bookstore. I hope you find some inspiration or a new treasure here.

My top three recommendations are:

1. Creating Handmade Books by Alisa Golden has clear, concise text and illustrations for making everything from simple one-page structures all the way up to multi-signature sewn structures.

2. Making and Keeping Creative Journals by Suzanne J. E. Tourtillott is a feast for journal lovers. She offers innovative structures to match topics such as gardening, birding and art journaling.

3. Sleight of Binding by Cherryl Moote offers playful structures to lift your books into the third dimension. You will find kinetic and interactive designs in shapes and colors that wake up your creative mind.

Here are some pictures of my work using these books for instruction and inspiration.

Book/card with tunnel from Creating Handmade Books. (2014)

Jacob's Ladder book (front and back) and content from Creating Handmade Books. (2004)

Jacob's Ladder "Flight" book from Creating Handmade Books. (2009)

Journal with different color and size pages from Making and Keeping Creative Journals.

Inside of journal showing content. (2003)

Dos-a-Dos book from Making and Keeping Creative Journals.

Inside the Dos-a-Dos book. (2003)

Glove book inspired by one in Making and Keeping Creative Journals. (2007)

Gallery Book from Sleight of Binding. I modified Cherryl's structure by leaving the paper on the front of the "windows" and using it to fold the cranes. (2012)

Cherrly's book Sleight of Binding has many kinds of flexigon structures. Here are three that I made using Graphic 45 papers. (2014)

Glove Books

January 7, 2015

I thought I would share some of my other glove books. Yes, I have made more than one glove book in my career. I love collecting vintage gloves and some of them just want to become book covers while others want to

the book. I hope you like the selection.

Clasped Hands

is a book made entirely of gloves.

A is for Other, an ASL ABC

was juried into the

San Diego Book Arts National Juried Show

in 2010. It also won entry into the

Cannon Art Gallery

2011 Juried Biennial.

Woven pages of Graphic 45 paper adorn these lovely pink gloves.

These long gloves were perfect for a wedding guest book.

Somerset Weddings Magazine

agreed and showed this book in their 2007 edition.

Three glove books I made for a Graphic 45 Design Team tryout in 2014.

Grecian Fragments

was juried into the

Athenaeum's

6th Juried Artist's Book Biennial.

Inside

Grecian Fragments

, a poem about falling apart and remaining strong at the core.

My Mini Album Structure

June 4, 2014

It has been a while since my last post. Somehow I missed May altogether. I will work on posting more regularly now that summer is almost here. Today I have pictures of my latest creation, a mini album. I invented the page structure and sewed the spine so that the pages lay flat when open. I used Graphic 45 Bird Song 8 x 8 papers to decorate the pages and I used Japanese handmade paper and black book cloth for the covers. The best thing about the page structure is that the folding process creates pockets and corner tabs as you will see in the pictures. It also creates a between-the-page pocket for a large photo mat. I folded the pages two ways to get side and top pockets, but you could make them all the same way. I will post a tutorial for making the pages on You Tube as soon as my editor (son) has some free time to do his technical magic. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures and descriptions below.

Thanks for visiting.

Gina

Picture one shows the book with the pages sewn to the accordion folded grey paper.

Here are all of the pages laid out before they were decorated with G45 paper.

A side view of the pages and accordion fold binding.

Two page spread with side and top/bottom pockets.

Two page spread with corner tabs showing.

Good view of sewn accordion fold spine.

Finished book cover. I used Japanese paper for this along with black book cloth. The grey spine paper has a 3 inch end that I glued onto the book cover.

Inside page spread with G45 Bird Song papers decorating the pages. Notice the tabs at the top and sides of the pages. These are the photo mats.

Here is another two page spread showing floral patterns. I just love the florals in this set.

Here I have pulled out the photo mats so you can see that they match the pages and pull out from the top or the side depending on how I folded the pages.

Another two page spread showing off the greens from this collection.

Another page spread.

Here you can see that sometimes the pockets are both the same (in this case from the top of the book).

More photographs of the pages decorated. I love the way the papers work together.

This is a photograph of the binding sewn to make the book sturdy. I did sew the binding loosely so that when photographs are inserted they won't make the open end of the book bulge. I used scrap book board as spacers when I was sewing to keep the spacing between pages consistent.

You Tube video, Flexigon

March 12, 2014

Today I have a tutorial that you can watch on You Tube. Learn how to make a dynamic card called a flexigon and use Graphic 45 to decorate it. You can use any paper designs for this project or draw your own images and text. Once you learn this fun technique the sky's the limit.

The materials and sizes you will need are listed below along with some step by step pictures, but following along with the video is the easiest way to learn how to make this flexigon.

Materials:

Paper measurements:

4 pieces of

cardstock

cut to 3" x 6"

4 images (ie. faces, animals, flowers, etc.) that measure 2 7/8" x 2 7/8" square. Cut each of these into

1 7/16" (just shy of 1.5 inches) square quarters.

Hardware:

Glue stick or your favorite white glue

Bone Folder

Cutting mat

Cutting knife (ex-acto blade)

Ruler

Paper trimmer (optional)

http://youtu.be/vZEoayzQKck

3" x 6" black cardstock with Tim Holtz embossed gears

Graphic 45 Steampunk Spells Stamp Images cut to almost 1.5" squares.

Partly glued image on center part of Flexigon. Glue images after flexigon is put together.

Finished side of the Flexigon with central image and embellishments in corners.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will try this interactive card and enjoy the creative process.

Graphic 45 Mini Albums

March 5, 2014

Today I am posting pictures of several mini albums. I think I fell in love with Graphic 45 when I was searching You Tube for crafting videos and stumbled upon the world of mini albums. Two people who make amazing albums and offer tutorials are xannero1 (Anne) and SoMuchScrap (Cathy). The Botanical Tea album pictured below was made using some of Cathy's (So Much Scrap) tutorial pages. Thank you to everyone who shares their creations and love of crafting on the web. I hope my pictures inspire you to create something beautiful.

P.S. This post is also my entry for the Craft Hoarders Anonymous blog challenge #3. I have been collecting vintage photos for many years and these mini albums are the perfect place to show them off.

G45 Botanical Tea 8 x 8 mini album

Vintage photos on display

I love the interactive pages in this album and the paper colors work well

with the sepia tones of the vintage photos.

Last pages of the Botanical Tea Album

G45 Communique 8 x 6 Album. I like clean lines and letting the beauty of the papers shine in this album. The reds, blacks and masculine patterns work well with the album for a WWII soldier whose original scrapbook was falling apart.

First pages

Newspaper clipping and names and addresses of the servicemen who attended the party.

Pictures of the Wireless school in Calgary and tourist pictures from Niagara Falls taken by Gordon.

G45 Bird Song 4.5 x 6 Album, I used Japanese washi paper and silk book cloth for the covers.

Love the blues and pinks together.

These papers offer so much room for creating your own designs.

Inaugural Post

March 4, 2014

Dear Everyone,

Welcome to my shiny new blog. I will be posting projects, tutorials, and other paper art related ideas here. I plan to post every Wednesday. I hope you will join me here to see what I am creating this week.

There is one thing I want to make very clear right now... This will mainly be a pictorial blog. I will try not to bore you with unnecessary asides or musings on non-paper related topics. So, sit back, scroll down, relax and enjoy my recent paper creations.

Regards,

Gina