Starting Handmade Books

Hey People,

Hope you are all well, this is a pretty quiet blog, don't get many comments about anything much really, it would be really nice to have some feedback on what if anything you would like me to research, discuss, or even give me a challenge to do something new.

Well today I finished off my new scrubs by labelling them up, they now look really fab and I am pretty pleased.  Again I did this on a budget, used Microsoft Publisher to make up my labels, printed them on a good quality paper, then cut out, laminated and cut out again. 

The reason I went to the trouble of laminating is due to the nature of the product, oil and paper don't really mix at all, I suppose if it is going to be used in the shower it also offers a tiny bit of protection aswell.

I then used a mini glue gun to attach the labels to the product as double sided tape I felt might not have stuck due to the oil residue.  This hot glue gun is fab, its one of my most important crafty tools, I just don't know what I would do without it.

These hot glue guns are now so reasonably priced that it really is a cheap treat for your crafty stash.  I always have packs of spare glue sticks and also always use the gun on a heat proof craft mat.  Great care must be taken with them though in the odd occasion where you get the hot glue on you, like I did today!!

So what do you think of my new labels, I think they are great for them being homemade and not done at a printers;

This afternoon I started to put the components together for some books that I found on another blog.  They are going to be so very cute when I am finished.

I first decided the size that I wanted the books to be.  I then cut the card with a guillotine taking out a half centimetre strip for the hinge and used Copydex to stick the patterned paper down neatly. 

To keep these from buckling, I popped them under a heavy book to dry, hopefully they will be ready to be drilled tomorrow for the ribbon;

Once they have been bound with the ribbon I will pop a lovely topper on the front, maybe Tatty Teddy or Hot Diggety Dog or I could maybe use some of the stamped and coloured pictures I coloured a few weeks ago, could have one as a recipe book maybe, stick all the cakes, tea, coffee pots etc on the front, oh the ideas are endless. 

These are small notebook sized ones but you will see in the link at the end that they can be done in any size and adapted really easily.

This is the fronts;

And this is the inside, they are all slightly different & individual, there are enough front/ backs here to make four books;

These seem really easy to put together, if you want to see exact step-by-step instructions the blog I got the idea from is http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/how-to-make-a-book.html

Great blog for ideas of all sorts!!

Happy Crafting,

Amanda x