Where Are They Now?

I thought it would be fun to do a little posting every now and then to showcase the travels my books have made. This book, Honey Indigo, made its first stop in Australia and is now on a European tour! It will showcase memoirs, snapshots, and ticket stubs from the trip. *I'm a bit jealous of this book*  Oh well, I'm proud to have something I made traveling around the world, even if I'm not going myself!

Find Me In Etsy's Storque!

Etsy has a blog called "The Storque" which features helpful articles on all sorts of topics related to handmade items and business. They've done an article on Memory Books and included one of my journals in their "Related Items" section. Scroll about halfway down and you'll see my Lemon Poppy Guest Book on the fourth line!

Introducing A New Guest Book Design

Since my wedding guest books have been so well received on Etsy, I decided to introduce another style. This one is vertically oriented (portrait), with a paper sash across the middle with a satin tie. It sold within 24 hours and I immediately got to work making another!

Moonlight Damask Guest Book

The black ribbon can be swapped out for another color from my ribbon collection. So far I've been fortunate to have all the colors that have been requested! **keeps fingers crossed**

I'm trying to build up my stash but it is amazingly difficult to find double faced satin and nicer fabric ribbon in my area. I've done some research on online vendors, but most of them want me to purchase no less than 25 yards of each color! That means I'd have to sell 25 books with a single color ribbon to justify that purchase; that's just not practical at this point!

Although I'm calling them guest books, these journals have many other uses. They can be used as a memory book, scrapbook, or photo album. The spine extenders sewn into the book allow for expansion, so you can add photos and mementos within the pages without the cover splaying open. Or you can use it as a journal for your thoughts and ideas, sketches, or product designs.

I'm really enjoying making these guest books and am always thinking of new variations on my designs. Maybe soon I'll have another style of guest book or journal to post about. **hint hint**!!

Busy busy!

Wow, have I been swamped this past week with custom orders! My poor blog suffered as a result. I was ashamed to see the last entry was on Valentine's day! Custom orders are a lot of fun and I enjoy the challenge the projects present. Most of the books I have made this week are wedding guest books.

A guest book for a Tiffany blue themed wedding

My most challenging project so far was doing a journal with tracing paper for the text block. When I started to stitch it together I found the spine wanted to collapse on me, so I had to add some sketch paper to the folios to make them more structurally sound.

The tracing paper journal, using handmade Lokta paper for the covers

This was a fun project and a very pleasant customer to work with! I really like it when my customers give me artistic license to come up with something creative within their guidelines of specific colors or sizes. This photo album was a variation on my Winter Damask Guest Book, done in portrait instead of landscape layout.

A guest book for a black and fuchsia themed wedding.

I've got one more custom order I'm working on this week and then I can focus on listing some new journals I've got waiting in the wings! Unless of course I get more custom requests, which is fine, bring 'em on!