Steampunk Lapbook and Other Stuff

Here we are, 4 months on from the last post. Doesn't time fly when your frozen!
It was a cold winter, and with no heating this year, all my plans for winter activities - including posting a winter garden walk-thru - went out the window. Or more appropriately, they sat huddled under a big furry blanket with a hot water bottle, watching TV and refusing to move unless absolutely necessary.

Now that it has started warming up, I have been getting into the craft room.
I have managed to get hold of a good number of old books and several sets of old encyclopedias, and promptly spent two weeks dissecting all the books and some of the encyclopedias. That means there are now book page paper packs, and hardcovers up in the Etsy shop.

And the making has begun. I have just finished a Steampunk lapbook, and a mini journal, as well as completing an altered planner. These I will actually keep for myself. People keep asking me about what I do and can I show them some of the stuff I make, and my answer is always "Ummm... well... I've never kept any of the stuff I make, so I don't have anything I can show you". Well, now I will have. And now I will start making things to put in the Etsy shop.
I had already started, with making the first in a set of pretty little envelopes made from book pages, but a number of people had been thru the house dropping off books, and the envelope walked off with one of them. The first naked journal for the shop has been completed though.

So lets start with the mini journal. This will become my Little Book of Information, where I can collate all those bits of information written on little bits of paper and sticky notes - what size is an A4 page in inches? Centimeters? Pixels (because the software I use for image manipulation works in pixels)? What about A5? What were the dimensions for the dividers for the larger planner? What ink does my printer take, again?

This pretty little journal consists of 4 signatures, each with 6 sheets. That means a nice 96 pages for info. All the sheets used to make the signatures were first tea dyed, giving them a wonderful look, feel, and sound.

At this point, I would like to introduce some book terminology.

Like so many other crafting areas, we have brought the skills and techniques from what was once a professional occupation into the general crafting masses, but never bothered to bring the proper terminologies with those skills. This has led to a lot of confusion about what constitutes a "page".

I read listings that say they have used 6 pages to make a signature, to give 12 pages, with 24 pages - or worse, 'writing surfaces'. I don't know about you, but when I'm discussing a book with someone I don't ask "what writing surface was that on", I ask "what page was that on". And when people are referring to the sheets used to make a signature as pages, then each side of the fold line also as pages, and then each side of those also as pages, or out of desperation to find a different word, refer to the actual pages as 'writing surfaces', it gets very confusing. 

So here is the basic terminology for SHEET – A sheet of paper

LEAF – Half of a sheet. Each sheet when folded in half, produces two leaves, one on each side of the fold line.

PAGE – One side of a leaf. Each leaf has two sides or pages

SIGNATURE – A group of sheets folded in half and stacked together

BOOK – A collection of signatures bound together

Each sheet produces 2 leaves, or 4 pages, so to determine the number of pages in a signature, multiply the number of sheets used by 4.

i.e. a 10 sheet signature has 40 pages.

And there you have it.
books:

Now onto the altered planner. All the laces on this are antique.

The lapbook was so much fun to do, but very labour-intensive and time consuming.

On the front, I put two bronze latches to keep it closed, which should prove very useful once it starts getting full.

The first journal for the Etsy shop is a naked journal. "Naked" means that it doesn't have any ephemera or embellishments inside, and "journal" - as opposed to "junk journal" means it doesn't have all the pockets and tuck spots that you find in junk journals. The only concession to those that I made was to put Venetian lace pockets on the inside of the front and back covers, and to include two naked tags in each pocket. Otherwise, the journal consist solely of pages.

The cover of this journal is an upcycled hardback book cover, covered with a soft cotton fabric from a piece of upcycled vintage clothing, and decorated with a beautiful shabby chic print collage.
The Journal itself consists of 4 signatures, each containing 9 sheets, which makes a total of 144 pages for journalling on.
Each signature is a mix of shabby chic printed sheets, and hand tea dyed papers. The paper used for both the printed sheets and tea dyed papers is an Eco product made from recycled paper. I do all the printing and hand tea dying myself.
In the center of each signature is a beautiful shabby chic printed envelop, for keeping small items, photos, etc.
The signatures are all hand sewn into the cover.

Well, that's it for this time. Cheers, all.