Another small journal, this time for the swap-bot “The Coptic Stitch” group “Size Challenge #1″ swap.  The journals must be no bigger than 3″ in either direction.  This one is 3″ by 2.3″.  I’m going to make a much smaller one for my partner, but that will be too small to be usable, so I thought it would be nice to make her one that is only just inside the size limit too.

This book has 5 signatures, each 5 sheets of 90gsm paper.  The cover is a Japanese paper called Ukigumo, which is waterproof and can be heat-fused to the background surface.  The spine is Tyvek lined with mull fabric.  The sewing thread is Gutermanns Sulky Cotton 12.  The inside papers for the covers were cut from a Rococo chocolate bar wrapper.

Well, I did almost finish this yesterday, but the last stage was the Coptic binding, and I decided I needed to wait for the glue smell from the covers to go away before I tackled that.

This journal is for a Colour Challenge swap in the swap-bot Coptic Stitch group (which covers all handbinding of books, not just Coptic stitch).  This time, the colour is red, so this journal has my favourite red ginburi momigami paper on the cover (very textured, with flecks of gold and silver foil), red lokta paper for the inner cover and red 18/3 linen for sewing.

The cover boards are covered with white Tyvek, which gives slight texture and sheen as well as being durable, with 3 colours of the ginburi momigami paper.  The  journal has 9 signatures, each with 4 sheets of 130gsm A4 short-grain book paper, and the whole book is 6″ by 8.5″ by about 0.8″.

It will be up to the new owner to decide which is the front and which is the back, but I prefer it as in the first picture.  You can click on the pictures for bigger images which show the textures better.

I have signed up  for the Unofficial-Thing-a-Day 2010 challenge.  This is (as it says) an unofficial version of the original Thing-a-Day 2010 challenge.  A group of friends aren’t happy with the official challenge this year so we have set up our own version.  The idea is to try to create something each day through February.  Most of us don’t expect to achieve that, but we hope the challenge will push us to create more than we would have done without it.  If it works well, we may try to keep it up, perhaps in a modified form, throughout 2010.

My eagle-eyed readers will no doubt have spotted that it is now just past 2am UK time on February 2nd and this is my first posted ‘creation’.  I could use the excuse that my scanner refused to co-operate and delayed this post (which is true), or I could say that it is still February 1st on the UTAD blog, but the truth is, I didn’t finish until after midnight.  Oh well, I am sure it won’t be the last time during UTAD that I will post late.

So, late but still my first UTAD entry, and a very small one at that, I present to you a small sewn swap card, using fabric scraps (as usual, click to see a larger photo) …

Some of us on swap-bot have been discussing craft rooms and how to organise them, so here is a photo of a tiny part of my craft supplies.  Admire the perfection of the organisation …

If I ever get it all properly organised, I may post pictures of that, but don’t hold your breath.

I tried to post this yesterday, but the silly site refused to let me upload a picture instead of just linking to Flickr as I usually do.  It turned out to be a linux problem, and I struggle with those, so it took me until today to fix it.

This was the view from the front of the house yesterday. I’d post a photo from today but it still looks very much the same.  “They” are still saying don’t drive unless your journey is essential, so DH’s office was closed today, but he walked into town to buy a power lead for his work laptop so he can work at home tomorrow if necessary.

Spurred on by the example of some of my friends on swap-bot, I’m trying to resurrect this blog again. I’ve done a bit of experimenting with the picture placement on an earlier post and, while I can’t say I’ve cracked it, I seem to be doing better than I was, so I think I’m going to keep the blog here and try to post fairly regularly.

[Yes, I've written that before, but ...]

Just to get it (re-)started, and since it is still technically within the 12 Days of Christmas, here are pictures of some ornaments I made for Christmas 2009  These ones were for some swappers whose partners hadn’t sent to them, but I also made some for friends.

They are made from felt padded with cotton batting and embellished with gold sequin waste, gold thread and gold beads.  The tree is 2.5″ (6.5cm) tall, and the red hexagon is 2.15″ (5.5cm) across.  They were inspired by an article by Karen Wise in Stitch magazine, issue 61.

I stumbled across some beautiful pictures this morning, and an amazing giveaway. Bespoke Press has given 10 young illustrators a chance by producing a set of limited edition prints, and they are giving away a set of all 10 prints here. It was so difficult to pick a favourite to enter the giveaway. I love “The Sugar in your tea, …” and “Treasures untold” but I eventually decided on “The smell of the sea”.

I’ve been too busy to spend much time doing so, though, so I still haven’t decided whether to move the blog or stay here, or worked out why I can’t place photos where I want on this blog when I used to be able to do that. Oh well, in the meantime I’ve been making more mini-books, but I’ve also made a couple of notebooks – a small one with polymer clay covers for myself and a bigger one for a swap. I need to write them up here too.

I keep referring to my swaps at swap-bot, but I don’t have a link to the site on my sidebars. I really ought to put one there, but there is no point until I decide where I am going to continue blogging. Swap-bot is a great site, with something for almost everybody. I usually swap handmade items and craft supplies, but there are also swaps for bought items and various types of ‘writing’ swaps. I host a monthly series of quotecard swaps (just a favourite quote on a postcard) and I have received a lot of interesting chocolate from other countries through tag games, in which you tag someone who is offering something you want, and then offer items you can send to the person who posts after you. I’d never have known how good Scandinavian chocolate is without those tags, and I’ve also fallen for some US chocolate I can’t get here.

I also spend a lot of (too much?) time on the swap-bot forums. The ‘public’ forums are open to any member and can get a bit rough at times, like any public forum, but there are a lot of fun and/or informative threads too. There are also group forums for particular topics and many which are just for groups or friends (or friends-to-be), and those are usually peaceful places and very supportive. I’ve learnt a huge amount from the forums, and I also blame them for seducing me into new crafts like bookbinding.

I’m pondering what to do about this incarnation of my blog. I haven’t really got comfortable with WordPress, and there would be advantages to switching to Blogger. On the other hand, I like having it here under my own control.

Meantime, here’s a fun contest with a prize of a pair of ugg boots, no less. Just visit the Whooga Boots website.

… for a friend’s Etsy shop and a giveaway.  Melanie (wiccked on Etsy) makes really beautiful things.  I have some of her ATCs but, until I looked at her Etsy, I hadn’t realised she did PMC – check out the Sun Pot, Bugs on a Screen door and By The Rivers of Babylon in particular.  This week, she has donated the prize for The Aussie Handmade Giveaway, so check that out too.