Left of Centre - No Designer Paper!

Hello visitors to Magpieheaven! Today it's a double, possibly a triple challenge for me! As visitors may know, my Magpie nature means I love collecting notebooks and when one that I bought at a gallery fell to pieces in a matter of days, I set myself the challenge to make one of my own! Challenge One then is to make a book! When it came to decorating it I noticed that many of the books created in YouTube tutorials used designer papers. I would take up the Left of Centre Challenge and decorate my notebook using only inks, paints and embellishments from my stash - no designer short-cuts - gorgeous as all these wonderful papers are! That was Challenge two! My third Challenge is that this is the first time I've entered a Left of Centre Challenge!
 I started with two thin canvas boards from a pack I bought at 'The Works'. I had always thought these would be perfect as book covers, but I'd not been sure how to attach them to the paper pages and each other! I then started to explore YouTube and found some amazing tutorials on Coptic Stitching! The one by Sea Lemon was really clear and she has a nice calm voice! I learned what a signature is - a page folded in two neatly with a bone-folder - and how these are stacked to make the book's pages and then stitched between two covers.

I used a an eyelet punch to make holes in my canvases and paper signatures. I was lucky enough to find some waxed thread we already had that we had used for hanging decorations on last year's Christmas tree, but there are tutorials around on making your own waxed thread too. This thread was orange and it hadn't looked right with out Christmas decorations, but it really dictated the autumn tints of this project. I was surprised that hand-stitching the book was not as terrifying or as frustrating as I'd thought it would be! My stitching is not as perfect as Sea Lemon's yet, but maybe with practice! The next step was to think about decorating my book with my own work! First I made my own washi tape using opaque and translucent paints: Butternut and Smoked Paprika by Paper Artsy on masking tape. I then stamped these with Archival Ink (brown) using images of keys and shells from Lynne Perrella Paper Artsy stamps. I also dug out my huge supply of paper beads made from pennants of paper cut from magazines, wrapped around cocktail sticks and clear embossed. I like to make these in the evenings after supper when we settle down as a family to watch old movies.

Now to set about painting and distressing my book covers. I used Butternut with a gentle dry brushing of Smoked Paprika Frescos then edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I found some distressed seam binding that I thought went quite well and I'll show you what I did with this shortly.

I decorated the back of my notebook first, using torn pieces of napkin - the very top layer, which I stuck on with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi-Medium. As well as fixing the tissue pieces to the cover, it creates a nice, glazed look. I then stamped over randomly with some script from a Paper Artsy Ink and the Dog, Flowers plate using Versamark and embossed this with copper detail embossing powder. I Versamarked the edges of my book too and sprinkled them with UTEE gold then finished off with then strips of brown/gold ribbon as a border.

Here is the cover of the notebook. I used my home-made washi tapes as a border. You can see I added a little UTEE to my handmade beads and attached them with ribbon. I used an image from the Paper Artsy Ink and the Dog Letters 5 plate which I clear embossed and then masked, filling in the background of the oval die-cut with leaves stamped in Olympia Green Versafine ink. The Tim Holtz book plate with the sentiment from the Letters 5 plate is Crackle glazed - Butternut over French Roast and the text reads 'All the things she never said.'.. which I thought would be the perfect sentiment for a notebook!. I used two pearls painted with Treasure Gold as studs in the book plate. The butterflies are from a Paper Artsy, Ink and the Dog, 'Wings' plate, clear embossed onto card. You can see that the seam binding is now glued to the inside edges of the book with some washi tape and  used as a tie up.

Now that I've done this once I have more of an idea how to improve my stitching and I have lots of ideas for different designs. I really hope I shall have some time to make some more and a few of these will find their way into Christmas stockings as well as a place in my handbag!