First Bookbinding Project

For this entry, I will be talking about my a book that I had made for my first year anniversary with my boyfriend and I. The book I made was inspired by a book that was created in the book called "Crafty Chica's Art de la Soul: Glittery Ideas to Liven Up Your Life" by Kathy Cano Murillo. So, let's get this ball rolling.

I put this entry in five different categories, if you have not yet noticed. The pages in the book had man different mediums, and it was a lot of fun to do and create. But before we get into the pages, I would like to talk about the cover and go in-depth of the process of it being built.


To the left, it clearly shows the beginning of my cover. In the book, it suggested different types of covers that could be used to create a hard cover book like this. I found some a cardboard shipping box that was laying about, so I cut that up to about how big I wanted the book to be, and got started. I'm a big fan of comic books, but I wouldn't say I really go the lengths of collecting them (my boyfriend does a bit of collecting though; obviously a fan of comic books). Working at a thrift store/going to various thrift stores, I'd pick up a comic book here and there that I thought looked interesting and before I knew it, I had a shelf on my bookshelf dedicated to just comic books. It got to the point of overflowing, so I cleaned out the books I wanted to keep and wanted to give away. But if there was one rule that I've learned in the arts and crafting hobby, it will be "Keep everything that looks interesting". I ended up keeping all the comics.


Looking through Murillo's book, the idea of this book came up, and instantly I was inspired to create a "love book" with a comic book cover.

I cut some exciting images out of the comic, watered down some Mod Podge and started pasting the images onto the covers to where I saw best (with a few images left over). For some reason, I wanted to do this at my desk. At least I had put down some wax paper so I didn't horribly glue up my desk. Unfortunately, I am as graceful as a falling potato used in a gravity experiment in a third grade class. Of course, I made a mess, and I'm still trying to clean up some remnants that were left on my desk. Last time I'll ever craft near my computer and keyboard again.


The covers were dry at this point. I cut up some card stock and folded it into a zigzag pattern, which is used to glue the pages into. I glued this into the book, and used clips to hold it all together. I let this dry for a while, making sure that the card stock will stay firmly with the cardboard. For this part, one must be careful if you need to use clips. If you look carefully, it had left a crease in the cardboard. At the time, I didn't mind this. But next time if I were to create something like this again, I'd pile heavy books on top of this, so the covers will be crease free and wonderful.

So at this point, I was completely caught up on making pages that I forgot to take any more pictures. I asked my boyfriend to take some pictures of the pages for me so they may be posted here for viewing. I had painted many of the pages, sewed one of the pages, and even created an interacted NES controller. More pictures will be posted soon.