Trying to make more time for the crafty things in life, I am a touch, ah, obsessed with making books at the moment. Still struggling to find a balance, to be able to accomodate all of the things I love, to have a little bit of it all in most days, and make sure that absolutely no-one or nothing ends the day feeling unloved. Hmmm, that's a tough one, but not impossible I have to believe ; )

I guess that can explain why the blog sits silently so often, and why I am only just posting this book which was made, probably about a month ago now. As much as I love to be creative sometimes it all just has to be put on hold. Sometimes family and friends just need a little bit of extra attention, a little bit of extra time. To make it all work. To make sure everyone is ok. There are so many pieces to the puzzle (our lives), I really don't know how some of you do it........ those who blog regularly, beautifully, and keep your whole life running, just so. I'm a little intrigued.......how DO you do it?

Anyway, on with the post : )

I made this journally scrapbook with a little boy in mind......a potential treasure chest in the shape of a book.

I sewed pockets from cardstock and paper, added a bit of tape here and there. I can't believe I don't have a picture of the tags I put in that pocket, really??! Perhaps I can add a picture later if anyone is interested, it's not really mind-blowingly exciting I guess ; )

Simple shipping tags, covered with book pages, some decorated with old stamps, or other paper things. You know.......paper things.

A pocket made with a piece of map (foreign, didn't pay much attention to where the map is from, let me know if you know where it is)

The map pocket holds a mini World map.

Here, a mini book within the book, decorated with tape and more stamps. I bought a couple of little ziplock bags full of stamps at an op shop once.........brilliant purchase at 20 cents a bag! Next time I add a little mini book like this, I would do that hole with an eyelet, I think.

I filled yet more pockets with little envelopes I had made from saved book pages. Perfect for holding little notes written for friends, or perhaps a leaf, a feather found on a backyard adventure.

I included, in this pocket, some larger envelopes. I really am happy with the way this book turned out and I'm working on some more. I do plan to get some stock in my Etsy shop one of these days.

Just want to give a little share on this, although I shouldn't because it's just a practice book and I have a lot to learn here. I wanted to have a go at  a little journal with an exposed spine, pages held together with a simple running stitch. I really enjoyed doing this, loved the process, loved the end result.

I didn't put a whole lot of effort into choosing the absolute-just-right cover pages, spine ribbons or anything else because the purpose of this exercise was really just to have a go at it. It's filled with a mix of hodge-podged together paper scraps and this 'n' that.

Could there be a more perfect hobby for a paper/book/upcycling/diy obsessed person than bookbinding?

the 30 minute TapeMeasure Cuff

I have been admiring a lot of cuffs I have been seeing lately on Etsy, but funds are limited so I decided to try my hand at making one myself. It's pretty rustic, but really, just fine I think.

And it only took 30 minutes from start to finish. Win.

The hardest part of the whole thing was actually trying to photograph this on my arm. Really.

I just cut two pieces of ticking fabric (I think that's what it's called, feel free to correct me on that one) and a piece of felt the same size which I sandwiched in the middle for a bit of thickness. I have an abundance of tape measures (pretty sure you could call it an actual 'collection'), so I chopped one up for this project.

When I started out I planned to use some hat elastic for the loop to secure the button, as I thought I had oodles of that stuff stashed away somewhere. I didn't. So I used one of Rubys' hairbands. Ended up not fitting quite as tightly as I would have liked, but it's secure anyway.

Here it is in all it's wonky glory.