Big Surprise Revealed

Do you remember the pre-announcement of my big surprise here? Yes, I know, it took me way to long to actually announce it. Well, better late than never, right? The big secret that I've been meaning to tell you is that me and my friend Annie are starting a business together. We are going to make Wishing Books for Weddings, Baptisms, Birthdays and Events, Wedding and Baptism favors and invitations and anything else handmade. Unfortunately, we have fallen a little behind on schedule but we are working on the small details until we are finally totally ready. First of all we have come up with a logo for our "company".

"Make Your Wish" , because that's what we want people to do. A little "blue eye charm", because in Greece is a symbol of good luck and keeps away the evil. The "horse petal", an international symbol for good luck! Finally "the frog Prince", symbol of the fairytale of our childhood, represents magic and making wishes come true.

The second plan includes me and my friend Afrodite's mother, my "mommy" too. I'm helping her to open her Etsy Shop. She's making some amazing knitted and crochet stuff but also all kinds of other accessories. She's the one that taught me how to crochet in the first place! We are also thinking of attending to as many Seasonal Fairs as possible (here in Corfu are often organized this kind of Craft Fairs and Bazaars from the English community).

We are so excited about all these and we hope

that it's going to be a success.

Make Your Wish for us!

Etsy shop Update

My Etsy Shop's Listings are updated. I've created a whole bunch of cute little notebooks based on the tutorial that I've shown you here. I really love them! They are perfect for journaling, keeping little notes, a mini photo album or... just for fun! They are cute and adorable to carry around.

Go and take a look here.

I also accept custom orders for different color schemes,

themes, different inside colors or more pages.


Aren't they cute?

Tutorial - Booklet Book Binding

Today I'm going to show you how you can make a fun and cute booklet which you can use it for journaling, keeping little notes, a mini photo album or... just for fun! It's SUPER EASY and you can use any materials and scraps that you have already laying around your house. My version is around 10.5x10.5cm (4.14x4.14") but you can adjust the size according to the size of paper you want to use.

Supplies:

• a piece of cardstock of your choice (any size or material). Mine was a big piece of golden cardstock that I've cut it into A4 size.
• pieces of plain paper of your choice (those would be the inside pages). Mine were plain white A4s.
• cutting mat and a cutter or scissors or whatever cutting tool you feel more comfortable with.
• needle and thread of a coordinating color or even contrasted color to give it a more interesting touch.
• embellishments of your choice. You can make whatever you want to decorate your booklet's cover.
• glue of your choice, according to the materials you want to glue together.
• optional: a puncher for cutting corners, embossing plates, hot glue gun.

Instructions:

First you take the piece of paper (A4) and fold it in half.

You cut a piece of 10.5x10.5cm (4.14x4.14").

That would be your cover.

If you have the proper tool you can

punch your edges to be round.

Repeat the steps for the inside pages.

Only this time you are going to make

 the inside pages a little bit smaller

so that they won't show out of the cover.

10x10.5cm (3.94x4.14")

Now if you have an embossing tool of some sort

you can decorate your cover.

I recently purchased the Sizzix Big Shot and I have to say...

I'M IN LOVE! It's pure magic!

It's ok to skip that step if you want.

Make sure that everything falls into place right.

Find the center of your pages and mark it.

Then mark about 2cm (0.80") from each side.

With a big needle, punch little holes

on the spots you've marked.

If you can't do it all at once (the paper I've used was super thin)

try to divide them but be careful not to miss the right spots.

Now take your needle and choose a thread.

I preferred a color that was close to my cover's color

but you can use any color you want.

Begin from the outside and through the middle hole.

You go up through the first hole.

and then again through the middle one.

Continue through the second hole down

and then again through the middle one.

Repeat one more time the same steps until

you finish up through the second down hole.

(outside)

Go all the way up through the first hole

and end up through the middle one but behind the thread

so that you'll have a piece of it outside

each side of the horizontal thread.

Tie two simple knots to secure it in place

and cut the rest of the thread.

Your booklet is ready to use!

Now you can decorate the cover if you want.

You can make things out of cardstock, felt,

yarn or fabric, it's all up to you.

I've made one with a felt flower and

one with a rolled flower out of fabric.

I've cut a thin piece of fabric.

I haven't really measured it though.

I've made a simple knot on the edge

and I've started to roll the fabric around that knot

twisting it up and down as I was going on and put a dot

of hot glue in the end to secure everything in place..

Then I've cut some scraps of green felt

two leaves and a round one as a base

and hot glued them together.

I've also put some glue on top of the flower

and sprinkled some glitter.

Finally I've hot glued again the whole flower piece

on the cover of my booklet.

ALL DONE!

I've also made some samples of greeting cards

and tags using the same embossing pattern.

How do they look?

Now go and make something!