I completed four more books yesterday, and I feel so good about it. Just a few more to go, and we have accomplished our goal. My husband’s printer went on the fritz, so I could have made more, but we don’t have enough photos right now. That gave me a little extra time yesterday to do a layout I’ve been dying to do. I saw an Ali Edwards layout on the 10th showing off her latest stamp set, and I thought it to be the perfect way to do a layout of our bookmaking adventures. I loved the unique way she used space on the cardstock to journal and tell the story, while also having enough room for the photos, so I scraplifted it.

The main journaling under the tags says:

“Micha has been working on these pinhole camera photos, plus many more from Lost Lake, for several years. This has been his love, his passion, his hobby, and now a dream for him. I was with him for many of his photoshoots…an adventure I’m so happy I was able to be a part of. Fast forward to recent history, and I purchased a kit from Erin Zamrzla on Etsy to learn book-binding techniques. I really enjoyed being able to do that, and when Micha saw what I could do, he saw an opportunity for us to collaborate in making a book of his photos. I liked the idea, and agreed right away. We both had a vision of a fabric-covered book with Japanese binding. I began researching techniques and styles of bookbinding on the internet and in books, and found what I wanted to do. The next step was to plan the design of the book, order the necessary supplies, learn the techniques first hand, and jump right in. We came up with the title, “Lost Lake, Impressions in black and white”; the size (11×8.5”), and the number of copies (12), and the colors. We discovered Bookmakers, Inc. on the web, and instantly fell for the warmth and friendliness of Jim there. It was not easy at first; we made many, many mistakes in the beginning, after declaring to ourselves that we could not afford to. I think it is unavoidable when you are doing something new for the first time. I was able to practice my stitching on my own scrapbook, and we spent countless hours putting energy into covers and pages that ended up being too flawed to be counted. I think it took that time and those mistakes for us to finally get into a comfortable groove with what works, and how to do things in order to come up with a routine that made the process so much easier. Making each book was still not easy, don’t get me wrong; it is still a painstaking process to cut and punch and measure and stitch just right to make the finished book look just right. Of the 12 books we decided to make, 11 were sold very quickly, even before they were made, and each one was not inexpensive. Besides, these books are a work of art to us, and certainly a labor of love. This is a legacy for us; a statement of our love for art and each other.”

I cut the tips of the tags off since they served no purpose and obstructed more view than necessary. Ali hand-stamped the title and hand-wrote her journaling, but I found it easier and quicker (lazy me) to do it all on Photoshop and print it out. The measuring tape border is from Tim Holtz; patterned paper is Scenic Route (cream grid background), and Basic Grey (Cabriole, from the Curio line); the stamps are from Ali Edwards (Technique Tuesday-The Observant traveler) and Stampin’ Up (small red letters). I cut a third of a 9-pocket 8.5×11″ page protector for the tags, and I used Bazzill Basics cream cardstock and a Sizzix tag die.

And something also occurred to me after my last post: I have not shown any of the inside pages of our book! While I cannot show all of the photos, here is an example of one of the pages (my favorite; all of the pages have a 6×4 black and white photo which Micha took).

Thanks for letting me share, and to all the fathers of the world: Have a wonderful and happy day!!