Little Books for the Fairies

Well, I got caught up in a crafting loop yesterday and spent the whole day making little books. I am like a tenacious Jack Russell when one of these moods strikes and I just won't let go until the urge has gone! Richard Burton used the word indefatigable in his 1978 narration of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds and I have taken this word on as 'mine' ever since.

If you follow me you will know that I have a passion for books, whether it is bought ones or making them myself. I also love looking at something and working out how it is made. I had bought a very unattractive looking box recently that looked like a book. It was made of cardboard and fashioned to look like a book. Anyway, I set about taking it apart with a view to decorating it 'my style' when I had that moment that set me off on the day long book making fest.

So, Fairy Books! Little tiny books. They started off very simply with plain white pages but soon progressed into books with writing in, and then I went all out and added stamping!

As you can see from the pictures these books are very small. I used some lovely linen paper from The V&A as the covering. It is just the right quality to cope with covering the books and it comes in a great selection of micro-prints which I think work really well. 

I had a little production line on my desk, pages gluing and covers drying. The pages are all held together with a glued spine just like real books! The pages are made to fold out properly with a real spine. I wanted to add a little ribbon bookmark but kept forgetting to stick one in during the assembly! I will do this next time. 

As I got more and more familiar with the making process I started to do things like round off the page corners and think about the layout of the stamping. I had such a great time making these books can you tell?

I then went one step further and made a teeny tiny book as a prototype. It is half the size of the ones above, but just like the early big ones I only made it from plain paper just in case it didn't work. But lo! and behold! it did work and so maybe later tonight I will make some baby Fairy books! The ruler shows the size of the books in centimeters. 

I have been looking at my stamps today to see if I can make any themed books, maybe just animals or just birds. I usually work with comparatively huge stamps but this project has made me dig out all those little tiny stamps that I never thought I would use.  It does mean I need to be careful not to lose one. 

If you don't see me for a few days you know where I will be and what I will be doing!

Happy Days!

Kim