Monday, April 16, 2012

Monday-10am: N

New!
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I got this cute (kinda silly) french video in a promotional email showing the new postal notebooks by Moleskine.

Those of you who have known me a while know I have been making my "bookcards" for several years. They have several pages and fit inside an envelope. I sew the pages into the paper cover with embroidery thread...
...and usually assembly line batches of them because I write a lot of letters.
Well, ever since I got this beautiful surprise gift from Desi a while back...
...a combination of pages sewn right into an envelope cover (whoohoo!)...I have wanted to make something myself, of course. But I kind of wanted to close in the sides...and no beads because I was too afraid to mail this "as is" and ended up putting it inside of a bubble envelope to mail it.
So, I was playing around this weekend trying to make something New.
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My first attempt.
I sewed in the pages with embroidery thread and kind of used the Moleskine as an example for shape. Took a lot of tweaking and trimming to get it to lie flat. Well, the Moleskine only has two sheets inside or 8 pages, counting both sides. Chatty-Cathy-me has to have more pages than that. ;)
I wonder how well the envelope will go through the mail with the embroidery thread on the edge like that? Should be fine. Anyways, I ended up trimming down the envelope/cover so much on the first one...tried to think of a simple basic template I could mass produce, of course. Came up with this plainer shape. I could always tweak these, if I wanted to, as I actually use them...you know, with scissors or punches or whatever.
What a great way to use up the 12 X 12 inch sheets I have in various paper packs that wouldn't be very good to cut down for cards because of their big pictures.
Anyways, I got that far on three more. Didn't sew pages in and not sure I will. They can just be an envelope to hold the letter sheets folded inside. Or I could sew in the sheets by hand or even by sewing machine, for that matter. :)
Anyways, it was fun making something New.
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Saturday was a perfect day to sit on the porch!
Karma, creature of habit, was in her spot by the open door for a while...
...waiting to see if I was really going to stay outside and not just be forced back inside in a few minutes due to cold or wind as I have been so far this spring. But it got up to 72, the wind had died down, and it was absolutely gorgeous out! I read all afternoon...and Karma joined me on the ottoman.
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She watched the shadows...
...of the swallows...
....darting by.
And commandeered the chair as soon as I left to get more coffee.
Sunday it was chilly and rained all day long. So dark I had to turn on a light at noon when I was sitting right by the window at the craft table! Today the sun is peeking between the white fluffy clouds, but it's only 30 degrees so far. They said we could have had snow last night but, if we did, it melted before my feet hit the floor this morning. ;)
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Have a great Monday! :):)
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"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
Albert Einstein

23 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

karma compliments that chair perfectly. :)

Megan Adamson said...

I love these covers. I have three, one which is covered in a little ditsy print cotton that I love, the other two are leather, but are all hand-made and are very useful.
You have just reminded me that I have loads of patterned scrap-book paper that I've not used yet...humm, the things I could do with it or use it for...my mind is now going into over-drive!
Note-Books, Note-Books, Note-Books, what would I do without them! ;)

Beth said...

You have an awesome talent Rita. Such beautiful things you make.

Karma looks her contented self and that is good.

Intense Guy said...

The weather is plain GoOfY!!

:) Your covers are so colorful!

Crazy Life of a Writing Mom said...

You are AMAZING! I wish I could be that creative :) The video was so cute :0)

AliceKay said...

The postal notebook is a neat idea. Looks like you've figured out how to make them. Have fun creating them. :)

I loved the pictures of Karma...especially the three as she watched the shadows from the swallows. It's amazing what peaks the interest of a cat. lol

We have a very warm day here today. It's 84 outside and 81 inside. I have all of the ceiling fans and one floor fan going, but it's still a bit warm. Will be much warmer once the afternoon sun hits the west side of this trailer so I don't look forward to that. We had frost just the other morning. Crazy spring weather.

Loved your quote today. (you find some very nice quotes)

Friko said...

These 'envelopes' are very beautiful. You are really clever as well as artistic.

Glad you had a nice day sitting out, it's coming, it's coming. . . . . . .

Cowgirl Red said...

Those little notebooks are marvelous. I love that Karma can sit out there and play with you! Love you Rita! Terah

Desiree said...

OMG you are a genius I MUST HAVE ONE lol and you could so publish this what!!!! genius!!!!!!!!!!!

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

Oh how I love these do you sell them I would love to buy some as I also write a lot of letters.......

DJan said...

You are incredibly creative, I think. And thank you for all the fun pictures of Karma. It's weird weather, that's for sure!

betty said...

I like your covers; what a clever idea!! I like also that you write letters; such a lost art indeed! Glad you got a chance to enjoy the porch and share it with Karma :)

betty

Far Side of Fifty said...

Oh I like your covers/little notebooks too! Very cool! It snowed here..photos will be up tomorrow I cannot believe the snow missed you:)

Queenie Jeannie said...

That's really cool! I like the idea you came up with!!!

Karma is such a CAT! I love her antics!

Jenny Woolf said...

Those are really nice. Your correspondents must be pleased to get one of these in the mail.
Glad you had a nice sunny day . Here it is cold and freezing after the warmth of March.

Deanna said...

I like your something new. Pretty ingenious, really. I'm glad you've had some nice sitting on the porch weather before the rain hit.

Toriz said...

Neat idea!

LOL @ Karma stealing your chair when you got up. At least you had some enjoyable outside time.

Great quote!

:)

Desiree said...

It is so perfect, seriously love you took time and made one of your own version!!!!! love it!!!! currently my fav colors are red/teal but I love purple too so whatever you have laying around works too!!! AND I have this huge box for you I am collecting stuff in and I have surprise lol I am so hoping I can finish it by the weekend so i can mail next week!

Jennifer McLean said...

thanks for visiting my blog and commenting, it's always great when people stop by.

1) I'm in love with your sweet wonderful cat. I want to squeeze him and hug him and put kisses on his soft little head. He looks so loveable and adorable.

2) that you sew these little books is amazing. they're little presents! I now have to go to moleskine and buy an envelope book, lol. So cool.
Best,
Jenn of www.justaddwatersilly.com

Tracey FK said...

Those books are beyond cool... they are just so lovely... and I am glad Karma is a spot stealer because our dog is the master at it... he has been sat on more times than I care to count...xx

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

you're so creative rita! i like what you're doing with the paper...very cool envelopes...

wow...the weather sure is weird...all over!

TammyVitale said...

WOW - those notebooks/letters/small books are totally awesome! I wish I could say I still write letters but all the folks I used to write to have gone on. So I write on line now. I wonder if it will all get lost. I have handwritten books back to my first diary when I was 8 !!!

Wench said...

You need to do a tutorial on how to cut a I bookcard. I suppose I could use copy paper to test it. Is the card seperate and you just put it in the card?
Is there anything on YouTube on these lovely things.
What do you mean you sew the book into the covers?
This could be a card also.
Thanks