Tardis Journal

I've had several people ask me about my handmade books so I decided to show how I made a replica of River Song's Tardis Journal. Here's the one you see in the Doctor Who episodes:

 My daughter has a Tardis dress which she wore to Comic Con and also to Super Hero day at school, so we took on this project together so she could add this great accessory to her costume.

Here we start by sorting the paper into stacks of 7. These will be the signatures in the book.
We used regular 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper.

 

I wanted the book to look old and antiquated--including each page. I usually coffee stain my papers to give them an antique appearance; however, that process would take an too long so we tried another method--heat. We took each page and slid the edges across the top of a hot burner on my glass-top stove. It discolors the pages nicely; although, too much can make it brittle.

Once the pages were discolored, we took each signature (7 sheets) and folded them in half.

Then we stacked all the signatures together. We are putting 9 signatures in this book.

Next we used a template (green card stock with  pre-measured holes) and punched all of the holes into each signature. Then they're ready  for sewing.

This is all of our signatures with the holes in them.

Next we sewed all the signatures together. I'm not going to get into detail on how I did this, but for anyone interested, here's a link to a tutorial: http://jamesdarrow.deviantart.com/art/Bookbinding-Tutorial-292237490

The small strip of cloth is there as a reinforcement. It will be glued down later.

Once the signatures are sewn together tightly then we put glue along the back 

and put it under a weight to let it dry for the night.

Next we prepared the leather. I used a tan book leather and spray-painted it blue.

Now we put together the covers. River Song's journal has raised panels on it that look like the Tardis, so we found a diagram of it and used it as a template. We traced and cut the panel pieces out from mat board.

 We glued the pieces onto the cover boards. 

Our cover boards are recycled covers from discarded library books.

Next we glued the leather onto our cover boards, pressing it down into the grooves as we go.

Here's what the cover looks like after the leather has been glued to it.

We turned the raw edges of the leather over, gluing them to the inside of the cover.
Then we glued the block of signatures into the cover using hing flaps. 

 

Now for the finishing touches. We glued end pages in.

To give the book an old, antique look, we dry-brushed black into the crevices.

Then we dry-brushed a light blue on the edges and anywhere we wanted it to look particularly worn.

Here's the completed journal.

We did add in some drawings on some of the pages. I'm only showing one page here.
Don't want to show too much--spoilers, you know. 

Halloween Book Tutorial

Most people know that I have a fascination with Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and I go all out with decorating my house. That said, I have to admit that I don't really get into the blood and gore side of things, but my taste runs more along the lines of old dilapidated books, apothecary decorations, bones and graveyards. You know the kind of stuff--think Diagon alley, or the Defense Against the Dark Arts class room in Harry Potter. Yep--that kind of stuff.

This year I made some Halloween books to add to my collection (see tutorial below). These books were inspired by the blog: Seeing Things That Aren't Really There. You can also find great tutorials there. I used the downloads provided on that site to make both my spider and bat books. Then I ventured off with my own imagination and made the skeleton book. 

My Spider Book

Bat Book

The Art of Death Skeleton Book

 The books aren't really hard to make. Here's how to make your own:

1) Get an old, hard bound book. I picked mine up from a library's discontinued book sale. Content doesn't matter, just make sure it's the right size for what you want.

2) Select something to put on the cover. It can be as simple as a printed picture (like the one used on the Bat book) or it can be a low relief object (like the spider which was a 3-D window sticker). If you choose a printed picture, follow the link to this tutorial here.

For 3-D objects: I selected a small skeleton I found a local dollar store. I had to cut off the back of the skull and the back of the ribs to make it lay flat enough to use. You really want something 3-D, not 4-D. Once your item is ready, glue it to the cover using a hot glue gun.

 

3) Use the gluegun and put ridges of glue along the spine in several places. This will simulate the cording on the spine of an old bound book.

4) Now tear black tissue paper into small pieces and use Modge Podge to glue the pieces onto the cover. Squish them around--the more wrinkles the better. It will look like an old leather binding. I had to use a toothpick to press my pieces into the small crevices between the bones. Cover the entire book, wrapping the pieces of paper around the inside edges of the cover.

5) Now give it a more antique look by dry brushing some black paint over it. This covers up any glue marks and gives it a little depth. Next, using a light gray color, dry brush across the 3/D object. Next use the light grey and dry brush along the ridges of the spine, the edges of the cover, and anywhere else you want the book to look worn.

 6) Now to decorate the book with any other amenities you want. Cut any shape you might want to add to the book out of thin cardboard (cereal boxes work well) and paint them accordingly. I wanted corner guards, a book clasp (so the book can't be opened), and...some other decoration thingy--I don't know what it is, but it looks cool. Paint your pieces however you want them. I painted my pieces silver and antiqued them by dry brushing black along the edges. When they are dry, glue them on using a hot glue gun.

Here's my cardboard pieces ready to glue on.

 

 Here's the book after the pieces were glued.

 7) Make a title for your book along with a label for the spine. I did mine on the computer using a spooky-looking font and boarder. I printed a smaller, simpler version to use for the spine label. I also antiqued mine by dipping the paper in coffee and letting it dry. When it's ready glue it on with Modge Podge or white glue.

Here I'm antiquing the paper in coffee.

I glued the title paper on and added a black cord around the edge to give it a little more decoration. You can also make a title plate out of cardboard and paint it like the one on the spider book.

A creepy Halloween book deserves a ghoulish place to display it. Set it on a pile of old books or next to a skull and surround it by potion bottles and voila--everybody that walks in will be drawn to your spooky display.

 

Art Project

ROO by David (11 yrs old), POOH by Justice (6 yrs old), TIGGER by Rachael (8 yrs old)

This is what I've been doing lately. I'm a 4-H leader for art and these are the project that the kids in my group have completed. I think they turned out awesome!!!

This year I had 7 kids in the 4-H class, 3 of which were mine. We selected to do a  close up portrait of Disney characters, and to make them a little uniqe--we made them 3-D!

Here you can see the side view of Tigger. The shadow behind him is not painted, it is created because he is raised off the Page by half an inch.

This is how we made them:
1- Each kid picked their favorite Disney character. Then we printed off a little picture of each character off the Internet. I had them stay away from human characters because it is more complicated to do human faces.
2- We painted the backgrounds. Each kid decided on where the light was coming from in their pictures and we spray painted the backgrounds accordingly using regular spray paint. For the little kids they worked on the sweeping motion and pressing the nozzle down while I guided their hand to help them get an even coat.
3- Since this class focused on light and shadow and not actual drawing, we had the kids trace their characters onto a white piece of card stalk. We used a little projector to project the image onto thier paper and they traced the main details, adding or changing the things they wanted.
4- They cleaned up their marks and straightened their lines.
5-Adding color! My son used oil pastel crayons on his and I quickly decided that it would be too hard for the younger ones so the rest of the group used watercolor pencils. These pencils are great and once you go over them with a water-damp paint brush, the colors blend well.
6- Adding the black accents with a black sharpy marker.
7- I cut them out for the kids and mounted them in the frames for them. The cut out characters were glue to small pieced of double-layered foam board. Since the pictures stood out from the background, I added another piece of mattboard to double frame them, raising that as well.

                            MICKEY MOUSE by Nathan (6yrs. old),   STITCH by Brian (14 Yrs old)

This is my son, Michael's (15yrs.). Oil pastel crayons. Purple and yellow spray painted background.

This is my daughter, Julia's (8 yrs. old) Water color pencil. Yellow and orange spray painted background.

My daughter, Sarah's (12 yrs. old) Water color pencil, Solid black background. The tree is raised 1/4 of an inch off the background with foam core, and the cat is raised 1/2 inch off the background giving this a real 3-D layered look. The missing stripes are cut out.

All in all, it turned out to be a great project for the kids. It took 7 classes to complete. They are all happy with the results, and two are going to the State Fair!