Envelope Books

Reading my Grumpy friend's blog this afternoon, I was impressed by her wonderful envelope book. Not only is it beautifully made, but the cover is worthy of any smart stationers or art book store. Made me look again at some of mine - not in the same league at all, but a constant favourite workshop and one I find myself being asked to teach over and over again.

 

 

My interest began whilst I was doing my City and Guilds Embroidery certificate, with a module based on traditional pulled and drawn thread techniques and using a "postage" theme as the design element.

I found myself drawn to the small envelope lining patterns and the wavy lines of a postmark, so, having used them for the inspiration for the samples, I displayed them in an envelope book. (above) This book is made in a fairly basic way, using coloured duct tape to hold it together and most certainly not of the heirloom variety! But it works well, was praised by my tutor and led me on to further thoughts.

I think it was at this point that I found a Martha Stewart tutorial in one of her magazines, (MarthaDex suggests it might have been Dec 2000) This one was used as a "useful place to keep things in" and though I no longer have the original article, the envelope book I teach in my workshops is very much of the same genre.

 
I always use recycled magazine and holiday brochure pages for the workshop - I take along all the materials and take a selection of pages for the participants to choose from. The eventual purpose of the book suggests the design - the book above was designed for a dressmaker to carry small swatches of thread and fabric for colour matching, for example.

This book is meant to keep souvenirs of a journey in - bus tickets, till receipts and so on. I always take a map one along with me and during my meandering tutorial, make reference to the reaction in this household when I start to rip up an old road atlas! That usually rings bells around the room (my classes are usually women) so clearly the men in this house are not the only ones to hoard out of date maps forever.

Other purposes are for keeping coupons, for newspaper cuttings and lists and, as below, as a way of presenting a gift of invitations to tea, to the theatre and so on.

 

These small books are so quick to make, absolutely guaranteed success for anyone, no skills required! As you can see in the picture above, the flap of one envelope is stuck to the address face of the next, and the flap of that one stuck to the next...and so on. They are folded concertina-style and bound into a cover of a magazine page (or road map) using double sided tape. I usually cut a flap to fold over the front and fasten with either a self adhesive magnet or small velcro dot.

If you're a WI member, you might have come across the Action Packs, one of which is the "Keepsake Books" pack. It contains instructions and samples to enable a group to make several different small books, including another variation of my Envelope Book, and members of the WI in England and Wales can hire the pack through their WI Secretary. (advert over!)

Weirdly tagged

I've been tagged for the six weird things by Della of TartyCrafty, so here goes, starting with the weirdest:

1. My further education choices were based on a flippant remark by a schoolteacher of mine, who declared “Girls and Chemistry don’t mix”. Sadly, I fear I proved him right. Happily I found my niche before it was too late.

2. When everyone else throws paper bags and envelopes away, I find myself ironing them to see if they will be useful for printing onto fabric or including in some odd project or other. Weird too, that I hang around with people who have similarly weird habits. (sorry, Ruth!)

3. My holiday photographs – usually include flaky doors, odd patterns and other stuff more inspiring than a blue sea and sky.

4. I have a Barry Manilow CD in my car right now. Not only might that be weird, it’s also slightly embarrassing to admit.

5. I am frightened of birds and other fluttery things. I inherited this fear from my Mum, who can’t even bear to touch a feather. I cannot walk through a city centre without flinching at the pigeons and would choose to take the long way round to avoid them.

6. My friends and family refuse to tell me of any other weirdnesses on the basis that there are far too many to name. I find that weird, because I think I’m actually pretty normal.

THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

I've tagged only my weirdest friends for this one, in the hope that they will have more entertaining weirdnesses to share

Digital Gran who has more daughters than she ever knew about
Grumpy terrifically talented
Sue delightfully mad
Liz who also admits to liking a bit of rust
Maggie She stitches with a dog, for heavens sake - everyone else uses a needle
Sue whose magic armchair takes her to some amazing places

And as Della said, no pressure to play and admit to weirdnesses unless you're happy to do so!

WyeSue was here?

Something tells me WyeSue was here today....

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas

Here's hoping you've had a day full of wonderful surprises.
Wishing you peace, joy and happiness.

Building Affordable Housing

The building materials have arrived and work is about to begin.

Modern techniques mean that the structure is soon taking shape.

It's important to get the roof on as soon as possible, before the first snowfall.
But the wind whistles straight through such basic buildings and I fear they won't last long!

Unlike Martha's little cottage, which will clearly last a lifetime

Amazing!