Hand-bound Books for My Swap Buddy

I joined an Online Craft Swap her in the Philippines and what we're going to swap are handmade items or craft materials. I think there are at least 10 participants in the swap, 2 of them I personally. Deadline of sending the goodies is tomorrow and I can't wait to find out who got my name and what I'll be receiving.

Right now, I just want to show you what I'll be sending my swap buddy. She mentioned that she likes little notebooks, so, notebooks it is. :D We were asked to post a sneak peek of what we're working on on Instagram a few days ago, so, my buddy already has an idea of what she'll be receiving. She's the swap organizer and she knows I'll be the one sending her some goodies. That's one less mystery for her. Haha. Anyway, here's the sneak peek that I posted:

I made her two personalized hand-bound notebooks, one with a basic Japanese stab binding and the other one with hardcover or case binding. I personalized them by putting her name on the covers. (Yay 'cause I was finally able to use my metal stamps for the first time! Haha!) Here are some photos of the notebooks...

The last photo is with my handwritten letter together with the books. I'm currently trying the Spencerian script and thought this is a great opportunity to practice it. :)

These notebooks are off to the owner tomorrow. I hope she'll like them!

2nd Hand-bound Book

Here’s my second attempt at making a hand-bound book. So far, so good. Both first and second attempts were successful and just needed a little improvement (the second one much much better than the first, of course)… It’s a learning process, I'm slowly getting the hang of it and I'm loving it.
Here are some photos of my second handbound book.

 

I’m going to use this book (and the first one that I made) for the tangle patterns, another hobby I have yet to post about. (Now, you’re starting to see how craft-crazed I am! Haha!)

If I’m not mistaken, this one's called Case Binding. The size of the book is 4.5″ x 5.75″ and 0.5″ thick. The inside pages measure 4.25″ x 5.5″. I used kraft paper for the lining and jute for the cover, two of my favorite materials.

You might want to look at photos of my first hand-bound book… you can find them on my Facebook page (You might want to “Like” it, too… I don’t have many friends there, yet. Shameless plugging here. Haha!), link on the sidebar. :D

P.S. I followed the very detailed instructions by James Darrow which you can find here.