Elzeline need not travel far for inspiration. In fact, many people came to us to spend their holidays picknicking by the lake, the river, under the cherry tree or in the ruins of a 1,000 year old castle.
One friend delivered my sewing machine from Holland. Time to explore a whole new medium! I have lots of ideas but must first discover how to work it...
My parents spoiled us with yummy cookies, foods, books, and gifts for our little girl. Even the tablecloth, with a game printed on, was in the box. And, there were fabrics, ribbons and an assortment of wallpaper samples for my books! I use the latter for the inside covers or first pages of my minibooks, I think this looks really funky:
Life's also abundant out in the wild. We picked heaps and heaps of blackberries, a few figs, wild fennel... And now I'm happily jamming and chutneying away. A friend suggested blackberry ice cream,
This was refreshing as many of my painted or appliqued books take me days, even weeks to make.. This fabric-covered cahier is simple but still entirely hand-made and bound, pretty to see and nice to touch. Make one yourself? Here's how!
You will need:
Step by step:
1. Making the bookb. Collect these sheets, fold them into one another until you have what begins to look like a book. If you haven't done it already, cut your cardstock the same height and a little wider than your paper, using ruler, set square, knife and cutting mat. Fold in half and slip around your book.
c. Hold your book correct side up and you'll notice that the right margin (where you open your book) is uneven. Cut through cover and pages to make a straight edge.
2. Decorating the cover
a. Take your cover off of your pages again, squirt a royal amount of glue onto the front and spread out evenly with a brush (easier with a slightly damp brush). Leave to dry for a few seconds and press onto fabric.
b. Make sure you fold your cover before you glue the back to the fabric too, so it won't get too tight.
c. Cut the fabric off along the edges of your cover.
3. Preparing for binding
a. In the crease of your cover mark one cm from the top and one from the bottom. Between those two dots distribute two more so you create three intervals of the same length (with this size paper 6,33 cm each). You end up with 4 dots.
b. Take a needle (or paper piercer) and pierce through the dots.
c. Repeat this marking and piercing on the inside of your pages
(all at once).
4. Binding the book
a. Cut approximately two metres of cotton thread and put through the needle.
b. Pick up your book without cover. From the outside put the needle through the top hole (#1). Pull through and leave a tail dangling that is roughly twice the height of your book.
c. Fold your book back into its cover. From the inside pull needle through the second hole (#2). This time go through both book and cover.
d. From the outside pull needle through hole #3.
e. From the inside pull needle through hole #4.
f. Now go back up again. Put needle through #3 from the outside, then through #2 from the inside.
g. At the top hole, #1, only pierce through your pages, not through the cover. Your threads meet up again so now you can tie a knot
(left over right, right over left). The knot will be neatly hidden between pages and cover.
5. Finishing off: making a pagemarker
a. Take both threads over the top of your pages, place them along the inside fold.
b. A few cms below your book tie a knot, slip on some beads,
tie another knot and cut off excess thread. You now have a fully functional and pretty pagemarker.
c. Leave the booklet to dry for a while underneath a pile of books.
Et voilà: your own hand-made cahier or notebook, containing thirty pages (sixty counting both sides), ready to use!
I'd love to see pictures of yours, if you make one!
And... a personalized Paperfection gift book, hand-painted with the Trinité font and bound Coptic style. I hope I succeeded in making it more of a guy book than a girly journal by leaving out beads and frills and keeping it simple.
The wine, Luscinia Canta, by the way, is a blend of merlot and cabernet sauvignon. It was made with loving care too, by my own sweetheart, in the Catalan Pyrenees.
Especially embroidering the names neatly took forever but I like how it turned out. Next time, though, I should perhaps use thinner thread or heavier fabric.
I immensely enjoy adding all the little details:
These are coptic bound books with heavy high quality white paper and coloured cardstock. They measure 14cm x 11cm, or 5.5" x 4.3". The books were intended as gifts so I made matching little cards.
I think she came up with a very elegant version of her star garlands using paper in earth tones, shells, wooden beads and seeds.
Tamara, in turn, received a beautiful pair of earrings from Zsuzsa of ZsBcreations: glass flowers in delicate pink, silver leaves and turquoise swarovski beads. Totally her style! 
Thank you Zsuzsa! Thanks again Mitsy for facilitating this exchange.
...minibook.
I just love coordinated sets of handmade items. So, my Easter Bunny suprise package for Viltalakim also included a crocheted flower brooch. Kim teaches floristry and loves reds, purples and pinks.
...because a suprise package had been delivered for mom too! A box full of gorgeous Easter goodies! We´re taking part in the ´Secret Easter Bunny´, a gift exchange between European Etsy sellers organized and matched by ArtMind. My secret bunny benefactor turned out to be... sweet Simone aka Huismus!
Recently, I got to know Huismus a bit when I tagged her to show 16 pictures about herself on her blog. I learned that she travels for work, adores her beautiful son and daughter, and that she loves the colour turquoise. She crochets hats, bags and baby booties and makes beaded jewellery. Little did I know that she was probably already making me some wonderful gifts! 
With an injured wrist she crocheted me a basket and filled it with chocolate eggs. She created a summer flower scarf for me in soft pastels AND made Merlijne a cute little handbag with handles, buttons, a little bunny and raisins.
All presents were beautifully wrapped, tied and labeled with Huismus stickers and tags and there was a sweet hand-written card saying it puzzled her that I live in Spain but love to wear scarves! Just like I mused over the fact that a stewardess calls herself Huismus (a house sparrow but also someone who loves to be at home).
Meanwhile, Paperfection-Holland got soaked again riding her bike to work. She tries to invoke spring by folding countless green stars (9). At the hot springs of Boí hundreds of toads were busy creating new life some three weeks ago (6). We marveled at them, photographed them, and Paper-Holland listed froggy earrings shortly after (7). 
Spring is also alive in my lemon curd (8): a yummy fresh mix of lemon rind and juice, butter, sugar and eggs. It has the soft yellow colour of newborn chicks.
My A-Z Journal is definitely not vintage, but look how well it goes with these finds:
Thank you, Warmandsoft and OldFashionedButGood!
Now the little one's bedroom features a stunning mobile: sixteen intricate origami balls dangling from a mosaic-tiled cross and finished off with beads and bells.
Soon after, when everyone in the family had all the journals and origami decorations they could stand, we decided to set our creations loose in the larger world. Paperfection was born!
