Happy Earth Day!

In honor of the occasion, I've been focusing on recycling! Of course, all of my reinvented journals are recycled, but I'm always looking for something new to make into a book. Here are three journals that are actually made from grocery bags. The green one is from a Whole Foods bag, and the funky Tiki ones are from a bag from Trader Joe's. The pages are not actually recycled but are made from scraps I've had leftover from other books.

Here's a mini-journal made from a transparent red 45 record! I really like the way the music shows through the hold. And it makes a perfect little place to highlight the coptic stitching. More proof that, if it's flat, it's in danger of becoming a book!

I have to confess that I have not always been very "eco-minded." But as time goes on, I am seeing that we must take our God-given responsibility as stewards of the earth seriously. Now I really am looking for places to make a difference.

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Alas, poor Yorick!

Know the next line? It's not, "I knew him well." It's, "I knew him, Horatio." Your trivia for the day.

My hubby was genuinely concerned when he saw a page full of skull clip art on my computer. Not my norm to be so dark. But don't worry; I'm not going goth. This is for the world book day challenge the Etsy Bookbinding Team is doing.
What can I say? Shakespeare means tragedy to me. Yorick popped into my head when I first read about the challenge and I couldn't get him out. About half the pages are tea-stained and splattered with brownish-red paint. I've also included about a dozen pages of dialogue from Hamlet out of an old Shakespeare textbook. The end papers are from another old textbook.

It's a little morbid, but we can't really make Hamlet cheerful, now can we?

The Etsy bookbinding group is also sponsoring a sale for World Book Day starting April 23 and going through April 26. My shop will be included, as well as many other really wonderful book shops! Go to the team blog at www.etsybooks.blogspot.com to link to participating shops and to see the other Shakespeare challenge books created by members.

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39 Happy Little Journals

I made one of these tiny, 20-page journals for each lady that's going to my church's ladies' retreat this weekend. I love the happy spring colors. The cover is just scrapbook paper from a pad I got half price at Hobby Lobby. (Doncha love Hobby Lobby?) They're filled with plain and pastel copy paper that is just cut in half to make pages 5-1/2 inches tall. I don't think I'll ever go into mass production of anything, though, because I was fairly tired of them after making 39. But I put them away for a couple of days and now I love them again.

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