INSPIRATION FILE FRIDAY!

Today's Inspiration File photos come from Playing With Books, by Jason Thompson, a great book I've blogged about in the past.

I made this little note holder with instructions from this book.  It sits on my kitchen counter and I still use it every day!

This book is filled with beautiful ways of manipulating books and book pages to create art and I've been flipping through it a lot lately.  Old books are the best for these projects since they have such character.  Speaking of old, there's a big day coming up for two of our book group members - a very momentous birthday to be celebrated for both.  The invitations are in the mail, created with this Pretty Tufted Paris Chair from The Graphics Fairy!  Kind of a grand, old chair, I'd say!  How appropriate!

 It has a very complimentary quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson on the envelope inside another great Graphics Fairy frame.  The "tag-style" invitation fits inside a long envelope made of the same brown card stock.  I just made my own pattern for the envelope based on the size of the tag and printed the Emerson quote inside the Antique Printer Ornament (the frame).

So what better way to celebrate book lovers' birthdays than with some old books!?!  Our table is going to have to reflect what "binds" this little group together.  

:)

So, here are some ideas from Playing With Books!  

 Along with these pretty napkin rings from a previous Inspiration Folder.  Each one is a little work of art and so fun to look at.  Kind of like each of these ladies we're celebrating.  Each one is a work of art!!!  I can tease both of them about being old because I happen to be even older!


(By the way, what a great idea for another craft night - where each of us could make a set of napkin rings to go with any holiday or event.  Everyone could bring a bag of trinkets, thrift store jewelry, beads, and ribbons.)  

So, I have some decisions to make and some fun projects to try!  And maybe even a craft night with some old friends in the near future!

A LITTLE OF THIS, AND A LITTLE OF THAT

(Projects 1 and 2)

Clay tags (everyone else is making them, so we had to see what the fuss 

was all about), and paper flowers using old book pages.  A perfect combination for

making favors for the "book-discussion-dinner-table"!  

(Book group members, if you're looking at this post before our meeting - you 

really shouldn't be here yet!  So . . . we'll pause while you click off the site.)

So, here goes!

Take some hemp string -

a couple paper punches . . .

 add a little glue . . . (hot glue too)

 some paper snippets from an old book . . .

 some clay tags . . .

 some circle punches and letter stickers . . .

put it all together . . . and you end up with this!

 The directions for this flower (called Kusudama) are in the book entitled, Playing With Books.

However, Jan was willing to show you, step by step, how it's done!  She'll fold one petal.  To make a flower, you need to fold 5 petals.  It looks complicated, but once you fold a few, it's a piece of cake!  Thanks Jan!  :)

After you fold all five "petals", you glue them together (glue sticks work, but hot glue works really well).  Then we placed a 20 gauge wire through the center in the back of the flower - where all the sections meet - and wrapped it in more page scraps.  You could use floral tape also.  We cut a 1" disc of plain paper and put a monogram sticker for each person in the center of the flower.

 The "leaves" are made with a paper punch and then trimmed 

into a leaf shape and hot glued onto the stem.

 Last of all we used hot glue to adhere the stem to the bottom of a small jar, and a little dab of glue to the inside of the rim to hold the stem in place.  Then we filled it with shredded pages, and tied a bow around the top.  Jan had brought some vintage seam bindings with her and they worked perfectly.   The clay tags we made just for book group were tied on with hemp twine.

 And now it's all ready for book group to arrive on a hot summer night!  

Just in case you're wondering what we're reading . . . it's a 

great book to read in the summertime about sailing the high seas.  

It's called, We, The Drowned.

Sharing this on Tuesday's Treasures