Conspiracy

So I have a paper trimmer now.  Apparently God decided I need one.  A free one.  Which is a bit mysterious, since it’s been on my list of things to buy at some point for ages, and we could afford to pay for one if we wanted to.  But I have no other explanation for the fact that I mentioned that I don’t have one on an online forum and someone offered to send me her spare one.  For free, as I said.  I’d link to her blog if she had one, but she doesn’t.

Anyway, I now have an Awesome Paper Trimmer.  I mentioned it in the context of ATCs, but of course I haven’t used it for those at all, at least not yet.  My first thought was that I can finally try some bookmaking!

Isn’t it pretty?  I made the cover before she sent the trimmer, which made me vastly impatient once it was done.  The cover is actually a box from Trader Joe’s for…curried tuna, I think?  Anyway, I cut it up and gessoed it and painted it and designed the paper cutout for it (designed in Inkscape, cut with my Silhouette) and ended up lining the inside with pink cardstock to stiffen it a bit.  I love it.

The binding is a “buttonhole-longstitch-hybrid” (whatever that means) and it looks pretty cool.

I don’t know how well you can see that but the signatures show through the spine and the thread wraps over it and it’s all pretty awesome.

So I’ll be sending that back as my thank-you gift for my awesome free paper trimmer at some point.  Have to get to the post office to make that happen.

In the meantime, since I’m not swapping (too big a chance of missing something due to the pregnancy/baby thing), I decided to make some handmade thank-you notes for the people who make meals for us in the first few weeks.  Because that’s not ambitious at all :)

Actually, it dovetailed with the book project quite nicely.  I cut and scored ATC-sized cards with the paper trimmer, and isolated the flower from the Inkscape design to cut as a stamp.

The swirls were added for this design, obviously.  I stamped it in acrylic paint (in brown, navy, and black) and then went back with the watercolors.

Not all of these are done, but you get the idea.  I’m pleased with them.  The envelopes take a little longer (I used this template, except I made the “D” side match the “C” side) but they’re not too bad.

I’ll share this on PPF, and do my best to visit a decent number of other blogs.