New Cover

I've been quite productive today. Managed to finish one of my secret bindings in A6 called "Queen of Hearts", it took a while, but I got there. Pity I can't describe it or post a photo, that has to wait for the launch. Also been working on " The Tree". Got the cover done, just need to attach it to a book block. I'll probably get that done tomorrow.

The printer is playing up. I can't seem to get the paper I want to use to go through. Total pain, I was trying for ages, even glued the paper to a sheet of printer paper, alas no luck. I wanted to have an idea about the brochure I had, ready for Tuesday. That's when I'm meeting up with my Mentor. I may have to think up something to get around the problem.

The thing I've discovered about working for myself, is that I can work when I want to. I've been working for 4 hours this evening while watching Indiana Jones and sipping wine. It's 21:30 now and I'm thinking about stopping when I've done this blog post. Well, that's it, I'm off.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

500th visitor

Yay, at 02:41 am, I reached 500 visitors to my blog and the 500th person is from Serbia.

Thank you to all my visitors for dropping by.

Love and hugs
Angela xxx

Tuesday

I've not been awfully well, so I've avoided being creative and stuck with the manual task of sewing book blocks. It's something that a lot of binders hate, but I really like it. I find it to be quite therapeutic and it gives me something to do while watching TV or when I'm feeling restless. They need to be done at some point in the process, so I've now got a stock of them to keep me going. I've found paper that I really like, so I'm going to be doing all my future book blocks with it and I'll also use it for flyers and brochures. It will be good to use for brochures as it will let the person reading it actually see and feel the quality of the paper. I think that I might be starting to feel a wee bit better, because my ideas machine is ticking over again. It's quite hard to switch off, once it gets into gear. It's just a good job I can make notebooks. I love my laptop and I love my smart phone, but sometimes writing down an idea on paper seems to bring it to life a bit more that a gadget would.

I'll be having a meeting with my Mentor in a week's time, really looking forward to it and she's so supportive. I'll get going with a couple of ideas I had earlier and get a couple of draft items a bit more firmed up and printed off to take with me. I thought I'd take her to one of my favourite places in Leith, something different from Costa. I don't like their coffee coolers, but prefer a frappuccino from Starbucks, though their skinny cappuccino is fine. Talking of coffee, the best in Leith has to be from The Shore, it's fantastic.

It's 02:27 in Edinburgh and I should be in Z-land, but I couldn't sleep. I forgot to take my painkillers at the right time. I think I'll head to bed now though, I feel a yawn coming on.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Last couple of days

I tried to do one of my secret bindings yesterday, but I know when to give up. I wasn't feeling too well (not a good time for me to try to be creative) and I was trying to make an A6 version (probably too small). It wasn't a complete waste of time though. It kept me occupied while watching Inspector Montalbano on DVD and I know now, not to try this design in such a small format. The next one will be larger.

On Saturday, met the girls from the Etsy Edinburgh Crafters Team for an outing at Hobbycraft. It was a lovely day. I picked Vickie and Marta up from outside the museum on Chamber Street and we headed off to The Fort. We thought we might meet a couple of members at Hobbycraft, unfortunately not. We must have been in there for an hour. I bought an A5 storage box, some ribbon for book markers and some greyboard (I really wish they'd stock 3mm though, I going to start going to Greyfriar's Art Shop for it, I think). Afterwards we went to Starbuck's for coffee. The girls bought me a coffee frappuccino, which was so nice of them (thank you xx). The next Etsy Edinburgh Crafters meeting is on the 22nd July. It's a great community. We don't do the try to sell to each other things, we try to help each other with ideas and information for the shops, etc.

Are you are a crafter in Edinburgh and have an Etsy shop or thinking about opening an Etsy shop?

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx
 

New journal on Etsy

A new journal was listed in my Etsy shop this evening. It is a hand bound A4 journal with 130gsm cream paper. It is covered with black bonded leather on the spine and beautiful handmade Japanese paper with a floral design on a red background (which a friend brought back for me from Japan). It would have been listed at a price of £37.00, but has been discounted to £20.00. The reason for the discounted price is a glue problem on the last pages of the book (see photo on my Etsy page). 

On to the next book....

Talk soon 
Angela xxx

Business Cards

Got my new business cards yesterday. I love them, they are gorgeous. Next, I'm going to think about flyers. etc.

I spoke with my Mentor, she's just brilliant, so supportive. I'm really lucky to have her. Looking forward to our next meeting, hopefully I'll have a lot more work to show her. She was delighted with her ledger, just as well, it had her initials on it.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx

Bookbinding Course

On Saturday morning, I got the train to Partick to attend another bookbinding course at Downie Allison Downie. It was a great day, made 2 heavy A4 ledger type books. It was an experience working with the larger notebooks, A5 is the biggest I've dealt with. The day went so fast, that we were all pretty surprised when someone told us it was 4:30. we thought it was only about 2:30. John is a pretty patient guy, which is probably just as well. He gets bombarded with questions at every class.

I've now got a drill stand to do Japanese Stab Bindings, yay. John was kind enough to let me have a couple of drill bits (I didn't have any the right size). The next thing I have to buy is a pedestal for under my desk for storage and then a guillotine, I think. This all may change on pay day in a few weeks.

On Saturday, I'm looking forward to having a shopping day at Hobbycraft with the Etsy Crafters Team. I'm looking for some 3mm greyboard, they usually only have 2.5mm. There is an empty space on the rack for 3mm, so I'm going to ask them about it this time. After that we are going for a nice relaxing coffee to talk about what we bought and what we are going to do with it. They are a lovely bunch of people. The next outing will be to the Scrapstore in Musselburgh, though the opening hours may prohibit some people from going.

Today I'm meeting my amazing Mentor for a coffee. I'll take along the stuff I've made since our last meeting and she'll get a little surprise too.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xxx

Etsy Shop Grand Opening

I opened my Etsy shop today, ok there is only one thing in it, but it's a start. The casebound and coptic bookbinding will be available to buy as it it finished, the others will be waiting for the big launch in a few months time. So, here is a link to my shop:

McLean Book Arts

The journal listed is "Victoria", she is a hand bound A5 journal with 72 pages (144 sides) of 130gsm cream paper. She is covered with green buckram on the spine and 100gsm archival quality cream Oxford paper with a Western 20th century European reproduction design. She has green and red headbands and a green ribbon place marker.

I should have some more journals ready to be listed by Monday, so my shop will look a wee bit busier.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela
xxx