Erinzam News

Next step, papers! I decided to use a large selection of papers for the pages inside of the Bingo Books. I like the eclectic look, and a mixture of papers are fun to sketch on. These are the papers that I chose and where I found them:

1. Lemon paper - This 100% recycled paper is a mixture of tree free agricultural by-products and post consumer paper waste. Purchased online from EcoPaper.

2. Cigar paper - Like the lemon paper, this is also 100% recycled. Purchased online from EcoPaper.

3. Strathmore Sketch premium recycled paper- Nice quality sketch paper, made with 30% post consumer waste. Purchased from Dick Blick (also available in most art and craft stores).

4. Primary writing tablet paper - This is like notebook paper, but the ruling is large for kids to practice their lettering. I had this notebook lying around, but I imagine that this paper is available in any school supply store.

5. Grid paper - I love the Ampad Gold Fibre Planning Pads. They have grid paper on the front, and ruled paper on the back of each page. I purchased this at Staples (also available at most office supply stores).

6. Ruled paper - I have so much ruled paper left over from school! I guess I should have taken more notes.

7. Green bar dot matrix paper - This is the old style techie paper used in dot matrix printers. It is available on Ebay.

8. Old paper - I inherited a giant bag of this when a friend moved.

9. Computer printouts - After using both sides of leftover computer printouts, they can then be recycled one more time into sketch paper.

10. Sheet music - Damaged music books make pretty papers. I found these at a second-hand store.

11. Discarded library book pages - Even if the covers are falling off of a book, the pages may be in perfectly good condition. Keep an eye out for free books being discarded at your local library. The cute illustrations inspire me when I find them tucked into my sketch books.

Whew! I finally did a bit more work on the Bingo Books (which I first mentioned in an earlier post). I decided to use paper scraps, leftover from making the covers, to create little library pockets. I plan to glue a pocket inside each book cover.

Here are the steps that I took:

1. Carefully pull apart a library pocket. If you don’t have one, you can use this downloadable PDF template.

2. I need my pocket to be a bit smaller than a regular library pocket, so I folded and taped my template into a narrower shape. When your template is to size, place it onto your paper and trace it with a pencil. (Be sure to make pencil marks for the fold lines)

3. Use a bone folder and ruler to score the folds. Use a ruler and craft knife to cut out the envelope.

4. Fold the envelope and adhere the flaps with either double sided tape or glue.

5. Voila! Cute little library pockets!

It took me forever to do this, but I finally turned my custom planner designs into a printable pdf format, complete with detailed instructions! (Needless to say I am quite excited!) I adjusted the designs to fit perfectly onto standard letter size paper, and created 3 assembly options to suit the needs of different people. The options include either placing the pages into a 3-ring binder (letter size or half size), or binding the pages with a multi-section binding. If you are interested, a digital file is available for purchase in our new “print and make” Etsy shop: droplet! (The page designs, as well as instructions for all 3 assembly options are included in the digital file.)

Ben and I finally decided to combine our creative efforts, and the result?… droplet! We just started up a brand new Etsy shop devoted entirely to “print and make” projects. Stay tuned for exciting projects and designs for you to print and make!

I’m so excited to be working on a set of new books (even if in-between everything else)! Since I will be working on these over the next several days, I plan to post pictures as they progress. First step: make the covers. I stumbled upon a stack of vintage Bingo cards at a consignment store and decided to pair them with some cute vintage illustrations from a children’s primer. Here’s a great tip that I learned (thanks for the suggestion, Ben!): instead of using the actual vintage primer pages, which are very brittle and crack when folded, I scanned in the pages and reprinted the designs onto thick card stock. I glued the newly-printed papers to the vintage bingo cards with a thin layer of glue and pressed them until dry. I then sewed along the spine for extra strength (and for looks!). Next step?… to tie off and trim the threads and select papers for the inside pages. I can’t wait!

I sure have not posted many fun projects lately, have I? I am doing some serious Photoshop work on my previous design projects, so the fun stuff is on hold for a bit. In the meantime, I began to post images of some these older projects to Flickr. Two projects are up and there are more to come!