Erinzam News

My husband and I left the beautiful Kansas sky for the beautiful California weather. After the long hiatus caused by moving, I am so happy to be back in a studio space.

One of the first projects I began was to convert a stash of matchbooks (that I found while moving) into mini books. I decided to convert them all. I had plenty of interesting paper scraps saved up from past projects and they made perfect little pages in these matchbook books. I like to think of these as books in disguise. That way, if you ever need to take secret notes while on a detective mission, for example, this is the perfect place to do it. I already began to post some of them individually and also as sets on Etsy.

I have a collection of antique matchbooks that have resided in storage, waiting for a new purpose. At my mom’s suggestion to turn them into mini books, I pulled them out and began the transformation (thanks Mom!). What a great way to lose the flammability and keep the nostalgia! If you’d like to try this yourself, here’s a quick how-to.

1. Choose a paper or papers to use as pages.

2. Using an awl or similar tool, gently pry open the back prongs of the staple holding the matchbook together.

3. Remove the matches, leaving the staple in the front portion of the matchbook (be careful not to tear through the cover with the staple).

4. Cut your paper to the size of the matches and make a stack of pages about the same thickness as the chipboard portion of the matches. Using the matches as a guide, punch two holes in the base of your stack of pages.

5. Place the stack of pages within the cover by guiding the staple through the holes at the base of the pages.

6. Thread the staple back through the back cover of the matchbook and use a bone folder or similar tool to press the prongs back into place.

Voilá! You now have a new little book to write secret notes in or other things of similar importance.

I recently hit the found object jackpot. After discovering the potential that cassette tapes hold as book covers, a whole world of possibility opened up. I started out using a cassette as the front cover of a book and its matching lyric insert for the back cover. A few of these are pictured here: Indigo Girls, Lionel Richie and Bruce Springsteen (I can’t help but laugh at Bruce’s butt on the back cover). Recently, I paired some unusual cassettes with old book covers. I love the uniqueness of these. Now that garage sale season has started… I may be unstoppable!

A friend of mine, who will soon graduate from law school, requested two unique guest books to commemorate the celebration of her graduation. She sent me some old law books that she was eager to rid herself of and as I worked with them, I discovered a new process.

I found that reusing book cloth from hardbound books is fairly easy. After removing the covers from the inside pages, I carefully peeled the book cloth away from the existing book board. I removed the paper fibers stuck to the back of the cloth with a dish scrubber and water. Once the cloth was clean and dry, it was ready for reuse.

I created much smaller versions of the law books, using pages of data from the old books for the end sheets and filling the books with blank paper.

Etsyjournal is a collaborative art project for the Etsy community, organized by artists Lauren (StellaLoElla) and Heather (DecadenceDesigns). The project centers around a blank handmade book which is passed from one Etsy artist to the next. Each artist has the opportunity to fill one spread of the book before sending it on. Once the journal is filled, it will reside in the library at the Etsylabs in Brooklyn. The project is doing fantastic, with four books already in circulation and a second round on the way.

I had the great opportunity to create etsyjournal number 6. Although the book needed to fit within certain guidelines to function for the project, the cover and title page were a blank canvas. For the cover, I stitched together pieces of vintage wall maps (found in a dumpster!). Not only do I love the vibrant colors of these maps, but they lend themselves perfectly to the concept of the etsyjournal project. The project brings together people from very different locations and backgrounds in a unique way.

In another tale of trash as treasure, I discovered an entire set of index tab dividers in an old file cabinet purchased from a yard sale. The sturdy metal tabs and office green cardstock showed blemishes and character from years of use. Once an important office accessory, these dividers were now (to my excitement) in line to become book covers.

For reinforcement, I adhered each divider to book board and lined the inside of the covers with a paper related to the tab’s letter. I filled the inside with recycled drawing paper and bound each book using a coptic stitch. A few of the books that made their way into a retail shop included an informational label which wrapped around the front cover.

Not long ago I was inspired by a beautiful green egg carton that I spied at the supermarket. A sucker for paper and for the color green, I purchased the more expensive eggs so that I could take this pretty disposable item home with me. Not wanting to throw it away, I came up with a way to reuse the egg carton and make it more valuable at the same time. The result? An egg carton book.

I created a new egg carton book as part of an upcycling contest, sponsored by Etsy. The requirements limited the primary materials to something that would typically belong in the trash or recycle bin. This time I used paper grocery bags for the interior pages, making the entire project from objects brought home from the local supermarket (except a few binding materials).

There were some incredibly creative entries in Etsy’s upcycling contest. Here is a bit about their top four picks.