Erinzam News

This year I finally created a planner that is available for purchase by anyone who is interested (or whoever gets to them first)! I already sold all but four at the Renegade Holiday Craft Fair in Los Angeles this weekend. The final four are up and available on Etsy. You can see all of the designs on Flickr.

The design is based on the planner that I created for myself last year, so the page designs as well as the cover and binding design are all time tested.

The pages are sewn to vintage book straps, so each planner is one-of-a-kind. Details and dimensions are mentioned in the Etsy listings.

Happy New Year!

Just a few items ready to head to Renegade Handmade’s brick + mortar store in Chicago. I don’t often sell on consignment, but this seems to be a good opportunity. I hope they look good in shop!

This batch of books is upcycled entirely from scraps of papers and book covers found in my studio closet. There is an endless supply lurking behind that closet door! I’m slowly posting each of these little journals to Etsy.

I finally put together a planner/calendar for myself for the year. I guess March is a little late but better than never! The pages are sewn onto straps (repurposed book spines), which I then adhered to the chip board cover.

The planner pages are from Droplet.

Hot off the press! Now available from Lark Books, is Eco Books by Terry Taylor. The book is a craft / how-to style paperback focused on recycling that teaches well over 30 unique book projects, along with tips and other sources of inspiration. The projects are provided by a variety of book binders. A few of my own projects are inside, including a book made from an egg carton, little books made from baggage tags, and books made from cassette tapes. Now you can raid your recycle bin and make these yourself!

I have a collection of vintage green file folders and am finding new ways to upcycle them. The metal tabs are too rusty to use, but the green card stock is in good condition. For this project, I cut the folders up and combined them with twill tape and plastic photo pages to make small photo albums. The plastic pages are pulled from a second hand photo album. They were easy to sew into the cover using a simple pamphlet stitch. I found the different sizes of twill tape at twilltape.com. The albums will post in my Etsy shop on Friday, along with the Idea Index books… coming soon!

After fumbling through a box of business cards looking for one specific card for the umpteenth time, I finally smartened up! I created a business card book to keep my card collection organized and in one place.

Since I know that I’m not the only one with this problem, I created a simple kit and template so that you can be organized too! Each little kit comes complete with detailed instructions and hole punch template, hand screen printed (100% recycled) book covers, metal book ring and rubber band closure. All that you need is a regular hole punch and your own collection of business cards!

Kits are available on Etsy.

The Santa Monica Festival came and went, and Ben and I had a great time. We debuted a new way to present our prints, mounted to wood blocks. We also made a special effort to make as many of our products earth-friendly as possible. Our prints and block prints were all printed onto 100% post consumer recycled papers, the wood for the blocks came from sustainable sources, and most of the books were made from recycled materials.

Many of our friends made it out for the festival, and we had a fun time spending the beautiful day together. We also met up with a couple other great Etsy sellers, Ohma! and Tyler Bender Book Co.

This is a sneak peek of what is to come at the Santa Monica Festival next week! I created these little books from a collection of old cassette tapes.

One week from today is the Santa Monica Festival! Ben and I are gearing up and getting very excited for the event. I am working on a selection of books made from recycled materials, and we both have a few new items that we will introduce, including new prints by Ben and a new way to present and hang our existing prints. Stay tuned for updates throughout this week as I post our new projects!

We would love to have you join us at the Festival if you are in the area! It is coming up on Saturday, May 9 (11 am - 6 pm) in Clover Park, here in Santa Monica, CA. The festival is free, kid-friendly, and focused on environmental sustainability. Ben and I will have our own tent in the “marketplace” area, displaying our art. For more information, check out the Santa Monica Festival website.