Books, books, books

I love books. I love reading nearly as much but I adore books. I love the feel of the pages, the smell of an old book and the excitement of settling into a new good read. It's more than the stories that are contained on the pages, it is the books themselves that I love. It is no surprise therefore that I own a lot of books. Here's the top of my stairs to prove my point:

Floor to ceiling full of books, glorious books. It will probably come as no surprise to you then that I hate it when a book is ruined by being used for something else. When a lovely golden page is ripped out and used to decorate a card or to decopatch a bowl. I nearly disowned a friend after he had cut out the centre of a beautiful and old hardback book to house his stupid kindle. don't even get me started on kindles and ereaders. Just sacrilege. 

But as an avid crafter this poses somewhat of a problem because as much as I hate the torture books endure they do make cards and bowls look all the more gorgeous. It still feels wrong though - it's book murder. I'm probably going to have to get over this hurdle with years of counselling but for now it's book killing with intent.

I approach book murder with seriousness and have a few rules:

1. The book has to be a modern publication.

My dad is as eccentric as they come and a collector- cutting into an old book is just wrong, painful even, just plain wrong.

2. The book has to have served its purpose at least once.

Cutting into a book before it has been read is like killing a tree before it has chance to grow.

3. A book can be cut up if there are lots of versions of it

Wordsworth classics and penguins are available a plenty unless they are the orange kind. Then you're not allowed to cut them up.

But anyway back to craft.

As I see lots of book inspired crafts I tread with caution but I've found one recently that is brilliant. Page folding. Now after reading a semi good book I don't know what to do with them as I don't want to recommend a semi good book but I can't bring myself to throw them, see previous blogs on how much of a horder I am, so what to do. Well turn them into something pretty without ripping the pages out. Point in question: 

Now although I'm adverse to cutting books up I don't mind bent pages - I think they are nice as it shows the book has been loved and done its duty. Yes I personify my books. So this craft is brilliant because you could still technically read the book should you want to but it is also something new and pretty.

I'm tempted to decopatch the sleeves but think I may need that counselling first.

Don't be cheap

I indulged today in trying two new crafts and I can honestly say I wish I hadn't bothered. They both seemed like good ideas at the time and the tutorials very straightforward however I've been fooled by simple tutorials before.
I'm only going to share one of my disasters as I am hoping to start again with the second one and do it right. So disaster 1, as it shall now be named, was inspired by the latest pinterest craze that is making a clutch bag from a book. Easy right? Wrong. Can I just encourage you lovely folk if you want the perfect clutch book bag just head over to notonthehighstreet.com and treat yourself - much more rewarding than a pile of fabric glued to a book.
Anyway back to disaster 1. I had measured everything perfectly and even happened to have the right sized zip. All the sewing parts went seamlessly - excuse the pun - but my biggest mistake was using cheap fabric glue. You can see the offender sat in the corner of one of my pictures, mocking me. I've used it before for small projects but trusting it on this bad boy was probably a bit naive.
It holds the fabric but only after you have cuddled it for three hours, sung it a nursery song and allowed it to suck your nipples. Ok perhaps a little melodramatic but it is annoying. Equally if you don't have the steadiest hand there is the high possibility of it shooting out of the nozzle all over either yourself or your unsuspecting dog. Not good. So although I like to think of myself as an optimist I'm not sure I'm going to be able to salvage the clutch book bag. And I don't even like breaking books for craft. What a waste!
I have learned to invest more wisely in proper materials if I want the job doing properly though.
Every cloud and all that.